For those who wanted me to take a look at DKC on Game Boy Color, I'd recommend giving KZfaqr Freezer's video on the game a watch. She's much nicer to it than I probably would've been and gives it its proper due: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/kMV1h5l1vbDLcpc.html&t

Donkey Kong Land was superb. The fact they could make that work, especially on a Gameboy DMG/Pocket screen never ceases to amaze me. They really translated it well.

No joke. I bought the three DKL games just before the 3DS shop closed. I couldn’t resist. They need more love. So many great memories with these games. I owned all three DKL games. I played them to death. Thank you so much for talking about these games. People don’t give them enough time or credit.

Donkey Kong Country on GBA was my first exposure to the franchise as a whole, and still one of the games I think most fondly of whenever I reminisce about growing up as a GameBoy kid. The music, the gameplay, the characters... it just hooked me. I'll never forget my mom beating levels I had trouble with for me while I was at school. It did take me several years and resets to fully *finish* the game, but when I did, oh MAN did I love that ending!! It will always, ALWAYS hold a very special place in my heart. 🥰 I also bought DKC3 for GBA a little later down the line. This was after I had learned more about the lore of the games, and specifically discovered Dixie Kong, who quickly became one of my favorite characters. I loved what I got to experience of it, but... I never really clicked with it in the same way. I think I was so used to how the first game's gameplay loop was structured that, with the amount of changes introduced between sequels, it felt harder for me to really be immersed without doubting my skill level. (I also got my cartrdige at a ridiculously cheap price for the time through eBay. Crazy how things have changed!)

I played the GBA Donkey Kong games on a DS Lite and I agree that the gba versions can stand on there own. But I’m impressed with what was accomplished with Donkey Kong Land on the Gameboy.

As a dude who grew up on DKC through the handheld games... thank you soooo much

Donkey Kong Country on GBA was my first ever video game. I got it with my GBA SP for my 6th birthday. This year it’ll be 20 years. The nostalgia is real.

While I did play a bit of the DKC games on the SNES (1 and 2) I never fully experienced them in their entirety until the GBA games came out and I was a bit older to comprehend playing them. They were how I mostly remembered the soundtracks to those games through the cheatcode menus soundtest. So when I went back to hear the old versions of said songs, they didn't really impress me till I got much older to understand more on the haardware they were made for and appreciate them more. But I will always remember my time with DKC 1, 2, and 3 on GBA as helping me develop my love for not just the DKC series (Retro's games too) but RareWare games in general.

In my opinion, the Donkey Kong Land games are to the Game Boy what the Sonic the Hedgehog games are to the Game Gear; not quite as impressive as their sixteen-bit cousins on the SNES and Genesis, but still impressive considering the limitations of their handhelds' hardware.

Just bought a copy and replayed DK3 for GBA because I had it when I was a kid, and when looking up level hints, I found out that it wasn’t a brand new game but started on SNES. This video was the perfect breakdown on the history I was looking for, I had no idea it was on Gameboy as well. 90s-2000s gaming evolution and lore was something special!

This was really enriching. I always avoided the GBA ports of SNES or Genesis games due to color palettes being too gaudy and ostentatious, not to mention the screen crop, but the third game looks genuinely amazing on the handheld. Considering it was my favorite of the three, maybe I woulds shell out money next time I see it.

You forget to mention the GBC port of dkc1 wich felt more like a heavily dust off version of it, Also for what i,ve heard,those gba dkc serie ports were not made from the ground up,the only thing they had to remake were those map screens because those original onces were stored on weird floppy disks in wich they no longer could find the equipments for it,yes the gba has a different type cpu then the snes,BUT with recompilors you could translate each type cpu to each other,while unsupported features of each cpu will be flagged out by the software,all the end user has to do is debug and optimize the code for that wanted platform,why would you ever want to remake an old game from the ground up for a different system and expect to sell like hotcakes again if semi automazaton dev toolkits do exist,is beyond me. Maybe if you do have a similar game engine from a different game for the targed platform,you may could use that engine instead after some moddifications but that’s it,but that’s it.

