@@motrongamesI learned recently the Kremlings were recycled from a prior Rare game that was canceled. I wonder if it's the same for Killer Instinct's characters...
The Hype behind this game was insane. It was in all the shops bid Donkey Kong cut outs everywhere. I played it none stop on Xmas day and the Graphics at the time where insane!. The music in the game was awesome, some of the barrel levels where hard as nails Trying to explain the difference to my Mam and why I wanted it dor Xmas, reminds me of when the AVGN was talking about the bit wars to his Mam. I never thought I'd get it to be honest as it cost a bomb, so it was a great surprise.
It's impossible for me to look at this game objectively. Every stage, background, sound effect and song has a memory attached to it. I believe that games can bring back memories just like a photo album, and this game is, to me, like a massive photo album with notes written beside every photo. I'm a bit biased, but it's a clear 10/10 to me. Great review as always!
Donkey Kong Country definitely shows its age thirty years later: not necessarily with the graphics, but with some of the choices in the level design and bosses. By "level design," I mean the placement of the "KONG" letters: some of which are either hidden in secret bonus stages or located near pits where the only way to to get a specific letter is to roll-jump or fall into the pit and lose a life. As for the bosses, they are either too easy or look downright ridiculous: especially the toxic barrel. I will say that the music is still fantastic to this day, not just "Aquatic Ambience."
Could agree more about the bosses. With the KONG letters, I always saw them as something to clean up once you’ve finished the game, in which case, I’m fine with them being hidden and obscure somewhat.
Many games from that era when reviewed through a modern lense will absolutely have a lot more to pick at that anyone had any right doing so back then. I mean, that Genesis Aladdin has those gorgeous Disney animated sprites, but the rest is pretty meh when viewed now--if we're all just being honest here. The background colours are dull yet garish for the most part and have a strange vertical line "dither" effect much of the time, the controls are a bit stiff and clunky, the gameplay is pretty boring, the music is okay, and even the colours on many of those beautifully animated characters are a bit dull and slightly garish too, because the Genesis doesn't have a wide colour gamut and the sprites basically had to share colours with the backgrounds. But those character animations do still look great, even today. I'll just put it like this though: At the time, Donkey Kong Country was far more of a "Wow!" moment than Aladdin ever was, with visuals that were so impressive for their day that many people in the gaming press actually thought they were seeing footage from Nintendo's next-gen console upon first viewing gameplay videos. The same thing most definitely did not occur with Aladdin on Genesis, even as nice as the character animation was. And, in my opinion, despite those pre-rendered visuals in DKC showing a bit of their age now, the majority of the game still holds up far better than Aladdin, although the boss fights really are pretty crap. So, yeah, it's not perfect, but it was mind blowing at the time, and it's still overall actually pretty dang good even today.
My response back in the day was sort of halfway there. Seeing the promotional material for the game, I was quite impressed, and I was only really semi-impressed by the finished product. Still rented it and played it start to finish, but I do remember feeling like it only half lived up to the expectation set up by Nintendo Power and that promo VHS tape.
I feel like this take on the visuals is just a trendy hot take as of late. I mean you're very well entitled to that opinion but what I see visually doesn't add up to the points that you're making. Your criticism of the gameplay I do agree with a bit but many things you mentioned I've had similar issues even in Super Mario World. Great work nonetheless.
I remember thinking “boy I hope this is not how all games start looking from now on..” after this came out because I was never a huge fan of 3D rendering. It just lacked character, despite all the AOOOGA eyes and whatnot. I prefer cleaner, flatter images to this day and prefer the look of a good indie with amazing sprite work to a AAA fully rendered game.
