Emulator

Donkey Kong Country twentieth year and visit the virtual consoles in the best moment of the series since its inception. Remember the game that gave birth to the phenomenon and changed the course of the 16-bit generation.
10 reviews
 

Emulator 3ds

Back to the past
Donkey Kong Country: The Origins Screenshot

The early Japanese video game introduced us to many of the most endearing and veterans of all those characters have made our treats after decades of video games. Beyond the sense, something derogatory, with which today we often use the term "trans" talk about characters who have crossed several times the boundaries of the systems in which they were born, to appear in succession on consoles and computers that succeeded their original homes. So have evolved Mario, Sonic, Ryu, and they Donkey Kong, then evil gorilla throwing barrels at Mario (well, admit Jumpman in this case) in the already remote 1981 and thirteen years later finally become the protagonist all.

Generational changes are never easy. So much so that the Donkey Kong that we remember today, star of one of the best platformers have seen Nintendo systems, it is actually the grandson of the original. It was not enough and the time does not pass in vain, so that the eleven years between the last games featuring ancient apes 8 bit and the launch of the first Donkey Kong Country would bring us to a new gorilla at all levels. One who mocked outdated chiptune melodies and schematic stages of the adventures of his grandfather in a friendly introduction, since he had no qualms about showing what your new exquisite visual and sonic world, a stunning setting possible without your opponent output 16 bit consoles and the threat felt by a generation of systems that knock on the door. However, these new guests at the table still have to wait to sit with the elderly, because Donkey Kong Country showed he was still time in 1994 to witness how games almost born in the outgoing generation and certainly not betting on the revolution in its playable proposal would become incontestable critical and commercial successes, selling nine million copies. Which was not easy then, as it is not now.


Donkey Kong Country has, as already established series and two decades after its release, in very good health. Installed protagonist among the most recognizable characters in the middle and a recent entry in the saga of overwhelmingly high level, leading the two-dimensional platforms at heights of quality in a long time that the fans wanted to see them again, with the recent Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. On the impact this has had twenty years ago, its relevance in the catalog of such an important system is the old Super Nintendo, and its role more prominent in this difficult time when I was born, we spent today looking back the beginning of a saga that led to the ripe Snes to another level, with possibly not even count on when Nintendo console was on the table design.

Rare and Silicon Graphics.

Donkey Kong Country: The Origins Screenshot
Battletoads is one of the most popular titles in Rare NES, but his charts was already long before Donkey Kong Country

In 1994, the British developer Rare was already one of the most important companies in the scene and its founders, the Stamper brothers had planned very important titles such as Knight Lore and antediluvian Sabrewulf Spectrum, international celebrities following the trail of important titles in the era of microcomputers that had developed since his first company, the Ultimate deceased. We talked about possibly the most recognized personalities of playful planet that came from the east at that time. His service on Nintendo consoles was already quite impressive, because Rare had become a precise Japanese wave of consoles now. Suffice it to recall very successful titles on the NES as Snake: Rattle and Roll, Wizards and Warriors or Battletoads, one of the most advanced gaming system. Also with a negligible amount of titles for the Game Boy small with a very good average quality. Despite its great fit, the fact is that since the launch of the powerful Super Nintendo in 1990, Rare had followed more focused on the eight bit and forays into new machines were much less numerous, with some episodes in Battletoads toads, among other battles, faced the classic Double Dragon characters in one of the first crossover would see in video games.

But the company that brought us so many glorious pages in the NES had not exactly thrown in the innovation towel, but still kept enough tricks up its sleeve. Aware of the importance of computer animation would achieve in all areas of entertainment, the brothers took a risky decision but would end catapulting them to world-class success. They spent much of the profits from his previous projects in buying workstations from Silicon Graphics. To such an extent it was expensive systems and significant investment, said the company, which by then should have a good size, have run serious risk of failing to obtain success with his next project. The experimentation that followed the acquisition of these expensive toys should be quite systematic and thorough in British headquarters Rare in those years. It is true that fewer projects which were then left the British company, but so is that, at the time the three-dimensional computer animation was peeling off permanently, Rare would be placed in the forefront in terms of use applied to game development. Remember that not talking about any time, but the years we watched with great impact on our minds the arrival of computer images that reached a new level of credibility with the T-1000 from Terminator 2 or dinosaurs first feature the Jurassic Park saga 1993, messengers of a new generation of CGI that would apply to almost everything. Incidentally, also developed under technology from Silicon Graphics.

