For those who wanted me to take a look at DKC on Game Boy Color, I'd recommend giving UA-camr Freezer's video on the game a watch. She's much nicer to it than I probably would've been and gives it its proper due: ua-cam.com/video/Z_ET6DXJgBc/v-deo.html&t
Therees also a donkey kong arcade port to the gameboy that goes through to an adventure then after you get 100 ft and on the super Nintendo gb it talks. Its known among fans as donkey kong 1994. I noticed you forgot to mention the donkey kong port for the GB based off the arcade its so much fun. It even has a wild feature were in some levels you have to use the enemy's to help you win. Princess peach also talks in it and says help help on the super gb.
Donkey Kong Land was superb. The fact they could make that work, especially on a Gameboy DMG/Pocket screen never ceases to amaze me. They really translated it well.
No joke. I bought the three DKL games just before the 3DS shop closed. I couldn’t resist. They need more love. So many great memories with these games. I owned all three DKL games. I played them to death. Thank you so much for talking about these games. People don’t give them enough time or credit.
Donkey Kong Country on GBA was my first exposure to the franchise as a whole, and still one of the games I think most fondly of whenever I reminisce about growing up as a GameBoy kid. The music, the gameplay, the characters... it just hooked me. I'll never forget my mom beating levels I had trouble with for me while I was at school. It did take me several years and resets to fully *finish* the game, but when I did, oh MAN did I love that ending!! It will always, ALWAYS hold a very special place in my heart. 🥰 I also bought DKC3 for GBA a little later down the line. This was after I had learned more about the lore of the games, and specifically discovered Dixie Kong, who quickly became one of my favorite characters. I loved what I got to experience of it, but... I never really clicked with it in the same way. I think I was so used to how the first game's gameplay loop was structured that, with the amount of changes introduced between sequels, it felt harder for me to really be immersed without doubting my skill level. (I also got my cartrdige at a ridiculously cheap price for the time through eBay. Crazy how things have changed!)
Donkey Kong Country for GBA was my first Donkey Kong game too and my first video game ever. Later, my mom got me Donkey Kong Country 3 and I remember liking it more than the first game. I always wanted to try the second game but when I looked online, I was surprised to find that the trilogy was originally on snes and many seem to not remember the gba versions as much. It was weird hearing things like the different soundtracks for DKC3 on snes and gba.
Just bought a copy and replayed DK3 for GBA because I had it when I was a kid, and when looking up level hints, I found out that it wasn’t a brand new game but started on SNES. This video was the perfect breakdown on the history I was looking for, I had no idea it was on Gameboy as well. 90s-2000s gaming evolution and lore was something special!
I played the GBA Donkey Kong games on a DS Lite and I agree that the gba versions can stand on there own. But I’m impressed with what was accomplished with Donkey Kong Land on the Gameboy.
While I did play a bit of the DKC games on the SNES (1 and 2) I never fully experienced them in their entirety until the GBA games came out and I was a bit older to comprehend playing them. They were how I mostly remembered the soundtracks to those games through the cheatcode menus soundtest. So when I went back to hear the old versions of said songs, they didn't really impress me till I got much older to understand more on the haardware they were made for and appreciate them more. But I will always remember my time with DKC 1, 2, and 3 on GBA as helping me develop my love for not just the DKC series (Retro's games too) but RareWare games in general.
In my opinion, the Donkey Kong Land games are to the Game Boy what the Sonic the Hedgehog games are to the Game Gear; not quite as impressive as their sixteen-bit cousins on the SNES and Genesis, but still impressive considering the limitations of their handhelds' hardware.
This was really enriching. I always avoided the GBA ports of SNES or Genesis games due to color palettes being too gaudy and ostentatious, not to mention the screen crop, but the third game looks genuinely amazing on the handheld. Considering it was my favorite of the three, maybe I woulds shell out money next time I see it.
Grew up with DKL and when I saw all the praise for Donkey Kong Country it felt like they were talking about DKL which I was far more familiar with. Which is the sign of a good handheld spinoff
Donkey Kong Country on GBA was my first ever video game. I got it with my GBA SP for my 6th birthday. This year it’ll be 20 years. The nostalgia is real.
Donkey Kong Country 3 on the GBA is one of my favorite games of all time, it's genuinely perfect. The only thing the SNES version does better is atmosphere, with the dark, moody OST that fits a lot of levels (like the tree and mountain stages). But honestly, the game isn't even difficult, so the more lighthearted GBA soundtrack works way more in my opinion. what a fantastic game. Except for the first Funky minigame, that one can go to hell. Spent like 20 minutes on it alone! And the others I got first try! Also, thanks for giving a shoutout to Drawn&Quartered! I listen to their tracks all the time, they're so damn good.
Excellent video! Most people don't appreciate much the Donkey Kong Land titles. Probably someone else mentioned it. But the definitive way of playing them is on a GBC or a GBA, because the GBC by default makes sprites and background two separate colors. So the very bad problem of characters mixing with the background is pretty much gone. Fortunately the NSO GameBoy service has the option to play GB games like in a GBC, so new people playing them when they eventually are released would have the best possible experience.
You forget to mention the GBC port of dkc1 wich felt more like a heavily dust off version of it, Also for what i,ve heard,those gba dkc serie ports were not made from the ground up,the only thing they had to remake were those map screens because those original onces were stored on weird floppy disks in wich they no longer could find the equipments for it,yes the gba has a different type cpu then the snes,BUT with recompilors you could translate each type cpu to each other,while unsupported features of each cpu will be flagged out by the software,all the end user has to do is debug and optimize the code for that wanted platform,why would you ever want to remake an old game from the ground up for a different system and expect to sell like hotcakes again if semi automazaton dev toolkits do exist,is beyond me. Maybe if you do have a similar game engine from a different game for the targed platform,you may could use that engine instead after some moddifications but that’s it,but that’s it.
I'd also love to see the Land trilogy make it to Nintendo Switch Online, alongside the Game Boy Color and Advance ports (though Nintendo will probably ignore them entirely).
I used to own DKL on Gameboy and I got DKC2 on GBA when it came out and I grinded it like crazy as a little kid laughs. DKC2 on GBA was a great time on the go I took it everywhere with me.
I just bought Donkey Kong Country 3 and was playing it on my SNES and dude, I couldnt figure out how to change Kongs for like at least a good ten minutes lol Why did they think using SELECT as the tag team button was a good idea???? Good content Im loving the DK series you're putting out!
I love the handheld games, far more than originals! I grew up with the GBA trilogy (mainly 3 on GBA). I adore 3 GBAs music so much, along with everything else! I did get to play the originals as I grew up, but I still hold the GBA games in a special place in my heart. Edit: AYYYYY! You mentioned the remastered OST for 3 GBA! They’re seriously really amazing!
homie shouted out drawn and quartered yesssss I was keeping up with his new drops while they were coming. Some of the most magical arrangements of music ever. Dkc on gba are some of the best ports and games in general on the console. Its amazing that the mario advance series simply ported its graphics and proportions and just let gamers deal with the screen crunch. Dkc gba said nah its gonna look similar to snes but with proportion that actually works flawlessly on gba. and ofc them being the dkc trilogy in general just means they were gonna be some of the gbas best titles on the console
I never had an SNES when I was a kid. So I had to make do with the GameBoy because it was the only thing my parents would buy for me until I was old enough to earn my own stuff. Donkey Kong Land 2 was my personal nostalgia because it was as close as you could get to the amazing DKC2 on SNES.
