 Candy's Dance Studio 
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 The stall for the Candy's Dance Studio as seen in the game Donkey Kong Country for GBA. | |
| Greater location(s) | Donkey Kong Island |
| Ruler(s) | Candy Kong |
| Game(s) | Donkey Kong Country |
| First Appearance | Donkey Kong Country (for GBA) (2003) |
| Latest Appearance | Donkey Kong Country (for GBA) (2003) |
Candy's Dance Studios are multiple locations in the Donkey Kong Island that are owned by Candy Kong and appearing only in the Game Boy Advance version of the game Donkey Kong Country. Each studio hosts a free rhythm minigame[1]. By Donkey and Diddy Kong playing the minigame, alonside Candy Kong, the player can earn blue Extra Life Balloons and photographs for the Scrapbook.
Overview[]
The Candy's Dance Studios replace her Save Points from the Super Nintendo Entertainment System version of Donkey Kong Country and her Challenges from the Game Boy Color version of the same game. Similar to the Save Points and Challenges, there is a stall for the Dance Studio in every world map of the Donkey Kong Island.
Each Candy's Dance studio consists of a stall with a wooden floor above the ground level, located underneath a red and white roof. Only during the minigames, curtains of the same colors are also visible, surrounding the interior of it. The stall is big enough to hold three characters. It is open air, so wherever Candy has placed her studio, the environment of the current world map can be clearly seen in the background.
As soon as the player enters the studio, Candy will ask if the heroes have come to dance. The minigame is free, and it starts by the player jumping into the barrel above the current main character. After that, the game will change to a screen where Donkey, Diddy and Candy Kong are inside the stall, staring at the screen, and a song will start to play soon after. At the bottom of the same screen, there is a cursor placed half way through a horizontal meter. The same meter, divided into five segments, displays the word "PERFECT" at the right edge. A square target sign can be seen at the top of the same screen. A series of command prompts will soon come from the upper left of the screen. The player must press the same buttons displayed at these prompts when they are right over the upper sign. By the player pressing the corresponding buttons using some accuracy, the cursor at the bottom meter will move towards the right direction. The current main character controlled by the player will also match the moves of the other two dancers. Using bad timing and missing button prompts will move the same cursor towards the left direction of the meter. The objective of the minigame is to move the cursor all the way towards the right side, demanding a lot precision from the player when pressing the command prompts. At the end of the song, if the player is able to move the cursor over the segment of the bottom meter next to the word "PERFECT", Candy will give away a single blue Extra Life Balloon. Also, by the player at least earning an almost perfect score during the minigame inside each Dance Studio, the female ape will reward them with a photograph for the Scrapbook. There is a total of six photographs for the player to receive at all studios in the island. After the photograph of the stall of the current world map is collected, the name of the same location will be followed by an exclamation mark. However, there is also a photograph of Candy Kong rewarded only by the player achieving a perfect score once inside any Dance Studios.
After receiving any prizes, the heroes will leave the location immediately. It is possible for the player to replay the minigame multiple times at the same stall in order to collect multiple blue Extra Life Balloons for almost perfect scores. At any moment during the minigame, the player can also pause the game and leave by pressing the "Select" button. If the player has failed in clearing the song and earning any rewards, they can leave the Dance Studio by pressing the "Left" directional button or jump into the barrel again and replay the same minigame. Each location of the studios possesses an unique song during the minigame. In later world maps of the game, the minigames become harder, displaying more variation of button prompts and a larger number of prompts. However, during the main game mode, each song always displays the same number of command prompts and in the same order.
Here is the list of songs from the Candy's Dance Studios by world locations of the Donkey Kong Island in the game Donkey Kong Country:
- Kongo Jungle: Candy Dance 1
- Monkey Mines: Candy Dance 2
- Vine Valley: Candy Dance 3
- Gorilla Glacier: Candy Dance 4
- Kremkroc Industries, Inc.: Candy Dance 5
- Chimp Caverns: Candy Dance 6
After the player clearing a song once during the main game mode, it will be unlocked in the Extras option at the main menu screen where the Candy's Dance Studio minigame can also be played. The player can replay each song trying to earn new high scores. In this mode, there is no longer a bottom meter during the minigame, being replaced by a score counter, and the main objective is to set combos matching button prompts in succession by the player using good timing. Each song displays the same difficulty and number of command prompts from the main mode, however the prompts now appear in a random order. And, by using a Game Link Cable[2] between two Game Boy Advance systems, it is possible for two players to play the minigame at the same time.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- During the rhythm minigames at the Candy's Dance Studios, Donkey and Diddy Kong will always appear together, alongside Candy Kong, even if only Donkey or Diddy enter the location alone in the current world map of the game Donkey Kong Country.
- Despite the different functions of the Candy's Save Points, Candy's Challenges and Candy's Dance Studios in the SNES, GBC and GBA versions of the game Donkey Kong Country, respectively, the stall for each service keeps the same overall design between all game versions.
- In the GBA version of the game Donkey Kong Country, it is possible for the player to use a cheat code in order to access the Sound Player where they can hear all song themes in the game, including the six "Candy Dance" songs from the Candy's Dance Studios. At the selection screen of game files, the player must hold "Select", and then press "B", "A", "L", "L", "A" and "Down" buttons in that order. If the code inputs are correct, the player will hear somebody say "Not Bad" and the game will change to the Sound Player screen soon after.