Ten Years Later: DKC III Anniversary

[darksnowman]

So here we are, its Christmas 2006. But come on, stretch your mind back ten years. The N64 wasnt out in Europe yet and the SNES was on its last legs. Yoshi's Island would have been a big enough AAA game to have in the Super Nintendo's last year of supremecy, but the boys at Twycross went and out did themselves.

 

For Christmas '96 was when the third of the Donkey Kong Country Trilogy was unleashed upon us, Dixie Kongs Double Trouble is the subtitle of this classic.

 

 

In this installment we controlled Dixie and Kiddie Kong, her cousin, through the Northern Kremisphere in a quest to rescue the captive Donkey and Diddy. The game featured a great selection of Worlds and Levels, from the opening level of Lake Side Limbo right up to Rocket Barrel Rush (I trust thats the name of it, though it could be Rocket Barrel Drop?) The game even incorporated an RPG-esque trading quest that helped freshen the formula from the previous two forays with the family Kong, we were encouraged to visit the Brothers Bear to help them so they would help us, sometimes they would give us more items to continue the trading sequence and others they would give us access to a Banana Bird cave or get the chair lifts going up at Razor Ridge.

 

 

Bonus games include a 3D type ball throwing contest in Swanky's Tent. You go up against Cranky Kong and you win items from banana's up to lives. I read way back then that you could apparently play this against another human player, though to this day Ive not discovered how to. Anyone know what to do??

 

Musically, the game is a hit. DKC and DKC II provided us with some of the most toe-tapping stuff around and DKC III followed this trend. A great Easter Egg in the game is to put in the MERRY "cheat," which has a great effect on bonus stages. Instead of the classic theme of getting stars and the typical music thats played, you get treated to collecting presents or baubles all while listening to a great jingly Christmas tune. If you havent tried this, then you havent experienced the game at its finest.

 

So here we are, Christmas 2006 and Retro gaming is becoming all the rage with this Virtual Console caper. If you have a SNES tucked away in the attic then I implore you to get it out, dust it off and hook it up for some Christmas magic in the style that Rare and Donkey Kong perfected. Have a run about K3, head over to see the Baron and kick his meddling behind then let the Queen Banana Bird sort him out. You won't regret it

 

[welsh_gamer]

Ah memories....I forgot about those bears! The better DKC game out of the 3 in my opinion! Can't wait for it to come on the Virtual Console! Didn't bother with the GBA version.

[Hero-of-Time]

DKC 3 was the best in the trilogy by far. I remember I never owned the game but my mate got it for Christmas and we played it none stop. It was possibly the first game that I finished completely without the use of the internet ( didnt have it back then, hell was it even around? ) Like it has been said I cant wait for the VC edition. I just finished DKC on the VC yesterday in 3 hours with all 101% I loved the soundtrack and I may have to track it down for download.

[darksnowman]

All 101%? Nice one! My SNES DKC stands at 100% to this day. Ive got 102% in DKC 2 and 105% in DKC 3 so that kinda saves my reputation - a bit! Ive DKC 3 for the GBA, havent completed it fully yet cos the Funky mini games are rather difficult to fluke success in to get the last DK koin or two.

[solitanze]

105% in DK3? What needed to be done to get 105%, I think i've only got 103%, got all bonus coins, all DK coins, all Banana Birds, all bear items purchased, secret world unveilved and beaten...

[darksnowman]

For total and ultimate completion you have to enter a cheat, TUFST, I think it was, that removed all the DK barrels from the game. Now go do it all over again, and in record time... then and only then will you be at the top of the charts, beating Cranky to the number one spot.

 

A difficult task, when you take into account Swoopy Salvo.

[solitanze]

I might just do that, in light of being able to complete a lot of difficult game challenges in the past, the most recent 100% completion of Kirby Air Ride (I even went to the lengths a few days ago of converting the purple squares into gold squares for ultimate completion). DK3 105% here I come.

[darksnowman]

Yeah you should go for it!

 

I think Ill put off my Cubing (which would have included Kirby's Airride) for a while and get underway with my annual play through of this klassic. See who can complete it in the best time with everything, use the MERRY cheat and the experience will be so Christmassy it'll almost kill you.

 

Ready... GOOOO!

[mcj metroid]

i don't love this game as much as dk2 or even 1.but it's still very good

[darksnowman]

Yeah, DKC II is generally thought of as the best of the Trilogy. Ive no real problem with that as its a classic, though putting it up against the other two then it becomes my third favourite. Diddy Kongs Quest had plenty of great moments and levels, the only real thing that I mark it down for is that its a little too dark for me. Its not much to mark it down for, but when you gotta choose, you gotta find reasons

[solitanze]

DK2 was the best for me for the fact that it was generally a much darker game than the other two as mentioned above, I didn't like the final boss in DK3, weird voice/appearance... The special ending kinda sucked though for DK2...

 

All great classic side scrolling games though. The time when Rare could actually make decent games.

[darksnowman]

The Lost World in DKC II was great too and on the whole the game had the highest difficulty. Ive only ever completed it once though, with 102% whereas DKC III has been complted pretty much on a yearly basis lol. I fired it up over the weekend to see that Id deleted my 105% file and had another one started, no doubt in the thinking that Id play through it all once again... though I'd only about 50% done. I started a new file nonetheless. Ive a week to complete it, should definitely be doable, even though Im not feeling overly motivated about it at the mo