This week on Old vs. New, we're exploring a series that I have fond childhood memories of: Donkey Kong Country. So, what do you prefer? The old games of just a small controller, skill and a lot of luck with a semi-long storyline, a lot of platforming very little gimmicks with a steep difficulty and not many characters? Or the new one/ones (depending if you count 64 on this) With a complicated controller with motion controls, a lot of gimmicks, a complicated storyline, but not much platforming and little skill? I myself prefer the old ones. I LOVED these games growing up. One of my fondest memories was going to a friends house and playing the first game when I was a kid. I also later on got the sequels and though not as fond as I was before with them, I still found a nostalgia with the series that made me keep coming back. I lost interest in 64, it just didn't have the charm or the enjoyability of the old games. I also found it frustrating on a lot of levels, like a lot of games being made by Nintendo at the time, it was trying the "collection" route and I seriously didn't like the gameplay due to it. Though I liked the rap. I did try the new one that recently came out, but I found myself uninterested in it, especially with the Wii Mote. I found myself trying the demo, but leaving totally unsatisfied that it wasn't the same memories of my childhood.
I don't count Donkey Kong 64 because it's not a DKC game. Meanwhile, there is a HUGE difference between Donkey Kong Country on SNES and on Wii. Huge. The tag team element is gone with player one being limited to DK, the camera is far more zoomed out nowadays, and the competitive element with the tagging out is GONE. Retro took a lot of what made the series awesome and just flat out got rid of it.
I semi-consider 64 a DKC game, enough to put it as part of the Old vs. New. Just not enough for it really to be considered nostalgic, that's for sure. The Wii game was made by another company. Rare was given to MS around the Xbox 360 era, I think. But it is definitely owned by MS now. The last game Rare made for Nintendo was Star Fox Adventures. (Anyone want to know how that turned out? :P Probably another time.)
1. Star Fox Adventures is great. 2. It was in the beginning of the Xbox era, actually, with Grabbed By The Ghoulies- another under-rated gem. The Wii game was made by Retro, yeah, but that doesn't mean they have to ignore the original games entirely. They didn't take any time to analyze the old games and ended up stripping it of its identity. It plays almost no different than New Super Mario Bros, and that's a problem.
Eh... I just get a twitch around SFA and I have played it through once and really didn't enjoy it. I do have to agree with you on DKC, though... They stripped everything of the good parts of DKC with the Wii game. It kinda reminded me of Diddy Kong Racing and Super Mario Bros. Wii.
I never really played Donkey Kong Country, maybe a few times at friend's houses, but I never thought it was fun. I also felt that the graphics were ugly as sin. So, I hate them all. Equally of course.
