dkc is one of the few snes games that i never really bothered to re-play until now. and i remembered it being mediocre. but, jesus christ, i must have somehow blocked out how vile, repititive, arbitrary and amateurish the level design truly was...
there is not a semblance of logic or coherence to the level and world design; the stages all seem to consist of a basic template over which obstacles and enemies are randomly placed, while the changes to the (boring) terrain remain superficial and mostly cosmetic. most of the enemies are seemingly interchangable dummies, designed, animated and rendered without potential use or location in mind:
"let's have a bunch of snakes randomly fall from the ceiling here, over here we'll have a kremling without a jumping animation bounce around, next up are 20 bees moving along increasingly random paths at varying speeds. same for the next level. actually, those bees are getting boring, just replace them with spikey wheels, no one will notice."
that rigidness and the mechanical and unnatural placement and use of enemies and obstacles are at odds with and stand in stark contrast to the otherwise organic (if dated) looking visuals and the terrain, which while never interesting to traverse still feels more natural than the heavily tile-based look of so many 8- and 16-bit platformers.
there is also rarely a real sense of progression as you run and jump through the various levels; not much thought was put into the actual pacing within the levels themselves. often there is no real build-up or change of pace, no increasing feel or sign of reaching the end of a level. many levels just kind of trickle away or end just like they started, instead of culminating in a climax or deliberately winding down.
and then there's the boring and creatively bankrupt bosses, two of which are recycled later on. a big barrel spitting out a bunch of enemies? that has to be the creative low-point in boss design in rare's development history. and that stupid bird head? twice! once with a palette swap! same with the beaver boss, which itself was already just a bigger render of the beaver level enemies.
most of the "challenge" in dkc derives from the extremely imprecise collision detection, the many "leaps of faith" you're forced to make thanks to the wonky, wobbly, dizziness-inducing camera with a mind of its own. the designers also seemed to think that an increasing difficulty curve simply meant: same levels, more enemies. instead of making changes to the terrain and introducing more complex and interesting platforming challenges, later on you get the same basic layouts with a higher enemy count.
rare also apparently didn't understand the importance of properly introducing and explaining new game mechanics, obstacles or gimmicks. often you are expected to die or fail before you finally understand how certain things work and at what point enemies pop up or get in your way unexpectedly. this is the complete opposite of the mario/nintendo/valve school of design, in which new gimmicks and important mechanics are introduced in a subtle, non-threatening manner that teaches the player how to respond to them or how they work without undeserved punishment. this leads to an experience that, despite not being overly difficult, still often feels frustrating. it's the kind of game that punishes you for not anticipating its nonsensical design quirks and its tendency to throw you into situations that require guesswork. i'd get annoyed frequently because i'd feel like my deaths were the game's fault and not my own.
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now, donkey kong country 2 is arguably the better game. it fixes many of the first game's problems with the level design and introduces a more varied and well-thought-out cast of enemies and a wider variety of level backdrops and obstacles. the pacing still hasn't improved for the most part, but at least now there are some real platforming challenges and some more interesting, almost maze-like levels. often these just serve to highlight the imprecise collision detection, however, especially when navigating the levels with one of your animal buddies. because the terrain itself offers a bigger challenge and there are more vertical levels, there are even more instances now where you'll fall (sometimes to your death), seemingly clipping through walls and floors because you can't tell what the designers meant for you to walk on. it introduces other new problems as well, among them the new save system that needs payment and the heavy reliance on collecting things in general: at least three different kinds of coins, only two of which are saved when you quit the game. why? so you can't "abuse" the save system, which lets you save once per world and then wants the "perishable" coin for payment? then why offer it in such abundance? hoarding them is pointless if you don't plan on finishing the game in one sitting, but even then: losing all your lives means losing all of these coins as well, even if you do keep playing.
that said, dkc 2 is clearly the better game. but it's still just a painfully average one. and i have yet to play dkc 3.
