One Last Hoorah (Donkey Kong Country 3 - Dixie Kong's Double Trouble (N64))

Member Name: Midrange

Product:	Donkey Kong Country 3 - Dixie Kong's Double Trouble (N64)
Date:	15/09/08 (32 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great new features, all new levels and characters, lots of hidden secrets

Disadvantages: Won't offer much of a challenge to experienced DKC players

The Donkey Kong Country (DKC) series of games, released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in the 1990s, is one of the finest franchises (other than Mario of course!) that Nintendo has devised. DKC1 wowed the critics with it's superb animation and dazzling, "clay like" graphics. DKC2 took all the best bits from DKC1 and made an even better game (in my opinion) - more levels, more secrets and some really neat level ideas. DKC3 goes one step further - but does it stand up to the DKC quality we came to expect?

The story of the game is essentially that King K. Rool has returned (once again) and kidnapped both Donkey Kong AND Diddy Kong - gasp. It's now Dixie's turn to save her friends. With help from her lumbering baby brother, Kiddy, she has to scamper, climb, battle and spin her way through various levels - ranging from mountains, to lake side paths, to waterfalls, to icey caverns, to industrial wastelands... epic stuff eh?

Special features of this platformer include the clever "map" design. Levels are accessed on foot OR by hovercraft, boat or gyrocopter. Players have to unlock the various vehicles and each one is needed to advance your progress. Players must also seek out hidden areas and collect the "banana fairies" (to unlock a special hidden ending sequence).

There are plenty of new enemies to fight, new bosses and lots of great level features. My particular favourites include the "weather related levels" - where you have to dodge lightning. There are also some devilishly hard stages where your characters are unavoidably poisoned by toxic waters which reverses the control pad - left becomes right and right become left - very confusing I can tell you!

My very favourite feature of the game is the special "Lost World" levels - located inside an underwater volcano... bit odd, but cool. You must talk to various characters to learn the special "unlocking sequence" of events. Magical stuff. The Lost World stages are immensely difficult (try out the stampeding elephant one if you don't believe me!) and all must be completed to reach the "true" end of the game.

Poor features of the game are harder to think of. I guess the game feels super familiar - I'd already played the previous 2 titles at least 20 times over (no kidding, I knew Donkey Kong Country like the back of my hand!) so DKC3 didn't pose much of a challenge - though finding all the secrets took a fair old while! Great series of games - definitely check them out.

Summary: Great third game - hasn't lost the magic and I still play it today