There is not a lot to choose from in the way of new Donkey Kong hacks. So I was very happy to find this. And full stop, this is good, if you want more Donkey Kong Country, then play this because that’s exactly what it is, more Donkey Kong Country.

It does look rough in a few areas, I imagine the pre rendered background tilesets are kind of hard to work with. Luckily this only pops up a few times.

Now don’t expect too much new, this game is very familiar, the title screen is the same, the world map is the same, the enemies are the same albeit differently colored, the world themes are the same, the music is the same, they did switch up some of the music and attempt to make a new level theme in the last world and I wish there was a little more of that but what can you do? The bosses are also the same except for the two Beavers. They take more hits and get a lot faster.

That being said, what matters most is level layout, and while a lot of it feels familiar, they are not the same. Yes if you choose a level that was a cave on the original game, it’s gonna be a cave on the hack, or a water level, or a mine cart level, the only thing that isn’t represented is the fuel tank level, which, good riddance imo. They did try to get more creative in the very last world by creating the illusion of a new frozen cave with ice physics, music, and colors, I wish there was a bit more of that kind of thing.

There is one thing I’m very mixed on. This game gives you infinite lives, and when you die, you respawn instantly at the beginning or the last checkpoint, rather than being booted out of the level. That’s all well and good but if it’s a very tough level and you’re running out of time to play, you can’t exit the level to save your progress and quit the game… also, the fact that this game has infinite lives makes Bananas, the KONG letters, animal tokens, 1-up Balloons, and bonus levels all pointless. They’re very satisfying to grab and all that, I would rather the game have them than not, but you’re better off avoiding most of them since they can be risky to grab at times. They literally serve no purpose in this game unless you’re a completionist or something, and even then, the game does not tally your bananas. There are some later levels that are pretty tough but I don’t think this game warrants the infinite lives treatment. Maybe a good level with easy to farm life balloons but not infinite lives.

All this said, this is fantastic, it’s more Donkey Kong, and it’s well made enough that I could see myself playing through this again one day, but I do hope we get more full on level packs like this for DKC and the other two DKC games as well. It’s not fair that Mario gets all the fun.