Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest

About This Game

Gameplay

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest is a 2D side-scrolling platformer in which the player controls either Diddy Kong or his girlfriend Dixie Kong through 52 varying levels over eight different worlds. The main objective of the game is to rescue Donkey Kong from King K. Rool. The game features a wide number of enemies, which include land-based reptilian Kremlings, rats, porcupines, bees, and vultures. Enemies in underwater sections include pufferfish, stingrays, starfish, and piranhas. Each world culminates with a boss fight, which is required to be defeated in order to progress to the next world. The player-characters can defeat most hostiles by jumping on them, cartwheeling through them, or throwing a barrel or other throwable objects at them. When hit by an enemy, the active character runs away and control will switch to the other character. The player can reclaim their partner from barrels marked DK. If both characters die, the player will lose a life and will restart from either the beginning of the level or from the last checkpoint, which comes in the form of a star-painted barrel. If the player loses all of their lives, the game will end with a Game Over.

History

Development of Diddy's Kong Quest began shortly after the release of Donkey Kong Country, but before its commercial success; the employees of Rare desired to present new concepts. Rare founder Tim Stamper served as director, whereas his colleague Brendan Gunn, who had worked on the original, returned to design. In response to complaints from veteran gamers, Donkey Kong Country 2 was designed to be more challenging than its predecessor. Several working titles were considered, including DK Rescue!, Diddy's Day Out, Diddy's Wild Country, and Diddy's Wild Frontier. Diddy Kong's Quest was decided on, but was slightly altered into Diddy's Kong Quest to create a play on the word "conquest". The game was announced at E3 1995. A Virtual Boy port was in development at one time but never released.