How To Speedrun Donkey Kong Country - Beginner's Guide

[@snomangaming]

Happy about the positive response to the new series! If you haven't seen previous years Donkey Kong Month videos, here's a full playlist of every DK video I've ever done! kzbin.info/aero/PLrSZDOvRCmRDwD7NNVhlC8EInw0JK7ncA

[@isaacrossgaming-ayoshifan4037]

Snoman Gaming g'day mate lol

[@gonkdroidincarnate4237]

Hey Snoman I REALLY Want to try speedrunning this game is NSO accepted by the community is it is alot slower plz i need help im like bombarding people with questions dont leave me hanging

[@ujkloin]

16:57 use the BARRAL cheat code before starting. Press erase game then tap B A R trigger R trigger A L trigger to start with 50 lives, will basically eliminate the chance

[@QuartzIsAnOxide]

You're explaining a 40 minute speedrun in less than 20 minutes. It's basically the speedrun of a speedrun...

[@brandonharbeke8326]

This guide is great, showing succinctly a lot of tricks to save time in the game. It's also useful to casual players who could use some of those warps and tricks to make some of the stages easier. I've completed Snow Barrel Blast the long way, but once I learned about that shortcut barrel under the 3rd barrel in the series, I have used it whenever possible.

[@jimjummy8844]

Thanks for the tips! My brother and I race each other in DKC every 3 to 6 months. 4 years back, we used to average 1 hour and 15 minutes, but it has now been trimmed down to an average of 55 minutes. It's really fun when we're within a minute or 2 when racing. We're not consistent enough to trim down those last few minutes, but we're content with sub 1 hour :)

[@ShadwSonic]

As a guy who's done amateur 100% runs of DKC1 and 2 (read: not streamed, not using major glitches, just me, a GameFAQs speed guide, and time to kill), I can confirm that a lot of this is also VERY helpful for 100% runs! One tip that is unique to them though: sometimes it's helpful to take a warp, finish the level, then come back for the bonus rooms and Start/Select when you're done. One level in DKC2 even has you enter it THREE times in an optimal run!

[@TompaA]

For the warp on the world map: The reason it works is because the Funky Barrel, or one of the Kongs, stop there for one frame and when your character has stopped, the game assume you are on a level, so you are able to enter it. And I kinda regret the mention about the lag frame for the left barrel during the Queen B fight... As it's not really accurate, but "sadly" it has become a thing =). Videos like these are always great!

[@snomangaming]

Haha that is kinda funny because it's something I always have just heard (the 1 frame barrel lag thing) my bad :P Glad you enjoyed though :)

[@MrPan-hx1bl]

I cant ever get the mashing abxy correctly, do you have any other tips to get it right?

[@MrPan-hx1bl]

Ok thanks for the help.

[@TompaA]

@Gaminator Tylinator Maybe you are playing on a version where the glitch has been fixed? You only need to press one of those buttons, or Start, and you may not have more than one character on the map.

[@TompaA]

@Gaminator Tylinator No, all the Virtual Console releases or the SNES Mini are using the 1.2 version of the game, where this glitch has been fixed.

[@TheCartoonGamer8000]

7:08 SAY WHAT? I've never known that was there until now! Rare seriously has a thing for putting warps in levels if you make a mad dash (same thing happens in Battletoads and Snake Rattle and Roll). Now let's see you do this in one life and shut Cranky up once and for all.

[@SuperTeeter64]

I never knew this either!

[@snomangaming]

That's kind of why I really wanted to do a guide on this game, it's FULL of crazy things like this that 1) I never knew as a kid and 2) keeps the run fresh from start to finish, it's super dynamic

[@gonkdroidincarnate4237]

@@snomangaming I dont have a legit NES but i wanna start speedrunning this game the NSO version ok i need help is there some kind of emulator thats allowed that im unaware of? Im doing on NSO cuz im not taking it seriously

[@ujkloin]

17:03 protip: by highligting erase game (making it flash) spell barrel but replace the E with an A on the controller so press: B A R trigger R trigger A L trigger you will start with 50 lives

[@OmniMitch]

Normie tip: thanks to his huge hitbox, DK's jump height can just barely reach the warp barrel in Slipslide Ride if you hug the left wall where the bonus is (I'm using U 1.1; don't know if this applies to other versions)

[@DerAvanor]

As a former speedrunner of the DKC games (mainly DKC3) I have to tell you what an amazing job you did creating this video. The tutorials on the dkc-speedrunning homepage can be a little difficult to understand for complete newcomers. But to get a rough understanding of how the run is supposed to look like, this video is all you need. Keep it up!

