Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!

Face it, folks-- "DK3" is more challenging, innovative, and clever than its predecessor. Challenging-- its levels are ridiculously difficult for a considerable amount of time. One especially difficult level is called "Lightning Lookout," in which you may be struck by lightning at any given time. Innovative-- it opened a lot of doors. Too bad the SNES died out not long after this title. And clever-- the level names range from trademark plays-on-words ("Lake Orangatanga") to witty references that the game's targeted audience won't get for many years to come ("Bleak's House").

What irks me about most people's criticism of this game mainly comes down to two words: Kiddy Kong. He is a worthy "little-buddy" successor to Diddy Kong, and certainly does not deserve to be referred to as "that retarded monkey." "DK3" will remain a classic until the end of time.

I was a huge fan of Donkey Kong Country growing up, so I was excited to try this one out when I heard about this one. Of course, I bought it and played it to the end. I liked it, but it wasn't quite what I was hoping for.

DKC3 was the brightest of the trilogy, with an upbeat and tranquil setting. But apart from some mad scientist themes, the setting felt bland and unoriginal to me, like a recycling of the lighthearted Donkey Kong Island in the first game.

The sheer amount of gimmicks levels felt frustrating at times, like the giant ascending saw in Ripsaw Rage, the relentless offscreen enemy Krosshair trying to shoot you in Krack-Shot Kroc, the inverted controls in Poisonous Pipeline, and the infamous Lightning Lookout that made me want to rage quit because of the sheer number of times I died.

The over world map that makes up the Northern Kremisphere was a nice feature and allowed you to travel around via boat. But I didn't like the irritating fetch quests involving the Brothers Bear, but they were necessary to beat the game and rescue all of the banana birds so you could save their queen and achieve a 103% success to truly beat the game.

I can't complain about the music though, even though Eveline Fischer was behind it for the most part instead of Dave Wise. The music reminded me of DKC1 with its bright and lighthearted tunes with the occasional darker songs, like the unsettling but cool sounding Boss Boogie and Baron K. Roolensteins intense mad scientist styled boss theme with intense guitar riffs.

Sadly, the game was greatly overshadowed by Super Mario 64 released only four months prior and is somewhat obscure today. But at least it's available to play on the Nintendo Switch.

DKC3 has its moments of fun and new types of levels to explore compared to the original and DKC2, but it feels very lackluster overall and, at times and areas, seems incomplete and unfinished.

My biggest annoyance with this game is the music. It's non-stop repetitiveness was irritating and unbearable at times, hearing the same thing over and over again that was not a good tune to begin with.

The second annoyance comes from the areas that feel unfinished or cut. There's places on the map that you can access that seem like they should lead to places, but they don't. If it was meant to keep players searching after completion for replay value trickery, then I give RARE a Star off for the deception. If it was typical RARE thinking bigger than a snes cartridge could store, then I understand and appreciate the effort.

The 3rd downvote I give to this game is the lack of color in the less vibrant sprites. DKC had such beautiful graphics with vibrant colors that made the background and stages just as memorable as the character animations. DKC3 does not. It feels very downgraded. Way more compressed and visually very repedative. It's possible things got more compressed to fit more into the game, but it did not feel like more was fit into the game. It felt rather short with a focus on trying to create hidden boss battles to discover, but making the game feel more like it doesn't all just come full circle in the end and gel together.

The controls are the same as the previous games, no issues there. But I will say I think it's absolutely pointless in creating a couple of levels where the controls are purposely backwards or left is right and right is left etc... there's no fun in that, and you can see it was an idea RARE tried here 30 years ago, and it did not catch on. So be prepared to play some failed ideas if you've never played this before.

Overall. It's OK. I'd only recommend it if you absolutely love DKC1 and 2. I would not recommend this over either of those titles, tho. The Donkey Kong Country trilogys ratings are equal to the order of release, with the first the best, but still leaving this one as far from a bad game, but the least favourite of the 16bit series.

Now I thought DKC 1&2 were one of the best side scrolling adventure games to be around. However with this game, we don't have Donkey or Diddy but instead, it's that Retarded Dixie Kong and this other whiny baby named Kiddy Kong (who is Funky's little cousin) which make for a forgettable duo. The levels and every other obsticle in this game are quite the same with new improvements. This time your going around the seas. All of the characters that help you are changed once again. Cranky spends his life playing Swanky's games, Cranky's wife: Wrinkly now gives you advice. And Funky now does boat rides instead of Aircrafts. Plus you go see all these different bears that help you, yadda yadda ya etc. etc. Otherwise the graphics and gameplay are still the same and if your such a hardcore fan of the DK series than go ahead and get it. If your not well, it may just be a rental for you.

Donkey Kong & Diddy Kong have been kidnapped by K.Rool who is now a big, fat ass robot named Kaos. Diddy's girlfriend Dixie and Funky Kong's baby cousin Kiddy Kong join the ride as they go through menacing obstacles and dangerous mechanical worlds.

Playing this game after the last two does give me the meaning that this one is much more harder, much more challenging, many more obstacles to go through though sometimes playing it doesn't seem so original like the first one.

Now I'm not saying that this one was bad, though I couldn't say this one was as good as the other two and it doesn't seem as playable as DKC 1 & 2.

DKC 3 bases off of the theme of a Mechanical Themed atmosphere. Like DKC 1 & 2 it still had animal buddies, graphics and game play still remain the same, and a lost world is still there.

If you liked DKC 1 & 2, you're gonna like DKC 3 which is a great game like the last two 8/10.