5/5 ★ – Poefred's review of Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest.

Despite being such a big fan of the first game, and even the third game on GBA, it wasn't until, give or take 15 years later that I got the opportunity to play this 2nd game. I gotta say this is one of the finest sequels to a fantastic game out there. It's practically the only reason the first game didn't get a 5 star to begin with, this game needed room to show it's basically everything that made the first game phenominal, while tripling down on absolutely all of it. I already adored the first game's level themes, art direction, and thought it had one of the best soundtracks out there. But 2 sets out to 1-up the original in every way, and somehow manages to succeed. It really leans into the moody atmospheric vibe in its levels and that REALLY let the musical style David Wise had absolutely crush it. I love that I didn't play this game until I was 20, as it proves it's not just nostalgia. It's insane what an emotional response these old games are able to give off just through their music and visuals alone. The level themes themselves are way more creative than the first game. Less caves, mountains, jungles, etc. type themes more pirate ships, beehives, and haunted roller coasters. Bosses are a lot more involved and varied as well. And I love that the game map starts off on the ship, where the first game ended, and you can see DK Isle in the background. They also double down on secrets too. The original already had a good variety of bonus room types, but this game introduces bonus barrels and they all have different layouts and goals. Including a currency and a secret world, 100% completion feels more rewarding than ever. Literally the only tiny nitpick I have is that the levels feel randomly placed on the maps sometimes. In the first game there was a clear line drawn between levels on the map, and they'd likely be on points of the map that were made to look like a location. I still like a lot of what's there, it's just that some of the worlds feel like just a static image with levels randomly placed over the image. They even had to add arrows to show which ways your able to move because it's not really clear how one level leads to the next sometimes. So yeah, weakest level select map in the trilogy. But that goes to show how good of a game this is that I'm complaining about level select icon placements in relation to a few map png's not being perfect. 3.5/5 level map. 10/5 absolutely everything else