All right!! Here’s you new episode of 72PCPC. In this episode we’re discussing “Fallen Heroes”, those great games that you remember from your childhood that either suck, or are long dead now. Take a trip down memory lane with us this week.

72 Pin Connector Podcast: Episode 017 – Donkey Kong Will See You In Hell

You know the deal by now. Live show starts around 9:30PM EST, pre-show starts around 9ish. Be there. Tonight’s topic: Game franchises that were amazing, but have fallen from grace. I know we all have our favorites.

Talkshoe Link is Right Here, Believe it or Not.

Tom’s Review:

Wow… the Super Nintendo…. I have a lot of fond memories of the SNES, but some of the best were had with Donkey Kong Country. Although not the first of Rare’s games, this was (and still is, arguably) the most popular. Donkey Kong Country featured pre-rendered graphics, meaning they were stored in memory and could be called upon in an instant. You see, before Rare implemented this, games were still using the old system of ‘Draw it when its needed’. Needless to say, this slowed things down, and processors couldn’t render a beautiful (read: Donkey Kong caliber) sprite without taking a long time. So game devs had to stick to simple graphics.

You probably know all about this game, but I’m going to tell you about something you don’t know. The biggest piece of epic fail television I have ever seen. Yes… I’m talking about Donkey Kong Country: Legend of the Crystal Coconut. Yes, that god-awful CG television series you all either A. Never saw (lucky you), or B. Forgot about. I caught a good three episodes when I was a kid (three times the dose necessary to kill an infant), and I couldn’t take anymore. I would watch the Super Mario Brothers Super Show all day long… but this kind of television should be considered child abuse. It was devoid of plot, devoid of any references to the source material, devoid of anything that would make a good children’s television show, and devoid of anything that is more enjoyable than being kicked in the face. Epic Fail indeed.

Luckily, I’m not here to bring you really bad video game related television, I’m here to bring you roms and classic gaming. Donkey Kong Country was the second best selling game on the NES SNES (Super Mario World being the first), and its quite easy to see why. Not only did it have graphics, but it had gameplay, and an amazing soundtrack (which I am still very fond of). Enjoy this one, I’m probably gonna play through a bunch of it myself.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWcn9iAF7Mk]
Download this video in AVI (14.1 Mb)

Donkey Kong Country – SNES (4.1 Mb)

Wikipedia link to the television series