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You jump into them, and they either fire you out or you press a button to make them fire you out. We’re back in the jungle for this one, and the DK series’ trademark cannon-barrels make an appearance. Thus DKC4 continues, reusing the same few level backdrops as the setting for the Kongs’ platforming antics. The other day I was humming one of the themes from Earth Defence Force and my friend thought I was humming “These Are a Few of My Favourite Things,” which just goes to show you what kind of an ear for a tune I have. Check it out, although I’m fully prepared to admit I might just be hearing things. In DKC4, though, it’s missing a bunch of notes and doesn’t sound right at all, as though Hummer Team got halfway through converting it to the NES and suddenly thought “you know what? That’ll do.” Tangentially related: Aquatic Ambience has always reminded me of the intro to “Wow” by Kate Bush. You can tell what each track is supposed to be, although the quality of their translation from SNES to NES varies quite a lot, from “reasonably good” to “pretty terrible.” The underwater sadly falls on the “terrible” end of the spectrum, which is a shame because “Aquatic Ambience” (the underwater track from the original game) is widely regarded as one of the best on the soundtrack and one of the best tracks on the SNES as a whole. I don’t think I’ve ever done the underwater levels in the original game without riding that swordfish, and I’m sorely missing the ability to ram sharks out of the way using its pointed nose.Ī quick aside about the soundtrack: DKC4 does use the music from the original game… sort of. In fact, all of the ridable animal companions from the original game have been removed, presumably due to space constraints, but it’s the swordfish that I’m missing the most. The real problem with the water stages is that there’s no swordfish to ride. The swimming stages are still probably the weakest part of the game, but they’re not so hateful they’ll make you want to move to the Gobi desert so you’ll never have to see water again or anything like that. The Kongs feel a bit too buoyant, perhaps, but other than that it’s manageable.
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I was wary about the underwater levels, because they’re rarely fun in any videogame and doubly so in unlicensed pirate rip-offs, but I’m happy to report that DKC4 does a decent job of recreating the original game’s swimming controls. It’s a decent compromise, although the problem then is that the game doesn’t tell you if you have a spare Kong, which can affect your decision making when weighing up how carefully to approach certain sections of the game.Īh, that’s better, a well-lit swimming stage is next. Instead of being able to freely switch Kongs, what happens is that you change to the other Kong if you get hit, assuming you’ve placed a Kong in reserve by opening a DK barrel. They both move at the same speed and Donkey Kong’s floor-slapping special move has been excised, so their sprites are the only difference. That doesn’t matter so much, because in DKC4, both Kongs are essentially identical.
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I suppose the US equivalent would be Lil’ Kong.Īnyway, unlike in the original game you can only have one Kong on screen at a time, presumably due to the sprite limitations of the NES, and you can’t switch between them whenever you like. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but Diddy Kong must seem like kind of a weird name to non-British people, because “diddy” is a British word that means “small” and I don’t think it’s a word that gets much use overseas.
DONKEY KONG COUNTRY 4 FREE
Feel free to send me your hate mail, hardcore Diddy Kong fans. I’m sorry, I just can’t work up much enthusiasm for Diddy Kong.