Donkey Kong Country 2! appreciation thread

[Gunstar Green]

the graphics were still not my cup of tea

What did you not like about the graphics? I think you're the first person I've encountered who did not like the DKC style visuals.

I'm definitely not the only one. The digitized graphics style is very love it or hate it.

[Luke]

the graphics were still not my cup of tea

What did you not like about the graphics? I think you're the first person I've encountered who did not like the DKC style visuals.

I'm definitely not the only one. The digitized graphics style is very love it or hate it.

Huh. Even before DKC was released, my friends and I were already floored by the graphics. We all thought that the graphics were almost too realistic, but still looked like a video game.

[Gunstar Green]

I always thought it looked like blurry and muddled, the original DKC especially. I remember mixed reactions.

Regardless, if you want to start a shitstorm on Sega-16, go talk about how beautiful DKC is.

[alienjesus]

I love the DKC series and I still think they look great. I preferred the atmosphere of the 1st and 3rd games to the 2nd though. I was going to say 'because they're more upbeat' but they're not really, they still have lots of sombre levels, gloomy baselines in the music and lots of dark shadowy graphics. However, I feel that the first and 3rd games are better at mixing it up a bit - the snow levels and ruins of the first game offered a different experience to the gloomy caves, factories and forests, likewise the pier levels and mountaineering levels offered a very different tone to the dingy factories and gloomy mills and forests of the 3rd.

If we're talking which has the gameplay, then for me DKC3 still wins out. I hear a lot of people criticise the gimmicky levels, but thats what made me love these games personally. I don't call it gimmicky, I call it creative. I probably think 2 is a more mechanically polished and well designed game than the first, but I have a lot of nostalgia for the first, so it's a toss up which I prefer of the two of them.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Huh. Even before DKC was released, my friends and I were already floored by the graphics. We all thought that the graphics were almost too realistic, but still looked like a video game.

Pretty much how I felt. I remember getting that VHS tape from Nintendo Power and couldn't believe what I was seeing.

This was back when "better graphics" was still a pretty big deal and at the time of its launch DKC was the "best looking" game I had ever seen.

Still one of my favorite platformers of all time.

I hate to admit that I've never really spent any time with DKC2 or 3. Not really sure why. I should probably check 'em out.

[ExedExes]

I think the only real failing of Donkey Kong Country 2 is that it raised our expectations too high for Donkey Kong Country 3.

As a big DKC fan, I'm gonna go ahead and say I agree with that 100%. I was not nearly as excited for 3 as I was for 2. DKC2 set such a high watermark for quality that 3 did not completely surpass. You will (must) enjoy Disco Train as much as me!

As for that DKC tape, that's what sold a whole mess of people on the game I reckon. NOT ON SEGA! NOT ON 32 BIT SYSTEMS! Of course, the end of video "bonus" really caused a lot more speculation. Not till next year!

I will read that HG101 article.

[skyknight]

Well, I do say both DKC 1 & 2 are much better than 3 -> I just think DKC2 gets the notch down, when you are playing Diddy Kong and Dixie Kong , but NO Donkey Kong!!!

And I do think the bar was already set high with DKC1, with the following 2 trying to match the bar.

IIRC, the original Donkey Kong creator, Miyamoto , still shun the whole Country series, saying that the series never match his own vision. Any truth to this?

[Gunstar Green]

Well, I do say both DKC 1 & 2 are much better than 3 -> I just think DKC2 gets the notch down, when you are playing Diddy Kong and Dixie Kong , but NO Donkey Kong!!!

And I do think the bar was already set high with DKC1, with the following 2 trying to match the bar.

IIRC, the original Donkey Kong creator, Miyamoto , still shun the whole Country series, saying that the series never match his own vision. Any truth to this?

There was apparently a snarky quote he made about people forgiving poor gameplay as long as the graphics are flashy. I'm not sure of the source.

In more recent years though he's said he likes DKC, probably because of people bringing up that other quote all the time.

I've heard rumors because that there was some hostility because Yoshi's Island was in direct competition with DKC but I don't know if there's any truth to that either.

[Zing]

When DKC was initially released, I was not impressed nor cared for the graphics at all. I knew the technical details, so I understood these were simply computer rendered sprites. Even when I tried to actually play the game for the first time a few years ago, the graphics felt wrong. I didn't like the lack of clearly delineated edges and platforms. Many falling deaths due to "I was totally still on the platform".

I also didn't like the sound effects. They seemed like sampled sounds compressed and trimmed to the absolute minimum so they could be squeezed onto the cart.

I shelved the game for a while and returned to it later. I was in a different mindset, and thoroughly enjoyed the games. I now see them for their great gameplay and technical achievement. The graphics look and feel very organic. Compare that to DKC Returns, with its crisp edges and clear platforms, and the remake feels a bit sterile.

This isn't the first time that a game I borderline despised and felt was junk ultimately became one of my favourites. After this experience, I learned to always give games a second or third chance to shine.

[dogman91]

Yeah, I always felt (and still do) that the graphics in DKC looked more like a painting to me rather than being 3D-rendered. There are definitely way more obvious examples of pre-rendered graphics out there, like the sprites in the 32X version of Blackthorne (bleh!) or some of the locations in the Playstation Final Fantasy's.

My absolute favorite art in the series has to be the Ghostly Grove in Gloomy Gulch, with the parallax-scrolling lighting through the trees and such. Love that AND the music to go along with it. I procrastinated finishing the level just to stand around in it for a bit. Of course the whole game is simply beautiful IMO.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fqy6kjKlPwg
All the YouTube videos I found don't do it justice though IMO; the YT encoding muddies it up quite a bit. Would have to fire up the SNES and give it a play-through.

BTW, another random great aspect of DKC2 (even more than DKC1) is the incredible feeling of control with Dixie and Diddy. The platforming is spot-on and fluid as hell, IMO.