Donkey Kong Country GBC Rare Retrospective

The original Donkey Kong Country will always be a landmark game in Rare’s career, and as it’s been a good six years since its release, we felt that the time (and the technology) was now upon us to make this classic available to those who missed out on it the first time around for whatever reason, and to those who were still left wanting more after the three Donkey Kong Land outings. Who knows, there may even be members of the original SNES fan base who’d jump at the chance to relive their memories on the move…

Yes, this is the full original SNES version, crowbarred forcibly into your favourite handheld without any scaling down of levels or gameplay. As befits the first Game Boy Color entry in the DKC canon, it runs on an all-new game engine created especially for the task, and features every last character, environment and animal sidekick from the original game – in fact there’s even a Lost Level waiting to be discovered! The complete package is rounded out with a few modern additions, namely compatibility with the Link Cable, Game Boy Printer and infra-red link: the Printer offers access to custom Kong Letters, a Banner Maker and the Sticker Album (which in turn can make use of the infra-red link to trade collected stickers between players), while the Link Cable allows you to take on a friend in Crosshair Cranky or Funky Fishing, two brand new multiplayer subgames that we’ve conjured up just for the occasion.

As it’s more than just a straight conversion, we’re hoping that the international November 2000 launch of Donkey Kong Country for Game Boy Color kicked off a new fan movement to join the ‘Country veterans in reliving the Kong clan’s very first encounter with K. Rool and his Kremling army. It’s history in the remaking! Clever, that.