Hard disagree. I’m glad that pre-rendered sprites didn’t replace all sprites but they had a look and aesthetic all their own which we really don’t see anymore. I think they have a charm to them just like low-poly which is making a comeback recently. However, I don’t think they look very good when they try to look realistic, but in a cartoony game like DKC, they got some great vibes, especially the backgrounds. That being said, they absolutely need to be played on a CRT or with a CRT filter otherwise they just don’t work. They look like pixelated poop. Pre-rendered graphics in lower resolution need that CRT look to blend them out. This also adds texture to them which gives them more character and soul. I think a lot of indie games these days, as well as playing retro games on modern displays, look too sterile and clean. The old CRT gives them texture and warmth. This isn’t just nostalgia for me. Once I started using CRT filters to play old games I just liked them more. But to each their own.
I always found the graphics on DKC ugly. It was a game released too early for its own good. Imagine it on the Nintendo 64, a console released only two years later. Just look at Yoshi's Story for what could have been.
I've never been able to really get into DKC, as it seemed too cutesy and a bit gimmicky for my taste. I have to disagree about the music; obviously Ballz wasn't great, either, but the sections of DKC you sampled come across to me as overly forgettable and bland -- like a lot of modern game music, unfortunately. Compare it to Super Metroid or other big-name titles and it just doesn't hold up very well, IMHO.
At the time, almost no one was doing moody atmospheric music, especially on the SNES where severe limitations meant it was far easier to do repeating melodies. Things we take for granted like the swells and pitch bends were very hard to do. It’s like using twigs and grass to build an airplane.
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Super underrated channel. let's get those numbers up
Thank you thank you! Working on it! Every comment helps!
1:25 - This is ILM-level CG work. I love it.
Haha the Fulgore on the left? To be fair I think it was a prototype.
@@motrongamesI learned recently the Kremlings were recycled from a prior Rare game that was canceled. I wonder if it's the same for Killer Instinct's characters...
The Hype behind this game was insane. It was in all the shops bid Donkey Kong cut outs everywhere. I played it none stop on Xmas day and the Graphics at the time where insane!.
The music in the game was awesome, some of the barrel levels where hard as nails
Trying to explain the difference to my Mam and why I wanted it dor Xmas, reminds me of when the AVGN was talking about the bit wars to his Mam.
I never thought I'd get it to be honest as it cost a bomb, so it was a great surprise.
Did you have the promotional VHS tape?
@@motrongames I remember getting that tape in the mail; Nintendo's marketing arm was farrrr reaching.
It's impossible for me to look at this game objectively. Every stage, background, sound effect and song has a memory attached to it. I believe that games can bring back memories just like a photo album, and this game is, to me, like a massive photo album with notes written beside every photo. I'm a bit biased, but it's a clear 10/10 to me.
Great review as always!
Of the games I’ve reviewed so far, half are ones I’ve never played before. This is absolutely not one of those games haha.
Your end-credit songs are such a bonus level!
Haha describing them as a “bonus level” sounds about right. Thanks for the props!
Donkey Kong Country definitely shows its age thirty years later: not necessarily with the graphics, but with some of the choices in the level design and bosses. By "level design," I mean the placement of the "KONG" letters: some of which are either hidden in secret bonus stages or located near pits where the only way to to get a specific letter is to roll-jump or fall into the pit and lose a life. As for the bosses, they are either too easy or look downright ridiculous: especially the toxic barrel. I will say that the music is still fantastic to this day, not just "Aquatic Ambience."
Could agree more about the bosses. With the KONG letters, I always saw them as something to clean up once you’ve finished the game, in which case, I’m fine with them being hidden and obscure somewhat.
Loved it! Awesome review💯
Many games from that era when reviewed through a modern lense will absolutely have a lot more to pick at that anyone had any right doing so back then.
I mean, that Genesis Aladdin has those gorgeous Disney animated sprites, but the rest is pretty meh when viewed now--if we're all just being honest here. The background colours are dull yet garish for the most part and have a strange vertical line "dither" effect much of the time, the controls are a bit stiff and clunky, the gameplay is pretty boring, the music is okay, and even the colours on many of those beautifully animated characters are a bit dull and slightly garish too, because the Genesis doesn't have a wide colour gamut and the sprites basically had to share colours with the backgrounds. But those character animations do still look great, even today.
