Nocturnowl
Member
So it came to my attention via a Destructoid article about Gregg Mayles posting a slew of DKC2 concept goodies on twitter that #DKC2is20.
If there was ever a cause for a platforming celebration this is it.
Art from Gaf's own Orioto, check his thread!
Throughout the history of video games there's been a few cases where a sequel comes out that not only greatly refines the initial concept of its predecessor but completely blows past it in the process. While this sort of thing is arguable depending on tastes I think it's safe to say there's a few notable examples out there like say Uncharted 2, Mega Man 2 and maybe even Sonic 2 that took their respective series to new heights.
DKC2 is an interesting case to me here because outside of gaming enthusiast circles it's not uncommon to see DKC1 as the most fondly remembered entry with its warts and all (I'd say it's the one that's most likely to land on a list of top SNES games) but not to dump on the original DKC which I also love dearly, DKC2 is not only one of the most perfect sequels I've played but I'd go as far as to consider one of the all time great platformers. Let me break down exactly why this game is a gosh darn treasure...
1. Location, Location, Location
The DKC series is very environmentally focused in its settings, it doesn't often lean on abstract locations and stays relatively grounded for a game about googly eyed primates bounding across Kroc heads, partly I'll chalk this up to what the pre rendered visuals offered at the time of DKC1. As such the original game takes place across a variety of natural settings that make up DK Island, jungles, forests, caves, it's standard stuff but with a nice visual flair.
With DKC2 the setting is flipped to enemy territory and it begs the question, what kind of place do the Kremlings make their home? at this point everything turns a touch dark fantasy and the new locale of Crocodile isle brings a blend of moodier natural environments with a touch of the more fantastical and what a tasty blend it is.
A heavy pirate motif among the enemies leads to a 3 stage archetypes using just the pirate ship idea alone, the token water stages become flooded ship holds and the vertical clambering takes place on the ships rigging.
DKC2 also goes back to tackle a few previous settings from the first game with a more distinct twist, the jungle stages adopt a more foreboding tribal theme which removes itself far from the lush natural beauty of those that kicked off DKC1 and the mine shafts now glitter with colourful gem rocks which sets them apart nicely from the three previous mine themes from DKC1.
Suddenly you hit Krazy Kremland and three new stage themes are introduced that are completely out there compared to what's been seen thus far, overgrown bramble patches wind up into the clouds, the ever loathed Zinger enemies make their home in incredibly sticky giant hives and perhaps most bizarrely ramshackle rollercoasters take over the mine cart role. All in all it's just such a memorable batch of settings to journey across, my persoanl favourite may be the enchanted woods which approaches the spooky forest trope with a more airy feel effectively making it like the perfect merger of the locations that make up DKC2's crocodile isle.
2. Gimmick doesn't have to be a dirty word
The first world of DKC2 is fairly standard as expected from an introductory world, the moment you hit world 2 though DKC2 starts revealing its style of level structure.
It's very much the tired and true introducing a new concept and expanding upon it throughout the stage, what becomes notable compared to DKC1 which more often than not stuck with fairly typical jump n' run antics throughout is that most stages tend to have their own more unique aspects to make them stand out more individually.
Taking the water levels for instance, you start with a standard one in the vein of DKC1, the second then focuses on cooling the water and getting through sections of the wet stuff before it heats back up to monkey boiling levels and then the third ship hold is more dark and mazelike requiring the aid of an angler fish to light up a portion of the screen.
Through the use of various gimmicked barrels and animal buddies DKC2 creates 39 stages that are all memorable in their own way.
Though I'll admit right now, Red Hot Ride is probably the most tedious stage in the game, that's one gimmick that's just too slow.
3. Animal Buddies
Another concept introduced in DKC1 and greatly refined here in the sequel. The Kong's animal buddies gain a greater sense of purpose as new ones are introduced with greater twists on the gameplay as well as full on transformations that turn them from an optional bonus to use in a stage to being the full on main focus.
I think it's safe to say Squitter and Squawks create the most noticeable variance, I'm particularly fond of Squitter for his incredibly goofy design and web platform concept.
And of course just smashing through foes with Rambi or Enguarde is always fun.
4. Rewarding secrets
Perhaps one of the strongest aspects of DKC2 is how it integrates bonus rooms into the game as something that will reward the player. Mercifully the DKC1 days of plunging down random pits in the hope of finding an off screen bonus barrel are gone, more thought and care is placed upon these hiding places with collectables and objects offering hints to the observant players that something isn't quite what it seems or you can fork over cash to Cranky for somewhat cryptic clues.
