The next DK Land game has arrived and it’s a pretty good continuation from the first one. In general I miss DK and his strong way of fighting but Dixie is certainly the most powerful all around character with how she can fly anywhere. The game also doubles up on all the summon animals so on a purely gameplay sense it may beat the original. I would still have liked for DK to have been involved more though since this is supposed to be his series.

There’s still not much of an actual story to be had here though. The game is much more focused on just throwing you into the action so you’d probably have to read the booklet. Somehow or other King K Rool has kidnapped DK though and it is up to Diddy and Dixie to save him. They are ready for this though and prepare to use all of their skills to get past the waves of enemies and help him out. There are a wide variety of worlds to go through here so prepare for a lot of environments.

One thing that is evident from the stat is that the gameplay is quite hard though. A lot of these levels require split second reflexes and you always have to be moving or you will be left in the dust. One big example of this is the level where you play as a spider. You have to shoot out your webs and then keep on rising through the level as some boiling water follows you. The way you do this is by shooting out the web with B and then clicking select to stop it and turn this into a platform. You have to continue with this process at top speed or you will quickly be overwhelmed. It’s really hard because of how far apart the buttons are.

Then you have to consider that a lot of the enemies are impervious to your jumping. So you have to use your rolls which isn’t always easy to time. If you don’t time it well then you will end up taking damage instead. The bosses also attack rather quickly so you want to learn the timings real fast. The game is definitely unrelenting which is impressive. Since the levels aren’t overly long and there are checkpoints, I say bring it on! Of course with the Switch Online and rewinding it’s a non factor but even back in the day it would have been fun.

There are more worlds here than in the first game and of course you also have a bonus world for if you had gotten all of the collectibles. That is some good replay value here and it feels like the modern Nintendo platformers where there is a lot to do. You definitely do get the bang for your buck with this title. Then the graphics are hard to really praise since everything is so faded out but the sprites for the characters look good. It’s the kind of game that would probably look great if we did have full colors but sadly that was not in the cards here.

The soundtrack is good though. Probably not as good as the first one to be honest but it’s close and I would keep it as a positive either way. The game’s technical elements are on point and I also enjoyed the gameplay. It’s not the tightest Nintendo gameplay that I’ve experienced but it definitely does hold its own. The fact that they came up with different gameplay for all of the various animals and Kong members is also impressive. They didn’t just go the lazy route and establish a single mode for gameplay.

My main recommendation is to hold the run button at all times. Some of the jumps are really hard to handle but if you are running then you will be able to make them without any issue. The only weakness is that it can be easy to fall that way and of course if you are in a place with a lot of minions then you might bump into them. So you probably want to be patient but for any gap, immediately start running. One thing about the 2D platformers is they will punish you if you rush through the levels too much. It’s just hard not to since I love going full blast all the time.

The game has a fun cameo for Mario at the very end of the game so make sure you check that out. It’s Nintendo’s way of reminding you that he is always around. If we ever do get a modern plot based DK game, I really want them to include Mario somewhere. Have him show up as a secret boss battle or any ally who helps out at the end. Mario and DK are in the same universe after all so it’s about time that they start crossing over more.

Overall, Donkey Kong Land 2 is a pretty fun game. It ends up being over very quickly but such is always the fate for a platformer. That’s why it is important that you enjoy the gameplay. So it may be a short time, but that way it is a fun one. Additionally with the collectibles it can last a bit longer that way. Hopefully the Switch Online continues to deliver more DK games since there are definitely more that I need to play. We’ll see if any of them beat this one. At the end of the day this one’s a basic platformer so there isn’t a ton to talk about but it handles all of the fundamentals well so it’s a good game.

Overall 7/10