Donkey Kong Country: The Origins Screenshot
Three-dimensional computer graphics to assault took theaters. The systems that made it possible soon be used in the creation of video games

But as much as the 91 contemplásemos a person become a credible three-dimensional model of plate texture computer generated, or shortly after we seem normal to see a Tyrannosaurus Rex running after a truck when 3D animation yet had come to the world of video games, or so we thought. Generation systems that give this important leap was still in the planning stage. This is the aspect that impresses even two decades later when we refer to the first Donkey Kong Country. Rare Super Nintendo managed to take a 16 Bit system which already had four years behind him, to a whole new world. You used to do techniques that had not been used before in any game (well, you know that whenever things are said typical exception thus appears, in this case called Stardust Amiga, although at a much lower level).

After extensive research on the subject, which eventually would make an important support Rare for the Nintendo also had allied with Silicon Graphics in developing its future console-Stamper knocked on the door hard enough in high spheres of Nintendo, first in the person of Tony Harman Nintendo America then and in the Japanese sphere of Mr Takeda (who had designed the great Punch-Out!) and finally the very Shigeru Miyamoto, who was involved in the Donkey project Kong Country from almost the beginning. Originally Rare efforts were aimed at a boxing game, but the result of the visit to the offices of Nintendo UK study culminating in a fact of life for the future of the European company, but also crucial for historical company Mario, the old enemy was about to take the plunge.

Donkey Kong Country: The Origins Screenshot
The new Donkey Kong, glad to know it was going to revolutionize the market for 16-bit consoles veterans

Nintendo Westernized

It is well known that, even today, Nintendo likes to make war on their own. Call it secrecy, secrecy or calculated marketing strategy, the reality is that the company tends to keep a tight grip on the ecosystem of their consoles, and this is not exactly a thing of the past years. At the moment his emissaries visited the headquarters of Rare and were captivated by what had been achieved by applying Stamper SGI systems development Snes, Nintendo was a company that rarely had allied with Western companies. Little more than the agreement with Argonaut Software to develop the Super FX chip and the first Starwing, also under Japanese supervision and partnership with Silicon mentioned.

Everything was about to change, and quite dramatically. Nintendo's interest in the company of former Ultimate founders and trailblazers of the time the Spectrum went far beyond what was so impressive that I looked at that game shows lost boxing. Talks with Nintendo, Yamauchi then led by Shigeru Miyamoto and already as creative guru area resulted in the purchase of 49% shares of Rare by Japanese and tasked with developing a game using one of his characters (Donkey was chosen, of course). Just born one of the most productive partnerships for quality results, from the history of the game, as the new title of the monkey and its congeners would be only the first in a list of releases that includes vital names in the history of Nintendo systems. Neither more nor less than one of the first projects that the Big N was intended to show the world the virtues of his future system, the great Killer Instinct (SNES also visit thanks to the magic that made possible Donkey Kong Country), and a well-nourished charts for the Nintendo 64 that was in his most persistent Rare valedora after their creators. A unique works dedicated to him as leading as GoldenEye 007, Banjo-Kazooie, Perfect Dark or ending to end this love story: Conker's Bad Fur Day.