[@Ryan-PulsarProductions]

I don't intend to speadrun this game at any point, but I found it really interesting to learn these tips for one of my most favorite games. You did a great job being both understanding for newbies and very thorough. I hope to see a similar video for DKC2 in time! :)

[@GGSpeedruns]

One my most played games ever let's see what I learn. Great channel btw great vibes here . New sub for sure !

[@daletaco475]

I tried to speedrun this game last night. I failed multiple times, and couldn't finish. But I'm not giving up. I am gonna try my best to learn more time saving strats, and to actually finish the run! I'm gonna stream every time I do a run, so people can see my progression!

[@MartaTarasiuk]

Woah, I never had idea speedrunning is so complicated. And those are only the basics?!

[@somerandomchannel382]

Speedrun or Not... DKC was and still has the most calming music and awesome levels in the history of plattformers. God what a masterpiece.

[@pqbdwmnu]

You’re a Swedish morning

[@DoubleDog]

Dang. Five years already? I'm proud to say I've been watching since the first DKC month. Keep up the great work Snoman!

[@MilkmanCR]

I forgot it was Dk month! Now Im hyped! I wish you and Caveman and everyone else would do another Dkc2 speedrun! Those are the best!

[@1stTheEditor]

Possibly one of my favorite videos you've made. Thank you!

[@Mark_Kop]

Great guide! I''ve just shared it on all my social media, more people speedrunning = more awesome stuff

[@Trollseeder]

hey little thing, at 7:05 you can have Diddy selected just switch to DK once you arrive at the barrel and it will show :) also at 11:09 you can just jump on the barrel while being DK from the floor (DK jumps just a bit higher)

[@bpansky]

Ya I thought I remembered being able to get that slip and slide warp way back in the day, having no knowledge of glitches.

[@virungaranger5737]

Your the best! I never thought anyone would be into donkey Kong as much as me, I was wrong:-)

[@nocontent1136]

I noticed that last secret last night in Snow Barrel Blast when I was trying to do a 100/101% run of DKC!

[@clayton_games]

GASP! I actually forgot that DK month was coming!!!

[@syndenbock6146]

That feeling when your favorite stage is Mine Cart Carnage and after 20 years you learn it has a shortcut.

[@JoeyWoeyUwU]

Haha, so this is what you were asking for footage for in the donkey discord? Nice video tho, extremely happy you talked about touching the ground for the superjump!

[@snomangaming]

Haha! Yeah I needed those last couple shots of dkcspeedruns.com for the end, but the website was down for a few hours :)

[@Chozodianemissary]

Yes!! Love DK month! Really hoping Nintendo drops a DK announcement in the next few months. We need a complete trilogy.

[@ChrisTheFields]

16:38 Wow. Such exquisite advice.

[@snomangaming]

True to real life as well!

[@klagarn6068]

ChrisTheFields Not even kidding, it’s actually pretty important xD A lot of tricks in speedrunning can be stuff that either save 5 seconds or kill you, and I think some people are put off of trying cause they think they have to do that stuff and restart a bunch It’s good to emphasize it the other way around, that you can go faster by being safer, and then those things are available once you’re good enough!

[@BlusterTheBenevolent]

DK month. Finally!

[@Snow-sf4kj]

In Slipslide Ride I found out that the easy way to get that warp barrel is just to jump from the rope with Dk while holding left and then jump once you touch the platform and it will give you a boost to jump into the barrel lol just found that out today.

[@bpansky]

Ya somehow I thought I remember getting a warp in that level, I recognize where it warps you to, but I never remember having to do anything fancy or glitchy...

[@Frank074]

I remember the warp to Oerang Oetang Gang from when I was a kid. I mashed every button near the green spot and all of a sudden I had skipped quite some levels. It was an awesome experience, pre-internet and just stumbling on it by accident. But I wasn't able to put it off recently which made me wonder if it was just a dream 😂. Great to finally find out again where the exact spot is!

[@adrianfernandez5488]

Hey Sno, if any game deserves Good game Design FEZ is the one!

[@ultralance]

That Mine Cart Carnage skip drove me crazy as a kid... I managed to accidentally fall into it once, but wasn't sure where I'd fallen. Spent so long questioning my sanity when I couldn't find it again. lmao

[@Shmaynoria]

I am in awe at the level of commitment this video took. Also really cool., cause I'm a huge DKC fan.

