(Originally published to Glitchwave on 8/12/2021)
Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!
Developer: Rare
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre(s): 2D Platformer
Platforms: SNES
Release Date: November 22, 1996
The controversial reputation of Donkey Kong Country 3 is mostly undeserved. One could readily assume that it’s due to the natural occurrence of the third entry in a franchise showing signs of franchise fatigue, but you’d only be half right. DKC3 was released at an unfortunate time in late 1996, the launch year of the N64. Nintendo’s first landmark 3D console carried along an initiative that set a precedent for gaming for the foreseeable future. Nintendo insisted that 3D was the future wave and anything in 2D was inherently obsolete. Rare developed another Donkey Kong Country game for the SNES to round the franchise as a trilogy of games. Nintendo, however, moved on from anything having to do with SNES, and its 16-bit glory, leaving DKC3 in the dust. Wrinkly Kong is even seen playing an N64 console in this game, a not-so-subtle advertisement for the new system and a way to make players in late 1996 feel like out-of-touch squares. Nintendo’s callous attitude towards the last few games in the SNES library might have impacted the general consensus of the last game in the Donkey Kong Country trilogy. I consider it on par with the previous two entries, almost matching up to the quality of the first game. Naturally, DKC3 couldn’t have lived up to the standards of DKC2. The superb quality of DKC2 matched with its refinement of the Donkey Kong Country formula, cemented itself as the pinnacle of the franchise. Like most franchises, the second entry proved to be the peak of quality. This usually leaves the third entry meandering about trying to recreate the magic of the previous entry, commonly faltering as a result. The developers made the smart decision to not piggyback too much off of DKC2 with the following game. DKC3 is a sequel that tries to form its own identity with unique properties. However, those unique properties make DKC3 such a divisive entry in the franchise.
Most third entries in gaming franchises tend to be more accessible to new players. While I find DKC3 easier than the first two games, the traces of accessibility aren’t outright noticeable. The direction of DKC3 seems like the developers had a younger audience in mind. The first two DKC games are appropriate for all ages, but there’s something about DKC3 that makes it seem more...infantile? This isn’t because one of the playable characters of the Kong duo is an infant, but we’ll get to his role in this game later. The colors, sprites, and soundtrack in DKC3 have a much lighter tone. The elephant animal buddy that replaces Rambi looks like a ripped design off of a blanket for a toddler.
Furthermore, shall we compare the game over screens between all three DKC games? The first game shows Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong battered and bruised like they just returned from a street brawl. The second game shows Diddy and Dixie being locked up in a dark prison cell, appropriate considering they were infiltrating enemy territory. The game over screen of the third game is Kiddy Kong and Dixie pouting in a crib with “game over” is spelled out in colorful blocks. Kiddy Kong is obviously meant to be a young child, but is Dixie? Some claim that Diddy and Dixie are both children, but I always figured they were a smaller race of apes compared to Donkey Kong. It’s something I hadn’t considered until Rare incorporated all of these more puerile touches in the game. Ultimately, these new tones are not detractors of the game. This is still a true Donkey Kong Country game, just like the others.
There is one looming detractor in this game that puts people off of it. I’ve mentioned him before: the irksome Kiddy Kong. At this point, the playable characters of Donkey Kong Country revolve like a band that’s been around for way too long. Not having Donkey Kong as a playable character in DKC2 was odd enough, but Mach 3 of Donkey Kong Country doesn’t even have any original characters from the first game. Once Dixie arrives in the new setting at the beginning of the game, series regular Funky Kong passes off Kiddy Kong onto Dixie, promising her he won’t be a burden to her. This move here feels like Funky Kong just discovered he had an illegitimate son, and he’s passing him off to someone else, like leaving it on someone’s doorstep. Kiddy Kong is less of a burden to Dixie Kong than Funky Kong.
