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Donkey Kong Country: A Christmas Miracle

Posted by Cole Stryker

There's something special about spotting that familiar rectangular shape under the tree, which I've had the good fortune of looking forward to at every Christmas. Growing up, I usually got two games each year. One on my birthday and one on Christmas. Of course, I had a rich friend across the street (didn't we all?) with two of every system and all the games I ever wanted to borrow.

But for a moment each Christmas morning I would pore over the instruction booklet, jump around the room waiting for a game to install, or breathlessly set up a new console. For my last post before the holidays, I'll relay a particularly heartwarming Christmas memory.

It was the mid-nineties, and Rare had mailed me a promotional VHS tape.

Epic, right? So, Donkey Kong Country was very hard to get a hold of, and my parents assured me that they had done their best to find it, but not to be too disappointed if it didn't work out. So, on Christmas morning I opened up a Donkey Kong Country T-shirt. My parents looked on solemnly and said it was all they could find. I was crushed, but grateful. Later that morning my parents surprised me with the game. Turns out the T-shirt was just a giveaway to early buyers.

Aww! Merry Christmas, everyone!

Comments

Nadia Oxford said:

Hah, sounds just like my story. DKC always feels like a "Christmas" game to me.

December 24, 2008 9:16 AM

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.