Pretty good overview. Although you missed one: they actually did a port of the entire original Donkey Kong Country game on the Gameboy Color. It basically used the DKL engine and was a pretty faithful port.
Oh I know. I didn't feel like covering it cus the video was getting bloated and from what I've seen, the Land games have much better controls. I just didn't want to bring up the game to say "it's DKC on GBC but not quite as good as what came before or after".
of the Land games, I'll say DKL 3 was the best one, it finally felt like right to control and physics, even if it was a bit hard to see at times. 1 would kill you for falling back down from what you jumped from because it was off screen, 2 wasn't so bad and it was a clear improvement it tried to be closer to the country games but it still felt off, but 3 is when it actually just felt right.
I have very fond memories about the first DK Land, i wanted a SNES with DKC in Christmas 94 but it was expensive for my parents, 16-bit era was at its end... So i had Donkey Kong on my Game Boy, a great game but not quite the same deal as DKC and i loved it. A few months later, i got DK Land and was so happy that i could finally play some kind of DKC on my GB.
I remember seeing a pretty negative reaction to the new version of Treetop Tumble, which mostly sucks to see because it's probably one of my favorite songs in the entire franchise lol. I think the complaints mostly came from the issue of it not fitting as well as the original track though, and I had the benefit of just sorta listening to it on its own and not caring.
As SNES Drunk would say: "You gotta play these games any way you can." Thanks for the video, I didn't know the games were so different from the originals!
The same reason they thought Link's expressions in Wind Waker couldn't be done on N64, but Conker's Twelve Tales pulled it off. They ain't trying hard enough! :P
Grew up with the first Super Nintendo game, but only got around to playing the rest through their GBA remakes a few years ago. Just this year I finished the last Donkey Kong Land game and I thought they were good fun.
So I have a kind of creepy story from my childhood about one of the DK games. It was back in the summer of 1998. I was ten, and my mom had to leave town for a day to visit some relatives. She didn’t trust me to stay home alone, so she arranged for me to spend the day at my neighbor’s house. His name was Kyle. Kyle was... different. He wasn’t the type of kid anyone wanted to hang out with. He was pale, lanky, and always had this odd smell, like old milk mixed with something metallic. He barely talked in school, and if you did catch him saying anything, it was weird stuff about his dreams or how he liked to stay up all night. We lived on the same street, but I avoided him. Everyone did. That day, I didn’t have a choice. Kyle’s house was dark when I got there, even though it was mid-afternoon. His mom let me in, not saying much, and led me up to his room. I could tell she was happy to have someone keep him company. Kyle greeted me with an awkward wave, motioning me to sit on the carpet in front of a bulky old TV. “Wanna play Donkey Kong Land 3?” he asked. I wasn’t thrilled, but what else was I going to do? I loved my Game Boy Color, and Donkey Kong Land 3 was a solid game. But I hadn’t seen this version before. The cartridge Kyle pulled out of his desk was weird. It wasn’t the bright yellow one I had. Instead, it was this dull, dirty white with no label. Just some faded scribbles that might’ve been a kid’s attempt at writing, but I couldn’t make it out. "Where'd you get that?" I asked. Kyle shrugged, not meeting my eyes. “My mom got it for me at a thrift store.” That made sense, I guess. Kyle’s family wasn’t rich, and thrift stores were full of second-hand games. Still, something about it rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe it was just how worn the cartridge looked. It didn’t feel right in my hand. But I didn’t want to be a jerk. “Alright, let’s see it,” I said, sitting down next to him. he jammed the cartridge into the Game Boy and turned it on. The familiar start-up chime played, but it was slower, warped, almost like it was being dragged through mud. I didn’t think much of it at the time. Maybe Kyle's Game Boy was just busted. He handed it to me. The title screen came up, but something was off. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it at first. It was supposed to show Dixie Kong and Kiddy Kong smiling, with that upbeat music playing. But Dixie’s face was wrong. Her eyes were… empty, black pixels. Her smile stretched too far, and Kiddy wasn’t there at all. The music was slower too, like someone had taken a cheerful tune and twisted it into something sinister. Kyle didn’t seem to notice anything. He was just sitting there, watching me intently, like he was expecting me to be impressed or something. “Uh, is this the only game you have?” I asked, trying to sound casual. He nodded quickly. “It’s fun. You’ll see.” I wasn’t so sure, but I pressed start anyway. It brought me to the save slot screen, where you could pick from one of three save files. But instead of the usual blank slots or maybe one old save, all three slots were full. The first slot just said “COME,” the second said “PLAY,” and the third was blank. But not empty-there was something there, like the letters had been scrubbed away, leaving behind this faint, smudged outline of something I couldn’t read. I frowned and looked over at Kyle. “Dude, what’s with these save file names? Did you name them yourself?” Kyle shrugged. “They’ve always been like that.” I stared at him. “Always? That’s not normal. Why didn’t you save over them?” He kept his eyes fixed on the screen, avoiding mine. “I dunno. Just pick the first one. It’s fine.” I hesitated, then selected the first slot: “COME.” The screen flickered, and instead of the usual map that should’ve appeared-the one where you could navigate from one level to another-it was just black. The only thing on the screen was Dixie, standing in the middle of nothing. Then, out of nowhere, a single platform appeared on the far right side of the screen. “What’s with this?” I asked, feeling more unsettled by the second. “This isn’t in the game.” Kyle didn’t respond. He was staring at the screen, eyes wide, like he was waiting for something. “Keep playing,” he whispered after a long pause. I reluctantly made Dixie jump onto the platform. when I jumped onto it the game loaded into the first level, but there was no music at all still. Just this eerie, low hum, like a broken fan in the background. Dixie stood there, alone in the jungle, but everything was wrong. The trees looked sick. Their trunks were blackened, and the leaves were a deep, blood-red color. As I moved Dixie forward, I noticed there were no enemies. No Kremlings, no animals, nothing. I tried to keep playing, but there was this gnawing feeling in my gut, like I shouldn’t. The further I went, the more distorted the level became. The ground started glitching out, flickering between brown and a sickly green, and the sky turned darker, like it was night. Then I reached a part where there was this huge gap. Normally, Dixie would need to use her hair to float across, but when I pressed the button, she didn’t spin. Instead, she just stopped… and turned to face me. I froze. Her pixelated eyes were still empty, but now her mouth was wide open. Wider than it should’ve been. It looked like she was screaming, but there was no sound. The Game Boy screen started flickering, and then it went black. I handed it back to Kyle. “Something’s wrong with your game, man.” But he just shook his head, still staring at the blank screen. “No, that’s how it’s always been. You’re supposed to keep playing.” “No, seriously. That’s messed up.” His eyes narrowed, and for the first time all day, his expression changed. His lips curled into this strange smile. "It’s fun if you finish it." I didn’t want to touch the Game Boy again, but Kyle wouldn’t let it go. "Just one more try," he insisted, shoving the console back into my hands. I didn’t want to make a scene, so I started it up again, hoping maybe it would just work normally this time. But when the screen came on, Dixie was standing in the middle of a completely black level. There were no platforms, no backgrounds, just her... and something else. In the distance, barely visible, was a figure. I couldn’t make out what it was, but it was coming closer, frame by frame, every time I moved Dixie. My heart was pounding, but I couldn’t stop. Something about it compelled me to keep going. The figure kept getting bigger, clearer. It looked like Kiddy Kong, but it wasn’t. His face was twisted, with jagged teeth and eyes that looked real-too real. They stared right at me, unblinking. Suddenly, the screen went black. I thought the game had crashed, but then, slowly, text began to appear on the screen, one letter at a time. “I SEE YOU.” I dropped the Game Boy, my hands shaking. The words stayed burned into my mind as the screen stayed black, the Game Boy humming faintly in the background. Kyle just stared at the Game Boy and smiled. It wasn’t a normal smile, either. It was this slow, creepy grin that stretched too far, like Dixie’s on the title screen. “I think he likes you,” he whispered. I didn’t ask who “he” was. For the next few hours, I stayed in that room, barely speaking. Kyle never touched the Game Boy again, but every once in a while, I’d catch him glancing at it, like he was waiting for something to happen. When my mom finally knocked on the door that evening, I bolted up, more than ready to leave. As I turned to say goodbye, Kyle looked at me, his eyes darker than before. “Come back and play sometime,” he said in that same quiet, eerie voice. I never went back to Kyle’s house after that. A few months later, his family moved away, and no one knew where they went. I’ve searched for years, trying to find any mention of a version of Donkey Kong Land 3 like the one he had, but there’s nothing out there. No one’s ever seen or heard of anything like it. But sometimes, late at night, when I’m lying in bed, I swear I can still hear that low hum, like the Game Boy is still on somewhere, waiting for me to pick it up again. Waiting for me to play. TLDR: If anyone’s ever seen a creepy donkey kong land 3 hack out there that seems cursed and broken, lmk.
