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System:
SNES
Genre:
Platformer
Publisher:
Nintendo
Developer:
Rare
Players:
1-2
Release date/year:
1996
Other systems:
-
» Screenshots
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- Donkey Kong Country 3
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1996 Rare - Nintendo - SNES
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Really, I must be the only person out there who really enjoyed this game. Everywhere I look, people are bashing this game. The other reviews on GameFAQs, the reviews of other sites, my friends. Everyone seems to hate it. I for one really liked this game. Everything in it was good, and it came together to make a really great game. One argument a often hear is that there is no innovation, and it is a lot like the other Donkey Kong Country games. Well, the people that say that, also seem to be the ones giving the older Donkey Kong games high scores. So, if the other Donkey Kong Country games are great, and this one is a lot like those two, technically wouldn’t this one be good too. According to many, no. According to me, yes. But, in the famous words of Mr. T, that’s enough jibber-jabberin’. On with the review!
- {~~Main Scores~~}
BREAKDOWN
Gameplay - 9
Graphics - 10
Sound - 8
Enjoyability - 9
- Gameplay
The gameplay is probably one of the best areas of this game, and the entire Donkey Kong Country series. In the first one, you were up against King K Rool, with Donkey Kong, and Diddy Kong. In the second one, you were on King K Rool’s island, with Diddy and Dixie, trying to save the kidnapped Donkey. Now, in this game, you are looking at an aerial view of all the islands around, trying to save Diddy and Donkey with Dixie, and the newcomer, Kiddy. I noticed that in every Donkey Kong game, the least popular character was eliminated, and replaced. From the first to the second, Donkey was eliminated, and from the second to the third Diddy was eliminated. I think we all liked Dixie better than Diddy, but, if you’re going to erase Diddy, you could at least replace him with someone better! One of the only failing areas of this game is Kiddy Kong, he is a huge step down from the now defunct Diddy. Kiddy is large, he is slow, he cries, he can’t jump for jack, he just annoys me greatly. But, I think I should at least be happy that I still have Dixie, and her great hair spin ability, that enables you to make large jumps, or slowly float down from elevations.
Now, in the area of new Kong family members jumping into the fray, besides Kiddy, there are none. I think this may be an advantage though, because if Rare did add a new Kong, and he turned out like Kiddy, it might not have been pretty. But, because there are no new Kongs, all of our old buddies are back. In the saving area, we still have Wrinkly, the decrepit wife of Cranky Kong, she is no longer lazing around, when you see her she is now usually engaging in a vigorous workout. Speaking of lazy, returning to hand out tidbits of advice and musings is Cranky Kong. Also returning with his great mini-games is Swanky Kong, his games are now better than ever, and provide a fun distraction. Finally, returning for the third time, we have Funky Kong, the hippie transportation man. In the last two games, Funky was giving out his Bi-Barrel Plane to go from area to area on an island. This time around, because we are looking at an aerial view of all the islands in the area, Funky is renting out new crafts. At first, he will give you a boat to go from the first island, to some secret areas, and the first real island. But, as the game progresses, and you need to get to new places, he will start renting gout new crafts such as a hovercraft, and a real plane. Thankfully, this time around, the Kongs aren’t out to make a dollar, and their services are free. The entire family is a great help, and the fact that it is once again free to visit them makes it all the better.
In this game, making a return, are the wide variety of enemies to contend with. But, in this game, for the most part, they are all new enemies. In the last two games, we were facing a pirate, so all of the enemies were pirate-like. But, in this game, we are facing a new, unknown enemy, and al of the enemies seem to be totally different. Another great system making a return is the beloved boss system from the first two. On each island, you beat every level, and then have to face a boss. The bosses are much more difficult than they were in the first game, but that is a welcome addition.
Also making a welcome return to help you contend with the many new enemies are our animal friends. Many of them are returning, but from the first Donkey Kong game to the last, many of our favorites met demise. In the second we saw the loss of Winky the Frog, and Expresso the Ostrich, in this game we see the loss of another buddy, who is replaced by a baby elephant. This elephant is not too bad to have around, but occasionally you come across a rat, or mouse, and at that point, the elephant flees in terror.
Like the last game, we have some secrets and side quests as well. Returning from the second game is Klubba and his Kiosk. Like last time, you give him the hidden kremling coins, and something I can’t reveal will happen. The final returning feature is the Hero Coin system. In Donkey Kong Country 2, the hero coins were used to pay off your greedy relatives, and they were well hidden in each area. In this game, the hero coins are easy to find, and are located in almost every level, they are simply used to make sure you get everything, a side quest of sorts. Finally, the new feature, banana birds. These banana birds are found in hidden caves out on the world map. When you enter a banana bird cave, they are positioned like the buttons on your controller, and they make a song, each accounting for a note. Your job is to repeat the song they played by pushing the buttons corresponding to the bird’s position. When you correctly do it, you get a Banana Bird, when you bring all of these to Wrinkly, a secret is revealed. The side quests provide a nice distraction to the regular play.
