Cartride only, no box, no manual. Donkey Kong Country[b] is a 1994 platform game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It is a reboot of Nintendo's Donkey Kong franchise and follows the gorilla Donkey Kong and his nephew Diddy Kong as they set out to recover their stolen banana hoard from the crocodile King K. Rool and his army, the Kremlings. The player traverses 40 side-scrolling levels as they jump between platforms and avoid obstacles. They collect items, ride minecarts and animals, defeat enemies and bosses, and find secret bonus stages. In multiplayer modes, two players work cooperatively or race. After developing Nintendo Entertainment System games in the 1980s, Rare, a British studio founded by Tim and Chris Stamper, purchased Silicon Graphics workstations to render 3D models. Nintendo sought a game to compete with Sega's Aladdin (1993) and commissioned Rare to revive the dormant Donkey Kong franchise. Rare assembled 12 developers to work on Donkey Kong Country over 18 months. Donkey Kong Country was inspired by the Super Mario series and was one of the first home console games to feature pre-rendered graphics, achieved through a compression technique that converted 3D models into SNES sprites with little loss of detail. It was the first Donkey Kong game neither produced nor directed by the franchise's creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, though he contributed design ideas. Following its announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show in June 1994, Donkey Kong Country was highly anticipated and backed by a major marketing campaign that cost $16 million in America alone. It was released in November 1994 to acclaim; critics hailed its visuals as groundbreaking and praised its gameplay and music. Its quality and design were favourably compared to the Super Mario series. Donkey Kong Country received several year-end accolades and set the record for the fastest-selling video game at the time. With 9.3 million copies sold worldwide, it is the third-bestselling SNES game and the bestselling Donkey Kong game. Following the success, Nintendo purchased a large minority stake in Rare, which became a prominent second-party developer for Nintendo during the late 1990s. Donkey Kong Country re-established Donkey Kong as a popular Nintendo franchise and helped maintain the SNES's popularity into the fifth generation of video game consoles. It is considered one of the greatest video games of all time and has been ported to platforms such as the Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, and digital distribution services. Rare followed it with two sequels for the SNES, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (1995) and Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! (1996), and the Nintendo 64 game Donkey Kong 64 (1999). After a hiatus, during which Rare was acquired by the Nintendo competitor Microsoft, Retro Studios revived the series with Donkey Kong Country Returns (2010) for the Wii and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (2014) for the Wii U. Gameplay [edit] The player character, Diddy Kong, jumps on a Kremling in a jungle-themed level. Donkey Kong Country is a side-scrolling platform game.[2] A reboot of the Donkey Kong franchise,[3][4] its story begins when King K. Rool and his army of crocodiles, the Kremlings, steal the Kongs' banana hoard.[5][6] The gorilla Donkey Kong and his nephew Diddy Kong set out to reclaim the hoard and defeat the Kremlings.[6] Donkey and Diddy serve as the player characters of the single-player game; they run alongside each other and the player can swap between them at will. Donkey is stronger and can defeat enemies more easily; Diddy is faster and more agile.[7] Both can walk, run, jump, pick up and throw objects, and roll; Donkey can slap the terrain to defeat enemies or find items.[8] The player begins in a world map that tracks their progress and provides access to the 40 levels.[9][10] The player attempts to complete each level while traversing the environment, jumping between platforms, and avoiding enemy and inanimate obstacles. Level themes include jungles, underwater reefs, caves, mines, mountains, and factories.[11] Some feature unique game mechanics, such as rideable minecarts, blasting out of cannons resembling barrels, and swinging ropes.[12] Each area ends with a boss fight with a large enemy.[13] Donkey and Diddy can defeat enemies by jumping on, rolling into, or throwing barrels at them. If hit by an obstacle, one of the Kongs runs off and the player automatically takes control of the other. They will only be able to control that Kong unless they free the other Kong from a barrel. (description exceeds maximum possible length)