I’ve been playing the Donkey Kong portable series since early 2003 when I got my first indigo Gameboy Advance in May of that year along with the 2000 GBC Donkey Kong Country and a month later I got DKC when it came to the Gameboy Advance in June of that year. I also got DKC 2 and 3 for Christmas in 2004 and 2005. I got Donkey Kong Land in March 2007 and Land 2 and got Land III in January 2016. I’m a huge Donkey Kong fan and collector.
Dude! Rockface Rumble GBA was an existing music track from a wolf documentary? I'm a huge DK aficionado/wannabe historian and that's news to me! That was always one of my favourite tracks... very cool to know! Apparently, the replacement soundtrack was made in like, 3 weeks or so, so I don't much fault David Wise on that. But you might already know that! Rare also used some stock music in Viva Pinata's romance dance sequences, which blew my mind when I found out about it.
I wouldn't say the track came from that documentary (since the doc came out a few years after DKC3 GBA) - just a sample from somewhere that anyone can use. And I didn't know VP used stock tracks - if you knew where they came from, I'd love to hear them for myself!
@@TheCartoonGamer8000 Ah, I see! Checks out. In my country I hear a lot of Sims 3 music on reality tv for some reason, think that's also allowed to be used elsewhere. I just recall that the Salamango's romance dance uses a track also used in a Vangelis piece, Bagoas' Dance specifically. I didn't look too much into it, though.
I've been playing these games since I was a toddler and yet... at 15:02 you're showing me you can ground pound the stop 'n' go Kremlings?!?! Wtf... I genuinely didn't know that! Great video though. I always like seeing handheld ports/demakes, and it's not very often you get to see them done by the same studio.
Haha yeah it surprised me too when I found out you could kill Rockkrocs, but it was also possible in the Japanese version of the SNES game. Feels almost dirty to do, but at the same time feels so good. And yeah, it's not often you see games like these done by the same studio - even if they were different teams, that Rare love and attention to detail is unmistakable.
Love the video! I can't wait for your video on the DKC cartoon! I used to watch a VHS of that as a kid a bunch. Btw, you got me curious where in One Piece it has a sample that's used in that Nuts and Bolts level in DKC 3. That's the kind of wild stuff I love hearing about.
The fact that there was a DKC port on Gameboy that was a testament to how ahead of it’s time Nintendo has ALWAYS been. 🙌🏾 Maaan….What I time to be alive 🤧💯
I’ll never get over the fact that they made DKC GBC instead of making a 4th DKL game based off of 64. Translating 64’s concepts into 2D levels and letting you play as that games 5 kongs? Would have been so interesting.
It's refreshing to see someone else that has a similar opinion to mine when it comes to Donkey Kong Land 2 (Game Boy) and so isn't showering the game with praise. I've been playing DKL2 lately for the first time since the 90s. I remember I wasn't a huge fan of it even back then and I'm remembering why that's the case. The original DKL had its flaws but it was its own game and was still pretty enjoyable to play. DKL2 tries to be an 8-bit portable version of DKC2 and a lot of it doesn't work. It uses most of the level names from DKC2 but the levels themselves have been completely redesigned, but they still don't seem to suit the smaller screen very well in many cases, making you take leaps of faith where you can't see where you are going. You usually need to take things pretty slowly in general to make sure you don't run into an enemy or fall off a ledge you couldn't see. Sometimes the path is only indicated by bananas so if you collect them then go backwards you may not know where you are supposed to go. Some stages are completely butchered, like Glimmer's Galleon that doesn't even have Glimmer in it (instead the lights go out and you need to touch barrel switches to turn them back on). Haunted Hall isn't there at all and replaced by a generic rollercoaster stage called Krazy Koaster. Castle Crush is gone and replaced by a stage called Dungeon Danger which is basically Chain Link Chamber part 2. It's missing an entire boss fight (Kudgel). The controls when using Squitter are abysmal. Rambi and Enguarde both have their charge moves but as I said above you usually don't want to be travelling too fast due to being unable to see what's coming, and there are also no bonus rooms or other secrets located inside walls, so these moves are almost useless. The bonus rooms, both the locations of them and also the rooms themselves deviate between mind numbingly easy to ridiculously hard with no middle ground. The music is good insofar as the actual arrangements are good, great even, but there isn't as many tracks as DKC2 has so a lot of the music is repeated and you'll be hearing the same tracks over and over, some of which don't thematically make sense for the level. Rattle Battle uses Lockjaw's Locker theme (actually, most ship levels use it) but they literally have the correct track in the game already which is only used in the first level of the game and then nowhere else, which is nonsensical. The music track is literally already in the game and it's not being used where it should be. I think they definitely made a mistake in trying to make a version of DKC2 for the Game Boy instead of just making it its own game like they did with the first game. The entire time I've been playing I've just been wishing I was playing DKC2 instead.
just bought donkey kong land 1 from japan on a whim a few days before watching this video!! i'd never heard of it aside from knowing about and playing donkey kong country. edit: it won’t be here for probably 2-3 weeks but i’m so excited to play it
I really do wish the Land trilogy got more respect. I always see them get called spinoffs or ports, when they honestly deserve to get the same recognition as any other DKC game. I’ve seen Jungle Beat get a resurgence in the past few years, so I’d love to see the Land games get that same treatment.
I’d really take any new DKC game. We’re coming up on a decade without any new games (the Tropical Freeze port doesn’t count) so I’d like anything. Be it a new Country, a new Land, I’d even take a Konga game at this point
My first game was DKC2 for GBA from a cousin and was amazing, then I discovered 1 and 3 and never knew that originally were from the SNES until the switch came with the online, this series deserve a comeback hopefully a DKC4 with Rare could be in the future, also Land series sucks, never could finish any game.
