Background | Year of Release | Media | Mini-Reivew | The Result

System: GBA Developer: Rare Publisher: Nintendo Players: 1-2 Save: Battery Genre: Platformer

Donkey Kong Country was a ground-breaking release for the SNES back in 1994. Nine years later, Nintendo commissioned the Rare Game Boy Advance development team to remake the game on the GBA.

North America: 06/09/2003
Japan: 12/12/2003
Europe: 06/09/2003

Screeshots: 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5

The GBA has seen its share of SNES ports with the Mario Advance series, and countless other game franchises. Donkey Kong Country is another near-identical port of a SNES game. It includes the same single-player adventure, plus some new multiplayer mini games for added replay value.

This game suffers some downgrades from the SNES versions due to some inherent weaknesses of the Game Boy Advance system. The graphical detail has been slightly reduced in the GBA version in certain areas. Some background elements that were present in the SNES version have been removed because they would distract the gamer from the foreground on the GBA screen. Also, the colour pallet of the game has been brightened somewhat from the SNES version so that graphical detail could be made out in lower-light areas. Furthermore, due to the GBA's weak audio system, the music and sound effects aren't as prominent on the GBA version as they where on the SNES.

Due to some of the restrictions of the Game Boy Advance, this DKC just doesn't convey that same feeling of being a grand epic game as it did on the SNES. While this version of Donkey Kong Country still has that highly addictive game play, it just isn't as fun to play as the SNES original.

Score - 7.0

It's not a classic!

Page by Player Guy Forever

08/30/2004