After two months of exclusively supporting the Expansion Pack with games like Turok 2, Banjo-Tooie and F-Zero: GP Legend, Nintendo has finally thrown a bone to Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. Or is that a banana? That's right, we're monkeying around this week, because Nintendo announced the Game Boy classic, Donkey Kong Land. That's cool news, but is this game actually worth playing? To answer that question, I decided to flip through the pages of Die Hard Game Fan, Game Informer, Hyper and more classic magazines that to see what the critics said back when this game was first released. Get that DK rap ready, because it's time for another hairy episode of Nintendo Switch Online Review Crew!


After a decade full of big games and incredible success stories, Nintendo found themselves in a weird place in 1995. They had just delayed what would become the Nintendo 64 by a full year, the Virtual Boy failed to find an audience in either America or Japan, and their six-year-old Game Boy was starting to look a bit long in the tooth. Thankfully, Nintendo had an ace up their sleeve. Just one year earlier, they struck gold with Donkey Kong Country, the Rare-developed platformer that was designed to show off the 3D models you could make using the Silicon Graphics workstations. This gave the Super NES a much-needed breath of life in its final years, something Nintendo desperately needed as they pushed back their 64-bit follow-up to 1996. And it wasn't just the Super NES that benefited from the return of the big hairy guy, because Nintendo used Donkey Kong Land to also extend the life of their aging Game Boy.

Much like the Super Mario Land series, Donkey Kong Land kept the familiar trappings of the series, without feeling like a scaled-down port. There were new levels and activities that are unique to this Game Boy version, giving fans something to be excited about between the releases of Donkey Kong Country 1 and 2. But was that excitement justified? Let's see what the critics thought back in 1995.

While not as highly rated as its Super NES big brother, Donkey Kong Land was definitely a hit with the critics. That said, many of them had genuine complaints about the game. Take Game Informer as an example. They gave the spin-off an average score of 7.5 out of 10, but there was one issue that kept coming up in their reviews. Andy, the Game Hombre, gushed that “it's hard to believe that the Game Boy can produce games with this kind of graphic quality. The problem is, it can't. The game looks great on the Super Game Boy, but on the actual LCD Game Boy screen, it's fuzzy and hard to see.” This problem annoyed Reiner, the Raging Gamer, enough to lower his score down to a 6.5. “I'll tell you right now, that this is NOT a Game Boy game, but more of a Super Game Boy game. Theoretically, you can play Donkey Kong Land on a Game Boy, but it really isn't any fun. There is so much action and graphics packed into this cart, that the image that appears on the Game Boy screen is a big green haze. On the other hand, when this game is played on the Super Game Boy, it looks almost identical to Donkey Kong Country, only in black and white.”

As we move up the review scale, we see Game Players largely agreeing with Game Informer, giving Donkey Kong Land a score of 81%. That's right in line with the 4 out of 5 we saw from GamePro, who agreed that the Game Boy monitor doesn't do the game justice, but also came in with their own take: “The difficulty was cranked up on this cart. Later stages require painstakingly careful movements. One false move, and you could lose a hit or your entire life. With such strong gameplay and graphics, Donkey Kong Land is a formidable effort considering what it accomplishes on a portable system.”

Over at VideoGames: The Ultimate Gaming Magazine (their boast, not mine), they didn't seem to care about either the difficulty or the fuzzy graphics on the Game Boy's outdate screen, giving it a 9 out of 10. And then there's Die Hard Game Fan, a magazine that almost never reviewed Game Boy games. Why the exception, you might ask? Maybe this review from Nick Rox will help solve that mystery: “Wow. I'm not the Game Boy's biggest supporter, but it has had its moments ... and Nintendo's Donkey Kong Land is a BIG moment! In this astounding 4 mb title, the Brit forces at Rare have managed to cram the gameplay and feel of the 16-bitter into an eighth the size of the original. I was not the biggest fan of Donkey Kong Country, so don't expect me to go gaga ... but I must give credit where credit's due. Any Game Boy cart that has parallax gets high marks from me!” K.Lee agreed, giving the game a 94% and arguing that “this is unequivocally the best action game ever for the Game Boy. Graphic wise, Donkey Kong Land chuckles as it flicks away all other Game Boy titles like an insignificant little flea. Not only that, but this little 4 meg game of amazement features unbelievable animation, all new levels and even cool music. I don't know how the programmers at Rare managed to make characters scale or have a scrolling background on the Game Boy, but they did it. This game is a miracle.” Die Hard Game Fan gave Donkey Kong Land an average score of 91%.

If you're looking for the absolute highest score, then brace yourself, because we have a tie. Up first there's Computer & Video Games, which gave the game a score of 93% in the 166th issue. That's one of the highest scores of any portable game that year. Hyper also gave Donkey Kong Land a 93%, but that does not mean that the game was immune to criticism: “What I find most appealing is the pig. Not exactly Donkey or Diddy's best pal, he is nevertheless the cutest, bestest porker to ever sprout wings. And as far as enemies go, the pig's as close to a friend as you're gonna get in this game. If I have one criticism of Donkey Kong Land, it's that the pig's not the hero – better to kick Donkey and Diddy's butt than to try to save it. Although at times Donkey Kong Land is tough going, there is plenty to keep you guessing and heaps of adventure. The levels are well-defined, the keypad response is excellent and heaps of bonuses await you at the end of each level (that is, if you are dexterous enough to get there).”

With an average score of 86%, Donkey Kong Land was definitely a hit with the critics. That's down slightly from Donkey Kong Country's 92% average, but for a Game Boy game, that's not bad. Especially a Game Boy game in 1995. Best of all, the big complaint about the game shouldn't be an issue when playing on the Switch, so I suggest you take a trip to Donkey Kong Land. It's a fun little platformer.