Donkey Kong Country: The Origins Screenshot
Rare and Nintendo were inseparable couple for years. But after the adventures of the innocent squirrel Conker, things would change for the British study, and not for the better after making the jump to And, really, <strong> what was seen

The Brain of the Beast

He was out in Japan in 1990 and turned into a huge success system worldwide, with variety in their proposals and many quality titles before we remember today. So many that it is not the time to mention them, nor is exaggerated considering our dear Snes one of the most outstanding home systems in terms of two-dimensional sprite-based games. His efforts to bypass this limitation bidimensional were also notable, with the mythical and polygonal Mode 7 chip that released pixel art, but it is a reality that its catalog mostly follows the more traditional canons of two-dimensional world. This is where Donkey Kong Country is a total revolution, a profound philosophical shift that was designed with his then very advanced graphical look.
3ds emulator
We had already seen before in two-dimensional plots that had not opted for the traditional sprites. Sírvanos the example of the fighters of the first Mortal Kombat, something our previous Donkey. Rare But what took place on this occasion had not even thought about it until then, but twenty years later it may seem a logical step. Those who came to be known then pre-rendered graphics were the depiction in two dimensions, using tools developed by the very Rare, three-dimensional models made in the very powerful workstations Silicon, the most advanced of time as we know. Stations that were not only expensive and advanced in its day, but environmentally unfriendly to our standards to the point that forced installed at the headquarters of the company new electrical systems to meet energy demand. To make matters worse, generating so much heat that also drove up the electricity bill as cooling. These facts, perhaps exaggerated and that today make us smile but are referred to many times by Stamper and employees, we demonstrate to what extent was dealing with a new level in terms of computation applied to video games.

Donkey Kong Country: The Origins Screenshot
From the first level warning that things had changed forever on Super Nintendo. Suddenly we were on another level

Advanced three-dimensional models were created using the then famous Power Animator, the same software that gave life to the T-1000. This allowed then create amazing designs that seemed to come from another world, eg film, for all game elements. Of course special pampering in the characters and enemies are employed, but also all funds and items were three-dimensional models. Even bananas like Donkey store and it being stolen had triggered the fuss (read weak plot excuse) between our protagonist and Kremlings, new enemies who would star in another game, but it ended up being bad on that jump and Donkey Diddy Kong. You know, they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Once these models with amazing detail, high quality textures for ultra detailed animation and then created (have some former Rare employees even visiting a nearby zoo to see real apes), these models and three-dimensional animations were converted for use on the Super Nintendo obviously going to a two-dimensional plane and far less resolution (although I did not thought about it). Yet despite mediate several light years in terms of power between Silicon stations and the SNES, this technique became known as ACM Computer -Advanced Modelling- would eventually lead to characters, animations and creepily advanced funds thanks to the fantastic work Rare. The envy of all two-dimensional games of 1994. Best with a lot of difference, so that even in Neo-Geo, true beast 2D, we came across something so amazing those months. Rare had found the key, if not to bypass the limitations of the Super Nintendo, as the hardware remained the same and therefore still marked parameters like resolution, another to bring the video game system to a new graphic dimension. All other visual aspects, derived all of these new techniques, round out the show ended with an extraordinary use of all typical graphic effects of the Snes adapted to this new era that was born with the game. Transparencies, scrolls, rotations, the famous ghost layering ... everything was used to a huge level.

Donkey Kong Country: The Origins Screenshot

Seen from our perspective, the most important of all and what we remembered all hours of intense advertising campaign, was suddenly a game that we were defying the most futuristic proposals currently in such an important aspect as the visual and a system from which no such thing as expected. And it was not any one time, and we talked a few months you knew the proposals of the new Playstation and Saturn (released almost on par with the adventures of Donkey) which, besides being already three dimensional polygonal titles games were developed for systems with many more twigs. Ridge Racer, Virtua Fighter 2, Tekken, Doom2 PC ... it was not a time of little change in the game precisely. Given all these developments, Donkey Kong Country was the most attractive game of the moment and won many awards such as the visual merit. Quite a feat achieved on a 16 bit system, that in November 1994 he faced his old age, but with huge installed base of machines worldwide. The result is that nine million copies which placed him as the second game on Super Nintendo sales. And we know it was not just the secondary system. Neither short-selling, or lacks competition.

Very nice, but ... What say you play?

