"Whoops! We forgot to add gameplay" (Donkey Kong Country (N64))

Member Name: Murf!

Product:	Donkey Kong Country (N64)
Date:	27/07/01 (170 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Pretty, better than water torture, great soundtrack

Disadvantages: No gameplay, tedious bonus levels, no replay appeal

[This review was not stolen from http://members.madasafish.com/~kefka/ as the above site is mine.]

This is, in my humble opinion, one of the most over-rated games in history. It sold 8 million at the time, as there was a huge amount of hype, and every mag gave it a score above 90%. Why? Because it looks good. Damn good. The world's press's collective jaw dropped at the graphics and animation, and scribbled together a review ranting about rubbish like it going past the capabilities of SNES, and using the revolutionary method of 'ACM' blah blah blah...

ACM is made up jargon. It stands for 'Advanced Computer Modeling' and the technique it refers to, whereby you make 3D models of the characters and backgrounds, then convert a picture of the model in all the different frames of animation into a format readable by SNES was hardly revolutionary, as a similar technique was used in the likes of Flashback. Strangely it was this technique that Rare and Nintendo collectively hyped, when they had managed to come up with something that no-one else had done: an incredibly efficient graphics compression routine that allowed them to have enough memory for the graphics in in the first place.

And it wasn't 'going beyond the limits of SNES', either: it's just an under-rated machine, with developers without the skill, cash or time to bother with graphics like these.

Time has a sobering effect on people, though. If you want brilliant graphics nowadays, you're not likely to play a SNES cart. So now people can see what the game is like without its gimmick. And what is it like? Yet another platformer, that has no originality whatsoever, gets tedious after you complete it, and has the worst bonus games I have seen in any game ever.

There's no variety, for a start. The graphics change, sure, but ultimately, you go from left to right, jump a few times, then do the same again on the next level. And
yes, there are a few levels that differ from this routine: the runaway minecart and underwater levels. How very original. *Cough*. And also, I'd like a little bit more explosions and special effects, really.

The ad used in the UK said that there are 111 levels. This has to be one of the biggest skanks in ages: there are about 40 genuine levels, and the rest of these are bonus games. What type of bonus game? Are they sub-games like the Blockbreaker, hit-the-moles-on-the-heads-as-they-pop-out and Gradius sub-games within Goemon? Ooohh no, they are frickin' well are not. They are the intelligence-insulting variant where you must line up 3 of the same icon and such a like. These are crap at first, but after playing through the game, you could've played a brain-melting 70-odd...

And not only are the bonuses of questionable quality, if you want a perfect 101% score for having found all the 'levels', you will NEED a player's guide. Some level's bonus games are hidden at the bottom of pits, so the only way of finding everything without a guide is to fall off every cliff at every angle, in the entire game. Thank God there aren't 111 levels actually... I'm not sure I could take it!

I like the soundtrack, though.

Summary: