Taking my headline from the name of the final stage in this hack, this one truly is an anomaly in the DKC hack library.

At first I didn’t really know what to expect when the description of this hack defined it as a “Troll Hack”. After playing through it completely though, I don’t really feel like that’s the right phrase to describe this. Most of what is considered “Trolly” seem to just be the unique level mechanics, but that is what makes this such an awesome hack. Though some levels are somewhat “vanilla”, there are quite a few with completely new mechanics that change things up on you. For example, in the 1st “Green/Red” light stage, your controls are reversed by default (while red), but are normal while the lights are active. In others, you control the animal partners independent of DK or Diddy. The bosses are also significantly amped up, and are a true challenge to beat. As its title of “Is this even DKC anymore?” suggests, the final level is something truly amazing and I have no idea how it was accomplished, but kudos to the creator. I don’t want to spoil any of the others, but in short, there are tons of surprises in this hack that make it the most interesting DKC hack I’ve played by far.

The only downside is that all this innovation and new stuff is coupled with some pretty frustrating level design. You’ll be facing tons of cheap deaths and tight platforming to get through it, and though it never goes full Kaizo, it takes tons of patience to get through. In fact, even after I praised the final level for how cool its mechanic is, it’s still a nightmare to play through without save states (to say why would be a spoiler, but you’ll see when you get there).

Overall, I’d say all the unique stuff here is worth the frustration though. Hats off to all the amazing hacking done here!