I used to own DKL on Gameboy and I got DKC2 on GBA when it came out and I grinded it like crazy as a little kid laughs. DKC2 on GBA was a great time on the go I took it everywhere with me.

Grew up with DKL and when I saw all the praise for Donkey Kong Country it felt like they were talking about DKL which I was far more familiar with. Which is the sign of a good handheld spinoff

Wow, so in depth and full of love for the series. Great overview/review!

Yeah, David Wise NEVER EVER misses

Those wolves playing in the snow like the forest puppies they are is the cutest thing I've seen!

love teh inclusion of those donkey kong country promo tapes in teh video’s beginning hehehe!!

I never had an SNES when I was a kid. So I had to make do with the GameBoy because it was the only thing my parents would buy for me until I was old enough to earn my own stuff. Donkey Kong Land 2 was my personal nostalgia because it was as close as you could get to the amazing DKC2 on SNES.

Banana Slamming on the go

I just bought Donkey Kong Country 3 and was playing it on my SNES and dude, I couldnt figure out how to change Kongs for like at least a good ten minutes lol Why did they think using SELECT as the tag team button was a good idea???? Good content Im loving the DK series you're putting out!

My hat is off to you for the “wolf sample”

I grew up with the original SNES games, but the GBA trilogy grew on me so much, they actually became my favorite way of replaying the games!

homie shouted out drawn and quartered yesssss I was keeping up with his new drops while they were coming. Some of the most magical arrangements of music ever. Dkc on gba are some of the best ports and games in general on the console. Its amazing that the mario advance series simply ported its graphics and proportions and just let gamers deal with the screen crunch. Dkc gba said nah its gonna look similar to snes but with proportion that actually works flawlessly on gba. and ofc them being the dkc trilogy in general just means they were gonna be some of the gbas best titles on the console

Was just thinking about DK Land. Cool that you’re covering it! :)

Donkey Kong Country 3 on the GBA is one of my favorite games of all time, it's genuinely perfect. The only thing the SNES version does better is atmosphere, with the dark, moody OST that fits a lot of levels (like the tree and mountain stages). But honestly, the game isn't even difficult, so the more lighthearted GBA soundtrack works way more in my opinion. what a fantastic game. Except for the first Funky minigame, that one can go to hell. Spent like 20 minutes on it alone! And the others I got first try! Also, thanks for giving a shoutout to Drawn&Quartered! I listen to their tracks all the time, they're so damn good.

I love the handheld games, far more than originals! I grew up with the GBA trilogy (mainly 3 on GBA). I adore 3 GBAs music so much, along with everything else! I did get to play the originals as I grew up, but I still hold the GBA games in a special place in my heart. Edit: AYYYYY! You mentioned the remastered OST for 3 GBA! They’re seriously really amazing!

Pretty good overview. Although you missed one: they actually did a port of the entire original Donkey Kong Country game on the Gameboy Color. It basically used the DKL engine and was a pretty faithful port.

Cool. I haven’t seen a video of u in years ! Awesome dk video

I wish DK sang in the movie like he does in the cartoon. Would have been magical.

I love how you shoutout the behind the scenes workers!

Wow I only had DK Land 2, I've never seen the 1st or 3rd ones, great video!

Great vid man. Dk trilogy is my favorite series. Pure nostalgia.

Great video! Hopefully this year, well get to see DKC Trilogy Remaster on switch ❤

Excellent video! Most people don't appreciate much the Donkey Kong Land titles. Probably someone else mentioned it. But the definitive way of playing them is on a GBC or a GBA, because the GBC by default makes sprites and background two separate colors. So the very bad problem of characters mixing with the background is pretty much gone. Fortunately the NSO GameBoy service has the option to play GB games like in a GBC, so new people playing them when they eventually are released would have the best possible experience.