[@G_Knee-S]

also that Warp on the world map, can also be done right away if only one Kong is in play

[@Astrobrush45]

2:15 After 2 whole years. I finally get the joke.

[@dachtat1911]

This is gonna help me so much. Thank you.

[@pirate_cove_man]

Alright, I guess I've decided I wanna get into speedrunning for some reason. I guess DKC 1 will be a good place to start

[@Kraigon42]

I'd like to note, since I have captions on, I didn't see any of the button presses. I don't count that as a big negative, really; this was an awesome video. I wouldn't say it's altogether better or worse than some speedrun tutorials I've seen, but it has one thing I put at the top of my list: accessibility. It makes it seem so very easy and understandable, and even got me thinking to break out my retropie again to practice some myself.

[@ChrystianSereia]

My favorite game series

[@whaddupnico]

Thank you Snoman!

[@SirChocula]

This should be a series but with other games as well. I'm not a speed runner but it's very interesting to see these tricks in a great video format!!! :D

[@snomangaming]

Yeah I think it has potential to be a feature on the channel in the future :)

[@klagarn6068]

If there’s any game you’re interested in, you can often just search ”speedrun [game] guide/tutorial” and find some stuff, at least for popular games I speedrun some myself (which I totally recommend), but it’s still cool to watch guides for games I don’t play, and see the tricks explained! I can also recommend checking out runs from events like Games Done Quick and European Speedrunner Assembly, just cause they’re there to show off the game and explain what’s going on, not only going the fastest And yeah snoman, keep doing these. I think you have a great platform to lure more people to the terrible drug of speedrunning 😉

[@youtubesecurityguard1915]

I love your vids snoman! Especially dkc

[@BobfatherGaming]

I tried the Cranky Kong Challenge (beat the game with 1 life in under an hour) a few years back and got pretty close. Without dying, doing it under an hour is pretty much a non-issue and I didn't even know about maybe half of the level warps.

[@im_Spade_]

This is the only game I can legitimately say I have practiced speedrunning. I've done any% glitched around 9 or 10 min. I've played the game a lot and have a good hold on most of the strats/glitches (besides the infinite jump, that's cool). Now I just wanna try a full run :D

[@CrazyBreadWithSauce]

Hooray Donkey Kong month!

[@nickdanger12345]

Love the video my dude.

[@tarquinnff3]

Just finished my casual series on this game. A timely video to be sure. :D

[@ti83magic]

New to your channel, and I'm very positive on the tone of this video. Well done!

[@Caladas]

Hey, I'm looking into starting to try out some speedrunning in the DKC series, and have never considered the version number on the cartridges. How do I tell what version the rom on the cartridge is? I've seen the explanation for the US carts, but waht about the NTSC-J carts? I can't seem to find it anywhere, and it's frankly a bit wierd since there seems to be a decent enough scene for it :P

[@miigs9499]

Amazing guide, i think i'll have to start speedrunning this lol. Have you thought about doing Speedrun Guide about any Metroid game?

[@klagarn6068]

miigs I don’t think he runs them, with that said there are almost certainly guides out there, since the Metroid series (especially Super Metroid) are some of the most popular speedgames there is! Also, even in games without a guide, there’s almost always a discord or other forum where you can ask any questions you need. Even in a game with only 7 leaderboard times, all 6+ months old, I was able to join the discord, get old tricks explained, and even some new ones that weren’t in runs yet! So now I’m #2 just cause of getting taught and finding new tricks, despite being pretty bad lol Which specific games are you interested in? Cause I could help you look stuff up. In general though: check speedrun.com, look up the game, check the tabs ”guides”, ”resources” and ”forum”. Or google ”[game] speedrun guide/tutorial” :)

[@miigs9499]

Klagarn Thanks man for the detailed answer!!

[@daisyluneta7513]

In slip slide ride level the shortcut you can do it even not glitching just go down with the barrel and change with donkey kong and jump into it

[@NoKneeHobbit68]

I'm not sure if anyone will see this, but I keep coming up way short on the jump on ice age alley (11:33). I have no clue why. Someone please help

[@awesomejoseph_aj]

yes finally DONKEY KONG MONTH

[@BlusterTheBenevolent]

Also,have you seen what they did to DK’s nose in the switch version of tropical freeze?

[@EpluribUSMNT]

I’m gonna try to run this soon, thanks for the beginners guide man!

