Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (SNES)

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest is the second game in the Donkey Kong Country trilogy. This time, it's up to Diddy Kong and his girlfriend Dixie Kong to save Donkey Kong from King K. Rool.

Unused Level
Pro Action Replay code will load an incomplete version of Web Woods upon entering any level. This version contains several differences from the final version:
 * Diddy and/or Dixie will drop from the top of the map, landing near a DK Barrel.
 * Aside from two nearby Zingers, the level is devoid of any further objects.
 * You cannot enter the cave at the end of the section, as exit data isn't programmed.

However, using PAR code for Moonjump (jump at any point and as many times as you want) will enable you to get to the other side of the barrier. There are no other objects in the level, but you can also jump over the cave at what is normally the end of the level...to a bunch of random tiles between there and the rightmost border of the level.

Unused Language Option


PAR code enables an option to change the English game text to German...except this doesn't actually work, mainly because the only other language used for the text is French. There's no German text in the European or Japanese versions, either.

Still, there was a German release which, as you may have guessed, uses German text. It also has English as the alternate language option.

Music Test


Select an empty file, then press Down, Down, Down, Down, Down when Two-Player Contest is highlighted. The menu will scroll down to the new option, where you can press Left or Right to select the music. (Press Down, Down, Down, Down, Down again to access Cheat Mode.)

Note that some music tracks, such as "Run, Rambi! Run!", aren't listed in the Music Test.

Unused Sprites


Diddy and Dixie looking rather sad. Judging from their close proximity in the ROM to the victory sprites, these were likely intended to be used for failing a Bonus Game.

Zinger


Palette address:

Directly after the red and yellow Zinger palettes is this one. Green Zingers were used in the first Donkey Kong Country, but not here.

Flotsam
Red palette address:

Yellow palette address:

Aside from the blue and green varieties, Flotsam also has red and yellow palettes.

Flitter
Turqouise palette address:

Purple (blue wings) palette address:

Purple (green wings) palette address:

Red palette address:

Flitter has four unused palettes, but unfortunately only uses the blue-with-purple-wings variant in-game.

Unused Music
These tracks are loaded as part of the Crocodile Cacophony music set used in K. Rool Duel and Krocodile Kore. However, a few checks for this set in the code result in them never being played normally.

Death against K. Rool



Diddy wins against K. Rool



Dixie wins against K. Rool



Pro Action Replay code will allow the death music to be played normally in both K. Rool battles, and  will allow the victory themes to play in K. Rool Duel. will do the same as the latter for Krocodile Kore, but it will give you a Kremkoin instead of a Hero Coin for beating the battle the first time.

All codes are for US v1.0.

Unused Sounds
Unknown, but it may have been intended for when a Kong is released from a DK barrel like in the previous entry.

An alternate sound for collecting a banana. This exact sound is used in the next entry when collecting a banana bunch.

This sound should be used when the Kongs are transforming inside an Animal Buddy Barrel. It is even called in the game's code, albeit too late, and on the same channel as the sound of the barrel breaking. Thus, it cannot be heard.

SRAM Check
If the game detects 0KB of SRAM, this screen will pop up. Normally, the cartridge has 2KB of SRAM, but this anti-piracy routine will not be executed if this amount is increased (the typical anti-piracy routine of video games). Game Genie code will make this always appear, regardless of whether the cartridge passes the SRAM check. The background is the same as when the game detects an incorrect region.

Copier Check
At and  are the following strings:

Rareware A thief!

The game performs a series of tests during startup to detect the presence of copiers. If these tests fail, the string "A thief!" is copied to both and the beginning of SRAM, and the game locks up with an anti-piracy message. The game checks for this string in RAM when the console is reset, and triggers the same message if it is present, effectively killing the game until the console is powered off.

However, if the tests pass, the string "Rareware" is copied to instead; if this string is detected at startup, the anti-piracy checks are skipped and the game boots normally (presumably as a failsafe if the game encounters an error and must be reset).

Build Dates
Present at in all versions of the ROM. Notably, the US version was built first but released second.

Graphical Changes
The colors of the buttons on the controllers in the game mode selection screen are region-appropriate. The American SNES controllers have purple and lavender buttons, while the European and Japanese controllers use red, blue, green, and yellow buttons.

The aforementioned controller change appears in the Monkey Museums. An additional shadow can be seen on the controller in the Japanese and European versions as well.

In the European and Japanese versions, some background details of K. Rool Duel are different – most notably, the door appears to have a large hole blown through it. Of course, the controller's buttons were changed here too...

Kong Kollege Game Save Price
In the Japanese version, saving at the same Kong Kollege again costs one Banana Coin instead of two.