The first problem with the game is the lack of visibility. You can hardly see where you're going, and therefore you get very little time to react to enemies and other things when compared to the SNES and GBA versions. I understand that, being a GBC game, Rare couldn't have done much about this, but somehow it's a lot harder to deal with in this game than it is in the DKL games. Part of this is because the game positions Diddy/Donkey closer to the center of the screen than the DKL games do, which makes it harder. And the DKL games have bananas to help out the problem a little bit. This version has you memorize more jumps than the SNES/GBA versions or the DKL games. It's REALLY bad in the mine cart stages, where you'll find yourself falling down pits, hitting abandoned carts, and hitting Krashes often. I think it took me over 40 attempts to beat Mine Cart Carnage because I kept hitting things I didn't see right away. The SNES version only took me one try.
Another problem is the physics. This game's physics are WAY TOO STIFF. Moving around seems a lot stiffer than the other versions of this game. Hell, I found DKL's odd physics easier to deal with than in this game. When you change direction or start moving, it's abrupt instead of gradually speed up or change direction. The jumping seems a little odd, too. The other enemies and objects are even worse. Let's take Zinger for example. When it starts to change direction, it does it instantly. In the SNES version (and I think the GBA too), it gradually slows down before changing direction, which makes them easier to avoid. I had a really tough time dodging enemies like these because their movements are weird. Elevator platforms aren't much better, and I had a hard time landing on these because they don't slow down at all when they change direction.
Expresso is also much tougher to control than he is in the GBA or SNES versions (or DKL, for that matter). He moves way too slow, which is especially problematic in Orang-Utan Gang and Ice Age Alley. So when he ascends slowly, it is nowhere near as useful in this port because he doesn't travel as far. This makes him almost useless; good luck trying to get to either of the bonuses in Ice Age Alley with his slow movement.
Oh, and I hate the way you jump off of ropes. When you jump off a rope, you jump way too far to the left or right, which is very, very annoying if you just want to jump a short distance. This makes Slipslide Ride harder than it should be, and compounded with the fact that the purple ropes push you down faster than you can climb up, it makes the bonus at the near end impossible to get. I've never gotten that bonus.
Another problem with the physics is that swimming is much too slow. It's faster with Enguarde, but before you get him, good luck. You'll have a harder time dodging things because of the slow swimming. This is especially problematic in Croctopus Chase, where it's VERY hard to dodge the Croctopuses because they usually outrun you.
Another thing I don't like is that when you hold B and you pass a barrel, you run right through it, missing it. So you have to stop moving to pick it up. While this has the advantage of not accidentally picking up barrels, sometimes I miss barrels that I WANTED to pick up. No other DK game does this, so it's disorienting.
The music in this game is a mixed bag. I like to think of it as an early DKC3 GBA, where some songs are replaced, and don't always fit the stages they're in. While I mostly LOVE the fact that a lot of the songs are from Donkey Kong Land -- I think DKL's temple and cave themes are much more fitting than DKC's -- that's the only positive thing I can say about this music. Oh, and the completely new Forest Frenzy music is fairly decent too. But the music also has lots of flaws. The remixes that DIDN'T originate in DKL aren't that great. Take the Tree Top Town theme, for example. It sounds TERRIBLE in this game -- it's way too slow, and is missing part of the theme before it loops (and the most interesting part, too). The Slipslide Ride theme also sounds weird: besides the fact that they used it in the SNOW stages instead of Slipslide Ride, it sounds WAY too slow. (And the theme for Slipslide Ride in THIS game is a little weird -- while it's really nice to listen to, it was better suited to the submerged ruins in DKL, not an ice cavern!) And the Winky's Walkway theme also sounds way too slow, and the Stop & Go Station music was replaced with the mine cart music -- and it sounds too FAST! How did the screw up the music in THIS game? Oh, and one final gripe -- some of the music that was ripped from DKL sounds a little different, and slightly worse. The beginning of the temple music sounds a little weird, where it's a little too flat, and the aquatic music has this weird soft buzzing noise that you can hear about every second or so.
While the graphics are fairly decent, they screwed some of the sprites up. This game has WAY TOO MUCH DITHERING with the sprites, and DKL3 GBC's (and DKL2's, even with its lack of color) sprites look better. And both games were released BEFORE DKC GBC. Look at Enguarde in DKL3 GBC then look at him in this game:
- Comparion of Enguarde in DKL3 GBC and DKC GBC.
- enguarde comparison.PNG (1.15 KiB) Viewed 52143 times
He looks worse, because he's too small and has that ugly dithering effect with the blue/white. In DKL3 GBC, he has a blue/aqua look, with no dithering, and he almost looks like he does in the SNES games. The other animal friends look weird too, especially Winky with his odd mix of blue and red. Rambi looks really odd too. Some of the enemies aren't colored properly, either. Since when were Klump and Krusha yellow? Oh well, the backgrounds look awesome, way better than DKL3 GBC (especially the snow stages), and at least they didn't overuse purple like they did in DKL3 GBC. I also like the blue look they gave to one of the temple stages.
My last, but definitely not least gripe, is the animal friends. You can tell that Rare was lazy with this. Unlike the SNES or GBA games, when you find an animal crate, you become the animal. Notwithstanding the fact that crates aren't supposed to do this (only barrels do), and the fact that DK64 has this same oddity, this is a real big problem. If you get hit all, or even press Select, you lose the animal completely -- he doesn't even run off. This is really annoying, because you have to be real careful in avoiding enemies if you want to keep the animal to the end of the stage (and sometimes you have to for bonuses). I think the worst example of this is in Ice Age Alley -- to get to the bonuses, you need Expresso, but all these enemies are in the way, and for some stupid reason, Expresso can't touch any enemies (though the same can't be said about DKL). In the SNES or GBA versions, this wasn't a big issue, because you can just dismount, defeat the enemies, and then hop back on. But if you try that in this version -- Oops! You can't because when you press Select, you LOSE Expresso and have to try the level again. (It also doesn't help that he is also much slower, but I already mentioned that...) And since there are LOTS of enemies, this bonus is VERY hard to reach in this version.
But why did they need to do this? DKL was able to RIDE on animals, and that was a Game Boy game. Now, DKC is a GBC game, and it can't have the Kong and animal friend on the screen at the same time? What were they THINKING?! And the lack of buttons wasn't an issue either (unlike DKL2 or DKL3), because none of the animals had special moves like they did in DKC2, DKL2, DKC3, and DKL3.
So, while DKC GBC was an OK standalone game, it doesn't compare to the other versions of DKC. There are way too many things that make it less enjoyable.
At least it had Necky's Nutmare, though. That was fun. I wish they brought that back in DKC GBA, but they didn't. The mini-games were cool too, especially when compared to DKC2 GBA's and DKC3 GBA's boring mini-games.
The coconut one got irritating though on the level where you help your animal buddies cross holes.
