Digital Foundry (Official Thread)

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Originally Posted by Soulis

DKC series looks great but IMO, graphically speaking, Toy Story on the Mega Drive is the pinnacle of 16bit pre-rendered style platformers.

One thing i liked about DKC 1 and 2 (not 3) is the darker, more "eerie" art style/atmosphere. This is something i didn't like as much in the more recent DKC games by Retro Studios. These are too bright and colorful/cheerful.

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Yes, DKC 1 and 2 had great atmosphere.
Pre-rendered graphics weren't totally new, but a complete game made of that and, IMO, especially the jungle world pre-rendered was something unexpected.

These are some of the factors that made it so impressive at the time IMO:
- Fully pre-rendered graphics.
- Full-screen effects (rain, snow, etc.)
- Colored lighting effects.
- Sound effects which adjusted to the environment (inside caves they'd have echo, for an example).
- Unique package of sfx (at the time it was already common to have sound banks being reused in several games).
- Unique set of logos, icons, characters, etc.

The gameplay itself isn't all that deep or innovative - enjoyed the mounted options though; so IMO it was the production values which made it a big hit.

What made the DKC gameplay unique is the roll jumps. How you could roll off a cliff and still be able to jump + how rolling into enemies gains you momentum.

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Originally Posted by Thief

What made the DKC gameplay unique is the roll jumps. How you could roll off a cliff and still be able to jump + how rolling into enemies gains you momentum.

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Yes, there were some secrets or items you could get to this way. Diddy was especially good with this move because he didn't start falling as fast as his heavier companion.

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Originally Posted by Barone

These are some of the factors that made it so impressive at the time IMO:
- Fully pre-rendered graphics.
- Full-screen effects (rain, snow, etc.)
- Colored lighting effects.
- Sound effects which adjusted to the environment (inside caves they'd have echo, for an example).
- Unique package of sfx (at the time it was already common to have sound banks being reused in several games).
- Unique set of logos, icons, characters, etc.

The gameplay itself isn't all that deep or innovative - enjoyed the mounted options though; so IMO it was the production values which made it a big hit.

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I think this game had the most convincing snow effects of it's generation. The way it gets more and more dense and how the parallax background layers become less and less visible as this goes on. And the eerie music that doesn't sound like a happy Christmas jingle like so many other platform games when you get to the snow theme stages.

The transparency fog effects were also great.

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Originally Posted by Soulis

Yes, there were some secrets or items you could get to this way. Diddy was especially good with this move because he didn't start falling as fast as his heavier companion.

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That in particular I didn't like. When I first played DKC, I had learned in school that gravitational acceleration isn't affected by weight. Had the developers never heard of Galileo? :p

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Originally Posted by Soulis

I think this game had the most convincing snow effects of it's generation. The way it gets more and more dense and how the parallax background layers become less and less visible as this goes on. And the eerie music that doesn't sound like a happy Christmas jingle like so many other platform games when you get to the snow theme stages.

The transparency fog effects were also great.

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They played the strengths of the hardware features while having the nerve to use pre-rendered sprites, which tend to consume more sprite RAM, on a console which was very limited in such aspect.

I liked the 1st DKC but the 2nd game honestly is where I dumped a ton of time into. Going back into it now I forgot how damn brutal this game was to you if you didn't time your shit near perfectly!

DKC2 is very manageable, only the lost world gets pretty crazy hard. At least this is what I remember from playing this game as a kid on release. DKC2 was one of my childhood gaming memory highlights, such an epic experience. It's so much better then DKC1.

Also bought DKC3 on release, but that game was a massive disappointment after 2. That and I was already well into 32-Bit gaming by then too.

I also remember the lost world in DKC 2... i never managed to beat a few stages there. Those insane barrel courses man.

I did 101% legit on DKC 1 though. So yeah, DKC 2 was much harder.

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Originally Posted by Thief

Also bought DKC3 on release, but that game was a massive disappointment after 2. That and I was already well into 32-Bit gaming by then too.

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I didn't like how it felt less dark and more lighthearted compared to the others. I was into Yoshi's Island during then so that game was already scratching that itch for me.

Accomplished 101% & 102% both DKC1 & 2 as a kid. Think someone at school helped with that crazy bonus within a bonus secret in DKC1. Otherwise the only schoolyard tip that really helped for doing DKC1 101% on my own was when someone mentioned the exclamation mark after stage titles tip (signifying you got all secrets in that stage, therefore greatly narrowing down where to search for the few final secrets I was missing).

But the reward and satisfaction for 102% DKC2 was through the roof, as it was so much more in depth with the lost world stages opening up. Also an amazing ending and final ending screen for 102%. So amazing that I just sat there on that final screen, didn't want to turn off system because it looked so good.

Well damn... considering how hard that accomplishment is it must mean very few people would be able to see that. The guy who made this probably felt bad about it. Thankfully, the Internet can fix that.

Yeah I fully cleared DKC2 also years ago. Lost World was soul crushing if you weren't up to it. lol

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Originally Posted by BonusKun

I liked the 1st DKC but the 2nd game honestly is where I dumped a ton of time into. Going back into it now I forgot how damn brutal this game was to you if you didn't time your shit near perfectly!

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They're no joke! "DKC: Tropical Freeze" on the Wii U is fairly challenging as well.

I'm not interested in buying a SNES since for the minimal amount of games I want to play on it there would be little point; I emulate it on the Wii. These games are piquing my interest of late, how well do they emulate on Wii? Anyone have any experience? I'm wondering if it's worth shelling out for proper copies :).

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Originally Posted by cleeg

I'm not interested in buying a SNES since for the minimal amount of games I want to play on it there would be little point; I emulate it on the Wii. These games are piquing my interest of late, how well do they emulate on Wii? Anyone have any experience? I'm wondering if it's worth shelling out for proper copies :).

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You're not going to have much choice after March of this upcoming year where they stop accepting Wii Points and shut the Virtual Console down in January 2019.

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Originally Posted by sull56ivan2010

You're not going to have much choice after March of this upcoming year where they stop accepting Wii Points and shut the Virtual Console down in January 2019.

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Never heard of a soft modded Wii? None of what you mentioned will matter. :)