Chances are, you've heard of "Donkey Kong Country." When it was first released on the Super NES back in 1994, the game was lauded as one of gaming's greats, and it was also a huge step forward for visuals, pushing the very limits of the Super NES with its 32-bit graphics. But we've learned all too often that it's not just showy visuals that make a good game; it's great gameplay as well, and luckily, it so happened that this visually cutting-edge game turned out to also be really fun to play. 15 years later, having played it myself for the first time, I can also assure you that the game has not lost any of its luster.
"Donkey Kong Country" has aged, and it's because of the long time gap that its 32-bit visuals may look a bit primitive today, but the environments are still luscious and bursting with color, and I'm sure they looked even better back then. Also, David Wise's soundtrack for this game is absolutely breathtaking, adding another great layer to the game's already fantastic presentation. As I also mentioned earlier, the game is just a whole lot of fun to play: the run-and-jump platforming is still great, the depth and heavy amount of collectibles allows for a huge amount of replayability, and even after so many years and new entries in both the series, as well as the 2D platformer genre, the gameplay still feels timeless, controls wonderfully, and doesn't skip a beat.
I think the only things stopping this from reaching a 10 out of 10 from me is that there are some moments in the game that feel a bit too frustrating and run on some fake difficulty, and the boss fights in the game (minus the final one) aren't too much to write home about. Most of them do just feel like larger versions of regular enemies and just aren't all that memorable.
Even still, "Donkey Kong Country" has withstood the test of time and remains a pretty excellent game even to this day. If you're a fan of old-school platforming, or a gaming historian in the making, or you just want to learn more about classic games, "Donkey Kong Country" is absolutely worthy of your time.
Final rating: 9 out of 10 "Awesome"