Donkey Kong Land
Donkey Kong Land | ||
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Composer(s) | ||
Series | Single-player |
Donkey Kong Land
Development began in 1994, before Donkey Kong Country's completion, and lasted a year. Rare's Game Boy programmer, Paul Machacek, developed Land as an original game rather than as a
Donkey Kong Land was released in mid-1995. It sold 3.91 million copies and received positive reviews. Critics praised it as successfully translating Country's gameplay, visuals, and music to the Game Boy, though they disagreed over whether it was an equal experience. Land was followed by Donkey Kong Land 2 (1996), Donkey Kong Land III (1997), and a Game Boy Color version of Country (2000), which attempted to replicate the SNES Country games more closely. Land and its sequels were rereleased for the Nintendo 3DS via the Virtual Console service in 2014.
Gameplay
As a
The player travels through four worlds,
Development
Like Country, Land features pre-rendered graphics converted to sprites through Rare's Advanced Computer Modelling (ACM) compression technique.[17] Although the Game Boy is considerably less powerful than the SNES, its basic architecture is similar; this allowed Machacek to easily transfer Country artwork to Land and the artists to use the same PowerAnimator tools for new ACM assets.[16][18] The project pushed the Game Boy to its limits because of its graphics. Particularly, constructing levels with slopes and animating collectibles, both uncommon in Game Boy games, required a greater ROM size.[19] The limitations meant only one player character could appear on-screen at a time and that Rare had to reduce the number of bonus stages and animal companions.[9]
Land's team started as just Machacek but grew to over 15.
The soundtrack was composed by David Wise and Graeme Norgate, who worked to convert Wise's Country soundtrack to the Game Boy's sound chip.[1][9] Norgate, who described Land as his most upbeat work,[21] wrote original tracks to fit the new locales' atmosphere.[9] It was his first Game Boy project and the system's technical restrictions forced him to focus on melodies. He said Wise helped teach him as they worked together: "He'd drip feed me little tricks to improve the overall sound. 'You can repeat the melody three steps forward at a third of the volume to emulate an echo', and voila, your lead melody now has a lovely tight delay that makes it sound a lot wider and smoother".[21]
Release
Donkey Kong Land was the second Donkey Kong game for the Game Boy, following Donkey Kong (1994).[8] Like Donkey Kong Country, Land was announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago in June 1994 and promoted through Nintendo's Play It Loud! marketing campaign.[22][23] It was released in North America on 26 June 1995, in Japan on 27 July, and in Europe on 24 August.[24] In Japan, the game was released under the title Super Donkey Kong GB. Nintendo distributed Land in banana yellow cartridges, unlike other Game Boy games, which came in grey.[1][25] Land was one of several games optimised for the Super Game Boy, a peripheral allowing Game Boy cartridges to be played on a SNES; playing it through the Super Game Boy adds colour palettes and a jungle-themed border.[2] Donkey Kong Land sold 3.91 million copies,[26] making it the bestselling Donkey Kong game for a Game Boy console.[9]
Reception
Publication | Score |
---|---|
The Electric Playground | 9/10[8] |
Publication | Award |
---|---|
GamePro | Best Game Boy Game of 1995[28] |
Donkey Kong Land received positive reviews and was named the best Game Boy game of 1995 by
Reviewers praised the visuals, impressed by Rare's effort to preserve Country's pre-rendered art style.
Opinions differed as to how Land compared to Country and the rest of the Game Boy's library. Some critics considered Land equal to Country (CVG called it superior on the basis of its gameplay);[5][27][29] others called it lesser.[3][8] Game Players felt that both featured quality gameplay, but Land lacked the visual fidelity that made Country special.[3] Several called Land one of the best Game Boy games,[5][29][31] but The Electric Playground said it was not as inventive, satisfying, or original as the 1994 Game Boy Donkey Kong. Still, they felt it was one of the Game Boy's best platformers and an essential purchase.[8] The music and sound were praised as among the Game Boy's best.[d] The Electric Playground believed they were near-perfect translations of Country's,[8] and GameFan said they sounded on par with a SNES game when played through the Super Game Boy.[31]
Legacy
Michael Teitelbaum wrote a children's book adaptation of Donkey Kong Land, Rumble in the Jungle, following its release.[1] Land received three follow-up games: Donkey Kong Land 2 (1996), based on Diddy's Kong Quest; Donkey Kong Land III (1997), based on Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!; and a Game Boy Color version of Donkey Kong Country (2000), which re-creates the SNES game using Land's graphics and audio.[20][32] The follow-ups attempted to replicate the SNES games more closely; unlike Land, they do not introduce new level archetypes or enemies.[20] The Land trilogy was rereleased for the Nintendo 3DS via the Virtual Console in 2014.[33]
Retrospective reviewers considered Donkey Kong Land a technical achievement.
Polygon ranked Donkey Kong Land and its sequels among the lesser Donkey Kong games;[34] Nintendo Life ranked it towards the middle.[35] In a 2018 interview, Machacek said that of the games he worked on, Donkey Kong Land remained among his favourites.[16] Some of Land's levels, such as K. Rool's pirate ship, would be featured in subsequent Donkey Kong games.[15] It also established a tradition of Donkey Kong games being distributed on yellow cartridges, which its sequels and Donkey Kong 64 (1999) would continue.[1]
Notes
- ^ Known in Japan as Super Donkey Kong GB[1] (Japanese: スーパードンキーコングGB, Hepburn: Sūpā Donkī Kongu Jībī).
