Forgive me, but I can’t be expected to talk rationally about DKC2, one of my favourite games of all time. Everything about it is so perfect to me. Playing it on the Wii U is such a treat; it still looks and sounds amazing, the sheer artistry shining through and blending with the tight gameplay to give one of the best experiences on this or any console. Anyway I like it.

Land 2 is also good, insofar as it tries to emulate DKC2. Of course, the music is less rich, although Kirkhope’s chippy renditions of the Wise soundtrack have their own appeal (worse is missing tracks, leading to repetition of tracks like Lockjaw’s Locker). You don’t get colourful environments and backgrounds and the detailed sprites (I realised that the DKC sprites remind me of claymation… random aside). The level designs and even item placement are also a noticeable step down.

DKC is very straightforward, and DKC3 is very ambitious with many tacked-on systems. DKC2 is a nice middle ground with rewarding collectibles, challenging gameplay, interesting gimmicks, and variety in level design. I think one of the more important things in its design is how the aesthetics work with the gameplay; for example, there’s sticky honey in the bee hives and the levels base their platforming around that.

Much of this carries through to Land 2, but scaled back for the Game Boy. While Land 2 is regarded as a port, in truth almost everything is ported over, except for the levels themselves, the layouts of which are brand new. This means that playing it is playing a brand new game, just sharing the exact same characters and world. The interesting part is seeing new platforming situations and enemy placements being done with the same basic concept. It should be noted that Land 2′s engine is greatly improved from Land 1; while jumps are still fairly high, the control and momentum feel much closer to the SNES.

Playing DKC2 was a breeze; my muscle memory practically plays it for me, including finding most of the secrets. DKL2, on the other hand is unfamiliar and thus feels more challenging; although I think that some of the setups are inherently more difficult, it could just be that I haven’t done them so many times that they’re trivial. The secrets in Land 2 though either are actually trivial to find or occasionally unfairly located, in which case I recommend Mario Wiki’s pages on each level to find them.

I absolutely recommend both of these games. DKL2 is not just a downgraded port, it’s new levels using (downgraded) DKC2 assets. But it’s fair to say it’s “overlooked” while DKC2 more than earns the title of “classic”. Good times.