1990s Critics Review Donkey Kong Land on Game Boy (Nintendo Switch Online)

[@topdog23100]

I always get hyped for a new episode of Nintendo Switch Online Review Crew whenever a new NSO game drops!

[@HybridAngelZero]

I was pretty excited to see this one pop up yesterday! Hoping the rest of the Land trilogy will be showing up soon, too. As for my favorite in the series? Probably Donkey Kong Country 3. I know DKC 2 is the popular pick, and I love that game, too, but something about the atmosphere, which has this vibe of isolated melancholy in a lot of the levels, just speaks to me. Also, I love being able to freely explore around the world map and upgrade your ship to get around to new places! Guess I'm just a sucker for RPG elements xD

[@GatoradePisser7]

Dude yes I say the same thing all the time to people. Donkey Kong country 3 is slept on. The rpg elements is too good. I need a new donkey Kong game like that but it will never happened:/

[@aioli4869]

This is the first Gameboy game I ever saw. The neighbor kid had it and it blew my mind. 😝

[@ZEKESPILLEDINKMUSIC]

Donkey Kong Land is like some kind of visual sorcery.

[@professors84]

If we're drawing the distinction between "best" and "favorite" then Donkey Kong Country is easily my favorite.

[@jwrfb26]

My girlfriend's favorite DK game is Donkey Kong Land, but so far she hasn't played too many. As for myself, it's Donkey Kong on GameBoy, the massively expanded remake of the original arcade game. That's no snub to the Donkey Kong Country games, though. I love them all. Looking forward to finally playing their 8-bit counterparts. Now why does Nintendo need to trickle them in instead of giving us the whole trilogy?

[@rikustorm13]

FR ^

[@zacktyler2810]

Good for you and your girlfriend

[@deadtome44]

Gameboy was my first video game experience. Got Kirby’s Dreamland and DK Land, when I was a kid I thought DK was too difficult lol.

[@JoeSantini]

I picked this out for my 13th birthday. I love this game. 🎉

[@thepolacek]

My main gripe was the same as it was in 1995. The jumping physics are very odd. Its hard to describe if you haven't played it. You jump up at a normal speed, and come back to the ground much faster.

[@gamesthatiplay9083]

Donkey Kong Country 1 is my favorite. it was fun without being excessively difficult. Mario vs Donkey Kong is probably #2. Yeah... you heard me. Looking forward to Donkey Kong 94 on GameBoy.

[@TonyTheTGR]

1 was pure fun. It had extras, but not in this "chore list" kind of way, you know? And the prizes were PRIZES, not little tutoral levels with a one-shot clear at the end that you never had any reason to revisit. DKC 1 had a world you could just continously play in, and I missed that vibe a bit with later titles.

[@goranisacson2502]

Donkey Kong Country 3's particular atmosphere and environments made it the most engaging game for me, I was a sucker for them from nearly minute one. As for this game, as fun as it is to see that infamous "Play It Loud" campaign (it didn't air over here), I think I'm mostly interested in seeing the new stages, the game itself seems like a hard switch to get used to over the older games. What I'm most curious over is why they're just releasing ONE single game now. My guess would be they'll release Land 2 next month, make it a dripfeed of DK games culminating in January with Donkey Kong Country Returns return to Switch, a kind of marketing drip if you will... because otherwise, an NSO release-month that's just ONE Game Boy game is real piddly. At least last year, when November also got just one game, that game was Jet Force Gemini!

[@SplootasticCreations]

Astounding how the one reviewer name-drops Nemo, yet just refers to Rambi as "a Rhino." 😂

[@JayMobley-u3g]

2:23 oh these are pretty cool bananas AAAAAAAAAA

[@ryanpyle9822]

I have the cheaper tier so I was happy to finally get an update. Thanks for covering this! I love old gaming mags and this channel.

[@goldenphonautogram6141]

You have not experienced hell until you have played this on original hardware

[@SplootasticCreations]

Thankfully, it was my first game for my good ol' clear Game Boy Pocket 🤌

[@thepolacek]

Yup. Luckily, I had a super gameboy.

[@pyrobison2002]

Aye

[@Mer.Saloon]

Always a good time when these drop. And my favorite Donkey Kong game is Donkey Kong Country 2.

[@UndeadEggmiester]

It's so weird and unfortunate we only getting one GB game. There's so many amazing GB games out there.

[@katt-the-pig]

5:47 It should be noted that only a few levels have a parallax effect, and they're all in the final world. Still a cool effect, but don't expect the whole game to be like that. Honestly, had I read that review and been interested in seeing the effect for myself, I probably _would_ have bought it expecting to see it the whole game. 7:00 You know, I think I like this reviewer. ^🐽^

[@JosephCoco]

It's interesting so many magazines raved over DC Land, but it didn't get the cover for any.

