DKC

Hmm. It's almost like video games themselves are conspiring to make us feel our age recently. Earlier this week Super Smash Bros. turned 20 in the PAL region, and today we posted about Pokémon Gold and Silver reaching the same milestone. Well, what with November historically being lousy with video games releases and Mother Time refusing to stop rolling on and on, we just can't get away from these anniversaries.

As devout DK fans (or, indeed, those of you that read the headlines before clicking on articles) will know, Rare's Super Nintendo platformer Donkey Kong Country today celebrates 25 years on this planet. It may have turned up as the 16-bit era was winding down and new-fangled polygons were starting to catch gamers' eyes, but its innovative use of sprites created from 3D models looked mind-blowing on a SNES back in the day, and kept many Nintendo fans happy as the nascent field of 3D gaming stumbled into existence on home console hardware.

Rare was on the cusp of a remarkable period that would see the UK developer produce some of the finest and best-selling games on Nintendo platforms. Visually, Donkey Kong County might not have aged as gracefully as some platformers of the era, but it was a landmark release and would go on to shape the big ape's appearance and adventures for many years to come.

We'd tell you to fire up your Switch and give it a play for old times' sake, but DKC isn't yet available with the other Super NES games via your Switch Online subscription. Donkey Kong Country does feature on the SNES Classic Mini, though, and there are multiple other ways to play it if you're feeling nostalgic. Failing that, you could always play Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and appreciate how far DK has come in two-and-a-half decades of platforming. Go on, go bananas.

Is that the end of the video gaming anniversaries for the day, then? Not on your life - consoles get released in November too, you know! If we didn't stick to 'significant' five-year increments, the site would be filled with nothing but celebration posts marking the passage of time and our inexorable journey away from childhood and into the unknown abyss...