Donkey Kong Country (SNES)/Version Differences

This is a sub-page of Donkey Kong Country (SNES).

To do: There are more differences and more revisions: One or more Super Famicom box version, one or more Competition and one or more Wii VC versions.

American

US v1.0

• The initial NTSC release.

US v1.1

• A glitch was fixed which allows the player to trade an animal friend for Rambi. The exact directions are quite verbose, but involve entering a bonus area containing an animal friend while riding another one, jumping on the provided animal friend, jumping off and exiting, which will cause Donkey/Diddy to appear with Rambi.
• The Continue Barrel in Coral Capers is positioned 10 pixels higher than in the original version.
• In Trick Track Trek, the platforms that dropped pretty much instantly in v1.0 no longer do this.

US v1.2

• It is no longer possible to skip the fanfare when beating a level for the first time.
• In a case of "How did the developers not catch that?", most of the Mini-Neckys had no collision whatsoever, meaning you could safely jump through them without taking any damage. That was fixed in this revision. This change was undone for all versions of the GBA port.
• Two bugs relating to the mine cart were fixed:
  • In Mine Cart Carnage, starting at the Continue Barrel as Diddy and immediately rolling and jumping at the same time allows you to jump out of the cart. Afterwards, you can jump in mid-air indefinitely by rolling and jumping repeatedly.
  • In Mine Cart Madness, by falling down (not jumping) into the mine cart at the beginning as DK and getting hit by the Necky, Diddy can jump out of the cart and stay airborne indefinitely as above. However, as an extension, by rolling at the exact same moment you land on a Necky (it must be frame perfect), Diddy will magically hover to the right completely on his own. While this will cancel itself after a while, Diddy will retain his magic jumping capabilities.
• The well-known warp glitch was fixed. In Kongo Jungle, passing over a corner and attempting to "enter" it as a level, with the right timing, warped you to a barrel in Orang-utan Gang that had no purpose otherwise.
• Two glitches in Slip Slide Ride were fixed:
  • One bonus area involves climbing up a rope to a Barrel Cannon. This Barrel Cannon will disappear once the bonus has been entered, and if you went back there and climbed the rope all the way up, you could jump to the left over the wall and end up inside the ice.
  • At the beginning, climbing up the very first rope, then jumping to the right along the wall will cause the Kongs to start crawling along the wall for some really odd reason.

European

Europe v1.0

• King K. Rool's behavior is a bit different: after the cannonballs drop from above, he will immediately throw his crown instead of just standing there for a while.
• The mine carts have less momentum, making those levels much more difficult.

Europe v1.1

• Fixed the bugs that were fixed in US v1.2.

Japanese

Title Screen

International	Japan

The Japanese version has a completely redone title screen. Unlike the international version's palette-based image (creating a limit of 16 colors per 8×8 tile), the Japanese title screen uses a mode that uses 8-bit graphics (allowing 256 colors) for a much higher-quality picture. The artwork in the Japanese title screen matches up to the Japanese box art of the game.

Extra Map Icon

International	Japan

When starting a new game, Donkey moves from a starting position to the first world. In the international version, there's an icon at this position and a path from it that were removed in the Japanese version. The Japanese version refers to the worlds as numbered "Levels".

Also in the Japanese version, there's an exclamation mark (!) after the world level name if you've found all bonuses, and another exclamation mark after a beaten boss stage.

Level Changes

To do: Document them.

The Japanese version got a whole bunch of level changes, like extra DK Barrels, to make the game easier.

The following levels were changed in the Japanese version:

• Barrel Cannon Canyon:
  • Added an extra DK Barrel before the KONG Letter "N" item cache.
• Vulture Culture:
  • The Mini-Necky at the end of the level has been removed.
• Millstone Mayhem:
  • Added a TNT Drum near the second (final) perched Necky.
• Mine Cart Carnage:
  • The third, fourth, and eighth overturned carts were removed.
  • There's an extra DK Barrel after the Life Balloon.
  • The third, fourth, and sixth Krashes were also removed.

• Clam City:
  • There's one less Bitesize at the O.
• Snow Barrel Blast:
  • The first DK Barrel was moved to above the first Barrel Cannon, with a Banana Bunch put in its place. Extra DK Barrels were also added after the Klaptrap trio and after the Necky flock.
  • The first Klaptrap was removed.
  • Two Neckys were removed (2nd one after Banana Bunch, 3rd one after steel keg).
  • The Zinger that appears after the Klaptrap trio was removed.

• Slipslide Ride:
  • The second Army (at the bottom-right of the level, by the Zinger) has been removed.
  • The Zinger directly above the missing Army's position (between the closely spaced blue ropes) has been removed.
  • The fourth blue Kritter (one of the pair at the base of the steep down/left slope) has been removed.
  • The Zinger near the ceiling directly after the last change (where the blue rope is) has been removed.
  • The third Klaptrap after the Continue Barrel has been removed.
  • The second (middle) Zinger that hangs around the blue rope that leads to the N has been removed.
• Ice Age Alley:
  • The Mini-Necky at the start doesn't shoot a nut at once. Might be the same case with all Mini-Neckies.
  • The second Klaptrap after the steel keg has been removed.
• Croctopus Chase:
  • One Squidge at the end has been removed.
• Torchlight Trouble:
  • There's one extra Krusha before the "close to exit" sign, number 5 after the first bonus.