Having reached the time to talk about gameplay, the first thing to say is that touch is the most controversial point of this title, the gaming experience has been shaken at times by certain media and players. Yes, especially years after its release and passed the impact at first supposed. But the truth is that since shortly after his departure was some controversy in the press, the most famous starring Miyamoto himself, who made a statement something critical of DKC gameplay calling it mediocre then rectified, do not know if sincere or forced by circumstances (read by circumstances nine million copies sold for a game that basically was a Nintendo product and where to top it had been involved). It's what happens with geniuses. They also have bad days, and not all his statements have to be great.

Donkey Kong Country: The Origins Screenshot
Miyamoto-san got into a mess with statements about the gameplay of Donkey Kong Country's being sent off as he could

They were thought out, exaggerated or product Sake Miyamoto's words, the undeniable fact is that Donkey Kong Country was not inventing the wheel playable appearance (neither did Super Mario World in 1990 and it would still be great). Admittedly today that its most immediate impact came from the hand of its stunning graphics. But rather than accept this premise and have run rivers of ink on the subject, we believe that makes a monumental mistake regarding it a platformer heap, or a game that did not add new features to the genre. Nor do we think its challenging realistic playable section as one that was not able to satisfy the most seasoned in the genre, and we must keep in mind that we are talking about a unique game system that had Mario as a pet, gender are platforms, and the machine it had brought us and still would provide the art masterpieces. The home of gaming platforms received one of its most distinguished citizens.


Nintendo commented that opened the West with this game, the first "Triple A" with a Nintendo character who did not develop in Japan. But the reality parallel to this is that Donkey Kong Country is the masterpiece in 16 Bit of a study that was already the Japanese from the West. One that had many developments behind consoles, and had taken very thoroughly the language of the Japanese video game, with its direct gameplay, easy to learn, hard to master. Especially, I must say, the Nintendo itself. Thus, just start a new game, we have a map much like Super Mario World, where accedíamos to different scenarios. Levels that are recognized, also very clearly, the basic mechanics of Mario. Donkey control with three buttons: one for jumping, one for attacking and running, and the last to give the baton to our squire Diddy should be available. We jump on enemies in the style of Super Mario, and can and should link jumps on them to survive in many situations. We also swam (in one of the magic moments of the entire generation 16 Bit) as did the Italian plumber hundreds of underwater levels. No mushrooms that grow larger grant us and the possibility of colliding with an enemy without losing a life, but we have to Diddy gives us the same effect. From these similarities, however great they may be, Donkey Kong Country seems a lot of personality development and a platform game with a successful range of situations and new aspects. Not revolutionary, but very well made and implemented into a more than satisfactory.

In addition to these typical mechanical Mario, over forty levels return remodeled a number of other elements from the previous game starring the Kong. A Knowing: creepers on which we can hang with fixed, mobile and in which we have to dodge enemies varieties; barrels from which we have to shoot, reaching quite high levels of complexity in terms of timing when linking several consecutive shots. Tires that we can push to propel platforms and find hidden stages ... etc etc etc. Also other items that were used to display dazzling graphics effects, as some levels that activate and deactivate the lights, with honorable mention for featuring parrot Sqawks holder lanterns, fascinating. Of course, do not forget the famous moments when we jumped in the van to an abandoned mine (wisely taken up by Retro Games on their new games in the series) and reached negligible levels of difficulty. Neither of some I had to fill the energy of a platform carrying us through the level. All that we were captured on a frankly superb level design, in which people work and very thoroughly dominated the media is perceived. Topped off with a curve very well stated difficulty, since it was not a simple game in its day, but allowed to move forward although we discover all the secrets of the level and thus encouraged us to replay.


And to complete the game was not a task that could be categorized as titanic. But what was to complete 100% of all your secrets, because if something worked thoroughly Rare in terms of level design was the clear emphasis to motivate the player something that they were important, but there came a new standard : exploring each scenario. In each level you will find a number of secrets in various forms. Barrels that transport us to mini games that become very complicated, can break walls with the help Rambi Rhino or throwing barrels, areas that can only access one of the other friends of the Kong that roam through the game, and four KONG letters that give us the usual extra life and are present more or less hidden in each level. Impossible not to admit the enormous ingenuity that Rare deployed in all these important aspects. Get the coveted 100% was a complicated task requiring hours of play. Twenty years ago, and in November 2014.

