Back when the original Donkey Kong Country trilogy was being released for the SNES, there were a series of side games (the Donkey Kong Land trilogy) which were released as handheld counterparts. The Land games took the same general premise as their Country brothers and sisters, but changed things up and did them slightly differently.

What’s sad about this game especially is that a lot of people think it is literally just a watered down port of Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest. But that’s plain wrong. Every single level in this game is unique, and if you played the SNES game, you are likely to enjoy this too. It’s some solid 2D platforming fun, with levels that look lovely even in monochromatic 8-bit.

What is disappointing about this game is that, while Donkey Kong Country 2 has one of the most beautiful soundtracks in gaming history, Donkey Kong Land 2‘s is a little underwhelming. Being toned down to 8-bit sound does reduce some of the quality, but even like this, it still sounds very nice. The real problem comes from the fact that the number of songs is greatly reduced and certain songs get repeated a lot, which is a real shame.

I also think this game is, perhaps, a little too easy. I didn’t really get stuck on any of the levels, and when combing through them to find all the secrets after beating the final boss, I didn’t really have any trouble either. This reduced level of difficulty also means that you will probably get through the game pretty quickly.

Nonetheless, I don’t want to give a negative impression! Donkey Kong Land 2 is very good because it is similar to Donkey Kong Country 2 which is one of my favourite games. The gameplay is fun and it’s another adventure for Diddy and Dixie Kong. It falls short in one or two areas, but is generally great fun.

Rating: 9.3/10

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The Mysterious Murasame Castle is one of the early Nintendo games from the 1980s. Interestingly though, unlike virtually every other game they made at that time, this game was pretty much completely forgotten for the next twenty years. In fact, other than a few recent cameos and references, it’s still very obscure.

So, I guess you’re thinking “Since it was mostly forgotten about, it must be pretty bad” right? Well, if so, you’d be wrong. It may not be best game of that era (or, indeed, any era) but it’s still nice and fun and an interesting slice of Nintendo history.

What’s the story line? Take a guess. You play as Takamaru who must travel to four castles in order to defeat evils villains and rescue princesses. Nothing exciting, but then again it was the standard of the time. Also it does have a historical setting (17th century Japan) rather than just using a fantasy world, which is quite nice.

The game plays in the pseudo 3D top-down style that a lot of RPGs use and each level goes something like this; first you have to explore fields and forests in order to find a castle (the end of the level being signified by a group of tanuki) and then you have to make your way through a castle in order to find a boss and kill it. This is how it works for each of the four castles. It sounds nice and straight forward, but there are so many enemies!

Ninjas jump out from all angles and throw shurikens, bombs and fire balls all over the place and you have to be really skilled in order to maneuver your way around them because if you get hit three times, you’re dead. You, meanwhile, have a sword and some shurikens of your own (though you can upgrade weapons); the sword is very powerful and will kill pretty much anything in one hit, but you can only use it short range, and the shurikens are weaker, but much more useful.

The downside, beside the high level of difficulty, is that the game’s environments can sometimes seem a bit bland and there’s also not much variation with the soundtrack either (it’s essentially the same song all the time). The final level, however, is a refreshing change and quite spooky and sinister (the final boss is great too), but around the time of the penultimate stage, things may seem a bit boring.

So, this is a game which I think Nintendo fans (or fans of retro gaming in general) might enjoy but it’s appeal might not stretch to more casual players. I don’t mean to sound too negative; I’m certainly pleased I played it and the game is not without its charms, but it does feel a little dated.

Rating: 6/10

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With Donkey Kong Country a huge success on the SNES, there was, of course, a demand for a handheld counterpart on the Game Boy. With Rare being a top notch developer, they didn’t just want to make an inferior port of the game to fit the Game Boy’s limitations, so instead they made Donkey Kong Land, a completely unique game.

Quite nicely, the game’s storyline reflects that it was made to tie-in with the first game; Donkey Kong and Diddy are relaxing after saving the day in Donkey Kong Country when Cranky starts complaining that their last game was only popular because it had good graphics and there’s no way they’d be able to do it again on the inferior Game Boy system. Eventually, they give in to his criticisms and Cranky calls up K. Rool and arranges for him to steal the Kongs’ banana hoard once again.

But while it is technically the same thing again, each of the game’s worlds are entirely unique and, while certain level archetypes (like jungles and caves) are reused, you also get some brand new things as well. There’s a place called Big Ape City where you have levels where you’re running around in a very realistic looking city and I absolutely loved that. You also have some levels on board pirate ships, which are pretty fun and, if you know about the rest of the series, are a nice precursor to Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest. There are also completely new enemies (even bosses) throughout the game, including Hogwash, a flying pig which I’m quite fond of.

Though, while this is a fun game, there are certain draw backs which are not present in its SNES counterpart. Obviously, graphics and music have been cut down significantly in order to work for the Game Boy, but I don’t mind that (graphics aren’t everything). It’s other design flaws that I find problematic; firstly, the jumping doesn’t feel quite right. When you jump, it feels quite stiff and that takes some getting used to. There are also some Chimpanzee Clouds levels which are unique to this game; in them you’re in a surreal cloud world and, while there aren’t very many of them, they aren’t very good at all. There’s a lot of riding on really slow platforms and unfair deaths which you don’t think would have happened if the jumping was better.

So, on the whole, I think it’s a nice little game and, if you like Donkey Kong Country I’m pretty sure you’ll like this too. If you’ve not really played many Donkey Kong games, however, there are better choices for your first try!

Rating: 8.2/10