Donkey Kong Country is one of the most iconic games in Nintendo’s library, and it first graced the Super Nintendo back in November 1994. Just 7 months later the Game Boy received Donkey Kong Land, and it turns out that title was more than just a port of the SNES hit.
Donkey Kong Land certainly took some of the graphics, stages, and songs of Donkey Kong Country, but it was actually pretty stuffed with new content as well. There were exclusive enemies, brand-new levels, completely original songs and so much more. Those who avoided the game thinking it would be an inferior port really missed out on quite the gem!
While Donkey Kong Land did what it could to capture the graphical magic of Donkey Kong Country, you can obviously only get so far on the Game Boy. That’s obviously why one fan has decided to dive back into Donkey Kong Land in order to give it a visual overhaul that is much closer to its inspiration.
Modder Kasquez has taken the time to painstakingly revamp Donkey Kong Land with graphics straight from Donkey Kong Country, and you can see the results in the video above. While your memories of DKL might be in black and white (or shades of green depending on how you look at things), now you can see the game in glorious color, and with the same exact sprites from the SNES classic. Of course, there have also been some tweaks from DKL on Game Boy to make this one look and feel more like DKC as well.
While the original Donkey Kong Land more than holds its own in the Donkey Kong Country lineup of titles, it’s still pretty damn cool to see it reworked with the SNES visuals it was aiming for. Throw in the touched up controls and higher quality sound, and the end package is quite impressive!