Speedrunner Eazinn
Eazinn has held multiple world records in Donkey Kong Country over the years, sometimes beating his own current record within days of setting it. Whether it’s an eight-minute Any% playthrough or a full 101% run, Eazinn has done it all. Below you’ll find select tips for barreling through Donkey Kong Country like the pros!
Basic
Rolling
Rolling is the meat of this game. It’s faster than running or jumping and generally does a better job of dispatching enemies and getting over gaps than the jump alone. To sum up Donkey Kong Country speedrunning, “Any time not spent rolling is generally time better spent rolling.” DKC is primarily based around speeding yourself up through tight maneuvering and tricks to gain speed, so rolling as often as possible and using enemies and the terrain to your advantage is key. As such, knowing enemy placement and how different parts of the stage can affect the Kongs’ roll is very important.
Advanced
Extended Rolling
Unique to DKC1 is a technique called extended rolling, which is essentially chaining rolls between enemies together. If you press Y to initiate a roll but let go right away and re-press Y after you have rolled through an enemy, you start another roll. You can theoretically use this technique to chain through enemies infinitely. Extended rolling is a bit tricky at first but is something that you need to master in order to get a good time, as there are extended rolls in most of the stages.
Tire Rolls
Rolling on tires is also an advanced technique. Because of how tires are programmed, trying to roll off one can result in death if you don’t know exactly how to roll off a tire. Where you land in relation to the tire is extremely important to determine when you should start rolling; inputting a roll a little too early or a little too late can result in death and ultimately kill your run.
Expert
Jumproll
The jumproll is a glitch where you initiate a roll on the same frame that you bounce on an enemy. It causes the game to send your Kong rolling through the air horizontally at running speed, bypassing entire stages. I have spent countless hours on each individual jumproll trying to get the best setups and best consistency possible, but they still kill most of my runs. In the course of the run there are seven jumprolls, saving a little over two minutes altogether. Getting all of them in one run is like winning the lottery. Jumprolls are a cool-looking trick and really fun to pull off, but not recommended for new runners.