Donkey Kong Country is the latest in what seems to be an endless wave of Super Nintendo ports for the GameBoy Advance. In case you haven’t played the original Donkey Kong Country, it is a platform game where you travel to different levels on a large area map, and then tackle a boss after all the other levels on the map have been cleared. You play the game as a team of two, whose goal is to get back all of DK’s stolen bananas from the evil reptiles. Donkey Kong-who is stronger, and Diddy Kong-who is a better jumper. You will put both of their skills to use on you way to reclaiming the banana horde that is rightfully yours. This version has aspects that are both better and worse than the SNES game. Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way first, shall we?

The graphics are definitely worse than its big brother. Everything is a little grainier than on the original. If you want to play this game on your TV, skip using the GameBoy Player altogether and hook up your SNES because it looks absolutely terrible on the big screen. The colors are way too bright, they are washed out, and everything is kind of blurry. Next up is the music. Some tracks are closer to the originals than others, but there is a negative difference nonetheless.

Thankfully the list of negatives is rather short. The list of positives is longer! Woohoo! The sound effects seem to have remained intact, plus there are some new added sound effects, which include a little speech. The addition of speech to GBA ports seems to be a common practice doesn’t it? Anyway listening to the primates howl as they plummet to their deaths off the bottom of the screen, and freak out when you step too close to an edge is pretty funny. The area map has been given new backgrounds, which help give the game a fresh look. There are also some new bonus games. I particularly enjoyed the fishing one. I have probably spent as much time in the fishing game as I have in the main game. What can I say; I am a sucker for mini games! The new mini games can be accessed directly from the title screen (very nice) or by stepping into a hut in the main game when you want a break from the action. You can also now save whenever you like on the map. This is a nice feature that I remember wishing the SNES game had. There is even a new DK attack mode where you have a time limit to complete the levels.

The things that remain unchanged between the two versions are all good. The control is still spot on. Landing precise jumps is no problem. The difficulty of the game starts out easy, and slowly works you up to the harder levels as you progress. It’s still very easy to accumulate plenty of extra lives, which you will need in some of the more difficult levels. The hard levels are hard, no questions about that. They aren’t pull-your-hair-out, throw-your-GameBoy-across-the-room hard though. The tough levels simply require some old fashioned level memorization to survive.

As far as lasting appeal is concerned, DKC has lots of secrets to discover in every level, and scrapbook pictures to find. The DK attack mode is also fun to play through, and that nearly doubles the length of the game.

In the end this is an overall good port. The graphics and music might not be on par with the SNES game, but they don’t look or sound terrible on the GBA. If you liked the original Donkey Kong Country, then this one is worth trying for its new features and portability. If you didn’t play the original, then you definitely should give this one a try. It might even be more fun for you since it will be all new!