People.
The 90s brought us many good things.
More specifically, I’m talking of course, about the SNES times.
God what an era.
The sidescrolling gameplay, the movie franchise partnerships, and how about that 8-bit music
amirite?
But of all my adventures from back in the SNES times, few compare to the epic that was
the Donkey Kong Country series.
Disregard everything that came afterwards, because yeah…
But these…
Theeeese were better times.
What was great about these games is that we didn’t just get 1, we didn’t just get
2, but we got 3 amazing games.
That’s right, for all you elitists out there, YES I DO think Dixie Kong’s Double Trouble
was a good time in it’s own right.
Sure nothing will ever come close to Diddy Kong’s Quest but we’re talking about games
that come from an era with way more limits development-wise compared to today’s standards,
that still prove to be unbeatable by some of the more recent games that have been released.
And for a couple of kids games, let’s be real- there were some seriously tense moments
in each game where shit hit the fan and got well, real for a second.
For those who weren’t there to remember, this will be informative.
For those who do, let this be a feelsy childhood throwback to better, simpler times.
Here are 20 unsettling moments in the Donkey Kong Country game series for the Super Nintendo.
In the forests of DKC3, it wasn’t the enormous tennis-ball shooting spider that had me reeling-
it was this level.
Where any sort of lollygagging, bad decision in navigation, or a careless slip with gravity
was met with instant, sawbladey death.
So throughout the game, you’re given the optional task of rounding up Banana Birds
for a super secret ending later on.
These creatures are just bananas and birds combined.
How cu-
I’m sorry, but if you’re a disembodied face just hanging out on a flat surface, we
don’t have anything to say to each other.
Upon closer inspection Squirt looks like he might be a snail or crustacean of some sort,
but damn, what an odd looking boss.
I remember having nightmares of this fucker haunting me while I slept.
Oh and sending adorable baby elephants plummeting to their deaths is NOT COOL.
This creepy music terrified me as a kid.
If there was any way to get me to rush through a level without checking any of the bonus
content, this was it.
I noped so hard at 1:38.
Seeing that exit sign and bolting out of these damn levels was always a good riddance.
As for "Stop & Go Station", did you ever crap your pants after seeing a green light?
So you’ve just gone through an entire level’s worth of enemies, collected all the KONG letters,
and even hit a bunch of one-up balloons along the way.
You’re headed towards the seeming exit when- OH SHIT WAT THE F*CK IS THAT?!
Oh hell no!
What the f*ck is this giant asshole and where has he been the entire time?
Where the hell are you bees getting your steroids from?
Get outta here with that shit.
While not necessarily unsettling, this one makes the list because of the all too real
moments of frustration I experienced while playing through any level with brambles.
You think you know a game and then SUDDENLY they take away the automatic direction filter,
change the barrel’s movement to a perpetual rotation, and basically say, here- YOU AIM.
I couldn’t tell you how many poor Kongs I sent to their death by shooting them directly
into a wall of massive thorns or a zinger.
The only thing that made these levels tolerable was that they had the best song in all 3 games.
Aaaaahhhh, let’s go there.
Every gamer hits a wall with a game now and again.
It’s usually a set of levels that are just so challenging that you get stuck LIVING in
that area and just for the sake of doing something else, end up playing all of the content up
to that point over and over again.
That was Fear Factory for 4 year old me.
Blackout Basement..
No light?
Are you f*cking me?
But damn if that ain’t a catchy soundtrack though.
Seriously F*CK THESE GUYS.
An evil skull and crossbones with glowing eyes and a saber sticking out the top of its
head?
Sure we can handle that.
Oh look, see that was no problem!
I DID NOT FACTOR IN THE SURPRISE ATTACK.
Sure they did that with King K. Rool in the first game, but he was the last boss there.
This early on?
THIS is what made DKC2 such a great successor to DKC1.
For a second boss, this shit was actually challenging!
And can we talk about the badass death scene?
“Thanks Donkey Kong… man I thought I was gonna starve in there… let’s look at our
awesome hoard of bananas…."
They say that fear of the unknown is the greatest fear of all.
While you can still somewhat see in this level, damn if it isn’t a bitch to get around without
cutting yourself on mossy no-doubt-disease-polluted CARL or run straight into an enemy NPC.
Krow, the first boss of DKC2, is sacrificing his own young in the fight, as he uses his
eggs to attack you; the same ammo must be used against him.
The later boss fight with Kreepy Krow implies the ghost birds are the souls of the ones
died as eggs in the first fight.
There’s nothing right about a stocky gentleman wearing a top hat who wants to hurt you.
I suppose if he’s a snowman that makes it a bit better, but man- what a creep.
The game over screens.
Okay so these levels admittedly were kind of cool.
Donkey Kong Country 2 featured the truly terrifying Haunted Hall level - a mine cart race.
There was just something so intriguingly creepy about a giant haunted library.
The fact that there was a roller coaster speed element took away from the creepiness factor
of this level and actually made it more enjoyable for me at a younger age.
However, the idea of having a constant death counter puts that all-too-familiar pressure
on.
This time, you're running FROM Kackle, the ghostly crocodile from Hell, who laughs when
he catches you.
Not to mention the panicking music and the TIME LIMIT!!
In the last segment, the plus and minus barrels are often nestled together, which makes it
very easy for the average player to miss time and hit minus barrels by mistake, cleaving
your time limit and allowing Kackle to edge... closer... and even closer to you.
Oh and if these guys weren’t scary, take a gander at the monster that was originally
supposed to chase you.
Meet Mr. X.
All that is known about him is that he was the one who should hunt you down at Haunted
Hall instead of Kackle.
Maybe he's not any more horrifying, considering he's not withered to a skeleton, but he's
right up there.
The Game Over screen in the second game is deliberately ambiguous, depending on your
interpretation of the fade-to-red: it either represents the young kongs being simply screwed,
or implies their "prison" is actually an oven.
KAOS of DKC3
I remember feeling slightly more creeped out whenever KAOS would come onto the screen.
For reasons still unknown, I hypothesize that this might have been an early introduction
to the concept of the uncanny valley hitting me at an early age.
In contrast to its predecessor, Diddy Kong’s titular debut took on a noticeably more dire
tone overall.
You ascend a giant tower perched atop a gator-shaped island brimming with bad guys who want to
kill you.
They’re all in cahoots to take you out and you’re ascending deeper into the lair, reaching
a toxic tower which has made the surrounding sky turn a sickly green.
The whole thing plays out like one giant f*cked up Alice in Wonderland Hunger Games hybrid.
Pretty much all of DKC2 was much darker and edgier than the original.
Within the game files of Donkey Country 2, there are quite a few sprites that were unused,
but left hidden.
Most notably, these two sprites of Diddy and Dixie, who seem to be mourning something.
Their purpose is unknown.
They’re just there…
What could they be mourning?
What is this ominous message alluding to?
We may never know.