As SNES Drunk would say: "You gotta play these games any way you can." Thanks for the video, I didn't know the games were so different from the originals!

omg THANK YOU for the wolf documentary sample, I couldn't find it anywhere since it was deleted!

of the Land games, I'll say DKL 3 was the best one, it finally felt like right to control and physics, even if it was a bit hard to see at times. 1 would kill you for falling back down from what you jumped from because it was off screen, 2 wasn't so bad and it was a clear improvement it tried to be closer to the country games but it still felt off, but 3 is when it actually just felt right.

I never played the land games until last year, and i was a gamer back in the 90s too. I love them, i can never get enough donkey kong.

Can’t wait for the review of the cartoon!

Everybody forgets about Donkey Kong Country for Game Boy Color.

I’ll never get over the fact that they made DKC GBC instead of making a 4th DKL game based off of 64. Translating 64’s concepts into 2D levels and letting you play as that games 5 kongs? Would have been so interesting.

I have very fond memories about the first DK Land, i wanted a SNES with DKC in Christmas 94 but it was expensive for my parents, 16-bit era was at its end... So i had Donkey Kong on my Game Boy, a great game but not quite the same deal as DKC and i loved it. A few months later, i got DK Land and was so happy that i could finally play some kind of DKC on my GB.

Great video. You need to cover dkc on gbc too. That’s a cool port that pushes the hardware to the limits

Love the video! I can't wait for your video on the DKC cartoon! I used to watch a VHS of that as a kid a bunch. Btw, you got me curious where in One Piece it has a sample that's used in that Nuts and Bolts level in DKC 3. That's the kind of wild stuff I love hearing about.

That was a wonderful video:3

Dude! Rockface Rumble GBA was an existing music track from a wolf documentary? I'm a huge DK aficionado/wannabe historian and that's news to me! That was always one of my favourite tracks... very cool to know! Apparently, the replacement soundtrack was made in like, 3 weeks or so, so I don't much fault David Wise on that. But you might already know that! Rare also used some stock music in Viva Pinata's romance dance sequences, which blew my mind when I found out about it.

DKC 2 and 3 were the ones I played the most as a kid, fond memories of also struggling with Toxic Tower 😅

Grew up with the first Super Nintendo game, but only got around to playing the rest through their GBA remakes a few years ago. Just this year I finished the last Donkey Kong Land game and I thought they were good fun.

Havent played these but the way the story is handled is great

Wow! Thanks so much for the shout-out!! I'm immensely appreciative of the kindness 😆

The plot of donkey Kong land is the funniest thing I’ve ever heard

This kind of content is good for my soul

I’m kinda surprised you didn’t talk about the Game Boy Color port of “Donkey Kong Country” and that was my introduction to the DK series as a whole.

Great video!

just bought donkey kong land 1 from japan on a whim a few days before watching this video!! i'd never heard of it aside from knowing about and playing donkey kong country. edit: it won’t be here for probably 2-3 weeks but i’m so excited to play it

I've been playing these games since I was a toddler and yet... at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="902">15:02</a> you're showing me you can ground pound the stop 'n' go Kremlings?!?! Wtf... I genuinely didn't know that! Great video though. I always like seeing handheld ports/demakes, and it's not very often you get to see them done by the same studio.

Dude this game was so god damn punishingly hard for me but I was just so excited to have portable donkey kong back in the day!

DKC2 was the first game I ever played, and it was superb on the GBA. I eventually got DKC3 but I never beat it due to losing the cartridge.

I’ve been playing the Donkey Kong portable series since early 2003 when I got my first indigo Gameboy Advance in May of that year along with the 2000 GBC Donkey Kong Country and a month later I got DKC when it came to the Gameboy Advance in June of that year. I also got DKC 2 and 3 for Christmas in 2004 and 2005. I got Donkey Kong Land in March 2007 and Land 2 and got Land III in January 2016. I’m a huge Donkey Kong fan and collector.

WAKE UP BABE, NEW THECARTOONGAMER VIDEO

Poor DKC GBC, often missed in DK portable reviews :,(

"...even on an 8-bit system..." -- The NES just missed out as it was retired in late 1994!

