Nintendo Expands Switch Online's Game Boy Library With Another Classic

The original Donkey Kong Country on SNES is one of my favorite games, and this seems to have similar gameplay so I'll probably try playing through it soon. Hopefully we get the other Donkey Kong Land games on Switch soon! (edit: I thought this was the DKC ports but I guess that was for gameboy color and this is something different. That makes me even more excited to try this one out!)

Correct me if I am wrong, which I very well could be, but isn’t this just a worse version of the original?

Edit: Thanks for the explanation, I will have to give this a try, and maybe find a new favorite GB game

@YunoboCo No, you're thinking of the Game Boy Color version. Land is a slightly different critter.

@N00BiSH There is more than one version of land? What is the difference?

Buy why not put the whole trilogy? Or the Color version of DKC?

I played this earlier this year on my SP.

This game is extremely underrated. It's far different from it's console counterpart, to the point where one of the world's is an industrial city. It's the weakest DK game I've played, but it's still a solid 8/10.

@YunoboCo The GB title Donkey Kong Land is a different game. The GBC title is just a port of the original SNES game, obviously with 8-bit technology instead of the superior 16-bit technology of SNES.

@YunoboCo Donkey Kong Land is more of a companion to DKC than a port, with different levels, a new set of bosses(sans K. Rool) and even some new music. The actual Donkey Kong Country on GBC(the one I was referring to) is essentially what you described - a lesser version of the original crammed on to the system.

@Banjo- yeah, what you just said.

@YunoboCo as far as I remember the DK land trilogy is/are completely different/new games

Is it just me or is the soundtrack to the game pretty awesome? The camera movement on this game is out, something they fixed in the next game but it’s an underrated classic and the different level themes are worth playing for any DK fan

@dustinprewitt They believe that dragging it on for as long as possible is an optimal way to retain subscribers.

give us diddy kong racing cowards

@N00BiSH Yep. The Donkey Land trilogy is impressive considering the hardware, but it would be much better with colours. If I remember well, Donkey Kong Land 3 had a Game Boy Color version in Japan. I don't know if they had more colours on Super Game Boy, but I think they should have been added by now for the new releases. I own the three titles on Nintendo 3DS and it's just the lack of colours what disappoints after growing up playing the SNES masterpieces.

On one hand--sweet! On the other hand--just one Game Boy game this month? Really? We'd better at least get an N64 game this month as well.

I'm looking forward to beating this game, as I first played it a couple years ago when I downloaded it on 3DS before the eShop closure. But shortly after I bought it, they announced that Game Boy games were coming to NSO, so I never fomished it because I was expecting a Switch release. I guess now's the time.

Whoa Nintendo slow down, you don't want to spoil the fans with all these games. Next thing you know they will want you to add color 😜

the GBA app on NSO really needs Super Game Boy support.

@Banjo- Oh really? Awesome, I’ll have to try it, I loved the SNES ones, so more of this sounds like a good time Thanks!

Only Land I? Where's DK64, Where is it?

The controls are so stiff and slippery and it’s odd that the only way to save is collecting KONG letters, but besides all of that, this is a fantastic little game. It’s a technical marvel and the soundtrack is serious monkey business. Some of those tracks like the Boss, Airship and Construction Site themes are absolute bangers. Kremlantis has your typical amazing DKC underwater music. They all deserve to be on the Nintendo Music app!

@YunoboCo Donkey Kong Land is not a worst version of Donkey Kong Country, it is a good version of what happen after Donkey Kong Country. In DKL the island got shrunken so instead of the whole country you only get to explore the whole land the whole time.

Just played through the first two worlds and I must say, this plays so much better than the GBC Country demake. The slower movement really helps you react to what's ahead with the limited screen real estate. Here's hoping the GBA app gets some ports added, too.

Oh, these are pretty cool bananas

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

@LadyCharlie This is why Nintendo needs to embrace third party emulation, a majority of those Game Boy games are practically unplayable without Super Game Boy 2 or Game Boy Color enhanced, two features a lot of open source Game Boy emulators already supported.

