Donkey Kong Country really was the 800lb gorilla of 90s gaming.
It burst onto the scene, made a bunch of noise, and punched you in the face with its eye-popping
3D graphics.
It was impossible to walk past a store kiosk without being enraptured by its spectacle...and
the crazy part it it was running on a 16-bit machine that was nearing the end of its life.
How could a game running on dated consumer-level hardware look this good?!
It single-handedly brought Donkey Kong back from the brink of irrelevance and cemented
a new legacy that has now endured for 25 years.
But DKC wasn’t the first game sold on its spectacle, but it is one of the few to be
remembered.
So what exactly about the game ensured it would persist in our collective memory after
all this time?
At the end of the day, it was still just another pretty platformer right?
Well, I think it goes quite a bit deeper: It was the immersion.
Donkey Kong Country illicit emotions and provided sensations that few of its peers did.
And just as it takes a few bananas to make a bunch, so too are there multiple reasons
for how Donkey Kong Country took immersion to the next level.
The Look
From the moment DK bursts out of his treehouse, it’s clear this isn’t your daddy’s Donkey
Kong--as the game’s opening cinematic so graciously illustrates.
Donkey Kong Country looked like no game before.
Using state-of-the-art SGI workstations, Rare was able to create hyper-realistic 3D models
which were then ported and downscaled to the Super NES, presented as animated sprites.
And the end result was nothing short of incredible.
The technology brought the worlds and characters to life in a way never seen before in a video
game.
Trees beamed in the sun, foliage cast shadows onto the ground below, and the characters
moved with a sense of fluidity rarely before seen.
It looked real--or at least more real than any other game had up to that point.
Consider this: In the Super Mario series, the levels look impossibly flat, with the
entire world portrayed in a profile view, as if bounding between a series of cardboard
cutouts taken from a middle school stage play.
In Donkey Kong Country, everything has depth and dimension.
You can even see the physical path that DK travels along, putting him within the world
rather than on top of it.
It’s as if the camera had finally broken free of its 2D shackles, giving a glimpse
into a dimension that was still years away from being fully realized, let alone anywhere
near this level of graphic fidelity.
Donkey Kong Country offered the illusion of a 3D world within a 2D playspace.
It was almost as if your Super Nintendo were running a Pixar movie in real-time...the year
before Toy Story came out.
Yeah, it was the video game version of Toy Story before Toy Story.
Incredible.
And like Toy Story, the exquisite animation breaths life into the 3D models.
And having been keyframed on a computer, the characters animate with a level of fluidity
seldomly seen at that point in time, whether it’s walking, jumping, riding a steel keg,
nearly falling--or any number of things, it all looked incredibly smooth.
Just compare Mario’s walking animation, which had 3 frames, to Donkey Kong’s, which
has 20.
Heck, that nearly outnumbers every frame Super Mario across his entire repertoire in Super
Mario World, excluding power-ups.
Absurd.
Every creature, whether a kong, kremling, or animal buddies, is moving around constantly--even
when standing completely still.
Who’s a good boy Rambi?!
That's right, you’re a good boy.
The characters felt alive, as if they were living, breathing, creatures that existed
within this world.
They even feature pre-baked lighting effects, meaning they cast realistic shadows onto themselves,
which is something that wouldn’t be common place until years later.
It’s impressive stuff.
Now there is one thing Donkey Kong Country lacks compared to most games...let me give
you a hint: it involves the HUD--as in, there isn’t one!
There’s no life counter, no point tally, and no health indicator.
In short, there are no distractions.
You have an unobstructed view into a world that feels all the more tangible because of
it.
The developers accomplished this by popping up on-screen indicators only when needed,
and making Donkey Kong and Diddy themselves the health indicator as they can only take
a hit each.
And the end result is subtle, but powerful, making the TV screen more of a window into
a gorgeous world.
The Detail
While the state-of-the-art rendering technology brought a realism never before seen, it’s
backed up a nearly unprecedented amount of detail, both big and small in scale.
From the very moment you pop into the jungle, you feel its immensity.
Palm trees tower overhead, with the jungle stretching behind them, seemingly for miles.
Made up of 6 independent background layers, it gives the illusion that this is a massive
jungle and you’re right in the middle of it.
A similar technique is used underwater, only this time with the ocean floor smoothly changing
perspective as you swim, giving depth to a backdrop that seemingly never ends.
And underground, columns come between you and the playfield, making it feel as if you’re
wading through the murky depths alongside Donkey and Diddy.
The multiple background and foreground layers add as much to the atmosphere as they do the
depth, such as the thick misty that obscures the action in the mines.
But there is no better example of this than the snowstorm in Snow Barrel Blast . What
starts off as a few distant snowflakes slowly morphs into a full-on Blizzard.
It’s oppressive and suffocating, heightening the tension--and the relief as you finally
make your way out the other side.
A similar sense of oppression is created by the roaring thunderstorm and monsoon in the
game’s second level.
And in a neat touch, the Lightning not only lights up the night sky, but also the entire
world.
