Back in the days of Super Nintendo, gamers widely considered the "Donkey Kong Country" series one of the system's best. Not only did the Rareware-developed trilogy feature some of the prettiest graphics of the time, but it created a new standard for side-scrolling platform gameplay. Heck, even the music was great.
Now Nintendo and Rare have ported the third DKC game for the Game Boy Advance. While the visuals have taken a noticeable hit, the game's tight controls and superior level design are still intact. Rare has even added a new world and some new mini-games.
In "Donkey Kong Country 3," Donkey Kong and sidekick Diddy (not Sean Combs) have gone missing, kidnapped by the evil Kremlings. Dixie Kong and toddler Kiddy go on the hunt and discover that the baddies are taking orders from a mysterious new leader called KAOS. The two heroes are joined by several animal friends in a quest to rescue their buddies and once again rid the jungle of the Kremlings.
DKC3's gameplay is fairly clever. Besides classic Mario-style platform action, the Kongs swim, climb and roll their way past the enemy. In addition, Dixie and Kiddy have their own strengths and must work together to collect all of a level's bananas and shiny coins. While Dixie is light enough to spin her ponytail like a helicopter and float, Kiddy is strong enough to toss the latter Kong up to hard-to-reach locations.
Rare packs a lot of game into this GBA cartridge. There are nine worlds to discover, one more than the original SNES title. Each contains five levels and a boss. There are also several mini-games operated by the rest of the Kong family throughout the game world, and these seem to be entirely redone for the GBA version. Finally, there is a ton of special coins and other objects to collect, and players seeking 100 percent completion will need to backtrack and repeat levels in which they failed to grab everything the first time.
DKC3 has a great soundtrack. The score seems to be somewhat changed from the original, but it is still some of the best the Game Boy Advance has to offer.
If there's anything disappointing about this DKC3 port, it's the graphics. While the characters and environments are still pre-rendered in 3D, the overall look is much rougher than that of the SNES version. It's fairly obvious the color palette has been diminished to fit everything on the cartridge. Although far from unbearable, gamers familiar with the original games will definitely notice.
While "Donkey Kong Country 3" loses some of its visual magic in the port to Game Boy, its solid gameplay survives. It's also nice to see this one isn't a full-on carbon copy, as Rare has added a decent portion of new content to the mix. DKC3 is a solid buy for nostalgia seekers, and highly recommended for those who never played the original.
