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ALLITERATIVE ASCENT

 

Donkey Kong Land 2 - https://youtu.be/G67Pg6QQyIo

 

Sorry, I'm not as good at alliteration as the localization team. That title is as far as I go.

 

My experience with this game was much improved when I realized I could use Funky's Flights to return to Pirate Panic for more lives (and tokens for transit) rather than relying on finding enough tokens to save at Kong Kollege periodically. Five lives and three tokens per play of an easy level? Thank you! As for the progress levels, 19 lives seems to be more than enough, especially since you're usually getting more as you play each one. (There is space for 18 hearts at the bottom of the screen and you can play with 0.) Although some of those levels really put that to the test. (I'm looking at you, Slime Climb and Toxic Tower.)

 

More or less, I feel like this game is much the same as the "original" Donkey Kong Country 2. The mechanics are less complex per level, probably due to hardware limitations, and gee, wouldn't it have been nice if they told you that the Select button does the animals' special abilities? But it's still fun. The spider section of Toxic Tower was one area where I think it would have been interesting to have a controller camera, since jumping up that requires hitting A-B-Select-A-Right/Left in order, rapidly and many times over. Juggling that on a Pro controller is not easy by any means, as the joystick gets in the way of pressing Minus (Select) so I had to move my whole hand for that. By contrast, Bramble Blast was simply stressful because the timing of hitting A is so precise. But A is pretty much the only button you need for the whole level.

 

Hidden mechanics seem to be where I'm losing the most lives.

1. If you hold A while bouncing off enemies, you bounce slightly higher. This is required in order to beat Redhot Ride.
2. If you hold left/right while on a kart, you move imperceptibly slower/faster. (You can't see it but it does make that pixel or two of difference on jumps.) This is important in all the kart levels, but especially important in Rickety Race.

 

The fact that these items are required to use but not visible to the player (no special animation and barely changes trajectory) is the main issue I have with them. If the Kongs leaned forward/backward on the cart based on your direction pressed, then hey, we're all good! That gives player feedback that their button inputs are doing something, even if they can't really see the outcome. Similarly, I know that the Retro Studios games have a special animation for the higher bounce, and it's a much higher bounce: you won't mistake one for the other. Just some minor improvements and I think some of the more frustrating levels would be less so.

 

For the record, I struggle with Slime Climb and Toxic Tower because the player is required to go fast on those. You might notice that don't really press B (run) in many other levels in the game, even Pirate Panic. Going fast feels nice, but with the camera this zoomed in, I'll take my time, thank you very much.