Overall the gameplay is quite good. I just can’t give it as high of a score as I did with the first two though. There are a few reasons for that. The first one is a lack of innovation. I did mention that I don’t put much emphasis on innovation if the game it is like is of a high quality, but I think it deserves some focus. Also, the addition of Kiddy, I don’t much like this little guy. Dixie can’t pick him up, he doesn’t jump well, and he is slow. The final small thing accounting for the one point loss is the lack of good animal friends. With the loss of Winky and Expressso, I was greatly saddened, and with this new loss, it’s even worse, not to mention that elephant runs away too damn much. Those are just trivial things though, and overall the gameplay is well done.
- Graphics
The graphics are easily the best part of this game. The graphics greatly improved from the first Donkey Kong Country to the second, and now, from the second to the third Donkey Kong Country, we see another great improvement. Everything looks a lot sharper in this game. There is so much detail put into little spaces, this game really displays the full potential that the SNES had. When this game came out, the SNES was dying, and it needed life, this game, and it’s new level of graphics breathed that new life into the SNES.
The backgrounds are a great example of the superior job that Rare did in making this game. They backgrounds use multi-layered scenery, which sometimes only has one layer moving at a time. When one has no really three dimensional capabilities, this is the best job they could do. The many independent layers made the game look so much more real. Not to mention the high level of detail put into each individual layer being revealed.
This game is a lot brighter, and happier than Donkey Kong Country 1, and 2. Especially number 2 though. You see, the second one was mostly indoors, navigating the interior of King K Rool’s base. This game is outdoors, it is happier, it is brighter. I like the happier, brighter scenery better than the darker ones as well, because the brighter ones make me feel more relaxed when playing, maybe I’m just insane…
The characters look very real. Dixie’s realistic hair makes a return. When the hair sins, you can see it through every rotation, instead of a blur, and the hair shows actual strands instead of a yellow blur like they could have made. The characters, and their features react to movement as well. For example, when Dixie makes a jump, her hair does a little bounce. A very nice feature to subliminally make things more real. Great job, overall
- Sound
Th sound is quite good, but it is probably the worst of the sections in Donkey Kong Country 3. The sound effects are fairly realistic, and show some good level of thought. But, did anyone notice the weird voices the characters have (noises they make while talking)? Especially Funky, it’s like he is on crack or something… Can you say overdose? The Funky noises aren’t the main contributor to the sound going down though, he music is. The music technically is good, but it just doesn’t have that Donkey Kong Country feel to it. Technically, it is composed well, using different sounds blended together. But really, it is different from the other two games, and it doesn’t set the same mood that they did. Maybe I’m being picky, but overall, still good.
- Enjoyability
This game is quite enjoyable. There are many different fun things you can do in this game making it a lot better. For example, Swanky’s mini-games, they are really fun, and are one of the contributors to the high enjoyability of this game. Probably the area that helped the most is the gameplay section. It may not be the section that got the highest score but tit is the area that made the game better. When you are playing a game for fun, are you looking for good gameplay, or good graphics? Let me answer that, because the majority looks for good gameplay more than good graphics. This game had pretty much everything you could ask for, and it’s a great way to such away a few hours.
- {~~Other Important Scores~~}
Replay Value: Average
The replay value is not really high, and it is not really low, it is in-between. This game will take a fairly high number of hours to beat, and once you finish, you may want to play it again in the near future, and you may not want to. There are two groups of people. The people who play it again will look at the fun of the game, and the many things to do. The group that doesn’t play it again will look at the length, and they may be one of the people that didn’t like the game. I can’t tell you which you will be in, but I hope I helped you somewhat.
- Challenge: High
This game is quite hard to play. Getting through all of the bosses and levels can be a very daunting task. Especially now, that all of the bosses are a lot harder, and my favorite animal assistants are gone. Also, the levels seem to have been a lot longer and harder than before. Finally, the last thing making this game harder, is Kiddy, he is just bad, and doesn’t help you to play well at all. But, despite all of that, the challenge is at a good level. I have never been one for easy games, or really hard games. This is what I like.
- GOOD POINTS
-Gameplay
-Graphics
-Enjoyability
-Buyability
-Length
-No More Service Charges From Kongs
-Replay Value
- BAD POINTS
-Sound Doesn’t Fit
-Kiddy Is Bad
-Probably the Worst In The Series
This game does get a Seifer Guarantee! Buy it soon, or at least buy one of the other games in the series, something tells me you will at least like one of them. Every gam in the series is great, and because this is the final installment, I’ll give the whole series a Seifer Guarantee!
9/10
//Seifer psx
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