Before everything, I remember your voice... You did an episode with DYKG, right? Awesome vid, pretty cool information about this game! Might try it my GBA later on
@@TheCartoonGamer8000 From what I can tell with my very limited code knowledge, in the game's code, Arich and Kroctapus (probably butchered that) are classified as special bosses and K. Rool is classified as a normal boss. If I find more info, I'll let you know.
Donkey Kong Land 3 was my first Donkey Kong game and because I was about 5 at the time, I kinda misinterpreted some of the things in it. I thought the river levels were snow ones and I thought Kiddy Kong was wearing gladiator armour and when he runs I kept thinking he was carrying a sword with him. I was playing the game on the GBC which has the sprites brown and the backgrounds bluish grey. I later got the DKC1 port on Game Boy Colour but thankfully didn’t misinterpret anything this time.
i am glad you mention DKC3 GBA remixes but i do not see where got that one piece thing from in Nuts & Bolts i more so thought of "Shout" by Tears For Fears please it’s hard to find something in One Piece
I grew up on the gba ports and currently replaying them on SNES/switch online for the first time, im already on DKC 3, the snes and gba ports definitely have completely different feels and i feel like I died alot more on gba, overall i might prefer snes versions though
I grew up on the Super NES Trilogy, loved the Game Boy Land games, and feel compelled to give the GBA Trilogy remakes a chance. Sure, they don't feel as mature as the originals, but what the heck.
@@paulgilbert5278 Nailed it! At first, I didn't like that but you know what? That's fine with me 'cause the GBA remakes re-introduced the series to new younger players who weren't alive during the Super NES' golden era, let alone Donkey Kong's golden Rare age in the 90s. I recall seeing a bunch of kids in their late teens and early 20s showing excitement in King K.Rool's Smash Bros Ultimate trailer. The only way they knew of him is by having played either the GBA remakes or possibly via the now defunct Virtual Console and/or E Shop during the Wii and Wii U eras.
I feel like inversely, the brighter colors are the only thing that keeps me from playing the GBA versions as much as the SNES versions. Also a bit interesting that DKC2 was the only one to not have any soundtrack alterations (one oversight with "Run, Rambi, Run" aside)… There is a color restoration patch for the European version of DKC1, but it's currently unfinished and only covers what was already there in the SNES original. As of, there isn't yet any color restoration patches for DKC2 and DKC3, nor are there any that restores the altered tracks for DKC1 and DKC3 (such as Funky's Flights in the first game)… DKC3's ending also seems a bit rushed, as the chase doesn't go for as long, and the ending's sprites are the only ones in the entire game that wen't resized to accommodate the 240x160 ratio (and to a lesser extent, two levels from Kremwood Forest were also swapped around). Perhaps if it was given more development time it could've been given what the other two had, such as an intro cinematic that covers the manual's plot, a scrapbook, and an enemy cast roll. In the long run, there've been many ROM hacks/mods that improve the game in some lacking capacities (such as improved instruments in other SNES -> GBA ports like Breath of Fire, or restoration of unused sprites and elements like the Lakitu bug in Super Mario Bros.), yet it seems like the DKC games are different, with more preferring the SNES games anyway. There is a patch that fixes the "Run, Rambi, Run" oversight in DKC2, but that seems to be it, as of.
For those who wanted me to take a look at DKC on Game Boy Color, I'd recommend giving UA-camr Freezer's video on the game a watch. She's much nicer to it than I probably would've been and gives it its proper due:
ua-cam.com/video/Z_ET6DXJgBc/v-deo.html&t
Thanks for the shout out. You're allowed to be mean since Winky disappears entirely once he's hurt. That's unforgivable.
@@Freezer94 Ah, that's a relief. The sheer disrespect Winky gets is infuriating.
Therees also a donkey kong arcade port to the gameboy that goes through to an adventure then after you get 100 ft and on the super Nintendo gb it talks. Its known among fans as donkey kong 1994. I noticed you forgot to mention the donkey kong port for the GB based off the arcade its so much fun. It even has a wild feature were in some levels you have to use the enemy's to help you win. Princess peach also talks in it and says help help on the super gb.
Oh fuck, you remember the cartoon??? Just another reason to hate Seth Rogen. They turned our golden voiced champion into a disgusting insult.
Depends if she shows the game over screen of it, I'm terrified of the GBC game over.
Donkey Kong Land was superb. The fact they could make that work, especially on a Gameboy DMG/Pocket screen never ceases to amaze me. They really translated it well.
Same. Before playing those games I thought they would be very short and boring, but I was totally amazed at all the things they managed to do.
No joke. I bought the three DKL games just before the 3DS shop closed. I couldn’t resist. They need more love. So many great memories with these games. I owned all three DKL games. I played them to death. Thank you so much for talking about these games. People don’t give them enough time or credit.
Same with me here.
😉
me too! Glad I did so, I wish they had DKC GBA on the wii u virtual console
Donkey Kong Country on GBA was my first exposure to the franchise as a whole, and still one of the games I think most fondly of whenever I reminisce about growing up as a GameBoy kid. The music, the gameplay, the characters... it just hooked me. I'll never forget my mom beating levels I had trouble with for me while I was at school. It did take me several years and resets to fully *finish* the game, but when I did, oh MAN did I love that ending!! It will always, ALWAYS hold a very special place in my heart. 🥰
I also bought DKC3 for GBA a little later down the line. This was after I had learned more about the lore of the games, and specifically discovered Dixie Kong, who quickly became one of my favorite characters. I loved what I got to experience of it, but... I never really clicked with it in the same way. I think I was so used to how the first game's gameplay loop was structured that, with the amount of changes introduced between sequels, it felt harder for me to really be immersed without doubting my skill level. (I also got my cartrdige at a ridiculously cheap price for the time through eBay. Crazy how things have changed!)
Great stories there, Courtney! Dixie's an all-time favourite character for me too.
Donkey Kong Country for GBA was my first Donkey Kong game too and my first video game ever. Later, my mom got me Donkey Kong Country 3 and I remember liking it more than the first game. I always wanted to try the second game but when I looked online, I was surprised to find that the trilogy was originally on snes and many seem to not remember the gba versions as much.
It was weird hearing things like the different soundtracks for DKC3 on snes and gba.
@@TinyGuy97 Is 3 better than 1 arguably?
@@lukaskidd4621 I personally enjoy 3 more than 1 but 1 is still fun.
Just bought a copy and replayed DK3 for GBA because I had it when I was a kid, and when looking up level hints, I found out that it wasn’t a brand new game but started on SNES. This video was the perfect breakdown on the history I was looking for, I had no idea it was on Gameboy as well. 90s-2000s gaming evolution and lore was something special!
Glad you liked it!
As a dude who grew up on DKC through the handheld games... thank you soooo much
I played the GBA Donkey Kong games on a DS Lite and I agree that the gba versions can stand on there own. But I’m impressed with what was accomplished with Donkey Kong Land on the Gameboy.
Everybody forgets about Donkey Kong Country for Game Boy Color.
Check the pinned comment?
While I did play a bit of the DKC games on the SNES (1 and 2) I never fully experienced them in their entirety until the GBA games came out and I was a bit older to comprehend playing them. They were how I mostly remembered the soundtracks to those games through the cheatcode menus soundtest. So when I went back to hear the old versions of said songs, they didn't really impress me till I got much older to understand more on the haardware they were made for and appreciate them more.
