Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble

"Baha. So much to do! And so fun to do it all!"

Reviewing sequels can be tricky when one has not played the original game, or any previous games in the series. Okay, so that may make my review better because I’m gonna be judging the game on its own merits and not comparing it to any previous games. But it may be worse…. Eh, let’s see.

Story:

The actual game gives you no storyline whatsoever. Well, great. So, after diving to consult the instruction manual, you work out that Donkey and Diddy Kong went out fishing one day, leaving a note for little Dixie. But they never returned. So Dixie has to set out to find the two trouble-prone monkeys.

Like a lot of action games of the time, it involves a rescue mission. Is this a bad thing? Maybe. The storyline kinda takes a backseat, however, until you get to the end, and Donkey and Diddy appear, and then you’re like, oh, that’s what I was actually trying to do! Find them!

Graphics:

I like the graphics of the game. Each of the areas in the game has a very distinct look, and all levels in each area have a similar sort of look. Depending on which character you’re controlling in the game, Dixie or the big baby Kiddy, the other character will simply follow you blindly, which can get annoying, but that’s how it is. (Tis funny to get Dixie to jump and spin down, and watch Kiddy float slowly down to earth behind her.)

The character designs are good (watch Dixie cry, or Kiddy throw a tantrum, when they die) as are the enemy designs. They’re bright, bold, and colourful. What more can you want from a game aimed at the younger market?

Sound:

A weaker point. The music in the game is good, each of the tracks has been carefully chosen to match the environment of the level, but unfortunately it’s not memorable at all. I like games that will have me humming their boppy tunes long after I turn the game off, but DKC3 doesn’t fit into this category. Not to say the sound is bad, oh no, don’t get me wrong. But it’s just not catchy enough for my liking.

As for sound effects, there’s not a real lot of variety, but the effects that do exist are good. Breaking barrels is a common one, for save points, DK barrels, and the like. Some bad guys roar when you kill them, in pain or anger I suppose. The buzzing of bees is an interesting one, and the ARGHHHH when you kill a Koin is always a welcome sound. Overall, sound effects are pretty average.

Gameplay:

The most important feature of a game, in my eyes. I’ll quite happily play a game with the worst graphics and worst plot ever if the gameplay is outstanding. And in DKC3, the gameplay is fun. Simplistic, but fun.

You navigate Dixie and Kiddy through the levels to proceed through areas, before beating the final boss of each area. Once that’s done, on to the next area. Beat more areas to get particular items, and take them to Funky Kong to upgrade your transportation to get access to new areas. It’s all pretty much linear, but still good.

The controls of the game can be a tad hard to get used to, especially things like getting Kiddy to bounce along on top of water. But once you get the hang of them, the game is awesome to play. Doing things like getting one character to throw the other in the air to reach secret areas, hidden platforms, and the like is just kinda cool, and one thing I’ve never seen before ^_^ There’s a lot of things you can collect, like bear coins, bonus coins, DK coins, bananas, and banana birds, over the course of the game. It can get a tad confusing, but not too much so.

Play time/Replayability:

For your first time through the game, expect to be there for a long while collecting items. Like I mentioned, there are lots of items to collect, and the slightly irritating thing with this is, all of them (with the exception of bananas and bear coins) HAVE to be collected to beat the game. So you’ll be there for a while until you find them all. My first game clocked in at a titch over 20 hours, but I’m typically really slow when it comes to this sort of stuff. Replaying the game can be done in as little as four hours if you know exactly what you’re doing.

Replaying can be a chore, however. Once you’ve beaten the game, there’s not a lot to do. All the secrets in the game have to be discovered to actually beat the game, so the incentive to replay is basically zero. The only reason I’ve played this game so many times is to try and set new lowest times for completing the whole game, and my record is 3 hours 37 minutes.

Overall, it’s an awesome game. Fun factor makes up a great deal of it’s appeal, but the game is fairly challenging to actually complete. Replayability is a tad thin, but that’s to be expected of action games, especially SNES ones.

7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/07/03