The bonus rooms themselves are effectively now mini challenge rooms with success rewarding the player with Krem Koins that can unlock more levels in the game's optional extra world. Working towards hidden and challenging stages is really the perfect reward for a game in this genre.
And for bragging rights we have Cranky's video game hero coins (aka: DK coins), the most sneakily hidden items of the lot with one per stage, you collect them to shunt Mario aside from atop his podium thus factually proving DKC2's superiority to SMW while Sonic's shoes prophetically sit by a bin in the corner, well that's Rare's humour for you.
Oh and the DK coin in Kannon's Klaim, what a devious placement that one is.
5. A well balanced difficulty curve
If there's one thing that's always seemed off to me with another SNES classic in Super Mario World it's how the difficulty level seems to just jump all over the shop only truly setting in the challenge when you hit a castle or fort, it's up and down like a yo yo and I don't think it's be a stretch to say Vanilla Dome's Castle is more challenging than most of the Valley of Bowser.
DKC2 certainly has its spikes but on the whole the difficulty level escalates in a much more logical fashion right down to its boss battles which are massively improved over its predecessor.
Instead of creating a subsection for bosses here I'll just say that Kaptain K.Rool offers one of the best final boss battles in the genre with so many functions to his blunderbuss you could make an entire Smash bros character with that boss fight alone, YEP AN ENTIRE SMASH BROS CHARACTER! YOU HEAR ME SAKURAI?!
In any event DKC2 offers a solid challenge without stepping into overly punishing, thus it's rewarding to conquer and still engaging when I replay it for the billionth time.
6. Fucking David Wise
What arcane wizardy was Wise using to pull out this sound quality from the SNES? well I have no idea but I'm thankful for it. There's a reason one of the most anticipated aspects of Tropical Freeze was the return of Wise, it was to see if he could finally top this soundtrack of his.
Amazingly other Nintendo titles that bring in DK manage to do their best to skirt around this stellar soundtrack opting for more remixes of DK Island Swing than the law should allow (dammit Smash Bros), as such despite a huge fan following the DKC2 OST isn't nearly as called back to in the series as much as it arguably should be (fortunately Tropical Freeze itself tackled some tracks here).
Oh but I'm going off track, DKC2's music combines atmosphere and melody in glorious harmony, ear worms for days, moody themes that put the exclamation point on an in game setting.
Heck we've got unique life lost jingles for each level archetype because of sound channel limitations, Wise was pushing this stuff to its limit and within these limitations created something truly great.
The commonly accepted highlight is Stickerbush Symphony (a track that's been victim to a long standing typo in stickerbrush) which supports the bramble backdrop and mellows you out which is handy seeing as they're often the more challenging stages the game has to offer.
Personally Forest Interlude edges it out for me but the great thing here is everyone has their own favourites and I want to say that all of them are at least good or better.
7. For better and for worse, it's radically nineties
Well it's not quite Kid Chameleon or a Sonic pretender but by virtue of its time period and some limitations on pre rendered visuals there's more than a whiff of the 90's around here be it a spider wearing eight trainers, Diddy's boom box, Funky Kong in general and even Dixie's idle bubblegum blowing. It's a kind of funny time capsule in that sense and to this day some folks are staunchly against having a googly eyed Pirate Kroc in smash bros because he's just too hideously outdated for them. I say that's part of the fun.
8. Secretly has one of Nintendo's best female protagonists
A sequel that drops the series main character, boosts the sidekick up to main character status and also throws in a pink clothed female as a replacement. In a way that's kind of ballsy but here's a fun fact about Dixie Kong, she hasn't been kidnapped while DK and Diddy have been captured multiple times, if this isn't the height of girl power I don't know what is.
In a world where even poor Samus got her character assassinated we can always trust in Dixie Kong.
You get the idea...
I think the DK series has always had the problem of being stuck in the shadow of Nintendo's flagship franchise, Mario looms overhead with a more welcoming series of games that have a greater legacy to boot.
On top of this DKC has had the blowback effect of "they were never really that good anyway" once the visual sheen wore off and people took a closer look at the original game's flaws. Unfortunately this seemed to drag DKC2 down with it for some reason but I reject this, I'm not going to tell you what the best platformer is, we've all got our opinions after all.
But DKC2 absolutely deserves to be among the 16 bit classics like Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Super Mario World.
Fortunately Retro's recent work with the series has given another two strong entries into the Country canon and maybe Kong can finally share the spotlight alongside old Mazza when it comes to Nintendo's own platformers, with games like DKC2 and TF the series has earned it.
Bonus Kongtent
Kremling Koncepts
Unused Ideas
Some level layouts
A vertical level blueprint, Anihawk would be proud.
