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11-12-15 02:00 PM
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Donkey Kong Land Review

 
Game's Ratings
Overall
Graphics
Sound
Addictiveness
Depth
Story
Difficulty
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7.3
7.5
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6.5
luigi25's Score
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11-12-15 02:00 PM
luigi25 is Offline
| ID: 1219038 | 1572 Words

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Donkey Kong Land was released for the Gameboy in the summer of 1995. It is based off the famous Donkey Kong Country game that was released on the Super Nintendo around the same time. A lot of the graphics, music, and ideas were ported over to this game. It is not the same game, however. The stages and overworlds differ greatly from DKC. This is where I start to have problems. You get a game that isn't that much different. There are some differences, but the controls and gameplay aren't very good. I don't know what to really think about Donkey Kong Land. It isn't as good as the original. Let's take a look at why it isn't.

Graphics 7/10: Not all the levels in Donkey Kong Land look like those in DKC. Towards the end of the game, the backgrounds start looking different. I like how the background in some of these levels even appears to be moving. Kremlantis has some pretty cool backgrounds as well. This part of the game doesn't look too bad, if anything, it looks nice. However, the first part does not look good at all! Everything looks muddy, and the sprites and backgrounds blend with each other. To make matters worse, they're the same ones from Donkey Kong Country!

Starting out, this game looks like crap, but it gets better. For Donkey Kong Land, the graphics are a mixed bag. Some look great and others look horrible. I guess I can give this section of the review a pass but barely. This isn't a port, but it feels a lot like one here.

Music 8/10: To start with, you have the same problem with this area also. The music is not original at all! It is taken directly from DKC but doesn't sound near as good in this game. There are, however, a lot of good songs in this game. Voices of the Temple is better in this version. Kremlantis has some new tracks and so do a lot of the other worlds. Donkey Kong Land has a catchy soundtrack in a lot of places except for at the beginning. That part sounds like garbage, but the rest of DKL sounds pretty good. I can rate the music better than I can the graphics, but it is still nothing remarkable. I can't rate it much better.     

Gameplay 5/10: Donkey Kong Land is very similar to Donkey Kong Country. Although, there is no overworld map of DK Island. There are only maps of the 4 individual worlds that make up this game. You travel through the game playing as either Donkey Kong or Diddy, and only one Kong can appear on the screen at the same time. You can also switch back and forth between Kongs just like in DKC. There are also only 2 animal buddies in the whole game. They are Rambi the Rhino and Expresso the Ostrich. They both serve the same function they did in DKC. There isn't anything new here.

In most areas of the game, you can only take one hit because you usually aren't riding one of the animals. You can lose a life in DKL by taking a hit without your buddy or falling into bottomless pits. Similar to DKC, there is no time limit in this game, so you don't have to complete the levels under a certain amount of time. You do have to collect the KONG letters in order to save your progress. This is useful in case you get a Game Over. There are also bonus areas in Donkey Kong Land, and in some of these areas you can play a game that gives you 1-Ups.

The addition of the bonus areas gives this game an extra challenge, and once you have found all the bonus areas in a level, that level will have an exclamation point next to it just like in the original game. Finding the bonuses aren't necessary for completing the game, but they are if you're going for 100%. I do like going for 100%, but it feels even more useless this time around. The worlds of DKL are all pretty unique. The bonuses feel tacked on in this game. They are fun in a way, but there seems to be even less of a reward for going after them in DKL.

Aside from the different themes of the overworlds, many of the stages themselves just seem to be ported over from the original DKC. DKL is still fun in this way but not nearly as much as the SNES counterpart. What really breaks the pace of this game are the poor controls and gameplay. It sucks!! The controls are slippery, your jumps have no momentum at all, and the visibility is horrible! You get a game where you'll be dying all the time and probably even reach the Game Over screen. Donkey Kong Land does not have much appeal to it when you consider the God-awful controls and mechanics. It is nowhere near as smooth to play as Donkey Kong Country!

I feel like Donkey Kong Land is a pretty bland game to play. There is little originality to the level design and layout. Kremlantis is something different, and so are some of the levels towards the end. The controls are broken as hell, and the bonuses feel tacked on in a rushed manner. Nintendo put them in here for something extra, but there is no reward at all for finding them. The ending of Donkey Kong Land is just plain sad! They could have done better than this! This isn't a port, but it feels like one. I don't enjoy playing this game very much, and it just goes on longer than it should.  

Story 0/10: After the events of Donkey Kong Country, DK, Diddy, and Cranky are sitting around talking about the game. Cranky insists it was the game's fancy graphics that made it such a success. DK and Diddy argue that it was the addictiveness of the game that made people want to buy it. Cranky challenges the two to an adventure on the 8-bit Gameboy and tells King K. Rool to come back and steal Donkey Kong's bananas once again and re-do the game on the Gameboy without the fancy graphics or sound. The story of Donkey Kong Land is basically the same as the original game.