[@XFallenFreakX]

Please make more of these.

[@gabrielt4305]

I don't think I will be speedrunning a game anytime song but I enjoyed the video as usual. 😁

[@thomasreichert2804]

Really nice video! Interesting you didn't know about the warp barrel in the minecart stage as a kid, I did and it ruined the level because there was little incentive to play through it.

[@futurefox128]

Having played this game casually dozens of times and having watched numerous speedruns of it, today finally I thought I'll give speedrunning it a try (if anything, to show off some tricks to a friend at least). I'm actually surprised how accessible speedrunning DKC is. Using the WR vid, a marathon vid and this tutorial as references (basically a trade-off between execution vs explanation ^^), I already got to world 3 with what feels like some decent movement (of course still worlds apart from actual speedrunners, but still, I'm very satisfied how much improvement I made in just a day). The tricks themselves really aren't that hard, I expected to struggle MUCH more, wasn't expecting them to actually be FUN learning experiences instead :D. I can only recommend everyone to try them themselves instead of just watching for years, being overwhelmed, like I did >__

[@zeroattentiongaming820]

All this talk of physics made me realize that DKC can pretty much be played like Sonic. Neat.

[@pikaplayer2870]

I wanna learn to speedrun this on Nintendo switch, this is really gonna help me

[@ujkloin]

14:16 OR ROLLING! so it keeps the state of being able to jump

[@americanfootball8194]

Please talk about dkc3!!!! It’s my favorite in the trilogy

[@davidtichborne5090]

thank you for this this is erry helpful a lot of things to remember

[@12poulet21]

Im a new sub from around October. Is there a playlist with past year dkmonth video?

[@snomangaming]

Yes! Here's a playlist of every Donkey Kong Month video: kzbin.info/aero/PLrSZDOvRCmRDwD7NNVhlC8EInw0JK7ncA :)

[@WTFigorWTF]

Are some of the glitches like the funkys travel glitch patched on the Switch?

[@timothymclean]

I wondered how you could possibly finish this game in less than an hour...then I saw that about one level in three lets you skip right past it.

[@princechills2693]

Timothy McLean I beat it in 8 minutes

[@MorKsQC]

Great video right there :)

[@clayton_games]

6:22 What! Why does that barrel even exist?? I mean, did the programmers think it would or wouldn't be reachable in any way? Also, I have played this game MANY times and I have never noticed some of these "just barely visible" tires and barrels before O_0

[@TompaA]

The normal way of accessing that barrel is to use the tire that is found over to the right and then push it back to that point. Like the warp in Vulture Culture, 7:00, it can only be accessed with Donkey Kong, switching to Diddy makes the barrel non-existant. Rare are tricky...

[@izzyhope58]

If your playing on an actual snes and cartridge, how do you know what version you have

[@BlazertronGames]

It would be cool if you could do this on other games as well!

[@klagarn6068]

Blazertron I agree, but there’s also a lot of guides already out there! If there’s a game you’re curious about, look it up on speedrun.com, or just search ”[game] speedrun guide/tutorial”. At least if it’s a popular speedgame, there will almost definitely be some stuff I totally recommend speedrunning as a half-noob myself, it’s fun and satisfying to see yourself improve, and people are mostly very helpful and welcoming 👍

[@Morgiliath]

It actually upsets me that you could skip all those levels that messed me up as a kid, cannon barrel cannon, and that conveyor level held me up for so long. Admittedly I was like 6 when I played this the first time, but still.

[@klagarn6068]

Ian Beach That’s the weird part about speedrunning, sometimes you’re doing super hard risky stuff, and sometimes you just get to skip that dumb part that killed you 53 times lol Dark Souls speedruns crack me up, I made it 10% in before giving up, and they’re just sprinting past every enemy!

[@seymourdollaz8424]

All you had to do was walk back out of stop n go station tf man. It took me so long to beat that level as a kid

[@TonyBasil12]

The infinite jump glitch only works for me in 1.2 for some reason. Can’t get it to work on 1.0 or 1.2

[@GDemmnejs]

11:35 what does Roblox has to do with dkc?

[@Thijstachio]

Great video! Pretty helpful!

[@bluegod2229]

Thanks! This was really useful!

[@LucasJaluL]

Nice video!

