20 years ago today (November 21st) Rare’s first super huge hit Donkey Kong Country hit store shelves in North America. It was an amazing showpiece featuring at the time incredible sprite work, incredible animation fidelity, a profoundly great soundtrack, snarky manual writing, solid fast paced gameplay and attention to detail which was rare then. It was a sensational game that was hard to find for ages and revitalized the SNES in its last years. Yes, it had issues which would only be fixed entirely in its sequel DKC2 but that doesn’t diminish what DKC was. An accomplishment.
One of the things that I love about DKC is the atmospheric qualities. Mario always seemed sterile and lame in comparison to me. DKC had lush jungles, beautiful sunsets, dark stormy weather, background wildlife, fluid character animation with 30 frames of animation per second (for comparison Mario’s SMW run animation has 3 sprites whereas DK’s has 20), charming baddies which made honky noises when they were felled, etc etc. It had life. I loved that. Still to this day while the prerendered graphics are no longer cutting edge I can see that life and the detail in it. It’s best seen in GIFs I think where the animation quality can really shine.
Anyway, what should you do to celebrate? Well for one Smash Wii U is out today. Maybe write your congressman, tell him that K Rool should be DLC for it. He’s one of the most popular requested characters right now and it’s his 20th birthday as well! Another thing you can do is buy Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze for your Wii U. It’s a phenomenal game in its own right that’s as good in 2014 as DKC2 was in 1995. You can also buy the original trilogy on Wii U VC if you’re in Europe. Sadly Nintendo of America hasn’t seen fit to rerelease them yet. Again, write your congressman. Maybe watch a speedrun of DKC or DKC2 from one of the Games Done Quick. DKC2 is the 8th most common game ran at Games Done Quick because it’s a great speed game and 1 and 3 are not too far behind. You could also just play some DKC or think nice things about it.
I’m probably going to just play some of it and think nice things about it. Happy Birthday DKC! I love you. Quick, make a wish!
Edit: More things to check out if you're down for it! Here's a link to a Twitch Non-Highlight VOD (It'll vanish one day) of a DKC Anniversary Race the SpeedRunsLive guys put on. There was also an update to DKC-Atlas's Maps feature that adds navigable overworld maps, music, animation and other cool shit. Check it out!
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