Bramble Scramble
Okay, I'm done
If there was ever a cause for a platforming celebration this is it.
Art from Gaf's own Orioto, check his thread!
Throughout the history of video games there's been a few cases where a sequel comes out that not only greatly refines the initial concept of its predecessor but completely blows past it in the process. While this sort of thing is arguable depending on tastes I think it's safe to say there's a few notable examples out there like say Uncharted 2, Mega Man 2 and maybe even Sonic 2 that took their respective series to new heights.
DKC2 is an interesting case to me here because outside of gaming enthusiast circles it's not uncommon to see DKC1 as the most fondly remembered entry with its warts and all (I'd say it's the one that's most likely to land on a list of top SNES games) but not to dump on the original DKC which I also love dearly, DKC2 is not only one of the most perfect sequels I've played but I'd go as far as to consider one of the all time great platformers. Let me break down exactly why this game is a gosh darn treasure...
1. Location, Location, Location
The DKC series is very environmentally focused in its settings, it doesn't often lean on abstract locations and stays relatively grounded for a game about googly eyed primates bounding across Kroc heads, partly I'll chalk this up to what the pre rendered visuals offered at the time of DKC1. As such the original game takes place across a variety of natural settings that make up DK Island, jungles, forests, caves, it's standard stuff but with a nice visual flair.
With DKC2 the setting is flipped to enemy territory and it begs the question, what kind of place do the Kremlings make their home? at this point everything turns a touch dark fantasy and the new locale of Crocodile isle brings a blend of moodier natural environments with a touch of the more fantastical and what a tasty blend it is.
A heavy pirate motif among the enemies leads to a 3 stage archetypes using just the pirate ship idea alone, the token water stages become flooded ship holds and the vertical clambering takes place on the ships rigging.
DKC2 also goes back to tackle a few previous settings from the first game with a more distinct twist, the jungle stages adopt a more foreboding tribal theme which removes itself far from the lush natural beauty of those that kicked off DKC1 and the mine shafts now glitter with colourful gem rocks which sets them apart nicely from the three previous mine themes from DKC1.
Suddenly you hit Krazy Kremland and three new stage themes are introduced that are completely out there compared to what's been seen thus far, overgrown bramble patches wind up into the clouds, the ever loathed Zinger enemies make their home in incredibly sticky giant hives and perhaps most bizarrely ramshackle rollercoasters take over the mine cart role. All in all it's just such a memorable batch of settings to journey across, my persoanl favourite may be the enchanted woods which approaches the spooky forest trope with a more airy feel effectively making it like the perfect merger of the locations that make up DKC2's crocodile isle.
2. Gimmick doesn't have to be a dirty word
The first world of DKC2 is fairly standard as expected from an introductory world, the moment you hit world 2 though DKC2 starts revealing its style of level structure.
It's very much the tired and true introducing a new concept and expanding upon it throughout the stage, what becomes notable compared to DKC1 which more often than not stuck with fairly typical jump n' run antics throughout is that most stages tend to have their own more unique aspects to make them stand out more individually.
Taking the water levels for instance, you start with a standard one in the vein of DKC1, the second then focuses on cooling the water and getting through sections of the wet stuff before it heats back up to monkey boiling levels and then the third ship hold is more dark and mazelike requiring the aid of an angler fish to light up a portion of the screen.
Through the use of various gimmicked barrels and animal buddies DKC2 creates 39 stages that are all memorable in their own way.
Though I'll admit right now, Red Hot Ride is probably the most tedious stage in the game, that's one gimmick that's just too slow.
3. Animal Buddies
Another concept introduced in DKC1 and greatly refined here in the sequel. The Kong's animal buddies gain a greater sense of purpose as new ones are introduced with greater twists on the gameplay as well as full on transformations that turn them from an optional bonus to use in a stage to being the full on main focus.
I think it's safe to say Squitter and Squawks create the most noticeable variance, I'm particularly fond of Squitter for his incredibly goofy design and web platform concept.
And of course just smashing through foes with Rambi or Enguarde is always fun.
4. Rewarding secrets
Perhaps one of the strongest aspects of DKC2 is how it integrates bonus rooms into the game as something that will reward the player. Mercifully the DKC1 days of plunging down random pits in the hope of finding an off screen bonus barrel are gone, more thought and care is placed upon these hiding places with collectables and objects offering hints to the observant players that something isn't quite what it seems or you can fork over cash to Cranky for somewhat cryptic clues.
The bonus rooms themselves are effectively now mini challenge rooms with success rewarding the player with Krem Koins that can unlock more levels in the game's optional extra world. Working towards hidden and challenging stages is really the perfect reward for a game in this genre.
