We analayzed what made Donkey Kong Country a success among platformers. What do you think was the cause of its success?

Hey everyone, my name is Jackson. My friend Billy and I love to discuss games, specifically the most popular games of all time. Recently we made a short analysis of what made Donkey Kong Country (SNES) successful:

https://youtu.be/vgmLio5N4W4

We would love to hear why you think it was a success - during a time of so many platformers that it may as well have blended into the background. What did you enjoy about it?

@jacksonryde: The graphics were amazing for the time.

Level design.

The graphics and it looking like an early CGI movie. That was it's biggest hook, the game itself is pretty average.

Pretty much this.

The graphics, but also the music, and the 'buddy' mechanic where when DK was defeated you'd take control of Diddy.

@vfighter: I disagree. It had gameplay, graphics and amazing music and good sound. They crushed it. Still one of the best games of all time for me.

There is always a small vocal group of people that dislike this game for some reason and will try to claim that it was only popular because of it's graphics, but that is BS. It did have amazing graphics for it's time, but the graphics are no longer impressive by today's standards yet many people still love playing this game over 20 years later, so it obviously has more going for it than just graphics.

Donkey Kong Country is one of my favorite games of all time and the things that I love most about it are it's fun level design, it's incredible soundtrack which created a great atmosphere for the game, and it's charm & humor.

Yup. I remember when this game came out, graphically it was unprecedented how gorgeous this game was, and the gameplay was equally as good.

@vfighter: Can't agree with this. The music, the mechanics, the level design, sound effects...everything about it was innovative and still holds up.

Everything about it. Amazing design and graphics for its time. It really stood out.

Graphics, slippery controls were a pain for a while but once mastered it became a super power

@Blueresident87: The soundtrack I'll give you as I can't really recall it at all, but the level design and gameplay were both very average compared to that eras best platformers. I don't hate the game or anything, but besides it's graphics it wasnt anything special.

If you can't recall it's soundtrack then I question how much of this game you really played since it has one of the most atmospheric video game soundtracks ever especially for that time and it is definitely not the kind of soundtrack that somebody would forget if they spent a good amount of time with the game. It's soundtrack was more impressive than it's graphics.

I would also like to know what do you consider to be that era's best platformers that you think Donkey Kong Country is just average in comparison to because platformers are my favorite genre, especially the ones from that 16 bit era, and I think that Donkey Kong Country's level design and gameplay is up at the very top with the best of that era.

Smelly game. I remember my friend was really excited to show it to me to justify his SNES which he never really played anyway and was impressed. For about 10 seconds. Oh you just run along collecting bananas.

SNES is the worst. (You might have guessed by now I don't pander for popularity).

Everyone loves bananas.

Basically graphics.

Don't hate me but my personal opinion was that much of the success had to do with the title. However, it was very different than it's namesake. For that reason and my being older, I didn't have any interest in it. It was very much geared towards a younger crowd.

Awesome graphics for the time, nice level design, fun platforming, good marketing, etc. Plus, Donkey Kong was (and still is) a cool character.

I love the music in this game.

Never could connect with that game. It had hype due to the graphics but the game it self is just OK.