Donkey Kong Country (Game Boy Color)

The Game Boy Color version of Donkey Kong Country is, as you'd expect, a port of the SNES original. It then got reported a few years later to the Game Boy Advance, soon followed by its sequels.

Unused Graphic


A "coming soon" message, likely intended for a demo version, is present at offset in the US and European versions. The palette is just a guess, as there is no known way to make it load in-game.

Unused Text


In a similar fashion to the SNES original, it is possible to display the string ERROR where the name of the level goes. In the International version, it can be displayed by screwing with the byte at hex address which controls what level is to be entered. One way to get the text displayed is to enter Kongo Jungle and set that byte to.

Alternately, enter Kongo Jungle and enable GameShark code.

Unused Music
By changing the hex byte in the ROM to a different value (or Game Genie code ), the music on the language select screen can be altered. By changing the byte to one of the following values, music tracks from Donkey Kong Land and Donkey Kong Land III that go unused in this game can be heard.


 * - File Select (Donkey Kong Land)
 * - Bonus Area, Intro
 * - Bonus Area, no Intro
 * - Bonus Win
 * - Goal
 * - Swanky's Showdown Lose (Donkey Kong Country 3; not used in Donkey Kong Land III)

It is possible that these could have been used as placeholder music in earlier builds. The existence of these tunes in the game could also be a hint that this version of Donkey Kong Country was built off of Donkey Kong Land III.

Regional Differences
The international release used Donkey Kong Country, whereas the Japanese version is Donkey Kong 2001. The Japanese logo also appears to be more detailed.

The international version has an extra tune in the title intro, whereas the Japanese version has a shorter title intro and lacks the language select screen. When the game is paused in the Japanese version, the text says "PAUSE". It says "PAUSED" in the international version.