Donkey Kong Land (Game Boy) Playthrough - NintendoComplete

A playthrough of Nintendo's 1995 platformer for the Nintendo Game Boy, Donkey Kong Land.

Donkey Kong Land was, like many Game Boy games released in the mid 90s, something of an "adaptation" of a game released on more powerful hardware. In this case it was Rare's system-selling Donkey Kong Country for the SNES released the previous year. Unlike what we typically saw in attempts to smash cutting-edge, 16-bit console experiences onto an 8-bit monochromatic handheld, it's clear that Rare was determined to make as few compromises as possible.

Though the game reviewed well, many people at the time questioned just how much of the spirit of Donkey Kong Country could actually be retained in the move to a machine that could only display four shades of green simultaneously.

I think it is safe to say that Rare came a whole lot closer than most people expected. All things considered, it was a smashing success. People loved it. Somehow, the development team managed to imbue it with a lot of the magic that made the original so special.

The gameplay is a fair facsimile of the original Donkey Kong Country's. Some of levels are reproductions of their 16-bit equivalents, some of them are brand new levels based on the same themes and design ideas, and some were entirely original creations built specifically for Donkey Kong Land. There's enough new content here to make DKL feel like its own game rather than a rehashed sequel or a DKC "port." I tend to think of it as a spin-off that remixes several elements.

The controls feel just like the SNES game's ones, too. Donkey and Diddy still bounce between, or roll through, enemies as easily and as fluidly as before, and even a couple of the animal helper friends made the transition! The small screen and the low resolution do, however, make for a lot of blind leaps, and until you know the stages fairly well, you will die often. Thankfully the game isn't stingy with extra lives, so it generally manages to stay fun and challenging without being too frustrating. You probably will rage a few times at those unfair "oops" moments, though.

At the heart of this issue, though, lies an impossible conundrum: how does a game's most impressive, notable achievement also manage to be its greatest failing?

The graphics are a razor-sharp, double-edged sword. On a technical level they are an absolute marvel. Rare did them with the same SGI workstations that they produced Donkey Kong Country and Killer Instinct on, and the attention to detail is absolutely impeccable. Everything is still completely recognizable, and the smoothness of the animation is a miracle considering that it was shoehorned into a banana-yellow, 4 megabit cart. That's an eighth of the size of DKC!

Unfortunately, the graphics are also the game's worst problem. The lack of color makes it extraordinarily difficult to differentiate between the sprites and the background layer. Exacerbating this issue is the sheer amount of detail in the graphics: the game clearly demands more of the Game Boy's LCD panel than its poor response time could ever hope to handle. All too often, any sizable screen movement creates a smeary mess that obscures *everything* you need to see. Granted, it was compatible with the Super Game Boy and the SGB was clearly the optimal way to play it, but I'd wager that the great majority of people played DKL on an OG Game Boy back in 1995.

That's why I recorded the video using the DMG shader in Retroarch. The shader mimics the "dot-matrix" look extraordinarily well. Just to make sure that I was representing it accurately, I pulled out a real Game Boy and a copy of DKL to compare, and this really is how it looked. It's amazing what you can adapt to when you don't know any better, isn't it?

The music, on the other hand, is fantastic. Most of tracks are chiptune "demakes" of the original SNES tracks, and they sound superb in their PSG-driven glory - even if the title/ending theme sounds suspicioisly close to a tune out of Rare's Game Boy Beetlejuice game. I'm not complaining - David Wise is the man - but for a production of this size, it seemed like an odd corner to cut.

I could say the same for that "ending."

Overall, it'd be easy to rant and rave about its faults, but I love it, warts and all. Deeply flawed through it may have been, Donkey Kong Land was a killer experience on the Game Boy. And though DKL, like the hardware it was designed for, has aged terribly, try to imagine it from the perspective of a kid in 1995. Maybe you'll still be able to catch a glimpse of the magic at work here.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

[DerTypausBielefeld]

The game is so amazing. The graphics, the sound, the design, the levels. Just awesome. One of the real memorable games for the game boy.