But I will always remember my time with DKC 1, 2, and 3 on GBA as helping me develop my love for not just the DKC series (Retro's games too) but RareWare games in general.
In my opinion, the Donkey Kong Land games are to the Game Boy what the Sonic the Hedgehog games are to the Game Gear; not quite as impressive as their sixteen-bit cousins on the SNES and Genesis, but still impressive considering the limitations of their handhelds' hardware.
This was really enriching. I always avoided the GBA ports of SNES or Genesis games due to color palettes being too gaudy and ostentatious, not to mention the screen crop, but the third game looks genuinely amazing on the handheld. Considering it was my favorite of the three, maybe I woulds shell out money next time I see it.
I’d say it’s worth it, as long as you find it at a decent price!
The plot of donkey Kong land is the funniest thing I’ve ever heard
Grew up with DKL and when I saw all the praise for Donkey Kong Country it felt like they were talking about DKL which I was far more familiar with. Which is the sign of a good handheld spinoff
Donkey Kong Country on GBA was my first ever video game. I got it with my GBA SP for my 6th birthday. This year it’ll be 20 years. The nostalgia is real.
It was my first too. I also got it with an SP.
Those wolves playing in the snow like the forest puppies they are is the cutest thing I've seen!
Donkey Kong Country 3 on the GBA is one of my favorite games of all time, it's genuinely perfect. The only thing the SNES version does better is atmosphere, with the dark, moody OST that fits a lot of levels (like the tree and mountain stages). But honestly, the game isn't even difficult, so the more lighthearted GBA soundtrack works way more in my opinion. what a fantastic game. Except for the first Funky minigame, that one can go to hell. Spent like 20 minutes on it alone! And the others I got first try!
Also, thanks for giving a shoutout to Drawn&Quartered! I listen to their tracks all the time, they're so damn good.
love teh inclusion of those donkey kong country promo tapes in teh video’s beginning hehehe!!
Excellent video! Most people don't appreciate much the Donkey Kong Land titles.
Probably someone else mentioned it. But the definitive way of playing them is on a GBC or a GBA, because the GBC by default makes sprites and background two separate colors. So the very bad problem of characters mixing with the background is pretty much gone.
Fortunately the NSO GameBoy service has the option to play GB games like in a GBC, so new people playing them when they eventually are released would have the best possible experience.
Let’s hope we’re not waiting long for those to drop on NSO! And I’m glad you enjoyed the video. :)
You forget to mention the GBC port of dkc1 wich felt more like a heavily dust off version of it,
Also for what i,ve heard,those gba dkc serie ports were not made from the ground up,the only thing they had to remake were those map screens because those original onces were stored on weird floppy disks in wich they no longer could find the equipments for it,yes the gba has a different type cpu then the snes,BUT with recompilors you could translate each type cpu to each other,while unsupported features of each cpu will be flagged out by the software,all the end user has to do is debug and optimize the code for that wanted platform,why would you ever want to remake an old game from the ground up for a different system and expect to sell like hotcakes again if semi automazaton dev toolkits do exist,is beyond me.
Maybe if you do have a similar game engine from a different game for the targed platform,you may could use that engine instead after some moddifications but that’s it,but that’s it.
My hat is off to you for the “wolf sample”
Haha, I knew someone would appreciate it!
I'd also love to see the Land trilogy make it to Nintendo Switch Online, alongside the Game Boy Color and Advance ports (though Nintendo will probably ignore them entirely).
I used to own DKL on Gameboy and I got DKC2 on GBA when it came out and I grinded it like crazy as a little kid laughs. DKC2 on GBA was a great time on the go I took it everywhere with me.
You're telling me the swimming monkey meme is from a DKC advance advert?
Had to come from somewhere.
I just bought Donkey Kong Country 3 and was playing it on my SNES and dude, I couldnt figure out how to change Kongs for like at least a good ten minutes lol Why did they think using SELECT as the tag team button was a good idea???? Good content Im loving the DK series you're putting out!
Ayy, glad you're enjoying it! I've got quite a bit left to chat about!
I felt the same way when I first played it when I was 8 yrs old I had to get used to all of the new features in the game.
You guys hoping for a Donkey Kong spinoff movie? It would be a day one movie for me! 😁
Yeah, David Wise NEVER EVER misses
I love the handheld games, far more than originals! I grew up with the GBA trilogy (mainly 3 on GBA). I adore 3 GBAs music so much, along with everything else!
I did get to play the originals as I grew up, but I still hold the GBA games in a special place in my heart.
Edit: AYYYYY! You mentioned the remastered OST for 3 GBA! They’re seriously really amazing!
Wow, so in depth and full of love for the series. Great overview/review!
@@viridionwaves Thank you very much!
homie shouted out drawn and quartered yesssss I was keeping up with his new drops while they were coming. Some of the most magical arrangements of music ever. Dkc on gba are some of the best ports and games in general on the console. Its amazing that the mario advance series simply ported its graphics and proportions and just let gamers deal with the screen crunch. Dkc gba said nah its gonna look similar to snes but with proportion that actually works flawlessly on gba. and ofc them being the dkc trilogy in general just means they were gonna be some of the gbas best titles on the console
Couldn't have said it better myself.
Thanks for the shout-out! New drops are still coming btw 😊
I grew up with the original SNES games, but the GBA trilogy grew on me so much, they actually became my favorite way of replaying the games!
thumbs down for you
@jamieoiler5690 thumbs down for you too.
Me too. The GBA versions are my preferred way of enjoying them.
I never had an SNES when I was a kid. So I had to make do with the GameBoy because it was the only thing my parents would buy for me until I was old enough to earn my own stuff.
Donkey Kong Land 2 was my personal nostalgia because it was as close as you could get to the amazing DKC2 on SNES.
Pretty good overview. Although you missed one: they actually did a port of the entire original Donkey Kong Country game on the Gameboy Color. It basically used the DKL engine and was a pretty faithful port.
Oh I know. I didn't feel like covering it cus the video was getting bloated and from what I've seen, the Land games have much better controls. I just didn't want to bring up the game to say "it's DKC on GBC but not quite as good as what came before or after".
4:03 Holy Kong. Is THAT where the antagonist from the TV show came from??
Haha no.
@@TheCartoonGamer8000 man, that face looks similar though lol
Poor DKC GBC, often missed in DK portable reviews :,(
of the Land games, I'll say DKL 3 was the best one, it finally felt like right to control and physics, even if it was a bit hard to see at times. 1 would kill you for falling back down from what you jumped from because it was off screen, 2 wasn't so bad and it was a clear improvement it tried to be closer to the country games but it still felt off, but 3 is when it actually just felt right.
Banana Slamming on the go
That was a wonderful video:3
Thank you!
I never played the land games until last year, and i was a gamer back in the 90s too. I love them, i can never get enough donkey kong.
Wow! Thanks so much for the shout-out!! I'm immensely appreciative of the kindness 😆
Least I can do! Keep on doing what you do, dude!
I wish DK sang in the movie like he does in the cartoon. Would have been magical.
