Donkey Kong Country was originally released for the SNES at the end of 1994. It was known for its awesome silicon graphics and stereo sound. In the summer of 2003 it was ported to the Gameboy Advance. I got the original SNES version for Christmas in 1994, and this is one of the last video games of my childhood. The version for the Gameboy Advance is a game I played almost 20 years later in the summer of 2014. There are a lot of things about the GBA port that I enjoy such as: the mini-games, soundtrack, etc. Some gamers claim the game isn't as good, but it has its pros and cons.

Graphics 9/10: The graphics in the original game had kind of a 3-D look to them even though they were just 2-dimensional. In the GBA version of Donkey Kong Country, the sprites look about the same. In some ways this game doesn't look quite as good as the SNES version. This is especially true for the water levels. Poison Pond looks awful and so do many of the others. The rest of it has about the same quality as the original game. For the most part, you have a game that isn't perfect, but it still looks pretty nice. The SNES version wins out as far as the graphics.

Music 10/10: I like the music in the GBA port better than the SNES version. That game had a classic soundtrack full of songs that were amazing. The GBA remake takes things a step further. The same tracks from the original are still there, but they have been remixed to sound even more awesome. Take the music for "Tree Top Town" for example. This version has more rhythm to it. Nintendo also added more music for "Funky's Fishing" and "Candy's Dance Studio". The Dance Studio has many different tracks all of which are A+ quality. The GBA version of DKC is worth playing just to experience this improved soundtrack!   

Gameplay 10/10: In DKC, you play the game as Donkey Kong or Diddy Kong. The Kong in the front is the one that you are in control of. When you take a hit, the Kong in the back moves forward, and if he takes a hit you're dead. So, you can only take one hit in this game unless you are riding one of the animals buddies. These animal buddies can be very useful because they can defeat enemies that DK and Diddy cannot touch such as Zingers. If you take a hit, you can recover your partner by breaking open a DK barrel. The levels also have checkpoints in case you lose a life.

In the original game, the only way you could save was by visiting Candy's Save Point. In this remake, all you have to do is hit Start on any world map and hit the Save Icon. So for the GBA version, as long as you remembered to save after every level, there were no Game Overs. Funky's Flights could still take you to any area of the island you had already visited, but Funky also had a new mini-game called Funky's Fishing. He sets a challenge for you to complete in a certain time limit, and finishing the challenge successfully added more towards 101% completion of the game. Candy's Save Point is replaced with a Dance Studio where she sets a challenge for you too. You'll have to hit buttons as they pass through a square box. If you fail to hit a certain number of buttons before time runs out, you'll lose the challenge and have to start again. I liked the mini-games in the GBA version and felt like they were worth playing.

Cranky is back this time, but he is inside a shack instead of being outside. He gives you tips on how to play the game, and also gives you clues on where some of the bonus rooms are. They are pretty much located in the same places, but you also have to collect the KONG letters and cameras as well. Collecting the KONG letters isn't too difficult. If you die on a level, you get to keep the ones you already have after you hit a checkpoint. The cameras on the other hand are a pain in the @$#! I've never been able to find them all! Some of them are found by getting a score of Perfect on Candy's Dance Studio which is impossibly difficult. Others you'll have to look up online in order to find which can be very time consuming. They are necessary for completing the game 101% but not for completing 90%. 90% is all that is needed for unlocking Hero Mode. You'll still have to find a good many cameras in order to unlock Hero Mode.

Hero Mode is unlocked when you beat the game and complete 90%. After doing this, you go back to the file menu, select a new file, and now you have a choice of doing the 1-player and 1-player Hero. In Hero Mode, you play as just Diddy Kong meaning if you take a hit, you die! The only way you don't die is if you're riding an animal buddy. There are also no checkpoints on the levels! If you die, you have to replay the level from the beginning. You can still save your game, but Hero Mode can be very frustrating and time consuming in certain areas. I don't enjoy playing this extra game and find it a challenge that is not worth doing.

