Collection essentials #181: Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest (SNES)

Donkey Kong Country 1 was such a huge hit, it’s no wonder that a sequel landed a year later. And boy, what a sequel it is. It pretty much doesn’t mess with any of the fundamentals that made the first game work, and it simply does just about everything a little bit better.

A little note about this game: it’s notoriously easy to get the title wrong. For many years I thought it was “Diddy Kong’s Quest”, then it came to my attention that I was playing the apostrophe and the S in the wrong place, as it is a play on the word “conquest.” The correct title is “Diddy’s Kong Quest”. If you have always gotten this wrong and I just blew your mind, you’re welcome.

The story this time is that, rather than steal Donkey Kong’s stash of bananas, King K. Rool has kidnapped Donkey Kong himself instead. And so Diddy Kong sets off with his girlfriend Dixie to save the day. This has some gameplay implications too. In the first game, Donkey Kong was the “power” character who had an easy time dispatching certain foes, whereas Diddy was much more nimble. This game lacks a power character, but instead, Dixie Kong brings the incredible ability to hover. In a 2D platformer where you sometimes have to make precise jumps, being able to hover is a godsend. Don’t go off thinking this game is easy, though, because it certainly is not.

What does Donkey Kong Country 2 do better than the first game? The biggest thing is the secrets and collectibles. There are more things to find in every level, and this time there is an actual incentive for doing so beyond temporary extra lives, as there now exists a bonus world with levels that you can gradually unlock, with the true final boss fight lying at the end of it. And the game even has a hint system so that you’re not totally in the dark looking for secrets, and you’ll feel more motivated to do more than simply romp through the game as fast as possible. Music is subjective, but I think the majority of fans that DKC2’s soundtrack is even better than the first game, and the song “Stickerbush Symphony” stands out as a fan favorite. The level design is sublime, and there are more cool animal buddies who chip in this time too.

I do have to admit, there is something that DKC2 does miss the mark with, and that is saving your game. It costs two of a certain kind of coin to save your progress every single time. This isn’t a lot, but it’s a pain. Whenever you don’t have enough, you’d better hope you have enough time to jump into a level to quickly grab two coins and that you don’t have to urgently shut the game off due to having to leave. 

Donkey Kong Country 2 was another big success, winding up as the sixth-best-selling Super Nintendo game of all-time, but did sell quite a bit less than the previous game. This isn’t too hard to understand, though. For one thing, the graphics, while just as impressive, weren’t as novel a year later and due to having already been done before. On top of that, by late 1995, the next console generation was underway, as two competing consoles that boasted full-fledged 3D graphics had been released in the previous year. 

I also played and loved Donkey Kong Country 2 as a kid, but I didn’t play it nearly as much as the first Donkey Kong Country. This is in part because the first game was absolutely everywhere, so it was the one I experienced first, and therefore the one I wanted to buy first. The second game is, though, one of the absolute top nostalgic games for my younger sisters, who played like crazy (it probably helped that it co-starred a girl), and they loved the renowned song “Stickerbush Symphony” so much that they invented their own song lyrics for it.

Donkey Kong Country 2 is one of the top games on a console with a ton of competition, a Super essential. And there’s one more Kong adventure to cover on the system, so stay tuned for next time.