The story is quite simple. Donkey Kong's sidekick, Diddy Kong, was responsible for guarding DK's banana stash. Unfortunately for our little buddy, he's ambushed by the reptilian horde that is led by the evil K. Rool. It's now up to DK and Diddy to venture forth in search of the precious bananas and to seek revenge on the vile scourge. You will be able to control both characters through all of the stages. Diddy is smaller, but is more agile and thus can jump higher and has a cartwheel attack that can take out multiple baddies at a time. DK is much slower, but can pack quite a punch. Since he is stronger than Diddy he can find bananas hidden in the ground by pounding it with his massive arms. At the start of the game you will begin with DK, but a few seconds later you will come across a crate where Diddy is being held. Once you free him you will be able to control him as well. At any time you can press the select button to change characters. If you happen to die while playing one of them, the other will appear and you will play as that character. Throughout each stage there are several crates where you can once again bring your party back up to two.

All of the levels from the Super NES version are here. Indeed, the best part of DKC is the variety seen in the many different levels. Unlike some platform games where the levels simply change aesthetically, DKC's levels often add excitement and implement play mechanics not seen in the previous levels. You'll go from swinging vines in the first levels to riding in mine cars a few levels later. Later on you'll come across level that is completely enveloped in darkness. The only solution is to find a bird with a flashlight to illuminate the way. In yet another level you will have to change the lights from red to green to avoid the indestructible rock monsters. Of course, no game like this would be complete without snow and water levels. I was most impressed with the snow level when I first played DKC back in 1994 and it still remains my favorite to this day due to the extraordinary detail in the graphics and the magical music that builds ever so slowly.

To keep the action fresh, special animals will be able to help you out on your quest. There's Rambi the rhino who will be able to use his massive strength to wipe through any enemies daring to stand in his way. In addition, he can be useful in finding secret areas by breaking through solid rock. Expresso the ostrich isn't very strong, but he can run faster than anything else and can float down from high cliffs by flapping his wings. Winky the frog will assist you in reaching those hard to reach places located at the top of the screen. My favorite helper, however, is Enguardo the swordfish. In the underwater levels he will enable you to swim with ease by using the control pad to move up and down for greater precision. He uses his nose to skewer the enemies. Each character is fun to play in his own right and you're bound to find tons of secrets when using them.

The graphics in the Super NES version were fantastic in 1994. Now it's six years later and DKC is on an inferior system so imagine my surprise when I discovered the game still manages to impress. Granted, the color palette has taken a dramatic hit due to the Game Boy Color's limitations. Even so, this is by far the best looking game on the system yet, and it's simply amazing to fathom how Rare managed to create these graphics. Due to the drop in color the game does suffer from some graininess and the parallax scrolling is gone. To save on processing power only one of the Kongs is present on the screen at any given time. It also seems as if the screen is zoomed in on the action a little too much. This makes it difficult to see what's above and below you. It's not a detrimental problem, but it does make finding some of the secrets even more difficult to locate. For the most part the game moves right along without any hitches. Just don't expect 16-bit quality.

Truly the first time I was impressed by Rare's musical ability was when DKC was originally released. The entire game never failed to impress aurally. That's why I was disappointed to hear the game on the GBC. Granted, it's not fair to compare the two, but I was hoping Rare would pull off a miracle in this aspect as well. Unfortunately the soundchip and low-grade speaker prohibit the soundtrack from reaching its full potential. Even so, the music is more than adequate and still exhibits the now-familiar tunes.

For those of you that missed out on the DKC phenomenon six years ago, now is your chance to see what all the fuss was about. Rare has done a fantastic job transferring the game to the GBC. They even added some bonus modes of play to make the package more appealing. You can now play Funky's Fishing and Crosshair Cranky with a friend via the link-up cable or against the computer. If you already own the original DKC there's not much new here, but at least now you'll be able to play on the go. The game still plays as good as it always has. It's great to see a company truly push the GBC to the limit and I can't wait to see what's next from Rare on Game Boy Advance!