Donkey Kong Land is underrated. I honestly think its far better than DKC. Very well thought out translation to the Game Boy that both plays to its limitations but also pushes the hardware visually.

@dustinprewitt they probably will eventually

@Antleredscott came here to say that. It was a David Wise and Graeme Norgate collaboration with the former helping the latter to expand his skillset working on the limited hardware, and it isn't said enough how much they knocked it out of the park. The game isn't too shabby either, I was just replaying my childhood cart on the Analogue Pocket earlier this year and it's a blast when you can actually see the enemies.

Gonna jump on this soon. Love DKL.

@Kyloctopus Now THAT'S a bold claim if I've ever heard one.

Love this one! Played it back in the day on my 3DS.
When I was a kid I had DK Land 2, that is an almost exact port of DKC2, so I thought DK Land 1 was a port of DKC but not at all! It has many new enviroments that weren't present on any snes entry. It's something in between DKC1 and DKC2, so if you never played it give it a try guys. It's really good.

Not the GB game we need right now. Where is Pokemon Red/Blue?

Until this moment I believed this was a pure 1:1 port of DKC to the gameboy... interesting. I sucked so bad at this game as a kid I never saw much of the new content lol.

@Bolt_Strike You might be waiting awhile. I don't think TPC would add them without being a separate re-release paid for some kind of premium. Pretty greedy sort over there.

Sweet! Hopefully people give it a try. I feel like the Donkey Kong Land trilogy gets overlooked. They are worthy companion pieces to the original Country games.

That should keep Donkey Kong Country people from being annoying for a bit

Donkey Kong Land? Now that's a game that would greatly benefit from the rewind feature due to its physics. The physics in Donkey Kong Land II and III are better, but still not the same as in the Donkey Kong Country trilogy.

Now, hopefully the can add Donkey Kong Country GBC and the Country GBA trilogy. This means Land II and III are next.

I bet they'll put the soundtrack on the music app soon, and there are some bangers.

@Yoshi3
Donkey Kong Land is a different game to Country (but more of a coda than a sequel),
Donkey Kong Land 2 is almost the same as Country 2,
and Donkey Kong Land 3 is semi-different to Donkey Kong Country 3.

Surprised it wasn't DK64 because of the game's 25th anniversary (November 22nd) but still cool to see DK Land appear.

@Not_Soos Maybe because we got 5 games for the Expansion pack in October (F-Zero GP Legend, F-Zero Climax, Banjo-Tooie, Shadow Man, Turok 2), there's none for November?

You'd be forgiven for thinking this is a GB port of Donkey Kong Country, especially if you're playing the Japanese version where it's a bit chronologically confusing (thanks AVGN).

The game is called Super Donkey Kong GB over there, with Super Donkey Kong being the Japanese name for the DKC trilogy. This creates the false idea that its a GB port of DKC, when in reality it's a bit of a semi-follow up and there's not much at stake in-game since this time it's an arrangement between Cranky Kong and King. K Rool to prove Donkey Kong cannot recover his bananas on a lower system compared to the SNES. Really, that's the basic plot.

Now, DKL2 is called Donkey Kong Land, for real. At best it's called Donkey Kong Land: Diddy's Kong Quest.
This time, unlike DKL, the game follows more or less the same plot as DKC2 with a different set of levels (though using the same settings and names as in the SNES game) and an excessive use of the song Lockjaw's Saga.

The Japanese DKL3 wasn't released on the Game Boy, instead they remastered the game for the Game Boy Color under the name Donkey Kong GB: Dinky Kong & Dixie Kong.
Dinky Kong being the name for Kiddy Kong in Japan. It was released on the year 2000.
EDIT: Also, KingMike's reply below.

To make things worse, Donkey Kong Country GBC, an actual 8-bit GBC version of DKC is called Donkey Kong 2001 in Japan. That game could have been properly named Super Donkey Kong GB or Super Donkey Kong GBC.