[@CagedInSilence]

01:00 - Can you imagine being paid money to act like that in front of a television audience for a commercial? Oh wait ... I forgot about reality TV.

[@DefunctGames]

And sadly, this is nothing new. See: They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

[@CagedInSilence]

@DefunctGames - I had not heard of this until now. Based on the beginning, I was expecting it to be an early John Waters film. It had that manic kind of energy. Haha. In all seriousness, the trailer for the title you recommended immediately reminded me of that woman who died of a water overdose on a radio station to win a Wii, but got Justin Timberlake tickets instead before passing on later that day. Edited for clarity.

[@DefunctGames]

Yeah, I probably should have linked a trailer or something. It's one of my favorite films and a real eye-opener. A reminder that people will do just about anything (including put their lives in grave danger) for a little bit of money. Sadly, it's all based on real events, which makes it so much worse. And you're absolutely right, the woman that died trying to win that Wii is basically the modern-day version of that film. Sadly, some things never change.

[@pdaigle531]

It will be interesting to try this out, and hopefully soon they’ll put Donkey Kong Land 2 & 3 on NSO soon. 😄👍🏻

[@evenmorebetter]

Play it on the Switch in GBC mode, much easier to follow the action with the sprites a different color from the background (and for the game being full of prerendered gradiated graphics the GBC auto colorization works shockingly well for this game)

[@Jormunguandr]

It's impressive with regards to gameboy hardware limits

[@maccamachine]

They should have added all three donkey king land games at a time that would have been great they’re all pretty enjoyable games especially if you love the country games. If they could add those and the country gameboy advance games then we would have every dkc game on one console with the returns remaster coming out which would be awesome.

[@Arehexes]

Ah yes Donkey Kong Land...a game I got because I was in a local fashion show.

[@thenonexistinghero]

I got it because I bought it when I got a Game Boy. It was a display unit since it was the final one left... and the screen was kinda glued on or something. So I went back with it. But not before taking out the Lucky Luke cartridge they accidentally left in. Was a pretty decent game, though incredibly hard. But DKL is among my favourite GB games.

[@finalgodhanbeast5971]

I’m enjoying it. And on the Switch’s larger screen I don’t think it’s hard to see. Fingers crossed for DK64 eventually.

[@Cyberpunknut]

Good amount of reviews even without one from EGM. Shame they didn't drop them all like konami and capcom did with castlevania and mega man. QOTD, Probably Tropical Freeze.

[@thenonexistinghero]

The Game Boy was only like halfway through its generation though. It released in 1989 and no one else managed to compete with it until Nintendo released the GBA. That's essentially a 12 year generation and the only rival of note was the Game Gear (which still got crushed in sales) which sold over 10 million. A select for others sold like 1-4 million, but that's also about it. It took until the sony PSP and the Nintendo DS before a Nintendo handheld actually got some real competition (which still got beat quite handily in sales). Also personally I never had a problem with DKL being fuzzy on the original GB (PAL GB with PAL game btw). Maybe I remember wrong, but it looked just fine I think.

[@DefunctGames]

You're right, but that's only if we look at it in hindsight. My setup was to put you in the context of 1995, and the general consensus (among both critics and consumers) was that the Game Boy was on its last legs. Fewer games were coming out for it, sales had slowed and there were multiple reports of Nintendo working on a successor. However, thanks to games like Donkey Kong Land (and the lack of any real competition), Nintendo opted to refresh the Game Boy in 1996 with the Pocket and then again in 1998 with the Game Boy Color, which came with its own batch of games. That's not the direction many expected Nintendo to go, which ties into my assessment that Nintendo was at a crossroad in 1995.

[@thenonexistinghero]

@@DefunctGames I actually thik Pokemon is what probably extend the GB life. The DKL games would've provided good end-of-life games, but I think Pokemon is actually what pushed the GB to last all the way until 2001.

[@DefunctGames]

I don't disagree, but Pokemon wasn't a factor in 1995. The Japanese games didn't come out until one year later, in 1996. And it would take another two years before the U.S. would get their first tastes of Pokemon in 1998.

[@Openreality]

DK 64 and DK original are my fave. I also like playing as Funky.......

[@JenMistress]

Well, I looked in my Gameboy ROMs folder, and saw I not only had Donkey Kong Land, but 2 and 3 as well. Considering my PC wouldn't have me facing the same problems of not being able to see it like it sounds like their main problem was, should be fun to check out. As for the question, I'm going to go all the way back to Old School and say the original Donkey Kong. Yeah, back when Mario was just named Jump Man. I had fun playing that old Arcade Game on MAME.

