Donkey Kong Country

Been playing this on SNES Mini and got stuck on the first minecart level and handed it to my friend Brian who hadn't played it in decades and he did it in one go. Muscle memory is a crazy thing.

Fun fact: when I was 9 I won the regional Blockbuster Video high score contest on the DKC custom cartridge. Not only does that show my age, but it shows how much I love this game, damned it's flaws.

I went back to this game maybe ten years ago and I couldn't beat it. But I had beaten it as a kid. I had the save file to prove it! Why the hell can't I beat it now?! Games, man! What happened! My life! Fuggin' Donkey Kong giving me an existential crisis! He's not even a donkey!!!!

o-ver-rate-ed *clap clap clap-clap clap* o-ver-rate-ed *clap clap clap-clap clap*

An absolute classic. Doesn't redefine the platformer but has nearly perfect execution. A marvel of sight and sound on a 16-bit system. Pure fun to play over and over. Lots of secrets and a good two-player system. Just misses the cut on a personal scale vis a vis #2.

Played for the first time last year with no nostalgia attached. Pretty fun time but I doubt I would ever pick it over a Mario alternative.

Great graphics and audio for a SNES game, tempered by one of my least favourite things in games: hazards that come out of nowhere, testing only ignorance, not skill. My rating would likely be higher if I had the nostalgia kick of having played this as a child.

Good graphics for back then, but really just another platformer. There were a lot of platformers back then.

I was super sceptical about the artstyle, but this turned out to be an incredibly fluid, very responsive game that knows how to be fun without seeming like a complete joke or a kid's toy. Very cool to see.

Repetitive at times, and has a horrid aesthetic, bizarre hitboxes and some trial-and-error bullshit. But it is ultimately still fun due to Rare's tight design philosophy.