Donkey Kong Country 2 reviewed

In 1994, the first Donkey Kong Country was released and it revitalized the career of Donkey Kong, who was just known as that guy who threw barrels at Mario. Sure the game was difficult in an unfair way and the game play wasn't as good as it could've been but man did it look amazing. The next year, the second Donkey Kong Country was released and it fixed each and every flaw in the first game to make an amazing experience. Then they broke it all over again with Donkey Kong Country 3 but that's a different story. So let's dig in shall we?

After the butt-whooping Donkey and Diddy Kong gave to the evil Kremlining King K. Rool and his army after stealing the DK Banana Horde, K. Rool was lying in wait for the right moment to strike back. Some time later, he has....he kidnapped Donkey Kong and has unleashed his navy onto the world of the Kongs! Now Diddy Kong and his woman, Dixie Kong, must go out and destroy the navy, beat up K. Rool again and save Donkey Kong with your clan helping you along the way.

Like the first game the graphics are amazing. The levels are varied enough to keep your interest and there is lots of details in it to make this a fuller experience. On the boat levels, when you kill enemies you can see a splash as they go into the water. On volcano stages, you can see steam rising up when you put enemies in the hot lava. When you visit the various Kong's places, they are so richly detailed that you can see the care into each room, especially at Cranky Kong's place where you can see a lot of video game artifacts there.

But the game's shining moment is the music. Each and every track is a classic that will burrow into your brain and never leave. I can not play the game for years and I can still remember some of the songs like the boss stage music, the boat stages, the roller coaster stages and the bee hive stages which takes an amazing amount of skill to accomplish. And the most amazing thing is that the music plays segues into the death music effortlessly. You almost want to die at every stage just to hear how the death music will be.

The game play is here is surprisingly deeper than at first glance. The core game is you go from the beginning of the level to the end of the level without dying, simple enough. First off, this game is really difficult but unlike the first game it's not unfair, just a bit frustrating cause you forgot that one thing that keeps killing you kills you. The animal buddies are much more fun to use than before cause they're all fun, especially Squawks cause in the first...he just held a flashlight. Now, he shoots coconuts from his mouth and flies with you instead of a flashlight! There's many hidden items and some special coins to increase replay value by quite a bit. Finally there's the Lost World where you go and completely finish the game for the best ending and it's worth it...very much so.

So this game stands heads and shoulders above the other two Donkey Kong Country games...and above Donkey Kong 64 but DK64 is better than DKC 1 and 3. The controls are fun, crisp and easy to use. The graphics are even better than the first DKC game. The music is awesome and there's not a bad track in there. It's simply a game you just got to play right now!

10/10