Donkey Kong Country

Donkey Kong Country is a side scrolling platformer by British developers Rare in 1994. It featured revolutionary pre-rendered 3D graphics that give the game a very unique look compared to most other games on…

80 18 November 1994 ESRB E

Platform Action

Donkey Kong Country is a platform developed by Rare, released 18 November 1994 on New Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, Wii and Super Famicom. The main story takes about 3 hrs to finish.

Verified 21 Oct 2026 Sources: IGDB , Wikipedia

What Donkey Kong Country is

Donkey Kong Country is a platform game developed by Rare and released in 1994. It was published by Gradiente. It is available on New Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, Wii, Super Famicom and Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It carries an ESRB E age rating.

The premise, in the publisher's words

On a dark and stormy night in Donkey Kong Island, Diddy Kong, Donkey Kong's nephew has taken the weighty responsibility of guarding DK's precious banana hoard for one night, as a part of his "hero training". DK entrusts Diddy with protecting the hoard until midnight, when he would be relieved, while DK himself goes to sleep as he is tired. Everything seems to go smoothly in the hoard until Diddy hears some noises. Diddy hears some voices outside and gets scared, asking who's there. King K. Rool, who had commanded his Kremling minions to steal the bananas. Two ropes drop from above and suddenly two Kritters appear. Diddy cartwheels them both easily, but then a Krusha (Klump in the…

Description from the publisher · source

How it plays

It is played from a side view perspective. Its themes are action. It supports multiplayer and includes co-op. Local play supports 2 players. Available modes: Co-operative, Multiplayer and Single player.

Where it sits in the Donkey Kong series

Donkey Kong Country is the 42nd of 190 entries we hold in the Donkey Kong series. The next entry was Donkey Kong Country: Competition Cartridge in 1994. Its critic score of 80 is 5 points above the series average of 75. The highest-rated entry is Super Smash Bros. Melee at 100.

See all 190 Donkey Kong games in release order →

How it was received

Donkey Kong Country holds a critic score of 80 out of 100. That places it above 65% of the 2,373 rated platform games in our database, which average 72. Games released in 1994 averaged 72, so it scored 8 points above the year average. Player ratings track closely with critics at 83, across 611 votes.

How long it takes, and what that costs

The main story runs about 3 hrs. Completing everything takes closer to 4 hrs, roughly 1.3 times the length of the critical path.

What it launched against

Donkey Kong Country launched on 18 November 1994, within three weeks of The Lion King, Tekken, Breath of Fire II and Killer Instinct. It reviewed better than 3 of the 4.

Released around the same time: The Lion King, Tekken, Breath of Fire II, Killer Instinct.

Cheats and codes

We have not confirmed any working cheat codes for Donkey Kong Country yet. Rather than reprint a list we have not tested, this section stays empty until one is verified.

Know one? Send it in and we will test it →