[@thenightstar8312]

"rom folder" opinion automatically invalidated

[@GrooveSpaceArk]

@@thenightstar8312 Where else would you store roms?

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

QotD: DKC3, if that counts. I was going mad from all the distracting noise in the heroes of the previous 2 games because Rare couldn't be arsed to clean up their sloppy cut and paste sprites. If I have to choose an actual Donkey Kong appearance, it's Smash Brothers Ultimate. If I can't cheat at all, let's go with DKC1.

[@DefunctGames]

That's a good point. I completely forgot that Donkey Kong isn't always in games with "Donkey Kong" in the title.

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

@DefunctGames It's such an odd series of games, isn't it? The hero of the first game is the villain in the second, and the villain in the first plays the role of damsel in distress. Meanwhile, the original damsel, Pauline, will cynically exploit her own kidnapping for political capital in a bigger franchise, which...I mean, good for her? Then the third game, randomly beats Parodius to the punch. Up yours, Spider Fighter! Also, it's a bit mad how fast a little kart racing can age a cranky Kong... Can you imagine any other company treating their top title like this? Besides Namco and Tekken, I mean.

[@KrisP408]

DKC 2 is the best, with the best music, graphics and gameplay of all DK games

[@LuigiMario-ni3rj]

Set days aside for videos about DK Land 3 and DK64 at this point. lol

[@DefunctGames]

I already had Donkey Kong 64, Diddy Kong Racing and Donkey Kong '94 written and ready to go, but I will admit that today's Donkey Kong Land 2 announcement caught me off guard. Why not release that last week with Donkey Kong Land 1?? Oh well. Expect a new NSO Review Crew episode in about 12 hours.

[@rikustorm13]

Donkey Kong Land 2 next plz Nintendo :D

[@JayMobley-u3g]

I wish the pig was an animal buddy now

[@LuigiMario-ni3rj]

My favorite Donkey Kong game is DKC2.

[@RonTheHottie]

DKC 2 is my favorite.

[@gligarguy4010]

I wish we had gotten DK 94 instead. Sorely missing game.

[@poil8351]

well at least donkey kong has a gameboy release on the nso now.

[@MrJamess1982]

Whoa, did Donkey Kong Land have a fish named Nemo before Disney? Disney needs to stop stealing ideas…haha

[@thenightstar8312]

You are aware that the reference goes as far back as Moby Dick, right?

[@poil8351]

well i guess i was worng. i genuinely thought the nso this month would be tetris nes version. i wonder when they release that.

[@DefunctGames]

You and me both. Granted, they did say "Winter 2024" when they announced Tetris, which technically doesn't start until December 21st. Like you, I assumed that meant "holiday season," but it looks like they meant Winter. There's a chance it will be the final NSO release of the year. Either way, I'm ready to go. Got my write-up locked and loaded, and now I'm just waiting for the announcement.

[@TonyTheTGR]

Meh. Land 2 and 3 were *considerably* better in every concievable way, including screen scale and basic visibility of gameplay elements. Land was a necessary step towards that existing, but also made every kind of mistake this flavor of game could make. Good music, but very rough by even yesterday's standards. I'd honestly rather see it redesigned in the SNES engine at least.

[@robertlauncher]

Yay discount DKC is here before the other Wario Land games 🙄

[@SpeedyNinja1152]

Oh these are pretty cool bananas. AAAAHH!

[@natejoe9924]

See I like the Nintendo 64 games but I don't want to pay the $50 a year I might just stick with the lower tier and just play the Sega super Nintendo games this is why I wish they had the eShop store so we can have a choice

[@steelcurtain187]

I remember thinking these were super impressive at the time. When I was a kid game boy games looked like total crap and very basic.

[@Jason-o3k]

I wanted to like it but it's too inferior to country

[@natejoe9924]

I haven't renewed my subscription because I think $50 a year is way too much for what you get our religious straight up by these games but I might just go to the low tier

[@thenightstar8312]

You're wrong it's well worth the price

[@natejoe9924]

@thenightstar8312 no it's not I remember you can just outright purchase the games it's not worth the price at all and that's just my opinion if you feel like it's worth the price that's on you I feel like it's not especially when you used to be able to buy them straight up

[@natejoe9924]

@thenightstar8312 That's definitely your opinion I don't feel the same way

[@supersonicjc]

its not the best game even of the trilogy on the game boy, its not the snes game at all there are many very difficult spots in this game that will make you tear your hair, the old mono gb screen was horrid as at times you couldnt find your character at all, the super gb on the other hand was ok with it as the colors made the sprites pop a bit more but it was one shade of color not like other games where there was many colors and a far cry from the gbc later on, you can tell who got paid more to give better reviews as the harsher ones are more truthful