The Purposeful Difficulty of Donkey Kong Country

[@TheJustintendo]

Join the Justintendo Society Discord! discord.gg/arHNbpARkj

[@Joee1257]

Dude you are thee go-to channel for DK retrospective / introspective analysis . Takes me back to playing the trilogy for hours on end as a kid

[@TheJustintendo]

This comment means a lot, thank you🙌🏻I put a lot into these videos and these games deserve it

[@Joee1257]

@ you’re the first person to effectively capture the “feeling” you get when playing the DKC games - especially when playing alone as a pre-teen. Makes your mind race . The visuals and the music get you almost meditative. You really put it on display with your style and approach . Keep em coming 👍

[@TheBeird]

It's interesting, I've been seeing lots of recommendations for videos of young gamers today going through these games and speaking a lot to the difficulty. And I'm all "ah come on it ain't that hard, I can get 100% plus on each game with every playthrough." Then I realise I've been playing these games for thirty years and feel old and irrelevant to life's great tapestry.

[@TheJustintendo]

Exactly!! I feel the same way

[@Edwinschuur]

No the problem is young gamers are not used to difficult games besides the ones that play Soulsbourne games. Yes we have 30 years of experience. But when the games just came out we didn't. I had to learn how to beat Megaman games at 6 and DKC at age 9 or 10. It was hard, but we didn't have a game catalog back then with games added every month. So you got better at the games you did have.

[@Papi_Keep_Playin]

I agree with this statement whole heartedly, The harder you work for something the greater the reward feels when you achieve it. It' no fun if a game is easy from start to end. It would be boring without a challenge.

[@TheJustintendo]

Precisely!

[@Ultimabuster92]

I never felt angry at these games when i died. I felt frustrated, but never angry. Because the game never felt unfair. Every death felt like my own fault, the more i died the more unfocused i became, the mistakes i made became more and more stupid and avoidable until i just needed a break. And after those breaks, i did better. And yes, every level felt rewarding upon completion.

[@TheJustintendo]

Absolutely!! Well said

[@ODUBlue]

The Dark Souls of platformers? 😂 So glad to see the channel grow!! Here’s to DKC 6 being announced for more content! 🤞🙏

[@TheJustintendo]

Thanks so much! I hope so too!

[@mandalorianhunter1]

Yeah it confused me when it came to getting letters or that one stage at the beginning where you don't know how to jump over the big gap. The big gap i found out if you pick up a barrel, you jump higher. That was confusing and I'm like what? I just accept it now

[@OmegaFox09]

We do not speak of Snow Barrel Blast That was my no1 most difficult level.

[@disneysydneyresortvirtual9264]

Love me some Monke content.😊 Your channel is great. DK in my opinion is the best Nintendo franchise and deserves all the attention. The Country games are awesome.

[@TheJustintendo]

Thank you so much! Glad you enjoy my content :)

[@EricStevenTerry]

I'm convinced the original trilogy would be infinitely easier if we could play in widescreen.

[@TheJustintendo]

So fair

[@Mymy_64]

The Crash Bandicoot before Crash Bandicoot.

[@TheJustintendo]

Well said!!

[@Derek-d5s]

DKC was legendary back in the 90s

[@joshuabauschke168]

Love these essays.

[@TheJustintendo]

Thank you! I appreciate that a lot

[@mig-l9059]

Completing DKC TF 200% is one of the or probably THE most rewarding thing I have achieved in my gaming career😅

[@maverickhuntermeta4954]

Another day, another DKC video.

[@TheJustintendo]

🙌🏻🙌🏻

[@Luke-me9qe]

7:30 now you just flexing 💪

[@TheJustintendo]

😂

[@thepolacek]

DKC 1 is not difficult. DKC2 absolutely is. I don’t remember if Dkc 3 was.

[@kassidyryzer2909]

6:20 I thought the journey was about bananas

[@thescarecrrow282]

Im curious, do you make these videos in advance or just make it then upload it right away?

[@TheJustintendo]

Depends on the video! Sometimes I'll make them in advance and other times, like this video, I made it today and uploaded it after I was done

[@gooeydude574]

Let’s be glad that DKC isn’t like Rare’s Battletoads

[@TheJustintendo]

Very true

[@DontKnowDontCare6.9]

Was Battletoads really that hard? Played it for a week for at least an hour per day, then finished it.

[@WhitePointerGaming]

DKC1 really isn't all that difficult in general, there's a few "skill check" levels that the game throws at you now and then. For most, the first of these is probably mine cart carnage (although some may stumble a bit on barrel cannon canyon). Once you clear that though, it's pretty smooth sailing until you reach snow barrel blast, then you have a couple of difficult levels in a row. After that though you really shouldn't have any more problems until close to the end of the game - platform perils specifically (though poison pond could be a stumbling block for some). So yeah overall, it's really not that tough, just some specific levels are. DKC2 though is consistently challenging throughout the whole game and gradually ramps up in difficulty as you progress. DKC3 is much the same, though also has a couple of levels here and there that are unexpected difficulty spikes.

[@TheJustintendo]

Well said! DKC2 is genuinely one of the most challenging games I've ever played.

[@AL_Talks]

Not to be pedantic, but I think of purposeful difficultly as challenge and Donkey Kong County hits that stride for the reasons you mentioned here. It's also slightly why I like the GBA versions more because they fixed things like the screen crunch/sprite hit boxes. Also I have a bias for Gameboy Advanced since I didn't grow up with the SNES.

[@TheJustintendo]

That's fair! The GBA versions of the games were what I grew up with, so I definitely have a soft spot for them and think they do some things better than the SNES versions!

[@burnblue]

I've been unable to get into and enjoy the modern DKC games because the difficulty is too high for me. I already couldn't love the aesthetic after having gotten used to the richness of the 90s graphic style. So Returns and Tropical freeze rot in my backlog. I did complete a good amount of Returns but TF just barely touched

[@00yiggdrasill00]

Similar to the fromsoft formula, it treats us with respect. I absolutely disagree controllers weren't thrown. Good thing SNES controllers were durable.

[@TheJustintendo]

Haha! It must just be my experience, I never threw a controller but I definitely wanted to!

[@00yiggdrasill00]

@TheJustintendo I had...less emotional control as a child and a mix of stubborn and hyper fixation. Have it in a better balance these days thankfully.

[@UphillBridge]

Wing Ding? There’s harder levels than that

[@TheJustintendo]

I am aware, but Wing Ding is very hard to me

[@LeonDOro-i6r]

Returns & Tropical Freeze are not Country games, and they shouldn't be part of the "series"... Donkey Kong Country is a trilogy, 3 games that share a signature and a common thread. Returns & Tropical Freeze look and play different. this series should have it's own identity

[@jimmyrodriguez5670]

I never saw 3 as part of the other 2 games. The graphics were worse, and the gameplay was not nearly as enjoyable for me.

[@LeonDOro-i6r]

@@jimmyrodriguez5670 a lot of people don't like 3 for those exact reasons but I like it and although the graphics, and gameplay aren't quite as good... 3 is a legit sequel. Returns & Tropical Freeze are both a complete departure. both are just New Super Mario Bros clones

[@TheJustintendo]

It's definitely Country, just more modernized!

[@LeonDOro-i6r]

@@TheJustintendo it's definitely not. Returns & Tropical Freeze have no charm. Rare are the only team that can deliver a true Country

[@Mark_Bayer]

Honestly one of the easiest games imo