It turns out that Funky Kong was mostly right, and Kiddy Kong’s presence is not a detriment to the game, or at least in terms of maintaining the gameplay of Donkey Kong Country. The pairing of Dixie and Kiddy Kong is a strange fusion of the dynamics from the previous two games. Kiddy Kong is much heavier than Dixie Kong, giving a direct dichotomy of gameplay like Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong from the first game. This is also implemented once in a while as there are bigger enemies that can only be defeated by Kiddy Kong’s weight. The throwing mechanic from DKC2 also makes a return, and it’s a little awkward here. Since Kiddy Kong is heavier than Dixie, both characters cannot fling one another with the greatest of ease. Dixie Kong strains herself trying to launch Kiddy Kong, and I can’t say I blame her, but the developers have incorporated something to keep this mechanic without too much imbalance. Throwing Kiddy Kong will blow open cracked foundations to reveal bonus stages or coins. It gives enough credence to the weight shift between the two characters, but I prefer the equal sizes of Diddy and Dixie from the previous game. Kiddy Kong is an acceptable character in gameplay, but everything else about him is very unappealing. If we’re going by Pokemon logic, everything becomes less cute the bigger it is. I’m not surprised that people were put off by a disturbingly huge baby, wearing a onesie with concerningly hollow leg space as the cherry on top of an agitating sundae. The fact that Kiddy Kong replaced both Kongs from the first game probably didn’t help matters with fans either. In the modern Donkey Kong Country games, every character from the franchise makes their return and is totally playable like a band reunion. Kiddy Kong debuted in DKC3 and never appeared again, giving him a Cousin Oliver status.
The animal buddies also have the same involved presence as they did in the previous game. Squawks, Squitter, and Enguarde make their return and get plenty of action. There aren’t too many new animal buddies, but the few that are new make me miss the ones that didn’t make it into this entry. Ellie, the animal buddy I previously mentioned who looked like a cherubic cut out of a child’s blanket, is the prime new animal buddy with the most screen time. She’s not a direct replacement for Rambi, but it feels this way nevertheless. Rambi was the most brutish of all the animal buddies, running down kremlings like a mack truck. Ellie functions similarly to Rambi, but her smaller stature and cutesy design feel like a total downgrade from Rambi’s raw power. She does have a few unique abilities, however. She uses her trunk to suck up both barrels and water as projectiles. It’s certainly different from the rampaging beast that Rambi was, but these new mechanics tend to be a bit awkward and compromise the pace of gameplay. She also has this infuriating mechanic where she bolts in the opposite direction at the sight of a rat. She’s a walking elephant stereotype. The other new animal buddy is a colorful bird named Parry. His nickname, “the parallel bird” entails exactly what he does; he hovers over the Kongs at a parallel angle, destroying enemies and collecting coins he runs into. He’s useful, but his role is underwhelming compared to the other animal buddies. The same level of involvement from the animal buddies is just as present here. Some levels and bosses are strictly designated to the animal buddies, fleshing out the gameplay and world. The new animal buddies pale compared to the ones they’ve replaced, but at least the returning ones are the same as they always were.
The new setting of DKC3 draws inspiration from the world of the first game. Instead of offering a different, contained theme per level like in DKC3, DKC3 opts for a cohesive world with consistently themed elements throughout. The Kongs have trekked their way up to an area called the “Northern Kremisphere,” a sprawling place apparently inspired by the temperate climates of northern Europe and Canada. Instead of jungles, beaches, and ancient ruins, the Northern Kremisphere comprises lakefronts, sawmills, and forests with towering redwood trees. There is also the occasional industrial level to signify the presence of the kremlings. Overall, the different setting presented here has a nice level of consistency, and the presentation is up to the standard of Donkey Kong Country. The only problem is that the setting doesn’t make any sense. The jungle setting of the first Donkey Kong Country accommodated Donkey Kong because he’s an ape, an endemic species to that tropical setting. The more varied levels of DKC2 stray a bit from the jungle environments, but not enough where it feels completely removed from them. The only instance where one might see a monkey in northern Europe or Canada is if one escaped from a zoo or a testing facility. This setting doesn’t naturally fit the Kongs unless these monkeys are eclectic urban outdoorsmen. The presence of the kremlings in this setting is also unfitting, but I suppose they are invading this land just like the Kongs.