Doubt Seth Rogen would have the pipes to do it justice
I have very fond memories about the first DK Land, i wanted a SNES with DKC in Christmas 94 but it was expensive for my parents, 16-bit era was at its end... So i had Donkey Kong on my Game Boy, a great game but not quite the same deal as DKC and i loved it. A few months later, i got DK Land and was so happy that i could finally play some kind of DKC on my GB.
I love how you shoutout the behind the scenes workers!
Least I can do - glad you appreciate ‘em!
I remember seeing a pretty negative reaction to the new version of Treetop Tumble, which mostly sucks to see because it's probably one of my favorite songs in the entire franchise lol. I think the complaints mostly came from the issue of it not fitting as well as the original track though, and I had the benefit of just sorta listening to it on its own and not caring.
As SNES Drunk would say:
"You gotta play these games any way you can."
Thanks for the video, I didn't know the games were so different from the originals!
No prob! Glad ya got a little history lesson from it!
How comes Miyamoto needed the power of the SNES to have Mario ride Yoshi, but these guys achieved it on the Game Boy.
The same reason they thought Link's expressions in Wind Waker couldn't be done on N64, but Conker's Twelve Tales pulled it off. They ain't trying hard enough! :P
Grew up with the first Super Nintendo game, but only got around to playing the rest through their GBA remakes a few years ago. Just this year I finished the last Donkey Kong Land game and I thought they were good fun.
Wow I only had DK Land 2, I've never seen the 1st or 3rd ones, great video!
Was just thinking about DK Land. Cool that you’re covering it! :)
I'm glad you're excited!
So I have a kind of creepy story from my childhood about one of the DK games.
It was back in the summer of 1998. I was ten, and my mom had to leave town for a day to visit some relatives. She didn’t trust me to stay home alone, so she arranged for me to spend the day at my neighbor’s house. His name was Kyle. Kyle was... different.
He wasn’t the type of kid anyone wanted to hang out with. He was pale, lanky, and always had this odd smell, like old milk mixed with something metallic. He barely talked in school, and if you did catch him saying anything, it was weird stuff about his dreams or how he liked to stay up all night. We lived on the same street, but I avoided him. Everyone did.
That day, I didn’t have a choice.
Kyle’s house was dark when I got there, even though it was mid-afternoon. His mom let me in, not saying much, and led me up to his room. I could tell she was happy to have someone keep him company. Kyle greeted me with an awkward wave, motioning me to sit on the carpet in front of a bulky old TV.
“Wanna play Donkey Kong Land 3?” he asked.
I wasn’t thrilled, but what else was I going to do? I loved my Game Boy Color, and Donkey Kong Land 3 was a solid game. But I hadn’t seen this version before. The cartridge Kyle pulled out of his desk was weird. It wasn’t the bright yellow one I had. Instead, it was this dull, dirty white with no label. Just some faded scribbles that might’ve been a kid’s attempt at writing, but I couldn’t make it out.
"Where'd you get that?" I asked.
Kyle shrugged, not meeting my eyes. “My mom got it for me at a thrift store.”
That made sense, I guess. Kyle’s family wasn’t rich, and thrift stores were full of second-hand games. Still, something about it rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe it was just how worn the cartridge looked. It didn’t feel right in my hand.
But I didn’t want to be a jerk. “Alright, let’s see it,” I said, sitting down next to him. he jammed the cartridge into the Game Boy and turned it on. The familiar start-up chime played, but it was slower, warped, almost like it was being dragged through mud. I didn’t think much of it at the time. Maybe Kyle's Game Boy was just busted. He handed it to me.
The title screen came up, but something was off. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it at first. It was supposed to show Dixie Kong and Kiddy Kong smiling, with that upbeat music playing. But Dixie’s face was wrong. Her eyes were… empty, black pixels. Her smile stretched too far, and Kiddy wasn’t there at all. The music was slower too, like someone had taken a cheerful tune and twisted it into something sinister.
Kyle didn’t seem to notice anything. He was just sitting there, watching me intently, like he was expecting me to be impressed or something.
“Uh, is this the only game you have?” I asked, trying to sound casual.
He nodded quickly. “It’s fun. You’ll see.”
I wasn’t so sure, but I pressed start anyway. It brought me to the save slot screen, where you could pick from one of three save files. But instead of the usual blank slots or maybe one old save, all three slots were full. The first slot just said “COME,” the second said “PLAY,” and the third was blank. But not empty-there was something there, like the letters had been scrubbed away, leaving behind this faint, smudged outline of something I couldn’t read.
I frowned and looked over at Kyle. “Dude, what’s with these save file names? Did you name them yourself?”
Kyle shrugged. “They’ve always been like that.”
I stared at him. “Always? That’s not normal. Why didn’t you save over them?”
He kept his eyes fixed on the screen, avoiding mine. “I dunno. Just pick the first one. It’s fine.”
I hesitated, then selected the first slot: “COME.”
The screen flickered, and instead of the usual map that should’ve appeared-the one where you could navigate from one level to another-it was just black. The only thing on the screen was Dixie, standing in the middle of nothing.
Then, out of nowhere, a single platform appeared on the far right side of the screen.
“What’s with this?” I asked, feeling more unsettled by the second. “This isn’t in the game.”
Kyle didn’t respond. He was staring at the screen, eyes wide, like he was waiting for something. “Keep playing,” he whispered after a long pause.
I reluctantly made Dixie jump onto the platform. when I jumped onto it the game loaded into the first level, but there was no music at all still. Just this eerie, low hum, like a broken fan in the background. Dixie stood there, alone in the jungle, but everything was wrong. The trees looked sick. Their trunks were blackened, and the leaves were a deep, blood-red color. As I moved Dixie forward, I noticed there were no enemies. No Kremlings, no animals, nothing.
I tried to keep playing, but there was this gnawing feeling in my gut, like I shouldn’t. The further I went, the more distorted the level became. The ground started glitching out, flickering between brown and a sickly green, and the sky turned darker, like it was night.
Then I reached a part where there was this huge gap. Normally, Dixie would need to use her hair to float across, but when I pressed the button, she didn’t spin. Instead, she just stopped… and turned to face me.
I froze.
Her pixelated eyes were still empty, but now her mouth was wide open. Wider than it should’ve been. It looked like she was screaming, but there was no sound. The Game Boy screen started flickering, and then it went black.
I handed it back to Kyle. “Something’s wrong with your game, man.”
But he just shook his head, still staring at the blank screen. “No, that’s how it’s always been. You’re supposed to keep playing.”
“No, seriously. That’s messed up.”
His eyes narrowed, and for the first time all day, his expression changed. His lips curled into this strange smile. "It’s fun if you finish it."
I didn’t want to touch the Game Boy again, but Kyle wouldn’t let it go. "Just one more try," he insisted, shoving the console back into my hands.
I didn’t want to make a scene, so I started it up again, hoping maybe it would just work normally this time. But when the screen came on, Dixie was standing in the middle of a completely black level. There were no platforms, no backgrounds, just her... and something else.
In the distance, barely visible, was a figure. I couldn’t make out what it was, but it was coming closer, frame by frame, every time I moved Dixie. My heart was pounding, but I couldn’t stop. Something about it compelled me to keep going. The figure kept getting bigger, clearer. It looked like Kiddy Kong, but it wasn’t. His face was twisted, with jagged teeth and eyes that looked real-too real. They stared right at me, unblinking.
Suddenly, the screen went black. I thought the game had crashed, but then, slowly, text began to appear on the screen, one letter at a time.
