Now we've come to one of the more controversial titles in the series. For some reason, a lot of people are critical of this game. I for one, have my little gripes about it, but I am by no means against it. When the game first came out the Nintendo 64 was the hot item. Most of the people, including David Wise who composed the music for the first two games had moved onto other projects for the new system. With that being the case, there was no chance for a game just like Donkey Kong Country 1 and 2. When I got my hands on the game I was immediately impressed as I was thrown into a somewhat open world map that leads to the individual worlds containing the levels. I thought it was a real cool jump from the normal maps. I found the banana birds to be kind of frustrating later in the game as the game of Simon got a bit out of control (for those who don't know you have to follow a pattern of button inputs to unlock a banana bird). As soon as the first level started I noticed that neither Kiddy Kong nor Dixie Kong move at the pace that Diddy moved at and Dixie just felt slower too. The game's pace seemed slowed which I wasn't a big fan at the time of, but now am actually okay with. It's almost like there are now three gears of Donkey Kong Country. In fact, I feel like more recent installments in the series are closer to this game's pace than any of the others, but more on that later.
Overall I felt and still feel that I got the full Donkey Kong Country experience. The levels are still beautiful, the gameplay is still solid, the music is not as good as previous games, but still overall very good for the Super Nintendo. This was actually the first game in the SNES trilogy that I beat. Looking back at it though, I'm not sure how that is the fact. I find this game now to be more difficult than the first game, so I'm not really sure how or why I was able to put K.Roolenstein down before either of his prior existences. I mean I literally just played through this game again for what has to be over a hundred times now and still died a fair amount at the end (stupid lightning). One thing I noticed more so now than when I was younger is the difficulty scaling. In DKC2 you hit a point where the difficulty really cranked up. I like to think of that level as Bramble Scramble in world 4, but Hornet Hole which sits two levels prior is a challenge as well. Either way from that point on the game just got harder and harder. The first game had a similar difficulty curve, but it had more of a gradual increase in difficulty. In this game though I feel like the difficulty is all over the place. You'll literally go from frustration on one level to beating the next level without taking a hit. It can throw a player off his or her game for sure, but the easier levels feel almost like little rewards... That is until the next level...
For me, Donkey Kong Country 3 is an acceptable end to the SNES series. The game came out and was still very impressive in a time where most people had already abandoned their SNES systems for the Nintendo 64. This game does get a ton of flack for being what it is, but I don't think it's really justified. Is it as good as the previous two? No. However, this was a new team at the helm. The old guard from Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Country 2 were gone. That much is evident, but just because it is different does not mean that it's bad. The sad thing is that at the time nobody, including myself. knew that this would be the end of Rareware making Donkey Kong Country games for home consoles. Today I still do play this game a lot. Sure it may not be as much as the first two games, but it still sees a good amount of playtime and much like the other two games I'm still learning and having a great time with it. So should this be the first Donkey Kong Country game someone plays? Probably not with one catch since the first two are in my opinion, better games, but still this game is a great game that fans of the series should try and first timers should give it a try as well! What's the catch you ask? Well for those who have played either Donkey Kong Country Returns or Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, this game is probably closer to those two than either of the first games in terms of speed.
While Donkey Kong Country 3 caused and still causes a stir as to how good it is, I've made a discovery. It's a discovery that should be one that the majority of people agree with. Regardless what everyone thinks of the SNES game, Donkey Kong Land 3 is the best of the series. Just like Donkey Kong Land 2, my experience with this game is somewhat limited as I picked it up at the same time as Land 2. My first impressions on the game is that it was another attempt at porting the SNES game to the Game Boy. Then I got into it a little bit and noticed that the levels were actually not the same and that some of the boss fights had been changed up a lot. I was pretty happy about this as it was a sort of nod to the first Donkey Kong Land. Still not expecting much though I kept playing and I started to realize that this might just be the best Donkey Kong Land game. Go figure. The most controversial game in the Donkey Kong Country series ends up, I think, being the best in the Donkey Kong Land games.
The gameplay is the best of the three games. That being said, the biggest issue remains the camera.