There are also other extra games such as the DK Attack which I don't care to play or talk about. Also, there are extra Funky's Fishing and Candy's Dance Studio games which are very time consuming and not worth it either. Some people may like playing these extra games, but I don't have the time. I also don't have the time to look up the locations of the cameras. I enjoy playing the GBA version of DKC for the KONG letters, original bonus rooms, and some of the cameras that aren't such a pain to find. That is really all that is needed for unlocking Hero Mode which I also thought was a waste of time. I like how they added more content and extras which do make the experience a little more fun than before, but I didn't find all of it necessary to play in order to enjoy this version more than what I already did.

I have to say, I liked both versions of DKC about the same. The controls do feel very slow in this version, but all the mini-games such as: Funky's Fishing and Candy's Dance Studio make up for this. There is still a good bit of bonus content from before that is worth the extra effort. Even the cameras were fun to go after, so 101% completion isn't out of the question, but it is still a task that can be too much for players who haven't played the GBA port as much. The 6 different areas of DK Island all have their same themes as before, and the levels are still just the right length with a fun/challenging type of difficulty that never becomes long or tedious. This is a remake/port that got it right!

Story 8/10: The storyline for this game is the same as it was before in the Super Nintendo game. King K. Rool's Kremling hoard steals Donkey Kong's bananas and trap Diddy in a barrel. This scene is shown when the game starts up in this version. Donkey Kong goes outside his hut and finds the DK barrel with Diddy in it and breaks it open. The two travel through Donkey Kong Island to get back the stolen bananas and confront the Kremling's leader Kaptain K. Rool on his ship called Gangplank Galleon. After defeating K. Rool, they both recover the banana hoard. The story for this game was lame, but the characters such as: DK, Diddy, Funky, Candy, and especially Cranky, all had their own personalities. Nintendo did a good job with these characters who would make appearances later on in the series and again in the cartoon that Fox did in the late 90s.  

Content 10/10: There is so much content to this handheld version of Donkey Kong Country, but the part I only got more out of was the regular game. The regular DKC that has been modified. Funky's Flights also contains the fishing mini-game. Candy's Save Point has been replaced with Candy's Dance Studio. In addition to finding the original bonus levels, you also have to find the KONG letters and the cameras in each level to get 101%. Although, this isn't required to unlock Hero Mode. All you have to do is beat the game and get 90% to do this.

Hero Mode can also take up more time because it is a more challenging version of the regular game. There are no checkpoints, and you play the game solo as Diddy. The DK Attack is a time attack game that can be unreasonably time consuming because you are trying to beat your best time on all the levels of the game. The same thing can also be said for the extra sub-games (score based games similar to the ones in the main game) that Funky and Candy offer. I just play the regular game, and that is enough for me. This takes up more time than in the original DKC but not much more. The GBA beats out the original in content that you'll want to play nonetheless.

Difficulty 7/10: Completing the original Donkey Kong Country was not hard and neither is this version. There is no screen crunch or problem with visibility. There is the issue with the controls being pretty slow, and it feels like the game does this a lot on the underwater stages. The boss fights are also more involved, and it takes longer to defeat them. It also takes more thought to do this than before, so it is a fair challenge. The GBA version isn't hard, but it is more challenging than the SNES game. Players who have played this version will testify to this. Just like DKC2, Nintendo made the game more challenging, but gave players even more opportunities to test their skills and knowledge more than what they did before with the better save system. If you keep at it, you will beat this version too with time. 

Overall 9.4/10: I feel like the Gameboy Advance version of Donkey Kong Country is about the same as the original game on Super Nintendo. The GBA version, despite the poor controls and slowdown, is just a good recreation of same DKC from the later part of my childhood. You have more optional content this time around. A lot of it I found to be unnecessary and ridiculously time consuming, but some people might enjoy playing through everything. I play through some of it, but there is a lot of it I skip. I would recommend playing both versions because they were good games in their own way. The two versions are so similar, they are interchangeable. Both are great games no matter which one you play.