“I SEE YOU.”
I dropped the Game Boy, my hands shaking. The words stayed burned into my mind as the screen stayed black, the Game Boy humming faintly in the background.
Kyle just stared at the Game Boy and smiled. It wasn’t a normal smile, either. It was this slow, creepy grin that stretched too far, like Dixie’s on the title screen. “I think he likes you,” he whispered.
I didn’t ask who “he” was.
For the next few hours, I stayed in that room, barely speaking. Kyle never touched the Game Boy again, but every once in a while, I’d catch him glancing at it, like he was waiting for something to happen.
When my mom finally knocked on the door that evening, I bolted up, more than ready to leave. As I turned to say goodbye, Kyle looked at me, his eyes darker than before. “Come back and play sometime,” he said in that same quiet, eerie voice.
I never went back to Kyle’s house after that. A few months later, his family moved away, and no one knew where they went. I’ve searched for years, trying to find any mention of a version of Donkey Kong Land 3 like the one he had, but there’s nothing out there. No one’s ever seen or heard of anything like it.
But sometimes, late at night, when I’m lying in bed, I swear I can still hear that low hum, like the Game Boy is still on somewhere, waiting for me to pick it up again. Waiting for me to play.
TLDR:
If anyone’s ever seen a creepy donkey kong land 3 hack out there that seems cursed and broken, lmk.
Can’t wait for the review of the cartoon!
Great vid man. Dk trilogy is my favorite series. Pure nostalgia.
omg THANK YOU for the wolf documentary sample, I couldn't find it anywhere since it was deleted!
btw if you need any help with the cartoon video, I'm French so I can roughly translate or explain that "DKTV collection" video
No sweat!
I’m kinda surprised you didn’t talk about the Game Boy Color port of “Donkey Kong Country” and that was my introduction to the DK series as a whole.
Eh, didn't really feel like it. Didn't have much to say.
Oh. Well, nuts.😢
I’ve been playing the Donkey Kong portable series since early 2003 when I got my first indigo Gameboy Advance in May of that year along with the 2000 GBC Donkey Kong Country and a month later I got DKC when it came to the Gameboy Advance in June of that year. I also got DKC 2 and 3 for Christmas in 2004 and 2005. I got Donkey Kong Land in March 2007 and Land 2 and got Land III in January 2016. I’m a huge Donkey Kong fan and collector.
Dude! Rockface Rumble GBA was an existing music track from a wolf documentary? I'm a huge DK aficionado/wannabe historian and that's news to me! That was always one of my favourite tracks... very cool to know! Apparently, the replacement soundtrack was made in like, 3 weeks or so, so I don't much fault David Wise on that. But you might already know that!
Rare also used some stock music in Viva Pinata's romance dance sequences, which blew my mind when I found out about it.
I wouldn't say the track came from that documentary (since the doc came out a few years after DKC3 GBA) - just a sample from somewhere that anyone can use.
And I didn't know VP used stock tracks - if you knew where they came from, I'd love to hear them for myself!
@@TheCartoonGamer8000 Ah, I see! Checks out. In my country I hear a lot of Sims 3 music on reality tv for some reason, think that's also allowed to be used elsewhere.
I just recall that the Salamango's romance dance uses a track also used in a Vangelis piece, Bagoas' Dance specifically. I didn't look too much into it, though.
I've been playing these games since I was a toddler and yet... at 15:02 you're showing me you can ground pound the stop 'n' go Kremlings?!?!
Wtf... I genuinely didn't know that!
Great video though. I always like seeing handheld ports/demakes, and it's not very often you get to see them done by the same studio.
Haha yeah it surprised me too when I found out you could kill Rockkrocs, but it was also possible in the Japanese version of the SNES game. Feels almost dirty to do, but at the same time feels so good.
And yeah, it's not often you see games like these done by the same studio - even if they were different teams, that Rare love and attention to detail is unmistakable.
Havent played these but the way the story is handled is great
Love the video! I can't wait for your video on the DKC cartoon! I used to watch a VHS of that as a kid a bunch.
Btw, you got me curious where in One Piece it has a sample that's used in that Nuts and Bolts level in DKC 3. That's the kind of wild stuff I love hearing about.
If I knew specifically what the song was, I would've put it in - next time I watch and hear it I'll make a note.
Great video. You need to cover dkc on gbc too. That’s a cool port that pushes the hardware to the limits
The fact that there was a DKC port on Gameboy that was a testament to how ahead of it’s time Nintendo has ALWAYS been. 🙌🏾
Maaan….What I time to be alive 🤧💯
DKC 2 and 3 were the ones I played the most as a kid, fond memories of also struggling with Toxic Tower 😅
I’ll never get over the fact that they made DKC GBC instead of making a 4th DKL game based off of 64. Translating 64’s concepts into 2D levels and letting you play as that games 5 kongs? Would have been so interesting.
DKC2 was the first game I ever played, and it was superb on the GBA. I eventually got DKC3 but I never beat it due to losing the cartridge.
Great video! Hopefully this year, well get to see DKC Trilogy Remaster on switch ❤
It's refreshing to see someone else that has a similar opinion to mine when it comes to Donkey Kong Land 2 (Game Boy) and so isn't showering the game with praise. I've been playing DKL2 lately for the first time since the 90s. I remember I wasn't a huge fan of it even back then and I'm remembering why that's the case. The original DKL had its flaws but it was its own game and was still pretty enjoyable to play. DKL2 tries to be an 8-bit portable version of DKC2 and a lot of it doesn't work.
It uses most of the level names from DKC2 but the levels themselves have been completely redesigned, but they still don't seem to suit the smaller screen very well in many cases, making you take leaps of faith where you can't see where you are going. You usually need to take things pretty slowly in general to make sure you don't run into an enemy or fall off a ledge you couldn't see. Sometimes the path is only indicated by bananas so if you collect them then go backwards you may not know where you are supposed to go.
Some stages are completely butchered, like Glimmer's Galleon that doesn't even have Glimmer in it (instead the lights go out and you need to touch barrel switches to turn them back on). Haunted Hall isn't there at all and replaced by a generic rollercoaster stage called Krazy Koaster. Castle Crush is gone and replaced by a stage called Dungeon Danger which is basically Chain Link Chamber part 2. It's missing an entire boss fight (Kudgel). The controls when using Squitter are abysmal. Rambi and Enguarde both have their charge moves but as I said above you usually don't want to be travelling too fast due to being unable to see what's coming, and there are also no bonus rooms or other secrets located inside walls, so these moves are almost useless. The bonus rooms, both the locations of them and also the rooms themselves deviate between mind numbingly easy to ridiculously hard with no middle ground.
The music is good insofar as the actual arrangements are good, great even, but there isn't as many tracks as DKC2 has so a lot of the music is repeated and you'll be hearing the same tracks over and over, some of which don't thematically make sense for the level. Rattle Battle uses Lockjaw's Locker theme (actually, most ship levels use it) but they literally have the correct track in the game already which is only used in the first level of the game and then nowhere else, which is nonsensical. The music track is literally already in the game and it's not being used where it should be.
I think they definitely made a mistake in trying to make a version of DKC2 for the Game Boy instead of just making it its own game like they did with the first game. The entire time I've been playing I've just been wishing I was playing DKC2 instead.
Cool. I haven’t seen a video of u in years ! Awesome dk video
Lol where’ve you been? Regardless, thank you.
