I've always considered Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest to be the best of the Donkey Kong Country series (not counting Donkey Kong Country Returns, which I have yet to fully experience). When I think about that game with particular fondness, however, I tend to think of specific levels that either were a heck of a lot of fun or were downright frustrating. But when I often forget were the boss battles. And how could I not? Most of them were completed so quickly! Well, I have been reminded of the oft-lost boss bunch thanks to the efforts of a youngman under the guise of "Mattrizzle", who has developed a hack that is only boss battles, a sort of "brigand barrage" if you will. Oh wait, that's the name of the hack! It's all coming full circle. Mattrizzle is also responsible for a similar hack for the original Donkey Kong Country game.
When you start it up, you'll notice a brand new title screen! That's impressive enough. I'm done.
...There's more? In the menu prior to the game itself, you can choose how you want to play. You can choose a one-player mode or a two-player co-operative mode. If you're flying solo, you can pick which Kong to control (Diddy, the backwards hat-toter, or Dixie, whose ponytail is as thick as airplane propellers and function the same way). Choose your team color, which affects the palettes of your characters, as well as which boss you want to fight. Perhaps you just want to go after them all in sequence! And, just to challenge yourself, a timer will run so you can see how quickly you can defeat the bosses; you can select whether to show the timer or not. Then, it's go time!
And that's pretty much all there is to Brigand Barrage. The boss battles function exactly the same way as in Donkey Kong Country 2, though the screen fades to black before you can watch much of the ending victory animations for the Kongs. Once you are finished, you get a fancy results page. Try to beat your best times!
I found DKC2: Brigand Barrage to be decent, even if it's little more than a boss rush compilation. You can take down all of the bosses within around ten minutes, so there's no major time commitment. Let's see what this hack's all about with screenshots:
Here are a few screenshots to illustrate how awesome this hack is. Okay, NOW end sarcasm:
