Daze Before Christmas

Also known as:  N/A

Developer: Funcom

While I had played this European-exclusive platformer in the past, it never really caught my interest long enough to motivate me to see it through to the end. But, since it's the time for the holiday spirit, I decided to show how festive I could be by playing through every single stage so I could give it a proper review when adding it to this list. While it's not an awful platformer, the Daze Before Christmas does have one, giant flaw that will likely frustrate many players - the game requires you to sometimes take "leaps of faith" because you can't really see what's underneath you, but you know that you need to head in that direction. So, your options are walk off the edge of a platform and hope that there's another platform waiting for you, or jump and hope that you guess the jump distance correct to land on a platform that you can't see. Other times, both options are wrong and you need to sit and wait for a moving platform to appear on screen for you to jump onto. It's a pain and feels like poor game design. Would it really have been that difficult to lower the camera a tad so you can see any platforming that needs to be done beneath you? Santa's jolly, obese belly would fit fine in the center of the screen, after all. When you're not blindly jumping off of platforms, your goal appears to be gift-wrapping the various evil toys that attack you so that you can give said evil toys to children for Christmas…because attacking the demonic toys turns them into gifts that you drop down the chimneys of good girls and boys between levels. If you’re a good child, your reward is being terrorized by demonic toys, I guess. Santa can also turn into a devilish version of himself where he destroys the toys instead of gift-wrapping them…Seems like the devilish version cares more about the kids than the jolly Santa, doesn't it? Anyway the Daze Before Christmas isn't a great platformer…I'd call it just shy of being passable. There are plenty of worse platformers that you could choose, but unless you're desperate for a Christmas-themed game for your Super NES or Genesis, you have plenty of better options available.

Review added: 12/25/2022

Donkey Kong Country

Also known as:  Super Donkey Kong (Japan)

Developer: Rare, Ltd.

I remember my cousins coming over on New Year's Eve 1994...they brought over this new Super NES game that had just come out called Donkey Kong Country. I remember popping it in and immediately being wowed by the graphics. I had never seen anything like it before. Then the soundtrack hit, and even with me not being much of a music person, I found the songs, the underwater theme in particular, stuck in my head for weeks. Then we began to play the game, and it was an absolute blast both when playing solo and when teaming up with someone else. Rare had been developing video games for a while before Donkey Kong Country, but arguably, the tie-wearing ape helped establish them as one of the best developers in the world in the 90’s. Sure, later games improved upon the formula found here, but the first DK Country is still a solid platformer in its own right. It’s not perfect, and it’s not as great as the platformers starring Nintendo’s Italian plumber, but it was still a fine return for Nintendo’s ape, who had been missing in action since the 80’s.

Review added: 11/01/2019

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest

Also known as:  Super Donkey Kong 2: Dixie & Diddy (Japan)

Developer: Rare, Ltd.

Donkey Kong Country 2 saw big, ol' DK tossed out in favor of bringing in some girlish charm in the form of Dixie Kong. The result was, quite possibly, the best game in the Donkey Kong Country series. The fantastic levels were both beautiful to look at and well-designed, often requiring teamwork between the Diddy and Dixie to obtain the secrets found in each stage. The difficulty was ramped up a tad, too, making the overall game feel a little more rewarding to make your way through it. The music was just as good as what was heard in the first game, maybe even better. Just about every aspect of the original Donkey Kong Country was improved here in some fashion or another, it seems, to create one of the best games ever created with “Donkey Kong” in the title. Donkey Kong Country was a solid game and it turned a lot of heads. Diddy's Kong Quest was a great game and it’s still beloved and fondly remembered as one of the best platformers of the 16-bit era still to this day. It also solidified that Rare didn’t just make a fluke with the original – they were now a developer to pay attention to.

Review added: 02/21/2021