The funny thing is for a while in 2000, Donkey Kong was kind of a big deal in Japan, getting promotions in kids meals and I believe merchandise coming from the release of Donkey Kong 64 all the way to Donkey Kong 2001. I'm not so sure about this but I believe the CG cartoon by Nelvana was also popular there.

For the record, the GBA versions of the DKC trilogy are called Super Donkey Kong, just like the originals minus the subtitles for 2 and 3.

@HammerGalladeBro
Wow that’s even more confusing than the Japanese/US Final Fantasy titles of the 8 bit and 16 bit eras.

Nice pick. Though 2 is probably the best of the GB games. And didn’t they do an official colorized version of 3?

Nice, hope they bring dkc3 gba sometime

I abasolutely adore the DKC games but I never played this one, I'll definitely give it a try, if only for science.

I don’t think I ever beat this as a kid. It was impossible to see it well enough on the Game Boy’s screen.

Managed to beat this on the OG Gameboy as a kid, somehow. The city levels were brutal I recall, and it really was trying to do a wee bit too much for the hardware but with the benefit of full-screen support and save states I can see this being way more enjoyable these days.

@PikminMarioKirby i have DKLand 2 and it's insane how good the game play is. I think you're in for a treat if it's new to you. It isn't as good as a DKC but it's so impressive how smooth, clean and fun it is.

Wish more people realized this is a 100% different game than DKC.
I love DCL and I can't wait to replay It.

And boy howdy, they have plenty to drag out the wait for DK64.

Land 2
Land 3
Land 3's Japan Only GBC Version
The GBC Version of DKC
The GBA DKC Trilogy one by one
DK 94
DK King of Swing
Diddy Kong Racing

omg release the entire trilogy lol

@obijuankanoobie

I prefer how DKL2 does the Lost World.

this is cool but id rather they put the improved rereleases the dkc trilogy got on gba first before anything else, all 3 of those games are MASSIVE improvements over the snes originals in numerous ways that make them worth checking out.

I'm amazed how many people thought DKL is DKC. In the vein of DKC, but it's own thing.

@batmanbud2 Came to comment this, glad someone else knows

This is a very good addition. Possibly the best music on the system.

NSO is definitely the way to play this one as you can get around the save system.

@PinballBuzzbro
Are they?

So, is this all we're getting for 30 years of Donkey Kong Country? What a letdown...

@YunoboCo he is referring to Donkey Kong country for the GBC which is a de-make of Donkey Kong Country for the SNES.

This is Donkey Kong Land which is a bit different I hear. But I never got very far in it, because it SUCKS!

Yes it sucks because the viewing distance, enemies pop up almost right in front of you so most of the time it feels like you don't get enough time to react and die because of that.
That's not fun.. It's as fun as loosing a game due to a broken controller.

Well so yeah, this is a stinker in my opinion and I am not sure why they bothered with it.

An update with one GB game (and without it’s sequels) is really terrible servicing of a subscription app. A fan-made NSO app, if it was allowed to exist, would have more substantial uploads and done even without a salary from japan’s wealthiest business. Nintendo is wealthier today for doing less, absolutely. May it not always be the case.

I know people love to have EVERYTHING... but is it really relevant to have DK Land when DKC is there ?

Give us DK94 if anything !

Just a thought. If ninty had put loads of games on NSO upfront would people continue to subscribe to this day after having tried / played most of them early on? Would NSO be sustainable in this case? As much as I want every game available now (where’s Wetrix?!) perhaps I’m thinking it’s best to enjoy what we’ve got now and I’ll maintain my subscription to show I want more titles added. Disclaimer: having subscribed from day 1 I chose to cancel for over a year but FOMO got the better of me recently.

@dustinprewitt Why would anyone want the GBC version of DKC when we already have the vastly superior SNES version?

@vio because it’s a different game to Country. Land 2 and 3 were just Country 2 & 3 cut down to fit the Game Boy though. Land 1 is its own thing.

I’ve never heard of this game 😂

This game is even better than I remembered.

Strange they didn't include a mine cart level though.

And how on earth is the music on this old Game Boy game so damn good?

