LogFAQs > #914214471

#7. Donkey Kong Country
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c1/Dkc_snes_boxart.jpg

Donkey Kong Country had no business being as great as it is. What essentially was just an expanded tech demo to show off the hardware capabilities and graphic prowess of the SNES became an immediate critical sensation and wound up selling 9 million copies. And you could even argue that its success is responsible for the direction Nintendo would take over the next 20 years, as it proved the value of iconic first-party mascots beyond Mario and Link to the overall brand.

My quest to beat these classic platformers all started with Donkey Kong Country. DKC set the groundwork for a truly original platformer when they could have easily just created a Mario clone and sold a million copies. The play style in many ways is faster than Sonic, and it provides a real sense of speed and challenge that will test your reaction time until your palms get sweaty. And the first game did something that Mario or Sonic could only capture for fleeting moments until that point--it created a true sense of mood that helped put the player in a sometimes Nirvana-like state while swiftly dodging obstacles and pulling off some of the hardest pure platforming seen on the SNES.

I love this game. When ranking the DKC series as a whole, I tried my hardest to not take into account personal biases that I've had for it for the past 20+ years. The series is far and away the one I am best at playing. Compared to most here, I probably suck at gaming overall. But there's just something about the way DKC plays that just clicks with me--always has. I can crush through these games without dying until the later levels, and I can impress my friends with how well I can pick up and play if we ever happen to do co-op for a few minutes. The thing that really stunned me most is that, when I made a topic here years ago about starting some of these old platformers, most people actually told me that DKC was the most difficult of these three series. I think that is objectively wrong now, but still, the fact that there is that perception makes me think that my brain is just able to handle this series better than any other. The reason why I am stating all of this is not to "brag," but I really am trying to review this game objectively, despite how well it works for me personally.

Let's get to one cold, hard truth: DKC is inferior to its sequel in literally every way. Donkey Kong himself does not play nearly as smoothly as Diddy or Dixie. The Animal Friends are vastly improved in their next iteration. The boss fights are very same-y (including an actual color palette swap for one). And the music, while containing some of the most perfect tracks ever recording for a video game (Aquatic Ambiance, et al), really didn't hit its stride until DKC2.

For all of this, DKC just barely fails to manage to break that threshold that separates this group from the next on the list--but it's still a remarkable game and a remarkable feat by the dev team at Rare.

Not good
11. Sonic the Hedgehog

Fine
10. Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Great
9. Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!
8. Super Mario Bros.
7. Donkey Kong Country

Excellent
6.
5.

Spectacular
4.
3.

All-timers
2.
1.
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"A more mature answer than I expected."~ Jakyl25
"Sephy's point is right."~ Inviso