When this first came out I didn’t give it a chance. I rented it from Video King, and took it back when the rental period was over, never playing it again. I’m not sure why I wasn’t interested in it. It might have been the weirdness that came from playing a Donkey Kong Country game that didn’t star Donkey Kong, but I really enjoyed Donkey Kong Jr. in the arcade, and that didn’t star Donkey Kong either.

There’s a lot of similarities between Donkey Kong Jr. and Donkey Kong Country 2, actually. Both games star other characters on a quest to rescue a kidnapped Donkey Kong. Donkey Kong Jr. in the former game, Diddy and his sister Dixie in the latter. This game also gives the monkeys an ability that Donkey Kong Jr. was given in his game in the arcade: climbing two ropes at the same time. This makes you climb faster, but it also means that you have to watch out for enemies climbing down two ropes rather than just one.

This game has some other gameplay changes as well. One of the biggest, and best changes in this game is that you can now pick up and toss your partner. This lets you get items that are out of reach, and get into barrels that you can’t get into yourself. You can also turn into creatures this time, rather than just riding them like in the first game (although the monkeys ride some creatures here too).

I’m glad I finally took the time to get to the ending of this game. The game is a whole lot more challenging than the first Donkey Kong Country game, and Donkey Kong Country was a very challenging game as it was. I enjoyed this game a lot, though I missed the hidden treasures that could be found by breaking compartments on the ground.