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Aussie Ben's DKC/DKC Comparison
In the Donkey Kong Country series for the SNES, you had to enter special codes to make the game more difficult and challenging, such as the removal of Star Barrels and DK Barrels. However, in DKC GBC, you have to EARN these privelages. Once you do so, you can access them both from the options menu in the main menu. You can have either Star or DK Barrels off, but not both at the same time.
Once you load your saved game after turning one set of Barrels off, you will begin back at Jungle Hijinx and will have to work your way through the five worlds again! Playing through with the Barrels off gives you the opportunity to earn more photos that you couldn't earn through playing the normal Adventure mode.
In Donkey Kong Land, you weren't able to perform DK's Hand Slap to unearth secret banana bunches and defeat certain enemies. Fortunately, it's made a welcome return in Donkey Kong Country GBC, and is even required to unearth certain hidden items. Oooeeeoo.
How do you do this? Well, that's up to you to figure out. Or you could always look in the manual.
Just a short thing, but undoubtedly something that will annoy you to no end. In DKC Snes, you could just jump into the Jumbo Barrel while Funky ranted and raved about how good the surf was or something. In the GBC version, however, you'll need to mash the A Button repeatedly to get through his pointless babbling until you get to a certain point, where he will THEN let you jump in. Hurrah.
Hmm, where to start about the many new and exciting things that Donkey Kong Country GBC holds? Oh! I know! I tried popping DKC GBC into my Super Gameboy, and then into my SNES to see if I'd get the same eye-popping graphics and sound that I did when I slotted in my DKC cartridge. What I got instead was this screen.
So you see! Even the SNES cannot handle the raw power that is the Donkey Kong Country GBC cartridge! ...erm.
In Donkey Kong Country GBC, Green Bananas are used to mark that there's a hidden picture nearby. Such as in this picture. You can uncover these hidden pictures by using DK's Hand Slap - in fact it's required - to unearth them. But don't forget, once they come out of the ground, you still need to COLLECT them, and they will then be placed in your Sticker Book to be printed and traded with friends (via the IR Link).
By the way - I found the secret picture in this screen, and I'll tell you now - it was damn hard to find. So there!
Ah, yes. The Map Screen. There's been quite a few changes to it since DKC SNES, and they've all been for the better, as it now looks less cluttered. The most major one is that the dots are gone, as you can see, to be replaced with flashing arrows that tell you which directions you can go - much like DKC2.
Other things to note are that when you find all the secrets in a level, the level name now turns red, rather than having an "!" at the end of the level name. Also, when you enter a sub-map through the Jumbo Barrel, there will be a selection to choose called "Return to Main Map" at the start. Very handy if you select the wrong area.
Not much to say about the mine levels other than they're one of the BEST LEVELS EVER! That and they've been converted to the GBC nearly flawlessly. Seriously, every item, enemy and mine cart seems to be correctly positioned. The only thing missing that I noticed was the background scrolling, but the level was still extremely well scaled nonetheless.
As you can see, there's been some heavy relocation going on since we last visited Donkey Kong Country. Cranky obviously thought that Candy's property was more valuable and kicked her out, and the temple seems to have crumbled or something, as it now seems to be a lot smaller. Perhaps the relocation wasn't the best idea, as now you have to see Cranky's sorry carcass when you finally get past Stop and Go Station!
What's this? A new level? Try and sneak a new level past the DK obsessed fans, will you Rare? Well, it didn't work! This new level, entitled "Necky Nutmare", is just that. Chock full of Neckys and mini-Neckys left, right and centre, this level is not one of the easier ones. There's Grey Krushas (which can only be destroyed with Barrels) and Armys a-plenty, too! And as you can see from the in-level screen, there's parts where you have to crawl quickly through before the mini-Necky fires off another nut at you, leaving you with no room to escape. Definitely a tricky level.
Torchlight Trouble, the level which made Squawks the Parrot famous, has made a return! Unfortunately, the novelty that made this level so great, the beam of light that Squawks held for you, has been omitted completely. This was one of the first levels I played when I was at E3, because I wanted to see how Rare would convert the dim level with a beam of light to guide you. Even then, Squawks lit up the entire screen rather than a small patch. It's a shame, because it was a really clever way to play a level, and it looks like Rare didn't even try to recreate the effect. This was probably the only level that's disappointed me out of the DKC GBC conversion. Ah well, I guess there are some things you can only do on a SNES.
Another well-done level is the sheer terror that has made it twice onto the Top Ten DKU Fearbringers, Stop and Go Station. Yes, this joy of a level is back to haunt you once more, bringing you fears of Rockrocks dashing at you with their red, soulless eyes. You'd better hope you're not playing this level when you're tucked up in bed... Anyway, this scaled-down version has also been accurately done, with Rockrocks still difficult to see when the lights are red, and all-too-easy to see when the lights are green. And even better, the whole level now has an eerie red or green glow, depending on the lights!
As you can see, now rather than riding your Animal Buddies, you transform into them like in Donkey Kong Country 2 or 3. The only problem with this is that you can't dismount or remount at will - once you turn into an Animal Buddy, you can press SELECT to turn back into the Kongs - but that's it. There's no way to get your Buddy back. The strangest thing about this is that I remember that you could ride your Animal Buddies in Donkey Kong Land, so I thought that it shouldn't have been a problem in Donkey Kong Country GBC. Perhaps it was more difficult to do on a colour system...
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