Dude this game was so god damn punishingly hard for me but I was just so excited to have portable donkey kong back in the day!
"...even on an 8-bit system..." -- The NES just missed out as it was retired in late 1994!
just bought donkey kong land 1 from japan on a whim a few days before watching this video!! i'd never heard of it aside from knowing about and playing donkey kong country.
edit: it won’t be here for probably 2-3 weeks but i’m so excited to play it
Nice! Hope you have fun with it!
I remember i had DKC2 on the SNES and DKL2 on my Gameboy.. Good times i always felt i had the same game on the go
17:45 there is absolutely no contest. The original is near perfect.
WAKE UP BABE, NEW THECARTOONGAMER VIDEO
Nobody ever talks about Donkey Kong Country on the GBC. One of my favorite versions of teh game.
Check out the pinned comment.
@@TheCartoonGamer8000 Ah, I see it now. My bad! Great video though!
The DKC demake that came to GBC in 2000 wasn't mentioned at all. I was hoping to see it discussed here. But once again, it has been overlooked.
Check the pinned comment for now.
My first game boy game/handheld game was Donkey Kong Land 2.
The over saturation on the advance games looks vibrant sometimes while others, not so great
I really do wish the Land trilogy got more respect. I always see them get called spinoffs or ports, when they honestly deserve to get the same recognition as any other DKC game. I’ve seen Jungle Beat get a resurgence in the past few years, so I’d love to see the Land games get that same treatment.
Hear, hear! I’d love to see a modern-day follow-up to the Land games too, as unlikely as that is.
I’d really take any new DKC game. We’re coming up on a decade without any new games (the Tropical Freeze port doesn’t count) so I’d like anything. Be it a new Country, a new Land, I’d even take a Konga game at this point
@@DKCfan10 Let’s not get carried away with a new Konga, haha.
Apparently DK Land 3 is the only Donkey Kong game that doesn't feature DK in the actual game in any way, shape, or form. Neat.
His name is brought up in-game, if that means anything.
Nicw to see you're still using your old intro! Known this channel ever since your creepy things in video games list years and years ago.
Hoo boy.
You can beat dkc without dying? Highly impressive actually
My first game was DKC2 for GBA from a cousin and was amazing, then I discovered 1 and 3 and never knew that originally were from the SNES until the switch came with the online, this series deserve a comeback hopefully a DKC4 with Rare could be in the future, also Land series sucks, never could finish any game.
Guys in the new episode james' voice has been changed I think Bill Rogers should be the voice of james to take over for James Carter
Your first time trying emulation is in fucking 2023? That's kind of insane lol
First time trying to record emulation for video purposes.
Before everything, I remember your voice...
You did an episode with DYKG, right?
Awesome vid, pretty cool information about this game! Might try it my GBA later on
I've narrated, like, ten. Working on editing one right now though.
But thanks for watching!
This kind of content is good for my soul
GOOD
I remember my parents getting me dkl 2 for my birthday 🥹
By the way, Donkey Kong Country 3's Arich theme is actually meant for K.Rool, but somehow they got switched.
Is there a source on that?
@@TheCartoonGamer8000 From what I can tell with my very limited code knowledge, in the game's code, Arich and Kroctapus (probably butchered that) are classified as special bosses and K. Rool is classified as a normal boss. If I find more info, I'll let you know.
Donkey Kong Land 3 was my first Donkey Kong game and because I was about 5 at the time, I kinda misinterpreted some of the things in it. I thought the river levels were snow ones and I thought Kiddy Kong was wearing gladiator armour and when he runs I kept thinking he was carrying a sword with him. I was playing the game on the GBC which has the sprites brown and the backgrounds bluish grey. I later got the DKC1 port on Game Boy Colour but thankfully didn’t misinterpret anything this time.
I felt the same way this game originally came out when I 8 yrs old or 9 in the mid 1990s.
i am glad you mention DKC3 GBA remixes
but i do not see where got that one piece thing from in Nuts & Bolts
i more so thought of "Shout" by Tears For Fears
please it’s hard to find something in One Piece
13:43 Don’t forget Nintendo’s own official rom hack, Super Mario Bros. 2/USA! (aka, Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic)
I really liked the land games and the gba ports, not the best way to experience the games but they were my jam
I grew up on the gba ports and currently replaying them on SNES/switch online for the first time, im already on DKC 3, the snes and gba ports definitely have completely different feels and i feel like I died alot more on gba, overall i might prefer snes versions though
What?! I didn’t know dk could kill those clay monsters with a ground pound. 😜😜😜
I grew up on the Super NES Trilogy, loved the Game Boy Land games, and feel compelled to give the GBA Trilogy remakes a chance. Sure, they don't feel as mature as the originals, but what the heck.
Mature? I don’t know what you mean by that.
I think he means, since the GBA ones were more lighthearted in visuals and tone, had cartoonier sound effects, etc they feel less mature.
@@paulgilbert5278 Nailed it! At first, I didn't like that but you know what? That's fine with me 'cause the GBA remakes re-introduced the series to new younger players who weren't alive during the Super NES' golden era, let alone Donkey Kong's golden Rare age in the 90s. I recall seeing a bunch of kids in their late teens and early 20s showing excitement in King K.Rool's Smash Bros Ultimate trailer. The only way they knew of him is by having played either the GBA remakes or possibly via the now defunct Virtual Console and/or E Shop during the Wii and Wii U eras.
I really thought these were ports of DKC - so I didn't buy them on the 3DS because of that. Such a shame. I hope they'll be added to NSO
donkey kong in my...native...canada...OH NO....BANNNNNNANA SLAMMMA! I'LL SHOWER YOU WITH COCONUT CREAM PIE~....INNNTENSIFY!
Good job ! nice series~
From beloved Canadian animation company Nelvana.
Great video!
Thank you!
You forgot about Kirby's Dreamland and Penguin Land. Both for Gameboy.
I was mainly centering on games that had a console equivalent at the time (Country, World, etc.)
that intro was fire
Ha!
I feel like inversely, the brighter colors are the only thing that keeps me from playing the GBA versions as much as the SNES versions. Also a bit interesting that DKC2 was the only one to not have any soundtrack alterations (one oversight with "Run, Rambi, Run" aside)… There is a color restoration patch for the European version of DKC1, but it's currently unfinished and only covers what was already there in the SNES original. As of, there isn't yet any color restoration patches for DKC2 and DKC3, nor are there any that restores the altered tracks for DKC1 and DKC3 (such as Funky's Flights in the first game)…
DKC3's ending also seems a bit rushed, as the chase doesn't go for as long, and the ending's sprites are the only ones in the entire game that wen't resized to accommodate the 240x160 ratio (and to a lesser extent, two levels from Kremwood Forest were also swapped around). Perhaps if it was given more development time it could've been given what the other two had, such as an intro cinematic that covers the manual's plot, a scrapbook, and an enemy cast roll. In the long run, there've been many ROM hacks/mods that improve the game in some lacking capacities (such as improved instruments in other SNES -> GBA ports like Breath of Fire, or restoration of unused sprites and elements like the Lakitu bug in Super Mario Bros.), yet it seems like the DKC games are different, with more preferring the SNES games anyway. There is a patch that fixes the "Run, Rambi, Run" oversight in DKC2, but that seems to be it, as of.