Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest is a bombastic sequel to a sparse and more austere game. Rather than basing its aesthetics on the quirks of real animals, it adopts a pirate theme, with levels spread across ships, alcoves, theme parks, and flooded labyrinths.

Though often praised as the superior entry in its trilogy, I find that the game largely abandons what made its predecessor unique. What many fail to recognise is that these games are masked cinematic platformers: the UI is sparse, the music is often ambient and non-melodic, and the sound effects are tactile and reverberant. In appraising a more kinetic style, Donkey Kong Country 2 no longer feels like a realised world one could step into, as its predecessor did. Instead, it comes across as an arcadey light show—more interested in cheap tricks than in carving out a genuinely distinctive experience

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