As immaculate as it is flawed; DKC's strengths lie in its charm, but so too do its faults.
Oddly enough, to see Donkey Kong Country at its best you really have to force yourself to miss the majority of it. Speedrunning in Donkey Kong Country is a near zenith experience, reflecting the games almost unique design specification that easily allows for practically constant flow, but with the very deliberate placement of dangers that can trick you-rather than necessitating you-into acting or hesitating. It becomes more a test of nerve rather than skill and as you bound nervously under enemy jumps, blast methodically in time through the spinning barrel sections and bounce merrily off aligned sets of enemies you can appreciate the level of finesse and perfection that has gone into making the game work.
Slow everything down however and it becomes simply ordinary. The coupling of nerve and skill still presents itself, but only during particularly dangerous jumps. Much of this has to do with how slow Donkey Kong's walking speed naturally is, losing much of the games sense of continuity. It becomes almost a necessity to play the game while holding down the Y button to run and it is a constant reminder that a game of near mythical status in the platforming world sees you jumping with the underside of your thumb knuckle, as the tip of your thumb is almost always otherwise engaged.
There are more meaningful reasons as to why pressing two buttons is nearly a standard in the game. There is a genuine feeling of uncertainty that accompanies each danger filled leap and it extends beyond the basic problem of Donkey Kong not jumping far enough while walking. A more fundamental flaw arises due to the pixel technique Donkey Kong Country uses for its engine. Suspect hit detection is rife and it extends to the enemies themselves. It's disjointing when first noticed but becomes manageable-though never fully secure-through repetition and adaptation by over stretching required jumps. Something that is a little harder to adapt to is Donkey Kong Country's eclectic selection of animal friends. While the likes of Rambi the Rhino provide a genuine sense of strength and stability and the likes of Enguarde the Swordfish give an empowering sense of control in the underwater levels, the other Yoshi-esque creatures are less helpful. Winkey the Frog can be likened to Super Mario Galaxy's Spring Mario which provided the additional variable of judging when your character can jump as opposed to simply judging the jump itself. Expresso the Ostrich suffers more from being overly vulnerable. His ability to float across the screen being little comfort knowing you can't attack enemies.
What the core gameplay lacks in stability of detection it makes up for in versatility of design. Unique level scenarios are everywhere in Donkey Kong Country and the use of the SNES' powerhouse technologies in almost all of them (strobe lit levels, rolling boulder escapes, light switch dependant enemies) shows just how well Rare used the technology given to them in ways that go beyond the now dated graphical look. Indeed, one of these showcases (the barrel blasting sections) are almost synonymous with the series itself and it's in this underlying principle of recognition that pushes these sections into becoming part of the gameplay rather than occasional exceptions to it. For while these levels are excellent in how they shift tension and viewpoint; it is in their fusion with the environment that stretches them beyond simple gimmickry. Rare have certainly made its use of exotic locations worthwhile: with treetop levels having less of an emphasis on single walkways, cave levels providing a greater focus on verticality and snow filled levels being both slippery to play on and hazy to see through thanks to a progressive weather system. It all fits together to create a game world that feels oddly immersive and this is supported by a world and level map that gives you an indication-rather than shows you a path-of where the next level will take place. It creates a sense of anticipation of what kind of design twist will be present in the next area and it is a feeling of expectation that is almost always rewarded.
While Donkey Kong Country's graphics have lost much of their impact, this is more down to the near eternal quality of the soundtrack as opposed to any technical advancement. It is a track list of immense variety within a genre that is almost unique to this series. A kind of ambient funk that fuses environmental drips and trills with at times haunting, at times riotous and at times gracious pieces of instrumentation. Such general summaries have to be given for the sake of space because to go into detail would require an analysis of each level, of each character and of each special scene because they all have such a wide array of themes that there is no one phrase that can truly sum up its entirety; (indeed, even the term "ambient funk" excludes some of Donkey Kong Country's calmer moments). Perhaps what sums up the soundtrack best is the fact that the quality is so high that it even manages to make the underwater swimming sections (the bane of platformers) an immeasurably relaxing and serene gaming experience.
While there is certainly a sense of contradiction within Donkey Kong Country you can't help but notice the level of quality that pervades throughout it. As is stands today, Donkey Kong Country is more of a milestone now than it ever was. Its use of technology to better game design, its stirring soundtrack that fuses ambience with syncopated rhythms and its cast of characters that gain a better sense of personality with the use of graphical advancements are ideas that are more relevant now that they ever were. To a more bitter end, Donkey Kong Country also represents how the desire and enthusiasm for new technology can come at the expense of the games ultimate core. And whether it is down to our industries heavier focus on graphics over gameplay, or whether it's this very flaw that undercuts Donkey Kong Country from greatness; it is this more sobering final comparison that Donkey Kong Country should perhaps now, be remembered greatest for.