Following a year after the original Donkey Kong Country, this 1995 sequel is more of the same platforming action, with pre-rendered graphics, only this time you’re playing as Diddy Kong – and his girlfriend, Dixie Kong – on a mission to rescue Donkey Kong.

Graphically, Donkey Kong Country 2 does have some enhancements over the original. The rain, for example, is more convincing in this. The level designs, and the level graphics, are generally brighter, more colourful and less dark in Diddy’s Kong Quest, although there are plenty of new, atmospheric fog, weather and lighting effects.

Diddy and Dixie each have different attributes. Diddy runs faster and is more agile, and Dixie can jumper higher and spin her hair to hover, and – like before – they can switch places and also pick each other up and throw each other. In single-player mode the computer AI controls the second character (which just follows you, really), and in two-player mode you can either play cooperatively or against each other.

There are eight different ‘worlds’ to explore, and 58 different stages to play, plus: all the bonus stages and minigames.

The helpful “animal friends” return (there’s even a friendly spider in this one!), as does the mine cart ride, and many of the enemies will be familiar from the first game. Again: defeating enemies by bouncing on their heads, throwing a barrel at them, or cartwheeling through them, is what you need to do stay alive.

Donkey Kong Country 2 was another big hit for Nintendo, selling more than five million cartridges worldwide. It is the sixth best-selling SNES game of all-time.

More: Donkey Kong Country 2 on Wikipedia