[amso]

This game looks really cool. It’s impressive. Looks 16-bit.

[MrSnake-dhhu]

I have a yellow copy of this game that's very dear to me because it belonged to my late mother.

[spoonshiro]

I never played the Donkey Kong Land games, but watching this, it's pretty impressive what they managed to do with the Game Boy hardware!

[stephenmanuel]

It took me long to 100% this game because many of the bonus barrels were hidden off-screen and required dumb luck to find and hit due to the tiny viewing area. Wonderful job on it all the same - Rare always knew how to push Nintendo hardware to its limits.

[kellyvacher]

Huge thanks for uploading this! It’s crazy how a game or simply just the opening song takes you back to childhood memories and simpler times!

[NintendoComplete]

Donkey Kong Land was always as ugly as it was impressive, but against all odds, Rare somehow managed to recreate the magic and the fun of Donkey Kong Country on a Game Boy cart.

...as long as you had a fresh set of AA batteries and a good light source, that is!

[infinitered]

I remember getting a gameboy pocket and this for my 7th birthday. My mind fully was blown by the graphics!

[jordanowens]

This game was my childhood. Thank you for the blast from the past!

[DingoDutch]

That jazzy song in the first level is one of those songs that once a year creeps into my mind and then spend time trying to find it. Beautiful!

[juanjo]

They really did a good job with this game! And so you did too! 👍🏽

[boynextdoorman]

This game has badass boss music. In fact, I like it slightly more than the SNES counterpart!

[matthewtopping]

This game has one of the best chiptune osts of all time.

[MarkCabaniss]

I remember seeing ExoParadigmGamer’s review of the entire _Donkey Kong Land_ trilogy. He... didn’t have too many kind things to say about the first game (this one). He liked the graphics, yes, but he disliked the game for the screen crunch and the unfair moments.

Your thoughts serve as a good contrast to Exo’s criticisms. While you echo his sentiment regarding the unfair moments, you also argue that the game is still well made. That’s the beauty of opinions; everyone has reasons to like or dislike something, and as long as they get their points across well while giving their opinions, they can’t be wrong. Like Exo said in his _Sonic Adventure 2_ review, we all like or dislike certain things for reasons that make sense to us.

On the offchance that the Game Boy Classic Edition comes into being, I would want all three _Donkey Kong Land_ games to be included. That way, those who feel that only including _3_ (considered by many to be the best of the _DKL_ trilogy) would feel off can have _1_ and _2_ to play as well, and those who dislike _1_ can have _2_ and _3_ to play as well. Everyone wins.

[therealseanw.stewart]

Lemme tell ya, for a Game Boy game, this is kind of amazing! Really impressive how Rare once again proved themselves as programming and artistic supergeniuses when designing this. Mind you, I wouldn't call this Donkey Kong Country by any stretch, but you know, for its time, it was as close to a portable version of the SNES megahit as you could get! Imagine!

[pavs]

Love this format man, the audio, the screen, just wow! Maybe another consoles like GBA in this format will be nice ;3

[larrylaffer]

Considering the restrictions of the Gameboy they did a bang up job on this game. Also this is technically the sequel to the 1st DKC. Aparently after the end of the 1st DKC Cranky Kong had a bet with King K Rool that DK and Diddy couldn't re-rescue the Bananna Hord if they did on a console with inferior graphics as Cranky thought that was the only reason that DK and Diddy won the 1st DKC is that the 16 bit graphics aided them. Just look at the instructions booklet if you have it.

[flyinyoku]

This game has better graphics than most NES games! And some on SNES as well, lol.

[MarioSSJ]

Wow es que es impresionante, como metieron tremendo juego con tremendos gráficos en una Gameboy con un procesador de 8 bits, si el juego parece de 16 bits!!! Wow ❤

[chris_topher]

i was born in the 80s and i had all these games, and looking back, some of these games were really ahead of their time. even today, a lot of indie games and new side scrollers don't compare to the fun and excitement from the 80s and 90s games. music is great, reminds me of battletoads and ducktales and all sorts of other old games. i might have to go on an emulator binge and play some gameboy now.