I love all three Donkey Kong Country games on the SNES (yes, DKC3 as well). I don't even need to say anything about them as everything has already said that needs to be said.
But the GBA remakes seem to have hit a roadblock. Before you attack me for being a graphics whore, consider these things I have to say:
1: the games are still fun (although even there the devs tampered with it)
2: these games are now nearly 15 years old. (well, about 10 when DKC1 GBA was released).
3: the GBA is superior to the SNES (by MY calculations at least)
I'm going to go through all the annoyances I have with the remakes. And yes, I'll even have some gameplay complaints which I'll start with first. This'll include all three remakes.
Gameplay woes:
A great looking game is nothing without good gameplay. DKC had gameplay to MATCH the graphics (a hefty task indeed). The GBA remakes were somewhat faithful to the SNES games, but I have one complaint that actually alters the entire game experience.
1: altered physics. The characters movements and how they collide with enemies and obstacles were altered. It seems more stiff and the game itself seems easier.
2: DKC2 GBA made you PAY to refight bosses and you could only see the ending once.
3: DKC3 GBA butchered the ending credits (what happened to the character parade?)
Graphics:
Kill me, but one of the reasons the original games were so groundbreaking was the graphics. I'm usually never a graphics-over-gameplay person, but they do add to the experience sometimes.
1: missing sprite animations, This strangely seems only to affect the playable characters.
2: bright graphics. The RIGHT way to handle dark SNES graphics on GBA is to make the ENTIRE GAME brighter, not just jack up the contrast on the backgrounds. It's inconsistent as well. The sprites don't blend well and the backgrounds clash with each other. The way you do this is to leave the actual graphics the same and simply add an in-game brightness level selection (like the GBA Zelda games). All the games look washed out and badly rendered now.
3: missing effects. I could go on forever. The day-night transitions are gone. The dark areas (like Ropey Rampage) now look like they are in full sunlight. Many of the background animations are nonexistent. Most lighting effects are now gone.
4: the screen is zoomed out WAY too far. The sprites are small and missing some of their original details. I know it would have worked fairly well to just crop the screen as it works fine in SNES Advance.
Sound:
The thing that gives games their personal style and feel IMHO. THIS I realize is where the GBA falls short of the SNES. I just think it could have been better than it was in the DKC remakes. DKC3 didn't even try to have the same songs, it just replaced the soundtrack with all new songs, most of which were not very good. It's the sound effects that angered me the most.
1: quality loss. This is to be expected. But not THIS bad. DKC3 had an all new soundtrack. Only some songs were good.
2: in all the DKC remakes, the sound effects were changed to really dumb cartoonish sound effects. Kremlings now have a girlish yell instead of a deep ARRGGH! and the overall ambient style was lost.
Overall, these games are still fun and get solid 8's for the entire game. The issue was the bad porting here. I don't know WHO'S fault it was, but ALL of these problems could have been avoided. It's a testament to how much I avoid them because I'd rather play the original games in SNEMULDS (which is buggy and has problems). Here's how I'd have done this game:
Left screen shows the original SNES game. Middle shows the GBA version. Right screen shows how the game should have been handled on GBA hardware. A brightness feature could have been selectable depending on which version of the GBA you are playing or how much direct light you have available. Simply crop the screen down to the GBA's resolution. The sound effects and music could have been handled the RIGHT way and simply been the same with slightly lower quality.
Does anyone share my opinion that these GBA remakes were disappointing? I'm not trolling anyone for liking them (they're still good games). They just could have been much better. At least the gameplay wasn't ruined like Earthworm Jim 1 and 2 on GBA.
But the GBA remakes seem to have hit a roadblock. Before you attack me for being a graphics whore, consider these things I have to say:
1: the games are still fun (although even there the devs tampered with it)
2: these games are now nearly 15 years old. (well, about 10 when DKC1 GBA was released).
3: the GBA is superior to the SNES (by MY calculations at least)
I'm going to go through all the annoyances I have with the remakes. And yes, I'll even have some gameplay complaints which I'll start with first. This'll include all three remakes.
Gameplay woes:
A great looking game is nothing without good gameplay. DKC had gameplay to MATCH the graphics (a hefty task indeed). The GBA remakes were somewhat faithful to the SNES games, but I have one complaint that actually alters the entire game experience.
1: altered physics. The characters movements and how they collide with enemies and obstacles were altered. It seems more stiff and the game itself seems easier.
2: DKC2 GBA made you PAY to refight bosses and you could only see the ending once.
3: DKC3 GBA butchered the ending credits (what happened to the character parade?)
Graphics:
Kill me, but one of the reasons the original games were so groundbreaking was the graphics. I'm usually never a graphics-over-gameplay person, but they do add to the experience sometimes.
1: missing sprite animations, This strangely seems only to affect the playable characters.
2: bright graphics. The RIGHT way to handle dark SNES graphics on GBA is to make the ENTIRE GAME brighter, not just jack up the contrast on the backgrounds. It's inconsistent as well. The sprites don't blend well and the backgrounds clash with each other. The way you do this is to leave the actual graphics the same and simply add an in-game brightness level selection (like the GBA Zelda games). All the games look washed out and badly rendered now.
3: missing effects. I could go on forever. The day-night transitions are gone. The dark areas (like Ropey Rampage) now look like they are in full sunlight. Many of the background animations are nonexistent. Most lighting effects are now gone.
4: the screen is zoomed out WAY too far. The sprites are small and missing some of their original details. I know it would have worked fairly well to just crop the screen as it works fine in SNES Advance.
Sound:
The thing that gives games their personal style and feel IMHO. THIS I realize is where the GBA falls short of the SNES. I just think it could have been better than it was in the DKC remakes. DKC3 didn't even try to have the same songs, it just replaced the soundtrack with all new songs, most of which were not very good. It's the sound effects that angered me the most.
1: quality loss. This is to be expected. But not THIS bad. DKC3 had an all new soundtrack. Only some songs were good.
2: in all the DKC remakes, the sound effects were changed to really dumb cartoonish sound effects. Kremlings now have a girlish yell instead of a deep ARRGGH! and the overall ambient style was lost.
Overall, these games are still fun and get solid 8's for the entire game. The issue was the bad porting here. I don't know WHO'S fault it was, but ALL of these problems could have been avoided. It's a testament to how much I avoid them because I'd rather play the original games in SNEMULDS (which is buggy and has problems). Here's how I'd have done this game:
Left screen shows the original SNES game. Middle shows the GBA version. Right screen shows how the game should have been handled on GBA hardware. A brightness feature could have been selectable depending on which version of the GBA you are playing or how much direct light you have available. Simply crop the screen down to the GBA's resolution. The sound effects and music could have been handled the RIGHT way and simply been the same with slightly lower quality.
Does anyone share my opinion that these GBA remakes were disappointing? I'm not trolling anyone for liking them (they're still good games). They just could have been much better. At least the gameplay wasn't ruined like Earthworm Jim 1 and 2 on GBA.
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