It is rare for a fictional character who is originally a villain to become a hero of his own right - with his own video games to boot. (In his defense though, Donkey Kong can be said to have been misunderstood when he antagonized Mario in their very first game together.) Thus, with this impression in mind, this reviewer sought out Donkey Kong Land.
This reviewer also happened to have played the very fun SNES version (albeit only a bit), and thus, being the little kid that this reviewer was, had expected a game of the same caliber from Donkey Kong Land. Unfortunately, it was, of course, not the same game.
There was a manual that came with the copy of this game. In it, the backstory was purportedly depicted as nothing more than a dare (and a shameless excuse) for Donkey Kong to try out his luck (that is, exploiting the popularity of Donkey Kong Country) on an 8-bit system, namely the GameBoy. Oh, and King K. Rool had stolen the food supply of Donkey Kong's people - again.
The graphics were the first aspect of the game to be noticed. The game tries hard to stay true to the SNES version, rendering as many frames of animations for in-game models as it can, such that to the unseasoned eye, it looks very smooth. Furthermore, the background is also gorgeous, for a GameBoy game, with details like palm trees and corals in the backdrop. This should be all commendable, but the model and background designs look rather familiar to those in Donkey Kong Country, suggesting that the graphics of the latter had been merely strained through 8-bit filters.
The audio design also had a similar vibe, in that it sounded like a dumbed-down version of the SNES's. Nevertheless, this also meant that the sound effects in this game are significantly richer than those found in other GameBoy games of the same time. There are gratifyingly loud cannon blasts, bumps with nice reverberation and the ever-welcome tinkles of bananas being collected.
The music is upbeat as befitting the themes of the game, but like the rest of the audio design, the soundtrack does sound like a reduced variant of the soundtrack for the SNES version.
The gameplay involves navigating Donkey Kong and/or his nephew, Diddy Kong, through levels of all kinds, which include exotic locales like large caverns, lush jungles (which conveniently have paths for the primates and their enemies to loiter around on), underwater environments and huge pirate ships. Again, these were taken from the SNES version, but players who had yet to play that game would be thoroughly giddy from scooting all around these levels.
As for the reasons for the player to scoot around, there are plenty. Other than the primary objective of getting from the start of one level to the end, there are many collectibles to search for, ranging from tantalizingly numerous bananas and bunches of them tauntingly out of immediate reach to extra lives (in the form of balloons) and items like barrels that can be picked up and lugged around for a hearty throw later. Collecting these are optional, but with the reward of extra lives and fulfilling of requirements for the unlocking of bonus levels, players would be hard pressed not to stay around for a while longer to investigate every nook and cranny of the level.
The well-praised level selection feature from the SNES version had been transferred over to this game quite seamlessly. The player could choose where to go next from the level that he/she had previously conquered. Sometimes, the selections are very limited, but the player is still able to identify the theme of the next level in the chain and thus make a good guess of what he/she would be up against.
In this GameBoy game, the player can swap between Donkey and Diddy, as long as the player has located special barrels (apparently labeled with the initials "DK"), which when smashed, releases one or the other if they had not joined the player already. Either Kong acts as a back-up life of sorts; when one Kong is incapacitated, the other pops up in a nearby checkpoint. (The player would restart the sub-level otherwise, expending an actual life if both were taken out.)
This would be acceptable, if not for the fact that the SNES version had a co-op feature that allowed two players to play alongside each other, one as either Kong. The GameBoy version did not have this feature (at least to this reviewer's knowledge). Even though there are some differences between the the two (Donkey Kong being the stronger of the two, while Diddy appears to be faster), they just play too similarly for either to be a satisfactorily unique way to experience the game.
To help the Kongs in their quest, several animal friends also make themselves available for the Kongs to ride, such as Rambi the Rhino and Expresso the Ostrich, upon their release from crates that formerly held them captive. Like the Kongs are to each other, they function like back-up lives, for they immediately perish when they are harmed. For the most part, their service was not absolutely necessary to the completion of the level at hand, but they do allow the player to reach regions of the level that may hide goodies or entrances to bonus levels.
Enemies in the game, for the most part, simply patrols predetermined areas. They won't react much to the presence of the Kongs, who can defeat them by rolling/dumping barrels on them, or bowling/cartwheeling into them (if they can be touched without damage to the Kong being controlled). Bosses are much more intelligent, often having attacks that are somewhat targeted at the Kongs. Most boss fights occur in a limited space, so the player would have to learn their attack animations quickly and know when to avoid them, as the bosses do not really follow strict patterns of movement and offense.
To tie up this review, it could be said while Donkey Kong Land was very likely a mere port-over of Donkey Kong Country (and it unabashedly implies itself to be so), it was a good GameBoy game that would have been adequate for one who did not have access to the superior SNES version.