@Tibob

I mean that would be like asking if it's relevant to have a sequel when the original already exists.

DKL is a smaller game that comes between DKC and DKC2.
It even introduces the pirate ship levels before the 2nd SNES game.

You know this is a retro platformer when you instantly die falling off the screen (even when the platform is still below)

@Angelic_Lapras_King every rate game will be released befor ediddynkong racing

@vio why would anyone want super mario world advance when they already have a superior version with the original super mario world?

From a game history point of view. Just like DKC on the snes, this was an amazing looking game on the GB and a impressive achievement by the developers.

Oh man I believe I got this as a birthday or Xmas gift back in the day and I was all over it on my original Game Boy. In those days it was so impressive to see a game like that on the system. I remember being having a blast with this and the Game Boy version of Killer Instinct.

I’m hoping for more Donkey Kong games next week and this is just the start of a larger celebration

@HammerGalladeBro I've heard the Gigaleak did contain a Japanese monochrome localization of DKL3 (it was planned to be called DKL2 over there).

Donkey Kong Land 1 was definitely Rare technical flexing.

The graphics were FAR too detailed for the OG Game Boy screen that it was hard to actually SEE anything. It's certainly better when you can play it on newer hardware, but at the time of release only the OG Game Boy (the green screen aka the DMG-001) and the Super Game Boy were the only hardware available to play the game on.

@Banjo- Super Game Boy was in practice basically only capable of tinting the screen one color (it COULD do more colorwise but the game REALLY had to be designed for it and kind of a performance issue).

We're getting every past Donkey Kong game before we get a new one.

I can't stand the one hit kills in this game.

@KingMike Then, exactly like Game Boy games running on Game Boy Color. If only they remade 1 and 2 with colours and translated the GBC version of 3...

@KingMike LMAO I knew about this but completely forgot about it. Whoever came up with the name Super Donkey Kong GB didn't think the mess it would cause for future games.

That person was probably trying to pull a Rambo/First Blood with the naming conventions of the Japanese versions.
First Blood -> Super Donkey Kong GB

Rambo: First Blood Part 2 -> Donkey Kong Land: Super Dokey Kong GB 2

Rambo III -> Donkey Kong Land 3 (instead of 2 and dropping the Super Donkey Kong GB part, much like Rambo dropping First Blood)

Obviously that didn't happen but it feels like a similar situation.

That does not look appealing.

@dustinprewitt Good question. I certainly don't.

@Bass_X0 You're confused. We're talking about Donkey Kong Country for the Gameboy Color, not Donkey Kong Land here. Different games.

I would prefer this over the DKL sequels because of the new level themes BUT the controls and movement of the Kongs was greatly improved innthe sequels.

Fantastic news!! I had the original three Donkey Kong Land games on Gameboy and enjoyed playing them but it has been something like 25 years since I last played them (showing my age 😅) so I am looking forward to playing this and hope they release the other two.

I am still hoping we also get Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land. I used to love that game.

@YunoboCo No. It is a different game. It is similar but all the Donkey Kong Land games were different games than the Donkey Kong Country games. I actually played the Donkey Kong Land games on Gameboy before I played the Donkey Kong Country games on Super Nintendo and I found them to be much easier and was surprised how much harder Donkey Kong Country 3 was compared to Donkey Kong Land 3 in particular. Donkey Kong Land 2 and 'Donkey Kong Country 2 are my two favs and they are the most similar as another member pointed out too.

@Bolt_Strike It's obvious at this point that mainline Pokemon are not being added to NSO. Either they will add them as a separate app to avoid data manipulation with cloud saves and save states or they will sell each one for $7.99 on the eShop.

Interesting, Nintendo is definitely leaning into the DK love right now to coincide with the theme park announcement!

@Brianst0rm
As long as they are getting re-released I will be happy. I prefer to purchase it anyway, don’t want my Pokemon and badges to disappear when Nintendo eventually ends NSO. I don’t think they will sell them for $7.99. Since the virtual console version was $9.99 it will be at least that price if not higher.

In case Dunkey does another Donkey Kong December