Play Donkey Kong Country first twenty years later is an experience that still holds interest for anything rotten, so it is strongly recommended that we have today back to the saga so hard with us. Yes, some online media, in more recent times have included lists of overrated, and is a game that shows its age. But both he enjoyed in his day as new players who want to learn the basics of the genre should approach it with the utmost respect. It is a more than solid game even today with pad in hand, and many of the criticisms that have been in this direction seem unwarranted. Especially since some of the same media that included lists of overrated, are that once gave him top marks and Game of the Year awards. Donkey Kong Country seems like play than as a demonstration of technical and after all this time, the cornerstone of a building that would be more than solid for years. Rare getting a project that went far beyond what he had undertaken before, but also began, as correctly pointed out by many analysts retro to which we join, some competition with Nintendo itself, with which it would be measuring their star genres. Beginning with our two-dimensional platform game today, things continue with the crazy race Diddy Kong Racing also great, and finally three-dimensional platforms, after the bombing of Mario 64, with no less outstanding Banjo-Kazooie and Conker controversial . All this at the same time showed that subjective shooters would be possible on console with GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark. A leading role globally in the medium for many years, in which Donkey Kong Country is the definitive leap in quality. Both technical and gameplay.

A stellar sound

The other point you have to stop almost mandatory to mention Donkey Kong Country is your sound section as there one of those as curious stories that deserve to be remembered after him, as he is the main songwriter behind the soundtrack. David Wise, a guy who one day teaching some synthesizers two customers at a shop I worked for, would find the surprise that would change his life: his interlocutors were the Stamper brothers, who offered him a job in the Rare already preparing the assault on the consoles. Since then it should be considered one of the best video game music composers in Europe. He had already shown signs of it before 1994, with examples like the famous main theme of Wizards and Warriors, a track that seemed to bypass many of the limitations of the NES sound chip. Donkey Kong Country is one of his most celebrated works, if not more, in which the jump in quality was huge and there is also the sound from the very first elements that made this title so great and its aftermath. So important was the success that Wise has been claimed to return to the series in the recent Tropical Freeze, also with excellent results and some loving reinterpretations of his old compositions can only get excited if we already fijábamos in the musical aspect of video games in 1994 .


We have already discussed the visual impact that would Donkey Kong Country and pre-rendered graphics. Also the time this game was released, straddling generations. But like most things, the sound effect was also about to change radically to video games, with the CD format new consoles that allowed to use audio tracks recorded earlier bypassing hardware limitations of the sound system. If it was all stunning visuals, Donkey Kong Country was a title that also left us completely dumbfounded noise, and made from the very limited the old SNES SPC700 chip when compared to the sonic possibilities of Saturn, Playstation PC or CD drives that already had well before. To all this, Wise authentically replicate with great, atmospheric, very different compositions depending on the scenario, with very different personality compared to what was fashionable then in games optimizaban platforms and available resources to levels that now seem impressive . Just compare the sound of all the Donkey Kong Country series with most of the SNES catalog to verify that this aspect was taken into account at the highest level in Rare, with a soundtrack that would come to be edited separately, and in which includes a very popular topic among the fans of video game music. One that transported us to another perceptual world while watching a monkey dive for the ocean prerenderizado without ever drowning, while collecting bananas along the beautiful deep sea. It was not the only impressive composition, but the moment was magical throughout the whole time sort of new-age relaxation within the frantic platforming levels.

A huge campaign

If for Rare, Donkey Kong Country represented a leap in quality at all levels and the possibility of undertaking a project of unprecedented size until then (rarely before have so many fans had to settle for a video game company) Nintendo also represented much at the time. Competition consoles took to the streets with a difference, literally, a few days regarding the monkey game. In a very short period of time, the picture of the world of consoles began to change with the consecutive output PSX and Saturn, and we all know that Nintendo was still quite far to market its new console, which still has missing nearly two years to visit the stores in Japan. Needless to say, this had many implications.