The fact that there was a DKC port on Gameboy that was a testament to how ahead of it’s time Nintendo has ALWAYS been. 🙌🏾 Maaan….What I time to be alive 🤧💯

It's refreshing to see someone else that has a similar opinion to mine when it comes to Donkey Kong Land 2 (Game Boy) and so isn't showering the game with praise. I've been playing DKL2 lately for the first time since the 90s. I remember I wasn't a huge fan of it even back then and I'm remembering why that's the case. The original DKL had its flaws but it was its own game and was still pretty enjoyable to play. DKL2 tries to be an 8-bit portable version of DKC2 and a lot of it doesn't work. It uses most of the level names from DKC2 but the levels themselves have been completely redesigned, but they still don't seem to suit the smaller screen very well in many cases, making you take leaps of faith where you can't see where you are going. You usually need to take things pretty slowly in general to make sure you don't run into an enemy or fall off a ledge you couldn't see. Sometimes the path is only indicated by bananas so if you collect them then go backwards you may not know where you are supposed to go. Some stages are completely butchered, like Glimmer's Galleon that doesn't even have Glimmer in it (instead the lights go out and you need to touch barrel switches to turn them back on). Haunted Hall isn't there at all and replaced by a generic rollercoaster stage called Krazy Koaster. Castle Crush is gone and replaced by a stage called Dungeon Danger which is basically Chain Link Chamber part 2. It's missing an entire boss fight (Kudgel). The controls when using Squitter are abysmal. Rambi and Enguarde both have their charge moves but as I said above you usually don't want to be travelling too fast due to being unable to see what's coming, and there are also no bonus rooms or other secrets located inside walls, so these moves are almost useless. The bonus rooms, both the locations of them and also the rooms themselves deviate between mind numbingly easy to ridiculously hard with no middle ground. The music is good insofar as the actual arrangements are good, great even, but there isn't as many tracks as DKC2 has so a lot of the music is repeated and you'll be hearing the same tracks over and over, some of which don't thematically make sense for the level. Rattle Battle uses Lockjaw's Locker theme (actually, most ship levels use it) but they literally have the correct track in the game already which is only used in the first level of the game and then nowhere else, which is nonsensical. The music track is literally already in the game and it's not being used where it should be. I think they definitely made a mistake in trying to make a version of DKC2 for the Game Boy instead of just making it its own game like they did with the first game. The entire time I've been playing I've just been wishing I was playing DKC2 instead.

Before everything, I remember your voice... You did an episode with DYKG, right? Awesome vid, pretty cool information about this game! Might try it my GBA later on

I remember i had DKC2 on the SNES and DKL2 on my Gameboy.. Good times i always felt i had the same game on the go

How comes Miyamoto needed the power of the SNES to have Mario ride Yoshi, but these guys achieved it on the Game Boy.

Nicw to see you're still using your old intro! Known this channel ever since your creepy things in video games list years and years ago.

I'd also love to see the Land trilogy make it to Nintendo Switch Online, alongside the Game Boy Color and Advance ports (though Nintendo will probably ignore them entirely).

You're telling me the swimming monkey meme is from a DKC advance advert?

Best SNES game: DKC2 Best Land game: DKL1 (even with its bad physics) Best GBA game: DKC3

My first game was DKC2 for GBA from a cousin and was amazing, then I discovered 1 and 3 and never knew that originally were from the SNES until the switch came with the online, this series deserve a comeback hopefully a DKC4 with Rare could be in the future, also Land series sucks, never could finish any game.

i am glad you mention DKC3 GBA remixes but i do not see where got that one piece thing from in Nuts & Bolts i more so thought of "Shout" by Tears For Fears please it’s hard to find something in One Piece

Apparently DK Land 3 is the only Donkey Kong game that doesn't feature DK in the actual game in any way, shape, or form. Neat.

I popped on my old Game boy copy of donkey Kong Land but looks like the battery died in it. My saves were gone

My first game boy game/handheld game was Donkey Kong Land 2.

The DKC demake that came to GBC in 2000 wasn't mentioned at all. I was hoping to see it discussed here. But once again, it has been overlooked.

Nobody ever talks about Donkey Kong Country on the GBC. One of my favorite versions of teh game.

