As a kid, I loved just toying around on games, not having to beat a level in a certain time limit. Unfortunately, most of the games in my childhood valued completion under pressure rather than discovering every single nook and cranny within the game…

That is, almost every game I played except for one series: the Donkey Kong Country series. In this game series and this one alone (it seemed), the more you hunted around and tried new things, the more cool secrets you could discover–though some were harder to spot than others. Let me show you just a fun cross-section of the first game in this series…

The above video is the (hilarious) game intro and a playthrough of the first level, Jungle Hijinks. The main conflict in the game is that King K. Rool has stolen Donkey Kong’s beloved banana stash, and he and Diddy Kong have to fight to get it all back.

Each level ramps up just a little in difficulty and variety of challenges, but none of the levels are without secrets and fun stuff to discover along the way. This one is Ropey Rampage, the second level, which involves a lot of well-timed swings on ropes to get through the level, very unlike the level before it.

In this game, you have to use props more than power-ups to get around and complete levels–one of these props is the “cannon barrel”, which propels you more quickly across dangerous areas and can even get you into secret areas. (This particular example video comes from DKC for GBA, but it shows the barrel shooting accurately enough.)

The different scenery within the game provides new challenges with every section of the game map. For instance, the Underground levels have more bouncy tires (my favorite prop for jumping high or long distances), and the Underwater levels have waving kelp for walls, some of which you can swim through to get to secrets.

This game also had some of the finest background music of its day. Here’s an example of the Underwater level music…soothing, with just hints of how vast the water is. 🙂

This video, showing the secrets in the Oil Drum Alley map, is but an example of the hidden areas, items, and challenges sprinkled liberally throughout the game. Since the game isn’t timed, it’s well worth exploring around in each level and not trying to hurry through–you might just stumble across a HUGE advantage!

For instance, the hidden Ostrich-flying minigame…one of my favorite minigames in the whole series, just because you get to play as the Ostrich character and fly around collecting little golden ostriches to get extra lives.

Remember how I said some of DKC’s secrets are harder to get to than others? This video is a collection of how to find all the hardest hidden rooms in the game. (Now that I’ve seen this, I realize how much stuff I didn’t find on my last playthrough, many years ago! :O )

And, as with most video games of its day, DKC doesn’t fail to deliver difficult but rewarding boss battles. (This video covers all the boss battles in the game…I remember hating that purple squawking bird-thing with all the passion in my 9-year-old heart. xD)

There are also some funny scenes in the game besides the intro screen. For instance, if you lose a minigame and are playing Diddy as your primary character, he throws down his hat and stomps on it. (However, the player on this video got an interesting effect by having Diddy slide around just before the loss was triggered.) DKC has fun little human (or monkey) moments like this throughout the game.

One last secret: this video shows several warps to avoid certain levels in the game. And to think, I made it through every single level when I was a kid… 😛

To Play Donkey Kong Country

This game was released for the SNES in 1994, and was made available for various other systems through the years, including the Wii’s Virtual Console in 2006. There’s also a new game for the Wii called Donkey Kong Country Returns, which is a new story set in the same world as the original DKC.

Donkey Kong Country @ Wikipedia.com

Bonus: Though this is a ROM hack, it’s still worth watching–using a mine cart from later levels as a battering ram to get through the first level super-fast. I LOL’ed in real life watching this ownage. 😛