i know this is a lot of text, so here's your tl;dr version:
donkey kong country kinda sucks
there is not a semblance of logic or coherence to the level and world design; the stages all seem to consist of a basic template over which obstacles and enemies are randomly placed, while the changes to the (boring) terrain remain superficial and mostly cosmetic. most of the enemies are seemingly interchangable dummies, designed, animated and rendered without potential use or location in mind:
"let's have a bunch of snakes randomly fall from the ceiling here, over here we'll have a kremling without a jumping animation bounce around, next up are 20 bees moving along increasingly random paths at varying speeds. same for the next level. actually, those bees are getting boring, just replace them with spikey wheels, no one will notice."
that rigidness and the mechanical and unnatural placement and use of enemies and obstacles are at odds with and stand in stark contrast to the otherwise organic (if dated) looking visuals and the terrain, which while never interesting to traverse still feels more natural than the heavily tile-based look of so many 8- and 16-bit platformers.
there is also rarely a real sense of progression as you run and jump through the various levels; not much thought was put into the actual pacing within the levels themselves. often there is no real build-up or change of pace, no increasing feel or sign of reaching the end of a level. many levels just kind of trickle away or end just like they started, instead of culminating in a climax or deliberately winding down.
and then there's the boring and creatively bankrupt bosses, two of which are recycled later on. a big barrel spitting out a bunch of enemies? that has to be the creative low-point in boss design in rare's development history. and that stupid bird head? twice! once with a palette swap! same with the beaver boss, which itself was already just a bigger render of the beaver level enemies.
most of the "challenge" in dkc derives from the extremely imprecise collision detection, the many "leaps of faith" you're forced to make thanks to the wonky, wobbly, dizziness-inducing camera with a mind of its own. the designers also seemed to think that an increasing difficulty curve simply meant: same levels, more enemies. instead of making changes to the terrain and introducing more complex and interesting platforming challenges, later on you get the same basic layouts with a higher enemy count.
rare also apparently didn't understand the importance of properly introducing and explaining new game mechanics, obstacles or gimmicks. often you are expected to die or fail before you finally understand how certain things work and at what point enemies pop up or get in your way unexpectedly. this is the complete opposite of the mario/nintendo/valve school of design, in which new gimmicks and important mechanics are introduced in a subtle, non-threatening manner that teaches the player how to respond to them or how they work without undeserved punishment. this leads to an experience that, despite not being overly difficult, still often feels frustrating. it's the kind of game that punishes you for not anticipating its nonsensical design quirks and its tendency to throw you into situations that require guesswork. i'd get annoyed frequently because i'd feel like my deaths were the game's fault and not my own.
---------
now, donkey kong country 2 is arguably the better game. it fixes many of the first game's problems with the level design and introduces a more varied and well-thought-out cast of enemies and a wider variety of level backdrops and obstacles. the pacing still hasn't improved for the most part, but at least now there are some real platforming challenges and some more interesting, almost maze-like levels. often these just serve to highlight the imprecise collision detection, however, especially when navigating the levels with one of your animal buddies. because the terrain itself offers a bigger challenge and there are more vertical levels, there are even more instances now where you'll fall (sometimes to your death), seemingly clipping through walls and floors because you can't tell what the designers meant for you to walk on. it introduces other new problems as well, among them the new save system that needs payment and the heavy reliance on collecting things in general: at least three different kinds of coins, only two of which are saved when you quit the game. why? so you can't "abuse" the save system, which lets you save once per world and then wants the "perishable" coin for payment? then why offer it in such abundance? hoarding them is pointless if you don't plan on finishing the game in one sitting, but even then: losing all your lives means losing all of these coins as well, even if you do keep playing.
that said, dkc 2 is clearly the better game. but it's still just a painfully average one. and i have yet to play dkc 3.
i know this is a lot of text, so here's your tl;dr version:
donkey kong country kinda sucks
