Rare's handheld team has included a few new side games to spice things up for Kong experts. All things considered, Rare did a decent job with the limited hardware: while some songs are missing a track or have a wrong-sounding note, most tunes are still enjoyable phantoms of the original's majesty. Resampled instruments are not nearly as vibrant, and some are outright replaced. The conversion is somewhat painful, and anyone listening to the GBA version will sense that something is off. With its rich samples and heavy bass, DKC2's musical score wasn't exactly composed with the GBA's abilities in mind. The rising ooze rigging level mentioned earlier (Slime Climb) is perhaps the worst culprit: the player is forced to speed through a vertically oriented level where he must travel a specific path, but if the player goes too quickly he is likely to slam into a pacing Zinger bee. Even so, the original occasionally stooped to jumps of faith and surprising enemy placement to induce cheap deaths or to obfuscate secrets. The game looks grainier as a result, but it prevents unintended "blind zones" that have plagued other console-to-GBA ports. Just as in previous Donkey Kong Game Boy conversions, the graphics are scaled down (at the expense of visual detail) to provide the same field of vision found on the SNES. Rare has also hidden photos and golden feathers in the GBA game's levels, though these are not concealed as cleverly as the Hero Coins. Die-hard fans of the original will complete this remake much more quickly than the newbies, but supposed experts at the game are probably foggy on at least one or two of the game's many Hero Coins. Rare consistently rewards curiosity and dexterity, even if with a trivial banana bunch. Finding secrets will also take a keen eye, since most are marked via suspicious banana placement or environment details, while accessing clearly-marked bonus rooms often requires advance planning and skill. Later levels require excellent timing and precision-even veterans will make use of collected extra lives. Those unfamiliar with DKC2 will discover many hours of platforming and exploration in the GBA rendition, and players revisiting the game may have forgotten its genuine difficulty. Later levels depend on skills honed in similar earlier levels, too: players would not be able to out-climb rising ooze if they hadn't practiced climbing rope in earlier rigging levels. Practically every level introduces something novel: a new enemy, a new animal buddy, a new type of barrel, etc. This is truer than ever on the GBA, with the game's diminished visuals and audio. Indeed, while Nintendo's hype machine promoted DKC2's amazing graphics and sound in 1995, level design was the game's true star. SNES veterans will reminisce over the hours spent in the levels' nooks and crannies. The Donkey Kong Country series initiated the collect-a-thon platforming movement DKC2 is packed with Banana Coins, Hero Coins, Kremkoins, extra life balloons, Kong letters, and, of course, bananas. Diddy's game may have sustained aesthetic damage during the port, but its creamy nugget of fun remains unscathed. DKC2 on the GBA provides the first complete portable version of the SNES classic. The sequel featured richer sound, further-improved graphics and a more polished bonus room system than the first, and it managed to feel completely new to fans of the original. Donkey Kong Country 2 is often considered the best in Rare's DK series.
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