• Oil Drum Alley:
  • The first Kritter has been removed.
  • A total of three Kritters have been removed around the O before the Continue Barrel.
  • Second Kritter after the first Manky Kong has been removed.
  • Kritter removed after the pair of Manky Kongs.
  • First Kritter removed after the Kritter mentioned above.
  • The fire in the oil drums is gone around one second longer.
  • There's a lot more space between the barrels the Manky Kong throws at the end.
• Trik Trak Trek:
  • One Mini-Necky removed at the end of the first ride.
  • The second DK Barrel has been moved slighty to the right.
  • The first Necky after the DK Barrel mentioned above, has been removed.
  • The moving platform stays when it reaches the end, instead of falling down.

• Elevator Antics:
  • A DK Barrel has been added outside the first bonus.
  • One Slippa removed at the end of the first tunnel.
  • One Slippa removed at the start of the second tunnel, at the Zingers.
  • An extra Banana Bunch was added to the end of the rope after the two Zingers moving horizontally.
  • One Slippa removed after the rope mentioned above.
  • A DK Barrel has been added after the Continue Barrel, above the Banana Bunch.
  • One Klump removed at the second steel keg.
  • Another Klump removed above the other one.
  • One steel keg added after the aforementioned Klump.
  • First Mini-Necky after the Continue Barrel has been removed.

• Poison Pond:
  • A Bitesize before the first tire has been removed.
  • Another one removed before the first two horizontal tires.
  • And one moved after the tires mentioned above.
  • First Squidge removed at the second DK Barrel.
  • Second Squidge before the O is removed.
  • Second Squidge after the O is removed.
  • The two vertical tires at the second Enguarde has been changed to one horizontal.
  • A Bitesize removed under the second tire circle.
  • A tire removed below the above mentioned Bitesize.
  • The tires at the vertical shaft close to the end are moving slightly bit slower. This may be the case with more tires.
  • The fast Bitesize in the end have been slowed down a bit.

• Mine Cart Madness:
  • Fifth Necky (just after the K) has been removed.
  • Tenth orange Zinger (middle Zinger on the uphill climb after the yellow Zingers) has been removed.
  • A Life Balloon replaces the Banana Bunch near the end of the level (above the high-flying Necky).
  • DK Barrel has been added after the Continue Barrel.

• Blackout Basement:
  • It's dark for 46 frames and light for 77 frames, as opposed to the US version's 62 and 62.
  • A regular barrel has been added after the Continue Barrel.
  • The first Klaptrap in the trio has been removed.
  • A DK Barrel has been added to the first bonus.
  • Klaptrap at the exit is removed.

• Tanked Up Trouble:
  • The first Gnawty has been removed.
  • The first Gnawty at the N has been removed.
  • The middle Zinger at the Banana Bunch has been removed.
• Manic Mincers:
  • The lower tire at the Rambi Crate has been removed.
• Loopy Lights:
  • The light stays on slightly longer in the Japanese version.
  • A Klaptrap removed after the first tire.
  • A DK Barrel added before the Necky.
• Platform Perils:
  • First Army has been removed.

• Gang-Plank Galleon:
  • King K. Rool runs more slowly (try running away from him as Diddy after you've jumped on him twice, and you'll notice the difference).
  • The cannonballs have a longer delay between them, which makes passing them easier.

Enemy Changes

A Banana Bunch is now awarded for every third hand-slapped enemy (including Krushas).

It is possible to kill Rockkrocs by using Donkey's Ground Slap move (Down + Y) when they are curled up (activated by Stop & Go Station's red light). This feature would be added in all versions of the GBA port.

Diddy Kong must jump on a Manky Kong enemy twice to kill it. Hitting it the first time freezes him in place with an early frame of his death animation while pushing back Diddy (like jumping on a Klump), while the second hit is a normal kill.

Virtual Console Changes

The Virtual Console version makes a change to Torchlight Trouble. In the SNES version, when the Kongs would change direction, Squawks would turn his flashlight to face the screen; during this time, there would be a blinding flash where the entire screen would turn white for one frame, forcing players to close their eyes. The Virtual Console version removes the flash, reducing the risk of an epileptic seizure.

Competition Cart

A special version of the game, used at Powerfest '94 and the Blockbuster World Video Game Championships II qualifiers in 1995. It's mostly identical to US v1.2, with the following changes:

• A scoring system and five-minute timer are implemented, with the former's display replacing the banana counter and the latter using the banana count number graphics. Once the timer reaches 0:00, the game freezes so the player's score can be checked by the judge.
• Animal Tokens were removed from most levels, though in later levels Rare got a bit lazy and left a couple in odd places, probably because they wouldn't expect players to get through every level that's present on the cart.
• You have 50 lives at the start, rather than five.
• The game launches straight into the first level. Beating each level leads directly into the next one.

Eleven levels are present, but only the first eight can be seen without abusing glitches and speedrunning the game to near-herculean levels via TASing, or simply freezing the timer via Pro Action Replay (PAR) code 7E0046C5. The levels are, in order:

• Kongo Jungle - 1-1: Jungle Hijinks, 1-3: Reptile Rumble, 1-2: Ropey Rampage, 1-4: Coral Capers
• Monkey Mines - 2-1: Winky's Walkway, 2-3: Bouncy Bonanza
• Vine Valley - 3-5: Orang-utan Gang
• Gorilla Glacier - 4-1: Snow Barrel Blast, 4-2: Slipslide Ride, 4-3: Ice Age Alley, 4-4: Croctopus Chase

Beating Croctopus Chase will freeze the game on a black screen.

(Source: SNES Central)