Donkey Kong Land

Donkey Kong Land was created as a handheld answer to the successful Donkey Kong Country on the Super Nintendo. Rare took the concept of the famous pre-rendered-graphics platformer and adapted it to the Game Boy's capabilities, so that players on the go could experience a similar feeling of jumping, collecting bananas, and competing against King K. Rool as on the big console. The gameplay combines classic platforming jumps with riding animal companions who offer different abilities, such as fast swimming or destroying enemies on impact, complemented by a range of secret bonus rooms hidden behind barrels or in invisible passages.

Despite the smaller display and grayscale-only palette, Rare did great work translating the visual style, the characters remain well recognizable and the animation stays smooth even during faster sections with minecarts or barrels launching the player across chasms. The levels also aren't just direct ports from the SNES original but are largely original, with their own arrangement of enemies and obstacles, which sets the game apart from the typical simplified conversions of the era. The music sticks to the melodic lines fans know from the console series, albeit in a more limited, chiptune form, and does a good job underscoring the atmosphere of each island setting.

At the time of its release the game earned praise for how faithfully it carried the feel of Donkey Kong Country over to the handheld, and it became one of the commercially successful titles for the Game Boy in the mid-nineties, when the handheld was experiencing a second wave of popularity thanks to projects like this one. To this day it's interesting as an example of how skillfully Rare could work with limited hardware while still preserving the brand's identity and its characteristic gameplay elements. For platformer fans it remains an enjoyable, if at times more demanding, challenge that still plays well after all these years and still holds up next to its console counterpart.