This is another problem. There is nothing new here either. Nintendo just copied and pasted the plot from Donkey Kong Country to the Gameboy. If Cranky Kong is part of the story, why isn't he in the game?! That makes no sense. None of the Kongs are in this game. Donkey Kong Land is a game that has no explanation to it. You just play the game and beat it. This is a plot that feels very poorly done and like they needed something to explain why this game even exists. This storyline is stupid, and it is just a way to explain the reason why you're playing Donkey Kong Land.

Content 8/10: Donkey Kong Land is divided up into 4 worlds instead of 6: Gangplank Galleon Ahoy!, Kremlantis, Monkey Mountains/Chimpanzee Clouds, and Big Ape City. Even though there isn't as much content in this game, that doesn't mean it can be beaten any faster. Normally, it would take between an hour and an hour and 1/2 to finish, but with the terrible gameplay it usually takes almost 2 hours to finish! Although, I think this is one of the game's finer points. It does provide a decent amount of content, but it takes longer to play through it than it should.  

Difficulty 8/10: Donkey Kong Land doesn't get any easier no matter how many times you play it. The biggest problem I have is with the momentum. Your jumps have no reach, and the controls feel way too stiff. I'll find myself dying a lot, and this is what really slows things down more than it should. I don't think this game is unplayable or anything like that, but it takes longer than it should. Even with a lot of practice, experienced players will find themselves needing more time than what they would normally need to complete it. Long story short, it can be done, but be prepared to lose a lot of lives.

DKL is still pretty generous with lives and continues. I guess that helps, but I really get mad at this game. Overall, it isn't hard, but it is very annoying. I don't find it easy, and it really just amounts to patience. The game is difficult but not impossible.      

Overall 5.6/10: Donkey Kong Land really just amounts to being a handheld version of the Donkey Kong Country game for Super Nintendo. However, it was redone pretty poorly. The controls are terrible, the plot is just copied and pasted from the original with a few minor changes, the graphics aren't as good, and it feels like this game is just bare. The bonus rooms are like they were just thrown in as an extra, but they are so pointless in this game. The part that really disappointed me was the ending. After defeating K. Rool, the credits start rolling, and you hear this cheap sounding song. I have to say, this game is not a good game and lacks any of the ideas, characters, or smooth gameplay that made DKC such a blast to play.   



Donkey Kong Land was released for the Gameboy in the summer of 1995. It is based off the famous Donkey Kong Country game that was released on the Super Nintendo around the same time. A lot of the graphics, music, and ideas were ported over to this game. It is not the same game, however. The stages and overworlds differ greatly from DKC. This is where I start to have problems. You get a game that isn't that much different. There are some differences, but the controls and gameplay aren't very good. I don't know what to really think about Donkey Kong Land. It isn't as good as the original. Let's take a look at why it isn't.

Graphics 7/10: Not all the levels in Donkey Kong Land look like those in DKC. Towards the end of the game, the backgrounds start looking different. I like how the background in some of these levels even appears to be moving. Kremlantis has some pretty cool backgrounds as well. This part of the game doesn't look too bad, if anything, it looks nice. However, the first part does not look good at all! Everything looks muddy, and the sprites and backgrounds blend with each other. To make matters worse, they're the same ones from Donkey Kong Country!

Starting out, this game looks like crap, but it gets better. For Donkey Kong Land, the graphics are a mixed bag. Some look great and others look horrible. I guess I can give this section of the review a pass but barely. This isn't a port, but it feels a lot like one here.

Music 8/10: To start with, you have the same problem with this area also. The music is not original at all! It is taken directly from DKC but doesn't sound near as good in this game. There are, however, a lot of good songs in this game. Voices of the Temple is better in this version. Kremlantis has some new tracks and so do a lot of the other worlds. Donkey Kong Land has a catchy soundtrack in a lot of places except for at the beginning. That part sounds like garbage, but the rest of DKL sounds pretty good. I can rate the music better than I can the graphics, but it is still nothing remarkable. I can't rate it much better.     

Gameplay 5/10: Donkey Kong Land is very similar to Donkey Kong Country. Although, there is no overworld map of DK Island. There are only maps of the 4 individual worlds that make up this game. You travel through the game playing as either Donkey Kong or Diddy, and only one Kong can appear on the screen at the same time. You can also switch back and forth between Kongs just like in DKC. There are also only 2 animal buddies in the whole game. They are Rambi the Rhino and Expresso the Ostrich. They both serve the same function they did in DKC. There isn't anything new here.

In most areas of the game, you can only take one hit because you usually aren't riding one of the animals. You can lose a life in DKL by taking a hit without your buddy or falling into bottomless pits. Similar to DKC, there is no time limit in this game, so you don't have to complete the levels under a certain amount of time. You do have to collect the KONG letters in order to save your progress. This is useful in case you get a Game Over. There are also bonus areas in Donkey Kong Land, and in some of these areas you can play a game that gives you 1-Ups.

The addition of the bonus areas gives this game an extra challenge, and once you have found all the bonus areas in a level, that level will have an exclamation point next to it just like in the original game. Finding the bonuses aren't necessary for completing the game, but they are if you're going for 100%. I do like going for 100%, but it feels even more useless this time around. The worlds of DKL are all pretty unique. The bonuses feel tacked on in this game. They are fun in a way, but there seems to be even less of a reward for going after them in DKL.