I remember my parents getting me dkl 2 for my birthday 🥹

You can beat dkc without dying? Highly impressive actually

that intro was fire

I really do wish the Land trilogy got more respect. I always see them get called spinoffs or ports, when they honestly deserve to get the same recognition as any other DKC game. I’ve seen Jungle Beat get a resurgence in the past few years, so I’d love to see the Land games get that same treatment.

By the way, Donkey Kong Country 3's Arich theme is actually meant for K.Rool, but somehow they got switched.

Guys in the new episode james' voice has been changed I think Bill Rogers should be the voice of james to take over for James Carter

The over saturation on the advance games looks vibrant sometimes while others, not so great

Donkey Kong Land 3 was my first Donkey Kong game and because I was about 5 at the time, I kinda misinterpreted some of the things in it. I thought the river levels were snow ones and I thought Kiddy Kong was wearing gladiator armour and when he runs I kept thinking he was carrying a sword with him. I was playing the game on the GBC which has the sprites brown and the backgrounds bluish grey. I later got the DKC1 port on Game Boy Colour but thankfully didn’t misinterpret anything this time.

I love those games :)

GOOD

This is a great episode. Minor question but what exactly is your issue with the background frogs and the playable one in the GBA game? I keep rewinding but not quite sure what there is to lose sleep over lol. Also wish I knew exactly what song in One Piece you noticed being sampled in Nuts and Bolts

I grew up on the gba ports and currently replaying them on SNES/switch online for the first time, im already on DKC 3, the snes and gba ports definitely have completely different feels and i feel like I died alot more on gba, overall i might prefer snes versions though

I feel like inversely, the brighter colors are the only thing that keeps me from playing the GBA versions as much as the SNES versions. Also a bit interesting that DKC2 was the only one to not have any soundtrack alterations (one oversight with "Run, Rambi, Run" aside)… There is a color restoration patch for the European version of DKC1, but it's currently unfinished and only covers what was already there in the SNES original. As of, there isn't yet any color restoration patches for DKC2 and DKC3, nor are there any that restores the altered tracks for DKC1 and DKC3 (such as Funky's Flights in the first game)… DKC3's ending also seems a bit rushed, as the chase doesn't go for as long, and the ending's sprites are the only ones in the entire game that wen't resized to accommodate the 240x160 ratio (and to a lesser extent, two levels from Kremwood Forest were also swapped around). Perhaps if it was given more development time it could've been given what the other two had, such as an intro cinematic that covers the manual's plot, a scrapbook, and an enemy cast roll. In the long run, there've been many ROM hacks/mods that improve the game in some lacking capacities (such as improved instruments in other SNES -> GBA ports like Breath of Fire, or restoration of unused sprites and elements like the Lakitu bug in Super Mario Bros.), yet it seems like the DKC games are different, with more preferring the SNES games anyway. There is a patch that fixes the "Run, Rambi, Run" oversight in DKC2, but that seems to be it, as of.

Hey man replaying my donkey kong land 3 and i i finished donkey kong land two, 2 days ago and i like this video a lot! Maybe you can review diddy kong pilot? The rom was leaked online by a rare employee its like 99% done along with other earlier versions of it dumped online!

I grew up on the Super NES Trilogy, loved the Game Boy Land games, and feel compelled to give the GBA Trilogy remakes a chance. Sure, they don't feel as mature as the originals, but what the heck.

What?! I didn’t know dk could kill those clay monsters with a ground pound. 😜😜😜

I really thought these were ports of DKC - so I didn't buy them on the 3DS because of that. Such a shame. I hope they'll be added to NSO

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="307">5:07</a> Edits like these make me cackle.

Hey great video mayn, I was curious on the One Piece and Nuts & Bolts comparison and I can't really hear anything, do you mean the epic One Piece track that's used for scenes like when Luffy and the crew storm Arlong Park?

Great video! Where did you listen to that music in One Piece? I got really curious

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="243">4:03</a> Holy Kong. Is THAT where the antagonist from the TV show came from??