The peculiar thing about the enemies is that the zingers have been mechanized. There are green mechanical zingers that are easily defeated and red zingers that are practically impenetrable. These robotic zingers are the only indication of King K. Rool’s new identity as a mad scientist, like he’s Dr. Robotnik with scaly skin and bloodshot eyes. I guess King K. Rool’s identity as a pirate wasn’t as concrete as I thought. King K. Rool is an eccentric madman with an army to back him. Considering the northern European influence of the setting, they could’ve fashioned him and the rest of the kremlings as Vikings. After all, they are well-known pillagers like pirates, but they are more known for conducting their business in colder climates.
A unique feature of the Northern Kremisphere is that the world map is traversed seamlessly without directly selecting a level. More areas of the map are progressively unlocked through Funky Kong, expanding the potential of his floatation devices. The Kongs start with a simple raft that becomes a motor boat, a turbo ski, and then a fully-fledged helicopter. It’s certainly different, but I don’t think it’s necessary. The levels are found in different corners of the map, but the levels are still progressing linearly. I suppose it’s fitting because the difficulty in DKC3 is pretty inconsistent. There are difficulty spikes scattered throughout, but none of them reach the heights of “Mine Cart Madness” or “Poison Pond.” The erratic difficulty is due to the variety of gimmick-heavy levels throughout. The previous two games had level gimmicks, but DKC3 has so many of these that it’s obvious the developers implemented them to keep the third entry from seeming stale. The gimmicks of DKC2 were contained in each level. They were introduced in an early level section and grew in difficulty as the player progressed. Most gimmicks in DKC3, on the other hand, appear only once in a level, and the player doesn’t have enough opportunity to acclimate to them. Some of the harder examples of these gimmicks are the lightning strikes in “Lightning Lookout,” the anti-gravity in “Low-G Labyrinth,” the ravenous fish in “Floodlit Fish,” and the kremlings that push you off the ledges in “Koindozer Klamber.” While the gimmicky level design may irk me, I have to appreciate the level of creativity the developers put into each gimmick. It’s not that these gimmicks don’t make for fun-level variety. I would rather have had these gimmicks breathe a little more by incorporating them in more than one level, and maybe then they wouldn’t seem as gimmicky.
This level of creative variety works the best with the bosses, a facet of Donkey Kong Country that has never been its strong suit. The first game’s uninspired bosses were practically a respite from the difficulty of the levels. DKC2 improved on the bosses ever so slightly but was still guilty of implementing bosses that were far too easy and even incorporated a lazy reskinned boss. The bosses in DKC3 are my favorite bunch of baddies because none of them are like the other. Bosses like Belcha the Barrel are still easy, but the way the Kongs defeat him is unlike anything in the series. The Kongs have to feed him yellow bugs, propelling him further off the ledge with each giant belch per serving. Squirt is a boss fought entirely by Ellie the Elephant, and he looks like an HR Giger painting fused into the wall of a canyon. Bleak, my personal favorite boss is an evil snowman that is fought like a ball-toss game at a carnival. King K. Rool’s encounter in DKC3 is completely different from the first two games, and that’s not because of his new mad scientist getup. His fight in this game is much more methodically paced, having the player patiently determine the right moment to hit him with a barrel instead of waiting for a moment of respite after swiftly dodging his attacks. It’s the least memorable King K. Rool fight of the three games, but I still have to commend the developers for their different approaches. There is a part of me that wants to heavily criticize these bosses in tandem with DKC3’s emphasis on gimmicks, but the series was in dire need of variety in its bosses. This is the only aspect of DKC3 in which its faltering approach to variety gives it the edge over its predecessors.
With all of the factors that make up this game, one could assume that Donkey Kong Country 3 pales in comparison to the first two games in the franchise. While it does have many awkward elements like extremely gimmicky levels, a new setting that’s awkwardly implemented, and a protagonist whose presence makes people feel uncomfortable, this game is as exceptional as the other two. I appreciate the differences the developers implemented to make this game seem fresh, given that this was the third game in a franchise all on the same system. If freshness is what the developers sought to convey, then the high points of creativity and variety make this so. DKC3 feels like its unique entry, and that’s more than I can say for most third entries that attempt to copy the previous games to preserve their glory. It still has the winning formula of solid platforming and magnificent presentation that makes the Donkey Kong Country series stand out above its contemporaries.
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