Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze släpptes som bekant i början av året och var en riktig höjdare. Tillsammans med det nyligen slagna Donkey Kong-rekordet på arkad och lanseringen av både Donkey Kong Country samt Donkey Kong Land till Virtual Console för Wii U och 3DS Virtual Console - tycker vi att det är hög tid att fira denna kunglige primat med en egen Retro-fredag.
Donkey Kong (1981)
The game that started it all for Nintendo in 1981. The first historic work of Shigeru Miyamoto and the debut for both Mario (here Jumpman) and DK. The arcade became a real fever (competition between veterans still lasts today) and it was adapted to more than 20 platforms (!), but here we play the pretty good NES port. Barrels, jumps, crazy hammers and girl kidnapping would never be the same in videogames...
Donkey Kong (1981)
The original Donkey Kong had its barrels and whatnot, but its mechanics probably defined Mario better than DK. Its 1982 sequel, however, was probably the most fun of the ape's three first games, and also defined the real foundations of the character and the franchise: vines, bananas, jungle environments, jumpers, platforms... and Mario being the bad guy. Well, that last point isn't exactly defining, but interesting nonetheless. Take that, silly plumber!
Donkey Kong Jr. Math (1983)
What the heck is this? Is Dr. Kawashima's ancestor an ape? How do you PLAY that? After several months of investigation -specially with the second mode- we found out this 1983 title was a funny NES experiment to make kids learn some maths between vines and numbers.>
Donkey Kong 3 (1983)
<i>The most advanced of the first DK games introduced the modern logo of the franchise... and little else (annoying bees, perhaps?). DK was the bad guy once again, and the forgotten bugman Stanley was the protagonist. Gameplay is fast and fun, and hey, it's a shooter! But it's not that Donkey...
Donkey Kong Country (1994)
"It's not 32 bit... it's Super Nintendo". It was that hard to believe what Rare achieved graphically in 1994 with this classic, one of the most important games for SNES' last years. Pretty different to Mario's platforming adventures and focused on environments and exploration, Donkey's return after a decade of absence will be always remembered for its lush fake-3D stages, its animal mechanics, the incredible atmosphere, the elegant ambient music and the great co-op mechanics with Diddy, the new member of the Kong family. With this gameplay clip you can relive a bunch of levels from the first world. Turn the volume up!
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diidy's Kong Quest (1995)
Considered by many as the best of the Countrilogy and probably the finest Rare game in 2D, 1995 DKC2 (which some still mistakenly call Diddy Kong's Quest) still plays as a blast today, its artistic effort is the greatest in the series and David Wise peaked as well with his finest soundtrack. Here we play first 30 minutes / first complete world.
Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! (1996)
Secrets galore! 1996 entry was probably the most diverse and deep of the trilogy, with varied environments, puzzles and level types, and with tons and tons of hidden bonuses and extras to find for the 103% completion. Its main innovation, however, was an expansive interactive map (with another bunch of secrets) for Dixie and the baby but strong Kiddy Kong to explore. Nintendo 64 (the next-gen) was around the corner, but that didn't hurt the incredible 1996 Christmas we had with this game. Here we play the first world.
Rare's technical achievement wasn't limited to the SNES hardware (and later Nintendo 64). It was truly unbelievable what they could do with the (remember, 8-bit) now 25 years old Game Boy and the DKL trilogy, handheld adaptations of the original Super Nintendo adventures. Gameplay was smooth enough, graphics were almost insulting and sound was unparalleled. Unfortunately, we couldn't capture gameplay clips. Here's some screenshots we just took:
