Once in a while, everything comes together just right. Donkey Kong Country 2 (SNES, released in 1995) was one of those moments. The sound and visuals were great then and great now. The game design remains a landmark to this day. The game introduced the concept of the DK coin as a huge golden spinning *hidden* item, and executed that concept perfectly. It's also full of different game mechanics and gimmicks that come at just the right pace to make it interesting all the way through.
I'm not music expert by any means, but the game's music always stood out to me. The sheer quantity of tracks was unusual for a SNES game, for one. More to the point, I still remember those tunes to this day and just plain like them.
Today marks another landmark in Donkey Kong Country 2's history. 15 years after the game's release, OC ReMix (who you might remember as the creators of the music for Street Fighter HD Remix) just released a remix of the DKC2 soundtrack. It has over 30 tracks, was made by over 30 remix artists, and contains over 2 hours of music. Hundreds, if not thousands of hours of work all-told. And the price? $0. It's free and you can get the torrent right here, right now.
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But there's more. The game's original score was created by David Wise, and amazingly, he contributed the final track of this remix. Wise is actually part of what is basically a tribute to his work. Pretty cool!
You know, I really don't know why these guys did all this, but I think it's pretty damn awesome that they did. The least you could do is check it out and keep the spirit of Donkey Kong Country 2 alive. Oh and here's a plea:
"Dear OC Remix: how about we create album of tracks for Fantasy Strike, the someday fighting game from Sirlin Games. There's already plenty of art for the characters and three card games of them fighting, nearly done now. The music could go in the online version of those card games, in development right now."--Sirlin