It’s a brilliant detail that makes it feel dynamic.
And it’s not the only one, Whether it’s the flickering torches that light up temple
alcoves, or the swinging cavern lights illuminating the nearby area, it really helps sell the
idea that these are real places.
And then there are the dynamic elements that suggest the passage of time, like how the
sun sets over the course of the first world, which then leads into the thunderstorm of
level 2, before clearing up as the morning sun rises toward the end.
Every inch of this game is dropping with detail and atmosphere--sometimes literally.
The Sound Do you hear that?
That’s life, my friend.
The sound of the world at work.
The ambiance in Donkey Kong Country was unmatched for its time, and it’s the audio that helps
bring the visuals to life.
From the moment DK blasts into the world, he’s greeted not by a bombastic score, but
by the sounds of wildlife, as a drum beat slowly grows louder, before finally transitioning
into the track we all know and love.
Part of what made the soundtrack so brilliant was how the composers wove environmental sound
effects into the tracks themselves.
Whether it’s the chirping birds of Jungle Hijinx, or dripping water in a damp cave,
or the creaking of floorboards in the mines, it added real texture to a virtual world.
And even beyond the sound effects, the very nature of the tracks themselves fit each environment
perfectly.
Consider how the underground tracks feature feature a high amount of reverb, as if it
were echoing through the hollows of a deep cavern.
But the other part is that the compositions themselves are of insanely high quality, brought
to life through sampled instruments that, like the pre-rendered visuals, lends an audible
texture to the world.
Aquatic ambiance, true to its name, sets the stage for a calm, yet unsettling underwater
environment.
The Northern Hemispheres perfectly conveys the sense of isolation of being lost high
up in a mountain, seemingly timed to grow more and more intense alongside the snowfall.
It
The feel.
Donkey Kong didn’t just look like an ape.
He didn’t just sound like an ape.
He felt like an ape--or how I’d imagine an ape to feel anyway.
DK was big and heavy, yet still nimble and fun.
Diddy, by comparison, feels light and spry, but is deflected by enemies that Donkey easily
powers through.
Even the animal buddies convey a feel that you’d expect..
Rambi feels powerful, but also massive and is slow to build speed, whereas Enguarde tears
through water like a hot sword through butter--that’s the saying right?
Even the physical structure of the world’s contributes to the feel.
Consider how the physical path isn’t flat like many games--it’s rough, changing elevation
constantly, like you’d expect from a trail in the jungle--or when spelunking.
Or take the mine cart tracks, and how the mine cart itself interacts with it, landing
with a metallic thunk as sparks go flying.
What I’m getting at is that Donkey Kong’s world--or country, I should say--has heft
to it, as if everything has a real physical presence, befitting its 3D appearance.
Barrel burst apart upon impact--heck, even enemies don’t disappear in a puff of smoke,
but instead either fall off the screen, or collapse in place in the case of bosses.
And speaking of bosses..
The Story Okay, so hear me out--yeah, Donkey Kong Country
may not exactly have the most complex story.
Dude had his bananas stolen and now he wants them back.
But even the way the game tells this simple story is excellently executed, because while
the instruction manual lays it all out in detail--it’s completely unnecessary to read
as the game explains it all within the first few seconds.
Let’s break it down.
Donkey Kong blasts out of his house, showing his sense of urgency.
He lands directly next to his banana horde, which if you choose to venture inside, reveals
it’s been cleaned out!
We now instantly understand part of DK’s panic--he wants his bananas back--and it’s
for this reason that every banana you collect along the way feels like a step toward that
goal, contextualizing collectibles in a way that few platformers do.
Just outside, DK will soon hear the cries of his missing buddy emitting from a shaking
barrel--presumably at the hands of the enemy.
After breaking him free, it’s time to get the adventure properly underway.
Each world’s boss is standing guard over a giant pile of bananas, presumably until
the main villain, King K. Rool, can return to collect them.
And speaking of which, one of the cooler, more subtle touches is how you can actually
see his ship slowly approaching on the map, nearing closer and closer, as you progress
deeper into the adventure.
It brings the World Map into the story, which is already operating at a level of unprecedented
detail, with each level being physically represented on the map at its physical location.
The Immersion All of this, the 3D visuals, the detail, the
sound, the feel, and even the story, come together to form one of the most immersive
experiences gaming had seen yet . This remarkable presentation is what allows the otherwise
bog standard gameplay to shine, creating an experience that was unlike anything else.
And it was all pulled off on a tiny 16 bit box nearing the end of its life.
It was an amazing experience that came at just the right time, and is exactly why Donkey
Kong Country is still fondly remembered to this day, 25 years later.
Hey, thanks for watching.
If you enjoyed this video, make sure to check out our other Donkey Kong Country 25th anniversary
coverage, including interviews with the original development staff--it’s really good stuff.
You’ll find links to them in the description below.
And with that, thanks for watching and make sure to SUBSCRIBE to GameXplain for more on
the Donkey Kong Country series and everything else Nintendo too.