It's too generic of both of its SNES cousins, but DKL2 has its moments.
The story is pretty much a rehash of the one found in DKC2. Donkey Kong gets kidnapped by the evil pirate, Captain K. Rool, and it's up to Diddy Kong and his sidekick, (and girlfriend) Dixie Kong, to save him. Despite Cranky Kong's criticism, the pair set off on an epic adventure full of dangerous monsters, valuable booty, and all the stuff you saw in DKC2. It's the same story, but it's okay.
I expected the gameplay to be quite true to the series: slow, precise platforming, loads of fun and creative levels, and great boss battles. I managed to find that in the game, but there are problems that keep it from surpassing the stuff on the SNES. I'll get to those later, but for now, let's get to the positives. Firstly, the level design is fantastic. It's as fun as it is clever, and it packs a challenge, too (I'll get to that). The controls worked well, too (look at my DKL review for more info on thsoe controls), and I didn't find any problems with it.
The overall layout of the world has all of the same locales as DKC2. You've got the pirate ship, the lava world, the swamp area, and all of the other areas from the SNES game. Even all of the levels have the same name as those in the other game. However, don't be mistaken. None of these levels are the exact same ones as those in the bigger game. They have the same concepts, but they're entirely new. This is a good thing, in theory, but I had a few problems with it.
One of them is the fact that the game is too heavily inspired by DKC2. The previous handheld game had brought in a bunch of new ideas to go with some ideas from DKC. There's none of that here, which is disappointing. Also, some of the worlds in this game are combinations of two seperate worlds in the original game. For example, the swamp and lava worlds have been connected, which (theoretically) seems unnatural, mainly because it's impossible for something like this to happen and be able to stay stable (but this is a cartoonish game, what can you expect?). This doesn't make the game much shorter, but takes away a good boss or two.
As for the rest, it's a mixed bag. The graphics are just as impressive as DKL, with an exaggerated cartoony look similar to DKC2. However, the overall look is very dark, and tends to hamper gameplay, even in bright light. The overall sound isn't any better. The music is composed of many of the tracks as DKC2 (which contain some of my favorite music to listen to), but none of the songs are particularly memorable. What's worse is that there are no new songs like there were in DKL (the sound effects are still pretty bland, too).
And unlike DKL, DKL2 doesn't have a good amount of replayability. I really didn't want to play the game again after I beat Captain K. Rool and saved Donkey Kong, and that's really disappointing. DKL was a game I wanted to play again and again because of its creative levels and good challenge. Why couldn't the game have been done in here: a game that's supposed to be a portable remake of one of my favorite games of all time? But that's not the only reason: the other is the challenge is too unfair. I took many leaps of faith in the game because I couldn't where I would land and the boss levels are very cramped so I didn't have enough room to dodge their attacks (this falls into the category of the graphics hampering the gameplay, so I combined both).
Did I enjoy playing DKL2? I guess you could say that. I enjoyed most of the game's levels, even though I liked the ones in DKC2 better. In fact, everything was done better in DKC2 better. In fact, everything was done better in DKC2, and that's a fact. DKL2 will always be my least favorite entry in the Donkey Kong Country series, but it's defenitely not a bad game. I'm sorry for originally giving this game a 4, it deserves more than that. But it has too many problems for me to justify a better score than what I'm giving it now, which will be my final score for the game. If you ever find this game, it's worth a try. But if you had a choice, play DKC2 or DKL, those are the better games.
Gameplay: 8/10
Graphics: 7/10
Story: 7/10
Sound/Music: 6.5/10
Replay Value: 5/10
Fun: 6/10
Overall: 6.5/10
+ Great level design and platforming.
+ Reuses much of the content in DKC2, and that's a good thing (for a while).
+ Graphics still impress, most of the time.
- Too generic of DKC2
- Dark visuals hamper the still somewhat inaccurate platforming.
- Nonoriginal and nonmemorable soundtrack and bland sound effects.
Even4life, Jan. 7th 2012