[@megaryanr5366]

It's finally back It's not a dream welcome to Donkey Kong month 2018 Perfect

[@Ryanmiller70]

I see an argument a lot that speedrunners don't enjoy/know the games they speedrun as much as someone that casually plays it. It's an argument that never made any sense to me, especially since a friend of mine speedruns a lot of games (currently he does Ape Escape 3, Space Channel 5 which he currently has the WR on, Cuphead, Hat in Time, and plans to add Lollipop Chainsaw, Kingdom Hearts, and Shantae Half-Genie Hero). This video definitely goes to show that argument is full of BS.

[@DeeJamari]

And then there's Chunky! He's Dead....

[@FireGoesFast]

How do I get a copy of 1.0/1.1 version?

[@aaronthegold]

Anybody know of a glitchless category for DKC Speedruns? I can only ever find Any %, Every Level Any %, and 101%, but all of these categories allow for glitches in the run. I am personally much more interested in making a totally glitch free run, but I can't find any records.

[@citrusblast4372]

Can i apply some of this in tropical freeze?

[@mallagallabumbum8209]

Do the glitches work on the Mini SNES?

[@tomspantv857]

I know this video is 2 years old and no one will probably see this but... you mentioned playing on a specific version(s) of the game. Is playing it on the Switch a viable option?

[@roberthan5109]

So why do you need to destroy the tnt barrels on millstone mayhem? I was able to pull the trick off without destroying them

[@TompaA]

Yeah, there is no need to. They are just easy to pick up by accident, so most runners get rid of them while waiting.

[@KbanjoK]

WE BACK

[@khan_4_2_0]

Loved the guide! What is your best time?

[@snomangaming]

40:20! Link to the PB was on the endslate :) Glad you enjoyed!

[@XGaaraX21]

in slipslide ride you van take donkey kong , take the barrel and jump inside the blue barrel to skip

[@TompaA]

Yes, that's the normal way of doing it. But that requires you to first switch to Donkey, jump in and then switch back to Diddy, and this is slower than to jump up the rope as Diddy.

[@grandmastermario3695]

My record for beating this is 49 minutes way less than an hour but definitely can't beat the record of 31inutes and something I like to speedrun alot of different games my favorite ones being Mario Bros and world games Mario Kart wrestling Harry Potter smash bros Kirby for GBA trivia games TMNT and Aladdin I would honestly say that donkey Kong country 1 for SNES is my definate favorite it's a fantastic game to speedrun I love the pace I also love speedrunning Mario odyssey recently do that for fun

[@ujkloin]

7:35 its pretty easy ngl but its complicated

[@WowOafus]

The Necky boss isn’t random. You can control where he comes from.

[@TastyPenguini]

Speedrun the Cranky Kong challenge

[@G_Knee-S]

I assume you didn't count glitches when you said about 32 minutes, as the fastest speedrun yet done is a little over 8 minutes.

[@luliby2309]

I'm just gonna leave this thought here since it is relevant to the topic of speedrunning and it's something I've noticed. I dislike how speedrunners will refer to playing a game normally (key word "normal") as "casually". I don't know about you, but I've seen many people in the gaming world use the word "casual" in not the greatest way. It's a word with some stank on it in this community as I like to say. Actual casual gaming is about games that are pretty light and easy and doesn't refer to many games that are popular to speedrun. Basically, "casual" means that something is lighter or easier than normal or average difficulty. But playing a game normally is just that...normal. So it's technically not accurate to say "casual". I know it's not the biggest deal in the world, but I'd avoid using it and be more accurate and welcoming by using "normal". Again, don't misunderstand. It's not a huge deal, but it's a little area of improvement and I'm sure that should appeal to people who are used to figuring out tiny areas of improvement.

[@nintenboi926]

Had to use this to get through the barrel level lmao

[@AttnDefDis_]

Why not just do the 99 lives code? Is that against the rules or something?

[@skudzer1985]

I'll never do a speedrun but this was very interesting anyway.

[@buccob]

3:14 what?

[@Matt-gh2zm]

Is Diddy faster than Dixie in 2? I know he's faster at climbing ropes, but I could never tell in general

[@snomangaming]

You're correct about climbing, I do think he's slightly faster than Dixie though. DKC2 guide coming next :thumbsup:

[@TompaA]

Dixie walking speed 512, running speed 768. Diddy walking speed 576, running speed 864. Both have a top rolling speed (no enemies rolled into) at 1152. Diddy got the same values in DKC and DKC2. There are, of course, some other things to take into consideration for the speed, but yeah =).

[@Matt-gh2zm]

Wow thanks! Very thorough