Rare Appreciation Thread

[Kosheh]

The reason DKC2 is better than DKC despite them sharing the same basics, is that DKC2 added a whole new hidden world. There was a reason to look for the Bonus screens, other than getting 102% of the game. You were gifted more levels that are really good. Also animal buddies are given special abilities andI remember racing with my cousin to who could get more DK coins in the game (as they are the most well-hidden thing in DKC2). So it was a fun game and each pickup had a bigger role. Basically DKC2 got DKC1 and made it better with those additional gameplay ideas that worked.

I guess it's unfair to compare forward, but really. It's been a long time since the game came out and they literally had about a year or so's difference in release date.

Piggybacking on Gors' post here - it's almost like they made DKC2 twice the game the first one was. Unlocking levels was awesome, yeah and the additional abilities given to animal buddies was pretty good. But the most phenomenal part in my opinion was the buddy system (where your partner piggybacks on you) and its effect on the game's flow and level designs of the DKC games entirely (as it also enabled for levels which scale VERTICALLY) Your partner made it easier to traverse terrain at a cost (unable to run while piggybacking) and also made exploring "unreachable areas" much, much easier. I'm not kidding - for the series, it was revolutionary and it was also great how most of the levels were then designed around this mechanic.
However, all of these improvements made DKC1 feel kinda ho-hum in comparison to the other two.

Unfortunately, they turned the same mechanic into a gimmick - where Dixie could use Kiddy to break platforms/act like a barrel. Unfortunately, that mechanic wasn't really used outside of the first world in the game and it just felt gimmicky as the game practically forced you to use Kiddy Kong to utilize Dixie just as you would have in the previous title. This literally is what killed Kiddy as a good character for me - in the previous two titles, you could use both Kongs more or less interchangably (a little less so in the second game due to Dixie's hair-locopter, but generally the only difference are how they hold barrels - overhead or in-front) but the gimmicky partner mechanics forced you to use one over the other and have both Kongs on top of that - and the game really shoved the usage of Kiddy Kong in your face (which could arguably be "good level design" but maybe if he wasn't so godawfully frustrating to control, I wouldn't be complaining)

Hell, even the animal buddies feel dissapointing. They dropped Rambi for an elephant who ACTUALLY CAUSES TEMPORARY LOSS OF CONTROL over basic enemies (to be fair, she could pick up barrels and shoot water, though the latter you do a total of like twice in the game in levels designed for that mechanic) and Enguarde's underwater dash thing is literally useless, as there are no hidden water areas that aren't bonus barrels :/