"Should have stopped at 2, SHOULD HAVE STOPPED AT 2!"

Gaaaaaah....Rare fell prey to the ''direct to video'' syndrome that plagued so many bad Disney movies(try Aladdin: The Return of Jafar for a real stinker...) I KNOW the graphics are well-rendered, I KNOW the gameplay is fun, but curse you, Rare, we expect a LITTLE bit more effort than a sequel which adds almost nothing to what's been done previously. Adding a few more uninspired levels to DKC2 does absolutely nothing for the series. On to my rants...

Graphics: You guys showed that you knew how to use an SGI supercomputer before, WHY THE HECK AREN'T YOU DOING ANYTHING CREATIVE WITH IT? Virtually the ONLY thing that's better about this title is somewhat sharper detail and some new parts of stages which have views from behind the Kongs' furry little heads. And some of the bosses are rather creatively rendered too. However, the rest of the game suffers from some MAJOR flaws, the biggest being the lack of the sense of scale which so often pervaded the previous DK settings. In those games, the backgrounds gave you a view which suggested HUGEness. In this installment, every level feels...cramped, even those levels that were basically carbon copies of those that had gone before. It's simple to see, really. Play the snow levels on the original Donkey Kong. Now play one on DK3. Note how the original gave a much more expansive view than before, with backgrounds reaching ALL the way back to the mountains in the distance, while DKC3 just gives a feel of being on the bunny slope. But even worse, when Rare actually comes up with a few new settings, they're rather unexciting. For example: ''Let's have a level on the covered bridge! Or in the sawmill!'' What is this, the American frontier in the 1800s? What happened to those levels which actually felt dangerous all on their own, like the lava caves or the abandoned mines? But even when Rare comes up with a level setting that's both original and dangerous, like the mountain cliffs, they mess it up with a prerendered background that looks like a grainy scan-in of somebody's last vacation photos! BLEEEECCCCHHHH!

And don't even get me started on the music, which absolutely stinks to high heaven when compared to...almost anything on the SNES! Was the entire music department on vacation, or were they on some weird new British drug when they came up with these worthless excuses for tunes? At least they're usually muted enough to turn off all the way! Uninspired crud from beginning to end, with not ONE I can think of as a saving grace. Even the boss music is horrible! Take my advice: Turn off the sound and play some other video game music you recorded previously...even the worst midi for Mega Man 3 is yards ahead of this stuff!

Fortunately, the same lackadasical attitude toward gamecraft that killed the graphics and sound manages to save the gameplay, which is copied completely from DK2 with the addition of the Banana Bird Side Quest and a new way to get the DK coins. But the classic platform scrolling action is all here, and the control is as picture perfect as before. The story...is a poor excuse to introduce another Kong member. Bounce on enemies, solve barrel puzzles, recruit friendly animals(I do like the elephant, actually,)find the Lost World, yada yada yada...if you've played the previous two, you've played this one. Not much to say except thank you for not breaking what didn't need to be fixed.

My conclusion...after some careful thought and a review of Rare's otherwise stellar history, I think this game was more a product of Nintendo trying to force another egg out of the golden goose that Rare created. If you don't give the old bird enough time, instead of 24 karat gold, you'll end up with like 12 or 16. And that's exactly what DKC3 is. Buy it for someone who's never played the previous two, it'll make his or her introduction to those masterpieces so much sweeter. Thus ends my rant.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 02/23/00, Updated 02/23/00