Screenshots from VG Museum

Year released: 1995 (Super NES)

Number of Players: 1-2

King K. Rool has kidnapped Donkey Kong and stolen his bananas again! Diddy Kong takes Dixie Kong out to K. Rool's home island save Donkey.

Graphics: "Everything is rendered and looks wonderful. You'll get to enjoy landscapes from the jungle to abandoned mines, while most of your enemies will be reptillian. However, being rendered so nicely makes for collision detection that looks to be off. I can't explain it, but the rendered graphics don't cause problems in gameplay." From the Donkey Kong Country review. The graphics are better this time.

Play control: Left and right on the control pad to move left and right, B to jump, press Y to perform a side attack (cartwheel for Diddy and hair whip for Dixie) hold Y to run (or to hold a barrel; let go to throw a barrel), and select to switch between Kongs (if you have both) or hop off of the animal friend you are currently on. A button calls the other kong up to sit on your shoulders, and when you press the Y button, you can guide them with the control pad. You can use this to reach far away areas.
Oh, yeah, and press Y while jumping with Dixie to glide down slowly.

Sound: "Lush music tracks that fit the environment. Sound effects are minor voice clips, several along the line of 'ouch!'" From the Donkey Kong Country review.

Challenge: "Get to the end of the stage while not falling in bottomless pits nor getting hurt by enemies." Enemies are much better at throwing things at you and moving around the screen, and you have to make your platforming agile to respond. Luckily, it's not as hard as I just described. :b The increase in difficulty is gradual, getting more and more demanding little by little.

Gameplay: "Standard hop-n-bop fun. However, Donkey Kong Country is not content with just a hop-n-bop engine. Barrels almost always clue you in to a secret entrance--barrels open up doors to bonus rooms. (This gets somewhat tedious.) That is, when you aren't being shot out of a barrel. The game has tons of barrels that act as cannons.
Also, there are four different animals to take on different views to the hop-n-bop experience. Not only this, but there are several stages that offer gimmicks. On top of the standard swimming with etenral air stages, there's mine cart stages, stages of racing away from huge rocks that are about to crush you, and other funnesses."
With the new style of enemies that are good at throwing with the addition of a few new types of gimmick stages, this gameplay style seems familiar while just fresh enough.
Also, special stages are never accessed by barrels. Almost all of the time, you need to find a bonus barrel. Employing the tag team throwing ability and the various animals you can find are essential in pulling it off.

Bottom line: More good stuff for platformer players.

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