Aside from the different themes of the overworlds, many of the stages themselves just seem to be ported over from the original DKC. DKL is still fun in this way but not nearly as much as the SNES counterpart. What really breaks the pace of this game are the poor controls and gameplay. It sucks!! The controls are slippery, your jumps have no momentum at all, and the visibility is horrible! You get a game where you'll be dying all the time and probably even reach the Game Over screen. Donkey Kong Land does not have much appeal to it when you consider the God-awful controls and mechanics. It is nowhere near as smooth to play as Donkey Kong Country!

I feel like Donkey Kong Land is a pretty bland game to play. There is little originality to the level design and layout. Kremlantis is something different, and so are some of the levels towards the end. The controls are broken as hell, and the bonuses feel tacked on in a rushed manner. Nintendo put them in here for something extra, but there is no reward at all for finding them. The ending of Donkey Kong Land is just plain sad! They could have done better than this! This isn't a port, but it feels like one. I don't enjoy playing this game very much, and it just goes on longer than it should.  

Story 0/10: After the events of Donkey Kong Country, DK, Diddy, and Cranky are sitting around talking about the game. Cranky insists it was the game's fancy graphics that made it such a success. DK and Diddy argue that it was the addictiveness of the game that made people want to buy it. Cranky challenges the two to an adventure on the 8-bit Gameboy and tells King K. Rool to come back and steal Donkey Kong's bananas once again and re-do the game on the Gameboy without the fancy graphics or sound. The story of Donkey Kong Land is basically the same as the original game.

This is another problem. There is nothing new here either. Nintendo just copied and pasted the plot from Donkey Kong Country to the Gameboy. If Cranky Kong is part of the story, why isn't he in the game?! That makes no sense. None of the Kongs are in this game. Donkey Kong Land is a game that has no explanation to it. You just play the game and beat it. This is a plot that feels very poorly done and like they needed something to explain why this game even exists. This storyline is stupid, and it is just a way to explain the reason why you're playing Donkey Kong Land.

Content 8/10: Donkey Kong Land is divided up into 4 worlds instead of 6: Gangplank Galleon Ahoy!, Kremlantis, Monkey Mountains/Chimpanzee Clouds, and Big Ape City. Even though there isn't as much content in this game, that doesn't mean it can be beaten any faster. Normally, it would take between an hour and an hour and 1/2 to finish, but with the terrible gameplay it usually takes almost 2 hours to finish! Although, I think this is one of the game's finer points. It does provide a decent amount of content, but it takes longer to play through it than it should.  

Difficulty 8/10: Donkey Kong Land doesn't get any easier no matter how many times you play it. The biggest problem I have is with the momentum. Your jumps have no reach, and the controls feel way too stiff. I'll find myself dying a lot, and this is what really slows things down more than it should. I don't think this game is unplayable or anything like that, but it takes longer than it should. Even with a lot of practice, experienced players will find themselves needing more time than what they would normally need to complete it. Long story short, it can be done, but be prepared to lose a lot of lives.

DKL is still pretty generous with lives and continues. I guess that helps, but I really get mad at this game. Overall, it isn't hard, but it is very annoying. I don't find it easy, and it really just amounts to patience. The game is difficult but not impossible.      

Overall 5.6/10: Donkey Kong Land really just amounts to being a handheld version of the Donkey Kong Country game for Super Nintendo. However, it was redone pretty poorly. The controls are terrible, the plot is just copied and pasted from the original with a few minor changes, the graphics aren't as good, and it feels like this game is just bare. The bonus rooms are like they were just thrown in as an extra, but they are so pointless in this game. The part that really disappointed me was the ending. After defeating K. Rool, the credits start rolling, and you hear this cheap sounding song. I have to say, this game is not a good game and lacks any of the ideas, characters, or smooth gameplay that made DKC such a blast to play.   


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(edited by luigi25 on 12-24-18 09:18 PM)    

12-06-15 05:56 PM
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Your did well in your review by making ample comparisons with the original Donkey Kong. However you could have used more details considering the many differences you point out (the levels, among others). Does it also calculate 101% completion?
Your did well in your review by making ample comparisons with the original Donkey Kong. However you could have used more details considering the many differences you point out (the levels, among others). Does it also calculate 101% completion?
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12-06-15 07:32 PM
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janus : Actually, in this game it only adds up to 100% in the end if you are able to find all the bonus areas. I like Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Land, but I liked the sequels better. The second games were better because they had more content. In the first games when you were able to get 100%, you never unlocked any special levels or anything. It almost defeats the purpose of fully completing the game. 
janus : Actually, in this game it only adds up to 100% in the end if you are able to find all the bonus areas. I like Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Land, but I liked the sequels better. The second games were better because they had more content. In the first games when you were able to get 100%, you never unlocked any special levels or anything. It almost defeats the purpose of fully completing the game. 
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