Donkey Kong Land III was developed by Rareware and released for Game Boy in the United States on October 27th, 1997. In Japan the game was ported to the Game Boy Color in Japan on January 28th, 2000. The game is known as being the best of the Donkey Kong Land trilogy and I tend to agree with that assessment, The two games are nearly identical in terms of levels, characters, music, and bosses. The Japanese version lacks a couple dialogue pieces, but nothing really important to the plot. Despite being very popular in the United States the game was never ported to the Game Boy Color. Interestingly enough the game has recently been released on the 3DS's Virtual Console. In Japan the Game Boy Color version is on the shop while in North America the original Game Boy version exists meaning the game is still a Japan exclusive Game Boy Color title. At the time of the game's release the Game Boy was becoming extremely dated. The home console market seemed to be completely dominating with Nintendo's Nintendo 64 and Sony's Playstation duking it out in the continuing bit war. The question would be for the entire Donkey Kong Land series "How could Rareware bring the magic and power of the Donkey Kong Country games onto an 8-bit handheld system that came out seven years before the first Donkey Kong Land game?".
In terms of the third entry into the series I can say the magic and power were done pretty well. In terms of graphics, the game is one of the more impressive looking platformers on the handheld. Not to talk much about the other games in the series, but the graphics really came a long way from the first Donkey Kong Land. They improved a bit in the second game which helped to reduce the horrible screen crunch that was present in the first. The third game I think is the best looking out of the three and allows the players to see more of what's going on than the other two games. The bright colors of the Japanese Game Boy Color exclusive really makes this stand out among the great Game Boy Games.
When talking about soundtracks and sound effects, Donkey Kong Land 3 is pretty good for what it is. The original Donkey Kong Country 3 soundtrack is here and it actually sounds pretty cool. It's amazing how Rareware was able to take a soundtrack from the SNES, break it down to 8-bit and still have it sound really, really good. Outside of the soundtrack though, the game's sounds are pretty mediocre. There's a generic explosion sound for hitting things the barrels and the sound of jumping on enemies has zero variety. I always found that to be a bit of a shame considering games like Super Mario Land had at least a few different sounds when defeating enemies.
So that leaves the gameplay. Hows does Donkey Kong Land 3 play? I think it plays pretty well. The reduction of the screen crunch really did wonders for the game and while the controls still seem a bit stiff or even slippery from time to time, overall I didn't have too many problems. Certainly not as many as previous installments in the series. At the end of the day, the game plays and feels like a Donkey Kong Country game which is a great feeling for Game Boy game. It's good to note that those familiar with Donkey Kong Country 3 will be in for new challenges because unlike Donkey Kong Land 2, these levels are not just partial redesigns of previous levels. Nope, Donkey Kong Land 3 is host to completely redesigned levels and boss battles. Heck, even the names of the levels and worlds are different from their SNES counterparts. When I played this and realized that I was ecstatic because that was the one thing I really, really liked about the original Donkey Kong Land. The animal buddies Ellie the elephant, Squawks the parrot, Enguarde the swordfish, and Squitter the spider all make offer their aid from time to time on Dixie's quest. Playing with them is every bit as fun as playing with them on the SNES game. Just like in the Super Nintendo trilogy, collecting 100 bananas will net you an extra life. There are also bear coins and DK coins to collect as well on your journey. As is the case in the other Donkey Kong Land games your lives are constantly displayed as hearts on the lower left portion of the screen. As is also the case in the other Land games, you only have access to one Kong at a time. While you can switch between them, you cannot perform any team moves as you can in Donkey Kong Country 2 or 3 on the SNES.
I guess that about covers everything outside of the plot and a few notes. While Donkey Kong Land 3 acts as a remake of Donkey Kong Country 3, the plot (as well as levels and worlds) is different. This time around Dixie enlists Kiddy to help her win a contest. The contest prize goes to whoever is the first to find the Lost World. Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong set out together to find the Lost World while Dixie is stuck with her cousin. Seriously though, why would Diddy rather run off with DK than his girlfriend? Anyway, also in this race is Baron K. Roolenstein and his band of Kremlings. While the worlds and level names are different, it is still thought, while never confirmed, that the game takes place in the Northern Kremisphere. So that's the plot and for once nobody is kidnapped, it's just a good old fashioned race.Fun fact: This game is the only Rare Donkey Kong game where neither Diddy nor DK appear. Two other notes of interest is that Wrinkly Kong is the only other Kong family member in the game and while Donkey Kong Country 3 had a band of bears, The Brothers Bear, only one bear is present in this game. They got real original with his name to, "Bear". One more kind of funny thing. The extra life balloons in this game are actually balloons of Diddy Kong's head and not Dixie's. Literally they are the same as in Donkey Kong Land 2. I just thought that was funny when I noticed it.
Donkey Kong Land 3 is really a grand finale of a trilogy that was mired with issues throughout it's first two entries. On a scale of 1 to 10 I have to give it an 8. It's a beautiful looking game, especially on the Game Boy Color, the music is great despite some mediocre sound effects, but most importantly it plays well. Yes, there is still a little screen crunch issue and yes it doesn't move at the speed of the SNES games, but that is okay. We are talking about a Game Boy game here. No, we are talking about taking a game, keeping a lot of what it was on the much more advanced Super Nintendo and cramming it onto a poor aging handheld. Rareware did a great job in the translation and while it may have taken a few tries, they finally nailed that translation with Donkey Kong Land 3. The legacy of this game continues to live on as it is now considered one of the best platformers available on the 3DS, and that's not just counting the virtual console. Pretty high praise considering the age of the game. Now if only Nintendo would have released it in color on the 3DS and not as the original Donkey Kong Land 3 Game Boy Game...
As always thank you for reading. With all the buzz surrounding the SNES classic right now I think I'm going to do a little something fun next. I'm going to do kind of a what if scenario. That what if being, if Nintendo were to make a Nintendo 64 classic, what 20 games would I include. I'll have some reasoning for certain titles, but in general it should be a quick and fun blog. I personally do not think we will be seeing a Nintendo 64 classic anytime soon, but some what if conversations with a friend of mind has sparked my interest in making a list. Stay tuned!
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