Gaming

Donkey Kong Country was my favourite childhood game series.

The first game was a blast: fun gameplay, full of secrets and things to collect, good music, gorgeous graphics even for 2025 standards, the difficulty was just right. (A bit too hard for me back then, too easy nowadays.)

I remember when DKC3 was released in '98, I'd go to the cartridge rental shop once a week to ask the guy if they had it already. (He was extremely patient with me. That guy was a bro.) Once I finally got to play it, it didn't disappoint me at all, I loved those puzzles and it was amazing to explore the map freely. Kiddy was a bit odd, but really fun to play with, and I loved how Dixie throwing Kiddy had different mechanics than Kiddy throwing Dixie.

But by far my favourite was DKC2. Everything was perfect - they picked the formula from DKC1 and expanded it: more collectibles! Better music! Better looks! The bonuses now aren't just "find all bonuses in the level for +1%", now you got something to find in them! I can literally play the first level of that game with a blindfold, it's itched in my brain. (Fuck Bramble Blast, though. I had a hard time finding one bonus and the DK coin there. And by then my English was a bit too awful to get what Cranky said.)

Then... well, DK64. It killed the series for me. I didn't get why it wasn't fun, but nowadays I see what happened - early 3D games had clunky controls and camera, plus the whole "gotta remake the whole thing five times to get to 100%" was meh.