As you can see there is actually a good deal of space for things to be on the screen this time around. It made trying to run through the game significantly easier than the first and even second games. Speaking of looks, this game looks great on all of the Game Boy systems, including the Super Game Boy. All of the SNES level's gimmicks are there as is the case in the second game, which is totally fine with me. Having only played through this game once,
I can't really talk too much about it as far as how I felt about it back when I first got it versus now. I doubt my opinion will have changed much. I can say however that this game is a really, really good game on the Game Boy. Yes it has it's camera issues, but other than that I can't find a whole lot wrong with the game given the system it was made for. If you are a fan of Donkey Kong Country or if you are a fan of platformers, I'd say give this game a shot. Honestly if you are interested in playing the Donkey Kong Land games, I would start here. It is by far the best one and will end up being more rewarding than the previous two. Playing them in reverse order will certainly give you an idea of just how far Rareware came from Donkey Kong Land 1 to 3. In the end I can honestly say that for Game Boy Games, the Donkey Kong Land games are actually pretty good games. Keep in mind I said for Game Boy games. They have glaring issues that are present in so many games on the handheld, but look and play better than most. It's just a shame Rareware couldn't figure out a way around such terrible screen crunch.
An interesting note on this game is that a remake of the game would come out on the Game Boy Color, but only in Japan. This Game Boy Color exclusive is the best way to experience the game as it has it's own beautiful color scheme. Again, it was only released in Japan. However one Donkey Kong Country game did reach the Game Boy Color in North America.
Donkey Kong Country on Game Boy Color is actually one of the more recent Donkey Kong Country games I introduced myself to. Knowing what a master piece Donkey Kong Country is on the SNES, I'm not going to lie, I was a bit excited. That being said it was a nervous excitement thanks to my overall experience with the Donkey Kong Land games being just so-so. Overall I wasn't expecting all that much, and what I got was kind of a mixed bag. On one hand the game looks very impressive yet again, the Game Boy. Granted this time it was the Game Boy Color. I was also happy to hear the original soundtrack reproduced for the handheld. Perhaps the thing that made me happiest was the the lives were kept off screen just like on the SNES. I feel like this opened up the screen a bit more which cured a bit of the screen crunch the land games were plagued with. At the same time, the gameplay is pretty sloppy and the camera is constantly panning all over the place. For whatever reason the enemies are all darkly colored which on some levels can cause issues as seen below where the Kritter's feet are easy to see, but the body gets lost in the background.
I do see why they made this game on the Game Boy Color. Personally I think it's great that those people who could not get there hands on a SNES had the opportunity to somewhat experience the game. Given the success of the three classic games and considering Donkey Kong 64 was a thing, it was a nice nod to the past. Do I think it is one that is a must play on Game Boy Color? No I do not. I think that fans of the series should enjoy it if they can get around it's flaws, but I can see how this game, much like the Land games would cause new players frustration. The key here is to remember that it is a port that has it's flaws. Since I got this game right around the same time as Donkey Kong Land 2 and 3 my opinion on it has not changed much. Personally I think there is a better port out there for handheld devices.
With that being said, that is the end of the Rareware era as we all knew it as far as the Donkey Kong universe was concerned. Following the Game Boy Color remake of Donkey Kong Country as well as Diddy Kong Racing and Donkey Kong 64, Rareware would never make another Donkey Kong game for home consoles. The company was purchased by Microsoft back in 2002 which led to the cancellation of a much anticipated Donkey Kong Racing and put serious doubt on Rareware being able to create any other games for Nintendo. As luck would have it though, Microsoft did not and still really does not have it's hands in the handheld market so Rare was able to continue making games for the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS for a few years after it was purchased. In that time Rare would crank out a few remakes and make a few new games as well for Nintendo. Along with Diddy Kong Racing, the three Donkey Kong Country games would see a remake and those three remakes today are the source of debate, sadness, happiness, and a sense of what if. Thank you as always for reading. My next blog will be a short break from Donkey Kong and I'll take a look at some more classic Disney games in celebration of Capcom preparing to release a bunch of these games on Steam!
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