Rare retooled Country's gameplay to account for the lower quality display, and David Wise and Graeme Norgate converted the soundtrack to the Game Boy's sound chip.

Critics praised it as successfully translating Country's gameplay, visuals, and music to the Game Boy, though they disagreed over whether it was an equal experience.

[1][7][10] Levels are populated by collectible bananas, barrel-shaped cannons, hidden bonus stages, throwable items, and letters spelling K–O–N–G that save the player's progress.

[7][11] Some levels feature one of two animal companions, the rhino Rambi and the ostrich Expresso, who provide the Kongs with special abilities.

[9][16] Like Country, Land features pre-rendered graphics converted to sprites through Rare's Advanced Computer Modelling (ACM) compression technique.

[17] Although the Game Boy is considerably less powerful than the SNES, its basic architecture is similar; this allowed Machacek to easily transfer Country artwork to Land and the artists to use the same PowerAnimator tools for new ACM assets.

[19] The limitations meant only one player character could appear on-screen at a time and that Rare had to reduce the number of bonus stages and animal companions.

[10] They turned the K–O–N–G letters into a save feature, rather than having them provide an extra life as in Country, to make completing the game easier.

[8] Like Donkey Kong Country, Land was announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago in June 1994 and promoted through Nintendo's Play It Loud!

[b] Diehard GameFan and Electronic Gaming Monthly highlighted the new levels, mechanics, and locales,[30][29] and The Electric Playground said the controls were tight and responsive.

[8] GamePro said that despite the technical limitations and smaller scope, Land was "a formidable effort considering what it accomplishes on a portable system", with lengthy levels and challenging gameplay.

[5] The Electric Playground said the visuals, though great, highlighted the Game Boy's limitations, as its monochromatic screen occasionally made it difficult to comprehend the gameplay.

[6] Some critics recommended playing Land on the Super Game Boy for adding colour and making the visuals easier to discern.

[3][8] Game Players felt that both featured quality gameplay, but Land lacked the visual fidelity that made Country special.

[31] Michael Teitelbaum wrote a children's book adaptation of Donkey Kong Land, Rumble in the Jungle, following its release.

[20][32] The follow-ups attempted to replicate the SNES games more closely; unlike Land, they do not introduce new level archetypes or enemies.

"[35] Nintendo Life said that enemies blending with the background made Land needlessly difficult and lamented the absence of the Super Game Boy enhancements in the 3DS rerelease.