- ^ Attributed to multiple references: GamePro,[6] The Electric Playground,[8] Video Games,[27] and Electronic Gaming Monthly.[29]
- ^ Attributed to multiple references: Computer and Video Games,[5] The Electric Playground,[8] Video Games,[27] and GameFan.[31]
- ^ Attributed to multiple references: GamePro,[6] The Electric Playground,[8] Video Games,[27] and GameFan.[31]
References
Citations
- ^ a b c d e f g Zverloff, Nick (17 April 2013). "Donkey Kong Land". Hardcore Gaming 101. Archived from the original on 27 December 2022. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
- ^ a b c Hayhoe 2022, p. 66.
- ^ a b c d e Game Players staff 1995, p. 70.
- ^ Clays 1995, p. 62–63.
- ^ a b c d e f Clays 1995, p. 63.
- ^ a b c d e f The Axe Grinder 1995, p. 78.
- ^ Nintendo Life. Archivedfrom the original on 20 May 2021. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
- ^ The Electric Playground. Archived from the originalon 6 August 1997. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Hayhoe 2022, p. 67.
- ^ a b Milne 2022, p. 20.
- ^ Nintendo Power staff 1995b, p. 10–23.
- ^ a b Loveday, Leigh (11 March 2005). "Scribes (March 11, 2005)". Rare. Archived from the original on 11 May 2006. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
- ^ Nintendo Power staff 1995a, p. 90.
- ^ Gach, Ethan (6 July 2018). "Rare Finished Making a Battletoads for Game Boy That Never Came Out". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 30 January 2021. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
- ^ a b Bailey, Dustin (1 July 2022). "Donkey Kong Got His Original Game Boy Spin-Off Because It Was Too Hard to Port Donkey Kong Country". GamesRadar+. Archived from the original on 27 December 2022. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
- ^ a b c d "RVG Interviews: Paul Machacek". Retro Video Gamer. 8 May 2018. Archived from the original on 30 December 2022. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
- ^ Nintendo Power staff 1995a, p. 89.
- ^ Nintendo Power staff 1995a, p. 93.
- ^ Digital Foundry. 16 December 2017. Archivedfrom the original on 2021-12-11. Retrieved 27 December 2022. Event occurs from 25:51 to 28:00.
- ^ a b c Hayhoe 2022, p. 65.
- ^ a b Greening, Chris (15 July 2011). "Graeme Norgate Interview: Composer of Goldeneye and TimeSplitters". Video Game Music Online. Archived from the original on 2 October 2018. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
- ^ GamePro staff 1994, p. 38.
- ^ Nintendo 1995, p. 3.
- Nintendo Life. 16 April 2019. Archivedfrom the original on 13 December 2022. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
- ^ Nintendo Power staff 1995a, p. 91.
- ^ CESA 2021, p. 164.
- ^ a b c d e f Hallock 1995, p. 67.
- ^ a b GamePro staff 1996, p. 26.
- ^ a b c d Malec 1995, p. 135.
- ^ Lee 1995, p. 12.
- ^ a b c d e f Lee 1995, p. 83.
- ^ DiRienzo, David (25 January 2015). "Donkey Kong Country". Hardcore Gaming 101. Archived from the original on 25 February 2021. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
- ^ Campbell, Evan (13 October 2014). "Donkey Kong Country, Land Trilogies Coming to Nintendo's Virtual Console in Europe". IGN. Archived from the original on 30 December 2022. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
- ^ a b c Parish, Jeremy (10 May 2018). "The Definitive Ranking of Donkey Kong Games". Polygon. Archived from the original on 3 April 2019. Retrieved 31 December 2022.
- ^ Nintendo Life. p. 2. Archivedfrom the original on 31 December 2022. Retrieved 31 December 2022.
Works cited
- 2021CESAゲーム白書 (2021 CESA Games White Papers). ISBN 978-4-902346-43-5.
- The Axe Grinder (July 1995). "ProReview: Donkey Kong Land". ISSN 1042-8658.
- "CES: The Best of the Show". ISSN 1042-8658.
- Clays, Simon (September 1995). "Donkey Kong Land". ISSN 0261-3697.
- "Donkey Kong Land". ISSN 1041-9551.
- "Donkey Kong Land". ISSN 1041-9551.
- "Editor's Choice Awards 1995". ISSN 1042-8658.
- Hallock, Betty (July 1995). "Donkey Kong Land". ISSN 1059-2938.
- Hayhoe, Benjamin (July 7, 2022). "The Making of: Donkey Kong Land". ISSN 1742-3155.
- Lee, K. (July 1995). "Donkey Kong Land". ISSN 1092-7212.
- Malec, Dave (July 1995). "Fact-File: Donkey Kong Land". ISSN 1058-918X.
- Milne, Rory (1 September 2022). "The Evolution of Donkey Kong Country". ISSN 1742-3155.
- ISSN 1058-918X.
- "Small Screens". ISSN 1087-2779.