Games like Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door cover

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

What sleeps behind the door? Time passes, the pages turn… and a new chapter unfolds in an unfamiliar land! Get ready for a two-dimensional role-playing adventure for the ages as Mario returns to paper form to discover a mystery that sleeps behind an ancient, legendary portal called the Thousand-Year Door. The quest is long, the dangers many, and this time, Mario will have to make full use of his papery qualities just to survive.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time cover

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is the fifth main installment of The Legend of Zelda series and the first to be released for the Nintendo 64. It was one of the most highly anticipated games of its age, and is listed among the greatest video games ever created by numerous websites and magazines. The gameplay of Ocarina of Time was revolutionary for its time, it has arguably made more of an impact on later games in the series than any of its predecessors even though they had the same cores of exploration, dungeons, puzzles and item usage. Among the gameplay mechanics, one of the most noteworthy is the time-traveling system. The game begins with the player controlling the child Link, but later on an adult Link becomes a playable character as well and each of them has certain unique abilities. Ocarina of Time also introduces the use of music to solve puzzles: as new songs are learned, they can be used to solve puzzles, gain access to new areas and warp to different locations. Dungeon exploration is somewhat more puzzle-oriented than in earlier games but they are not too complex.

Rayman 2: The Great Escape cover

Rayman 2: The Great Escape

With its enchanted storybook look beautifully translated into 3D, lush, vibrant colors, funny enemy designs, and clever jumping puzzles, Rayman 2 is platforming perfection. No arms, no legs, no problem for the little French creation that could.

Super Metroid cover

Super Metroid

The Space Pirates, merciless agents of the evil Mother Brain, have stolen the last Metroid from a research station, and once again Mother Brain threatens the safety of the galaxy! Samus Aran must don her awesome array of high-tech weaponry to retrieve the deadly Metroid hidden deep within the cave-riddled planet Zebes. Super Metroid features excellent graphics, with a huge variety of enemies and worlds to explore. The side-view action will be familiar to many players, only now there are new weapons and items, including the Grappling Beam, which allows Samus to swing across large chasms, and the X-Ray Scope, which reveals secret passages.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past cover

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is a top-down action game with puzzle-solving elements similar to the original The Legend of Zelda. After the side-scrolling and RPG-like gameplay of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, the game is a return to the top-down view and gameplay style of the first installment. It introduces major new items to the series such as the Master Sword and the concept of two different worlds, which was revisited to some extent in Ocarina of Time with two distinct time periods rather than dark and light worlds.

Donkey Kong Country cover

Donkey Kong Country

Donkey Kong Country is a side scrolling platformer by British developers Rare in 1994. It featured revolutionary pre-rendered 3D graphics that give the game a very unique look compared to most other games on consoles at the time. The two playable characters featured in the game are the titular character, Donkey Kong and his nephew, Diddy Kong. Together the two swing, climb, jump, swim, cartwheel, ride animals, and blast out of barrels on their way to recover their stolen bannanas from the evil King K. Rool and his Kremling army. The adventure takes you through a variety of different environments and levels that continually change up gameplay. Donkey Kong Country also provides plenty of opportunities for exploration with almost every level having a multitude of collectible, shortcuts, and hidden bonus areas.

Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! cover

Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!

Monkey Mayhem Lives On! Kiddy Kong is a portly primate toddler with incredible power and agility! He teams up with Dixie Kong to stop the ever-present army of Kremlings. The game play and ACM graphics just keep getting better in this visually stunning installment in one of the most popular video game series of all time! Combining their unique abilities as they throw each other into action, Dixie Kong and Kiddy Kong set off to rescue Diddy Kong and Donkey Kong. Collect tons of treasure, grab billions of bananas and find more secret stuff than you've ever seen (or not seen) as you set off on the greatest DKC adventure yet! The final showdown with KAOS takes place in a cliff-top laboratory at the End of the World. It could get seriously ugly. Monkey mayhem lives on in this exotic island adventure!

Super Mario Bros. 3 cover

Super Mario Bros. 3

Super Mario Bros. 3, the third entry in the Super Mario Bros. series and Super Mario franchise, sees Mario or Luigi navigate a nonlinear world map containing platforming levels and optional minigames and challenges. The game features more diverse movement options and new items alongside more complex level designs and boss battles.

Rayman cover

Rayman

Rayman is a side-scrolling platformer starring the titular Rayman, a big-nosed chap with no arms or legs. Rayman can jump and use his hair to hover for a short period of time. He can also attack by throwing his fists, or winding up his fists for a more powerful punch. He can occasionally find special power ups that grant him unlimited flying power, giving him the ability to navigate through tricky mazes.

Super Mario Bros. cover

Super Mario Bros.

A side scrolling 2D platformer and first entry in the Super Mario franchise, Super Mario Bros. follows Italian plumber Mario as he treks across many levels of platforming challenges featuring hostile enemies to rescue Princess Peach from the evil king Bowser.