Today's post in the Retro Gaming Blogging Challenge is the polar opposite of the third post. While the third post dealt with the games I had completed todays post will focus on that one game that got away. That one game that got shelved without ever being completed. Today we'll be taking a look at Donkey Kong Country. A game which, to my surprise, hasn't been mentioned yet in the challenge.
The one that got away
Donkey Kong Country was simply the game that got the better of me. It was just to hard for me. It was the second game I got for the SNES. I mentioned the first game I ever owned which was Super Mario World which was a game I completed over and over. That was not the case with Donkey Kong Country.
I have fond memories of playing this game. Even though I never completed it and never really got that far I still enjoyed playing it. I would still bott it up in the hope that today was the day. I would finally beat that level I had been struggling with for so long. Today I would progress.
Although I sometimes managed to progress it was seldom and far in between. I remember the level where you're riding in the mine cart as my nemesis. While it was heaps of fun riding that mine cart I was stuck on it for the longest time. Reacting timing had to be on point and some of the jumps and obstacles had to be done inch perfect.
Revenge
My SNES is stashed away somewhere at my fathers house but I actually have access to Donkey Kong Country on my Nintendo Switch through their online service. I decided I would have my revenge so when I saw that this was a topic in the challenge I loaded it up in hopes that I would complete the game by today.
I was once again defeated. This time around it wasn't necessarily that it was to hard but unresponsive controls got the better of me. It was just a really bad annoyance. I can't remember that being an issue with the SNES but that's 20 years ago. It could actually be that what I felt was a hard game was just the controls being unresponsive.
I would die several times to my jump not registering. That got old really quick and I decided to let it go. Another thing that annoyed me greatly was that I would die from jumping on some enemies if I didn't land on the dead middle of them. If you jumped a little bit on the side of them they would still get you. When the game takes the a step away from unforgiving and a step towards unfair I just zone out.
Defeated
So I was defeated once again. This time around I gave it up after just an hour of playing. Back in the day it took years and I didn't give it up until my SNES was packed away. That probably speaks volumes about how I've evolved over the years. I guess I just don't have the patience to go trying for something that feels unfair over and over again. I can just go play some other game instead.
That's part of what gaming was back in the day. Sure, you could change your cartridge and play something else but you probably only had one or two other games. There wasn't a Steam library of 150+ games which over half of them were untouched. Times really do change.
Special mentions
I need to name a few others that deluded me over the years.
Another game that I played for a long time and really liked was Mischief Makers. This was a game that I had never heard about when I opened it on Christmas.
Source: Mischief Makers Wiki
It was this weird sice-scroller platformer on the Nintendo 64. You played as this girl called Marina and the whole game just felt really random. All the characters looked really weird but it was still fun.
I got pretty far through the game but got stuck on a level with meteors falling down from the sky. As far as I can remember you had a set amount of time to finish the level and I just couldn't do it. No matter how hard I tried to speed run it or take different approaches I never figured out how to do it.
Never completing this one got to me so much that I could have talked about it as my main game for today. I guess it'll just have to go down in history as one of those few games that I never managed to complete.
Source: Kotaku
The weekend is upon us and I'm as ready as ever. This week has been rough. The city where I live went into another lockdown and with us teachers being one of the few occupational groups being allowed to go to work there's been a lot to do. A lot of heavy restrictions on our work day which affects our schedule.
The weekend is close however and I can't wait. Looking forward to reading this weekends entries into the #retrogamingchallenge. Be sure to check out the tag so you don't miss any posts!
All pictures in this post are screenshots from my Nintendo Switch unless otherwise has been stated.
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