For: Donkey Kong Country (TV series)

Donkey Kong Country is a platform video game developed by Rare, featuring the character Donkey Kong. It was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in 1994 and was rereleased on Nintendo's Virtual Console service on 7 December 2006 in Australia, 8 December 2006 in Europe, 12 December 2006 in Japan and 19 February 2007 in North America. Following an intense marketing campaign, the original SNES version sold over 8 million copies. It was produced by Tim Stamper and was the first Donkey Kong game not to be produced or directed by Shigeru Miyamoto.

Gameplay

The object of Donkey Kong Country is to make it through 39 different side-scrolling levels and recover the Kongs' banana horde stolen by the Kremlings. Each level is uniquely themed and consists of varying tasks such as swimming, riding in mine carts, or launching out of barrel cannons, or swinging from vine to vine. Players lose a life if they get hit by any enemy or fall off the screen, and the game ends when they have lost all their lives. However, there are opportunities to gain additional lives, such as collecting bananas scattered throughout the levels, letters that spell out K–O–N–G, extra life balloons, and golden animal tokens that lead to bonus levels. There are also many secret passages that can lead to bonus games which can give players additional lives or other items.

In various levels, players can also get assistance from various animals, who are found by breaking open crates. Animals include Rambi the Rhino, Expresso the Ostrich, Enguarde the Swordfish, Winky the Frog and Squawks the Parrot. These animals can help players depending on the type of level they are on (e.g. Enguarde can only be found underwater, and Squawks can only be found in caves). Some of there animals can also give players access to bonus games. In addition, players can switch between Donkey and Diddy Kong, depending on availability and the situation. Donkey Kong is stronger and bigger and can defeat enemies more easily, while Diddy is faster and more agile and can take out multiple enemies with one cartwheel.

The controls in the game are similar to other platform games. Players can make Donkey or Diddy Kong jump or swim with one button; roll (or cartwheel) run, climb vines, pick up and throw barrels, or pound the ground with another button; or switch between players or characters with another button. The gameplay controls differ when Donkey or Diddy are riding on various animal. While riding on Rambi the Rhino or Expresso the Ostrich, players can hold run the running button to make them run very fast. Pressing the jump button while riding Expresso in mid-air will cause him to flap his wings, allowing players to float slowly back down. Pressing the running or jumping buttons while riding Engarde the Swordfish will cause him to lunge forward (which may defeat some enemies) and pick up additional speed.