And for bragging rights we have Cranky's video game hero coins (aka: DK coins), the most sneakily hidden items of the lot with one per stage, you collect them to shunt Mario aside from atop his podium thus factually proving DKC2's superiority to SMW while Sonic's shoes prophetically sit by a bin in the corner, well that's Rare's humour for you.
Oh and the DK coin in Kannon's Klaim, what a devious placement that one is.
5. A well balanced difficulty curve
If there's one thing that's always seemed off to me with another SNES classic in Super Mario World it's how the difficulty level seems to just jump all over the shop only truly setting in the challenge when you hit a castle or fort, it's up and down like a yo yo and I don't think it's be a stretch to say Vanilla Dome's Castle is more challenging than most of the Valley of Bowser.
DKC2 certainly has its spikes but on the whole the difficulty level escalates in a much more logical fashion right down to its boss battles which are massively improved over its predecessor.
Instead of creating a subsection for bosses here I'll just say that Kaptain K.Rool offers one of the best final boss battles in the genre with so many functions to his blunderbuss you could make an entire Smash bros character with that boss fight alone, YEP AN ENTIRE SMASH BROS CHARACTER! YOU HEAR ME SAKURAI?!
In any event DKC2 offers a solid challenge without stepping into overly punishing, thus it's rewarding to conquer and still engaging when I replay it for the billionth time.
6. Fucking David Wise
What arcane wizardy was Wise using to pull out this sound quality from the SNES? well I have no idea but I'm thankful for it. There's a reason one of the most anticipated aspects of Tropical Freeze was the return of Wise, it was to see if he could finally top this soundtrack of his.
Amazingly other Nintendo titles that bring in DK manage to do their best to skirt around this stellar soundtrack opting for more remixes of DK Island Swing than the law should allow (dammit Smash Bros), as such despite a huge fan following the DKC2 OST isn't nearly as called back to in the series as much as it arguably should be (fortunately Tropical Freeze itself tackled some tracks here).
Oh but I'm going off track, DKC2's music combines atmosphere and melody in glorious harmony, ear worms for days, moody themes that put the exclamation point on an in game setting.
Heck we've got unique life lost jingles for each level archetype because of sound channel limitations, Wise was pushing this stuff to its limit and within these limitations created something truly great.
The commonly accepted highlight is Stickerbush Symphony (a track that's been victim to a long standing typo in stickerbrush) which supports the bramble backdrop and mellows you out which is handy seeing as they're often the more challenging stages the game has to offer.
Personally Forest Interlude edges it out for me but the great thing here is everyone has their own favourites and I want to say that all of them are at least good or better.
7. For better and for worse, it's radically nineties
Well it's not quite Kid Chameleon or a Sonic pretender but by virtue of its time period and some limitations on pre rendered visuals there's more than a whiff of the 90's around here be it a spider wearing eight trainers, Diddy's boom box, Funky Kong in general and even Dixie's idle bubblegum blowing. It's a kind of funny time capsule in that sense and to this day some folks are staunchly against having a googly eyed Pirate Kroc in smash bros because he's just too hideously outdated for them. I say that's part of the fun.
8. Secretly has one of Nintendo's best female protagonists
A sequel that drops the series main character, boosts the sidekick up to main character status and also throws in a pink clothed female as a replacement. In a way that's kind of ballsy but here's a fun fact about Dixie Kong, she hasn't been kidnapped while DK and Diddy have been captured multiple times, if this isn't the height of girl power I don't know what is.
In a world where even poor Samus got her character assassinated we can always trust in Dixie Kong.
Pictured, a character not in smash bros
You get the idea...
I think the DK series has always had the problem of being stuck in the shadow of Nintendo's flagship franchise, Mario looms overhead with a more welcoming series of games that have a greater legacy to boot.
On top of this DKC has had the blowback effect of "they were never really that good anyway" once the visual sheen wore off and people took a closer look at the original game's flaws. Unfortunately this seemed to drag DKC2 down with it for some reason but I reject this, I'm not going to tell you what the best platformer is, we've all got our opinions after all.
But DKC2 absolutely deserves to be among the 16 bit classics like Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Super Mario World.
Fortunately Retro's recent work with the series has given another two strong entries into the Country canon and maybe Kong can finally share the spotlight alongside old Mazza when it comes to Nintendo's own platformers, with games like DKC2 and TF the series has earned it.
Bonus Kongtent
Kremling Koncepts
Unused Ideas
Some level layouts
A vertical level blueprint, Anihawk would be proud.
Bramble Scramble
Okay, I'm done