I'll just put it like this though: At the time, Donkey Kong Country was far more of a "Wow!" moment than Aladdin ever was, with visuals that were so impressive for their day that many people in the gaming press actually thought they were seeing footage from Nintendo's next-gen console upon first viewing gameplay videos. The same thing most definitely did not occur with Aladdin on Genesis, even as nice as the character animation was. And, in my opinion, despite those pre-rendered visuals in DKC showing a bit of their age now, the majority of the game still holds up far better than Aladdin, although the boss fights really are pretty crap.
So, yeah, it's not perfect, but it was mind blowing at the time, and it's still overall actually pretty dang good even today.
My response back in the day was sort of halfway there. Seeing the promotional material for the game, I was quite impressed, and I was only really semi-impressed by the finished product. Still rented it and played it start to finish, but I do remember feeling like it only half lived up to the expectation set up by Nintendo Power and that promo VHS tape.
DKC changed the game… at the time the Graphics were mind blowing… Great Example and of BOTH Great Gameplay and Graphics
I remember seeing the pre-rendered promo material and thinking “it’s too bad graphics will never be this good” and here we are today…
I feel like this take on the visuals is just a trendy hot take as of late. I mean you're very well entitled to that opinion but what I see visually doesn't add up to the points that you're making. Your criticism of the gameplay I do agree with a bit but many things you mentioned I've had similar issues even in Super Mario World.
Great work nonetheless.
I remember thinking “boy I hope this is not how all games start looking from now on..” after this came out because I was never a huge fan of 3D rendering. It just lacked character, despite all the AOOOGA eyes and whatnot. I prefer cleaner, flatter images to this day and prefer the look of a good indie with amazing sprite work to a AAA fully rendered game.
Hard disagree.
I’m glad that pre-rendered sprites didn’t replace all sprites but they had a look and aesthetic all their own which we really don’t see anymore. I think they have a charm to them just like low-poly which is making a comeback recently. However, I don’t think they look very good when they try to look realistic, but in a cartoony game like DKC, they got some great vibes, especially the backgrounds.
That being said, they absolutely need to be played on a CRT or with a CRT filter otherwise they just don’t work. They look like pixelated poop. Pre-rendered graphics in lower resolution need that CRT look to blend them out. This also adds texture to them which gives them more character and soul. I think a lot of indie games these days, as well as playing retro games on modern displays, look too sterile and clean. The old CRT gives them texture and warmth.
This isn’t just nostalgia for me. Once I started using CRT filters to play old games I just liked them more.
But to each their own.
I always found the graphics on DKC ugly. It was a game released too early for its own good. Imagine it on the Nintendo 64, a console released only two years later. Just look at Yoshi's Story for what could have been.
It was a neat trick, but could have benefitted from more powerful hardware for sure.
I've never been able to really get into DKC, as it seemed too cutesy and a bit gimmicky for my taste.
I have to disagree about the music; obviously Ballz wasn't great, either, but the sections of DKC you sampled come across to me as overly forgettable and bland -- like a lot of modern game music, unfortunately. Compare it to Super Metroid or other big-name titles and it just doesn't hold up very well, IMHO.
At the time, almost no one was doing moody atmospheric music, especially on the SNES where severe limitations meant it was far easier to do repeating melodies. Things we take for granted like the swells and pitch bends were very hard to do. It’s like using twigs and grass to build an airplane.
Great reviews, guy (first)
😎👉👉
Wtf "too classic to review" is supposed to mean?
Sometimes people think games that are classic can’t be reviewed objectively today.
@@motrongames hahahaha. Man, if we are going to consider every single thing people think or say ... we would be ins4ne.
@@samueldeandrade8535 hah yeah man I thought about it for exactly 0.5 seconds before putting together a review of a classic game