15 Years of DKC: Finding Comfort in a Classic

An article by Jomingo

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If you are reading this right now (which you are, or else we wouldn't be having this conversation), then your fondest childhood memories probably involve Donkey Kong Country. Bear with me as I try my best to collect vague emotional ideas and put them into word form.

Donkey Kong Country is the only game I have ever played with my Dad, Brother, and Grandmother all at once. The earliest memory of mine is that of me watching my Dad and brother play through this amazing game. It is in essence, a complete and utter representation of my childhood. It sums up the past fifteen years of my life perfectly; something so simple yet so complex; so challenging yet so invigorating....

Fans of Donkey Kong Country are a dying breed. Most DKC fanatics have grown up, or are well on their way to doing so. I am sixteen years old; I take college classes and worry more about my GPA then I do about getting sleep. I have spent years preparing myself to enter an unforgiving world, and throughout all of this I am still as of yet completely unaware of what I intend to do with my life. I don't know where I'm going to college, I don't know how I am going to pay for it, and most of all, I don't know what I am going to do or who I am going to be. Hell, I don't know who I am. But regardless of what the future holds, one can always find solace in the past, and Donkey Kong Country is the one thing in my life that hasn't changed in the past decade and a half. I can always take the time to go back and revisit my childhood through the small plastic link between reality and imagination. I could write pages upon pages of what has gone wrong with the Donkey Kong Country series over these long years, but the fact is: They can't ruin memories. The future may be bleak and unpredictable, but the past will always remain constant, and I intend to keep on reliving this classic again and again for another fifteen years, and if the series never produces anything new again, I'll be ok with it. At least I still have my memories.

- by Jomingo -

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This article was written by a DKC Atlas Forum staff member. All opinions expressed within this article are those of the writer, and are not necessarily shared by DKC Atlas, or the DKC gaming community.