I’d say Donkey Kong Country 3 is easier than both of its predecessors. It also helps that it basically lets you save anywhere with ease. Personally I think all these games play fantastically, and the platforming is very snappy. There is a certain heft to these monkeys though that some players might have issues with. They’re pretty tough platformers too, although I do believe that with practice that is easily alleviated. It’s all in the repeat playthroughs.
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I won’t have time to partake in your monkey business but the other Donkey Kong Country 3 just dropped.
As a reminder, the original (1997) quadrichrome version was exclusive to the West, and Japan got a Colorized port much later (early 2000) to pad the release schedule during the peak of the Pokémon craze. You can play that version too, if you download the Japanese Game Boy app via the Japanese eShop (no need to have a Japanese NSO subscription to play it, it will recognize and accept your local NSO sub).
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Important to note however that Donkey Kong Land 3 is a different game from Donkey Kong Country 3. It’s not a straight port or anything like that. Just like the first two DKL games this one goes off in its own direction. I do own the japanese version of this game, maybe I’ll show it later.
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I have really fond memories of DKC 3, and by extension: DK64. There was a specific Summer when my Mom had to go away for training/school so that Summer my Dad and I just played the Donkey Kong Country trilogy and DK64. DKC3 really struck a chord with me since it looked and sounded so drastically different from the previous entries.
Though thinking about it now, each game has an entirely different aesthetic and sound to it. I’ve actually been doing a little DKC retrospective run lately and am reaching the end of DKC2 going into DKC3 so this is perfect timing!
I’ll definitely post some more thoughts once I get to it this week.
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I came down with an infection in my lungs, so that has put the two games I was playing on hold (Too much to concentrate on in Nine Sols, not enough to concentrate on in DQ3), so I thought this might be a nice middle ground.
I played through the first ‘world’ of levels and I didn’t find any of the levels especially remarkable. The elephant stealth one was kinda cool.
I did not like the first boss. I find throwing things mid air in these games to feel so janky. The way they hover in the air and continue falling after they’ve made the throw always gets me to aim at the wrong place, because my brain is naturally anticipating that they keep falling. I’m also not a fan of Crocomire-style “push the enemy off the ledge” style of boss design. Not a great first showing bosses-wise.
However, it is just the right amount of breezy I need right now and it’s fun to get in a few levels between fever spikes.
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Feel better, and try not to dream of Kiddie Kong’s demonic grin!
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Counterpoint: the boss is a giant barrel with teeth that move separately from the rest of its sprite-body.
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I recoiled when this released and I saw all the DisneyWorld Country Bears they added to the series for some reason. As a child of DisneyWorld experience it was the last thing I wanted. Their gametes and organelles eventually evolved into Banjo, of Kazooie, so it’s not all bad. I just think they should have stuck with apes, and invented as many new apes as their task required.
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I want into Brash’s hut with just Kiddie and it was pretty funny watching him scream at a baby.
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It’s set in not-Canada and not-Scandinavia (I was about to make this portmanteau lmao). There have to be bears.
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I 103%'d DKC3 last year so I might play this instead this month.
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I have never played DKC3 despite playing the first two (especially 2) a ton over the course of my life, so I might have to give this a go now. How does one do the Christmas code? That seems like a fun way to do something holiday related this year.
Slowly going through DKC3 to sort of appreciate the small details and other things that I’ve probably overlooked every time I replay this trilogy. The music really hits me in this game. Without trying to sound special or whatever, I feel like I’m one of the few that really enjoy DKC3’s music. Eveline Fischer (Novakovic) did a great job creating an OST that evokes an otherworldly feel, but keeping with the spirit of a DKC platforming romp.
Does Arich the arachnid (The boss of World 2) show peas or boogers at you? regardless, this boss is sorta annoying but I do enjoy the music the World 2 brings us.
The mill song and the time trial songs are great!
I know Aquatic Ambience gets a lot of love, but I’ve always enjoyed DKC2 and 3’s water themes. In fact, out of the entirety of the Donkey Kong franchise, the water theme in DKC3 is probably my favorite. It just feels like “water” to me.
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I’m in the like, factory island place, and the music rips. I’m pretty sure this is the farthest I’ve made it in the game.
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the “wooooowww” in this song is burnt into my brain. Really fond memories of this track and the little owls shooting the Cheeto balls from the background
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The only Donkey Kong game I have played was Donkey Kong Land 2 on my GameBoy Colour. It was one of five GameBoy Colour games I had. Casually playing through on my Steam Deck should be a good time.
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I’ve always really loved Water World and I’m happy to see it get some love! David Wise (love him to death) did a version of Water World for the GBA version of DKC3 and while it’s nice in a vacuum I just don’t think it fits DKC3 as well
I think Fischer did a great job and people don’t seem to give her credit for being one of the architects that established DKC’s sound (she contributed tracks to DKC1). People kinda talk about her as if a literal random was plucked off the street to compose DKC3 and I don’t think that’s fair
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Just a heads up that Eveline Novakovic married and changed her name like 20 years ago.
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I don’t think that anyone has mentioned this yet: David Wise made an entirely new soundtrack for the GBA port. And it is the polar opposite of the original – here, build a perception for yourself before I sound off:[1]
Frosty Frolics
SNES (Eveline Novakovic):
GBA (David Wise):
(Listen for a bit – it turns out not to be quite what it sounds like.)
Boss Boogie
SNES (Eveline Novakovic):
GBA (David Wise):
The GBA port has multiple boss themes. This is one of them!
The overall trend is that Novakovic’s (née Fischer’s) soundtrack is far more ambient – “background music” – while Wise’s is decidedly “foreground music” with its catchy, driving melodies in that somewhat dreamy, synth-heavy style reminiscent of the previous games. Except that Wise decides to go off the rails on a select few occasions, such as in “Frosty Frolics” above, where he hits us with circus nonsense mixed with sheer nature ambience.
My personal preferences always favor driving melodies over ambience – had Wise’s GBA soundtrack been in the original SNES version, it might just have been considered iconic. Both soundtracks feel oddly dissonant with the game itself to me, however: Novakovic’s moody ambience doesn’t suit a colorful, action-filled romp featuring a baby gorilla in a onesie, while Wise’s work lacks the palpable atmosphere that was so emblematic of earlier Donkey Kong Country games and occasionally is like oil and water with what’s actually going on in the level.
I suppose I’d characterize it like this: I’ll be listening to (and occasionally humming) the GBA soundtrack, while I’ll almost certainly use some of the SNES tracks as background music when I GM tabletop RPGs.
I assumed that these track names weren’t official, like how “Humoresque of a Little Dog” from EarthBound is widely called “Buy Somethin’, Will Ya?” because some dude on YouTube decided it was seventeen years ago – but no! The game got a CD soundtrack release! ↩︎
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I’ve tried a few levels of this now. It’s tasty if basic. I’m still figuring out the elephant and am not sure what I think of it.
My partner loves the series, so I’ll try to get her into this entry sometime this month. I far prefer playing it with her, as she does most of the levels, and I do any levels difficult for her (often minecart levels). So I play a very distinct 10% of each Donkey Kong Country title we’ve done, which leads to me having a skewed reaction (“if basic”) whenever I play DKC from the start.
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