Donkey Kong Country 2 (SNES) is fantastic on Switch! (Review and Gameplay).

Just two months ago, the Super  Nintendo classic Donkey Kong Country   came swinging onto the Switch. Now, its 1995  sequel, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest,   is now available to subscribers of Nintendo Switch  Online. If you're playing it for the first time,   it's a beautiful, addicting piece of art.

One  of the best 2D platformers in gaming history.   Hang on to your bananas... you are now... in  a country... that belongs... to Donkey Kong! The year was 1995. The same year that brought us  eBay, Windows 95, and the day that the U.S. House   of Representatives voted 246-188 to cut taxes for  individuals and corporations.

Bernie Sanders: "This is a bad bill and a very unfair bill." None of this even came  close to topping the worldwide gaming phenomenon   that is Donkey Kong Country 2. The story of Donkey  Kong Country 2 picks up right after the first   game. This time, Donkey Kong has been kidnapped by  pirate wannabe, King K.

Rool. Do people even say   the word "wannabe" anymore? God, I'm getting old.  Anyway, you literally just find a note from this   guy in the first level telling you he kidnapped  Donkey Kong. That's it, that's the story.   The Game Boy Advance version made a cool intro  cutscene expanding on this almost 10 years later,   but you won't see that here.

So now it's up to  his nephew Diddy Kong alongside his girlfriend   Dixie to rescue him. I wonder how these two  met? Probably some app. Everyone's meeting   on the apps these days. At its core, the  gameplay is similar to Donkey Kong Country,   but it takes things to the next level with  more challenging stages, new types of enemies,   these dragonflies are literally just vibing, and  a brand new playable character.

Diddy Kong plays   exactly as he did in the first game. He's fast but  doesn't have a ton of weight behind him to stomp   on some of the larger enemies. Dixie Kong adds a  lot of variety to the gameplay, and if you ask me,   she's way more fun to play than Diddy.

She can  spin her hair around like a helicopter, to glide   down slowly as she falls through the air. This  makes it easier to land certain jumps. But don't   get me wrong, this game is still hard. In fact,  it's much harder than the first. If you remember   the ridiculously difficult minecart levels from  the first game, just wait till you see the roller   coaster stages.

But that's the thing. Even though  it's hard, and sometimes you want to throw your   controller out the window, you still want to  keep playing. It's got that "je ne sais quoi."   Not bad, huh? I've always wanted to say that. You  have new animal buddies to help you along the way,   like Squitter the Spider.

He can make web  platforms to reach new heights, and he also   wears four pairs of shoes at a time. That sounds  like it would get expensive! And there's a lot   more to do in the game. The world is larger, and  each set of levels feel unique. One of the bigger   additions are these special coins scattered  around the levels that unlock The Lost World,   a collection of bonus stages you need to complete  to see the true ending of the game.

Also,   it feels SO good when you get one of these DK  coins, and they're not even that important, they   don't unlock anything. I guess that's how dopamine  works. I don't know, ask your doctor. You're going   to want to use the save state feature, a lot.

We  didn't have that back then on the Super Nintendo,   and the game felt impossible at times. If you ran  out of lives, it was so repetitive to have to go   back and beat the last few levels to catch back  up. At the very least, use the save state after   every level.

Otherwise, you have to beat several  levels in each world before you can save your game   at the Kong College. Which is actually where I  got my degree! If you've got a friend nearby, you   can play this game co-op on the same console with  another person controlling the second character.   The graphics in this game are incredible, and the  animations are even more refined than the first.   Like the first game, each asset was meticulously  modeled and animated in 3D on computers,   and then converted into 2D sprites.

The result is  gorgeous graphics that are unmatched by anything   else on the Super Nintendo. And the independent  layers of graphics in the foreground and the   background give the game an illusion of 3D depth.  I love the way the water looks in the early levels   especially as the sun goes down.

This could  all only come together through a combination   of inspired art direction and brilliant  software engineering. I know it might sound   like I'm exaggerating, but there just isn't a  better looking Super Nintendo game. As a kid,   I was blown away by these graphics, and it still  looks beautiful on the Switch's screen today.   I just wish there was an option to make  the borders black.

Please, Nintendo!   Just like the first game, the music that  David Wise composed for Donkey Kong Country 2   is iconic. I dare you to not get some of it stuck  in your head. There are so many bangers in this   game, even Drake used a sample from one of the  levels in his song "6 God." But most importantly,   this game is the home of the transcendent  musical masterpiece, "Stickerbrush Symphony." You're gonna want to play  this game with the volume up.   I'm so happy to finally see this game on the  Switch.

In my opinion, it's the pinnacle of   the Donkey Kong franchise, and I'm excited to see  new generations get to play it for the first time.   If you have the patience for a difficult but  rewarding game, you're in for a treat. This is   one of the best Super Nintendo games out there,  and one of the greatest 2D platformers, period.   If you missed my review of the first  Donkey Kong Country, check it out here.