"The best in a hampered trilogy."

At the time Donkey Kong Country was certainly a landmark game. Although it's a good game in it's own right, it where the pre-rendered visuals that naturally got the most attention. Donkey Kong Country also revitalised the SNES, allowing the machine and by proxy Nintendo to hold on just that little bit longer in order to withstand the competition until the Nintendo 64 arrived. The game was a resounding success, ultimately receiving two 16-bit sequels, several ports and a new iteration for the Wii.

Despite doing wonders with the SNES hardware, the pre-rendered technique surprisingly found it's way to the Game Boy. Donkey Kong Land can best be described as a kind of sequel while the second Game Boy iteration is more of a retelling of Diddy's Kong Quest. What both have in common is that they are technical marvels that don't play as well as they should while Donkey Kong Land 2 is also too derivative of it's 16-bit counterpart. Donkey Kong Land 3, released in 1997 as a companion to Donkey Kong Country 3, suffers the same condition but to a lesser extent as will be explained below.

GRAPHICS
It remains quite special to see pre-rendered visuals on the humble 8-bit monochrome Game Boy. The level of animation and detailing is decent and the manner in which the visuals resemble the 16-bit versions is certainly commendable. Especially the playing field does a good job in this regard. Naturally the visuals don't sparkle as much as those of the console versions but that is understandable. When compared with Donkey Kong Land it becomes apparent that, like the first sequel, Donkey Kong Land 3 has been better adapted to the smaller screen resulting in a clearer picture.

Despite the above, it is painfully clear that these kind of visuals weren't originally intended for the Game Boy, something that would even be apparent if you didn't know about the series' 16-bit background. The backgrounds generally range from sparse to nonexistent, characters and objects have a tendency to occasionally tear themselves apart and there is some slowdown here and there. In general, the visuals lack the refinement that true Game Boy games like Wario Land and Link's Awakening for example do posses in spades.

SOUND
The cheery soundtrack tries really hard to emulate the one from Dixie Kong's Double Trouble and, within the limitations of the hardware, it largely succeeds in that endeavour. The main problem here is, once again, a lack of refinement. Sound effects tend to sound a bit too harsh and there is a noticeable lack of variation. Squirting some water with Ellie the elephant or shooting a nut with Squawks for example both use the same effect as picking up a banana. It would be too much to expect the same level of variation found in the console counterpart but a bit more effort wouldn't have gone amiss.

GAMEPLAY
A short while after the events of Donkey Kong Country 3 the Kongs discover that a race is taking place in the Northern Kremisphere to find the Lost World. Donkey and Diddy immediately set out to participate in the contest. Dixie and Kiddy, fresh from their adventure in said territory, don't want to be outdone and also go in search of that fabled place.

Donkey Kong Land 3 follows the series' traditional structure. There is a map with several worlds on it in a linear order which contain a few levels each and a boss at the end. The point of the game is to complete these levels while also searching for the numerous secrets which will eventually open up the Lost World. Although this structure is fairly typical, it is also a deviation from Donkey Kong Country 3's set-up which offered a map which could be explored relatively freely. This results in a more straightforward game than the 16-bit companion.

Both Dixie and Kiddie are controllable but are not onscreen at the same time which means that they can not throw each other like they did in the 16-version. The Game Boy couldn't replicate that feature apparently. Both apes still have their own moves. Dixie can use her ponytail to hover short distances and use it in a spinning attack. Kiddie can defeat certain enemies that Dixie can't and perform a roll attack. Barrels are also thrown in a different manner, with Dixie throwing them in an arc and Kiddie rolling them across the ground. There is more differentiation here than between Dixie and Diddy in the previous game.

Wrinkly Kong returns to aid the duo by allowing them to save their game. This time she does that for free which is more than welcome. Having to scrounge the coins together in the previous game could become quite annoying. A new addition to the Land series is a bear who hands out advice, allows the Kongs to travel to previous worlds and hosts a minigame which can earn the Kongs the items they need to complete the game properly. He does expect to be paid for his troubles however. On a sidenote, it's strange that Rare decided to ditch the whole Brothers Bear system from Donkey Kong Country 3 while still retaining a single bear for this game. It would have made more sense to repurpose Funky Kong for this role seeing that he provided transportation in every other Country and Land game. Not a criticism as such but when you do away with a particular mechanism, it's perhaps better to just go the whole way. This is off course not a fault but more of a personal observation.

Not surprisingly, the animal buddies also make an appearance. The game offers four of them, all of which appeared in Donkey Kong Country 3. They play much the same as in that game except for their special abilities. Squitter, Enguarde and Squawks retained theirs. Ellie lost her ability to carry barrels and the need to suck up water, seeing that she can shoot an unlimited supply of the liquid.

A lot of the levels revolve around a certain mechanism like, for example, being shot at from the background, disappearing barrels, using the animal buddies or riding a sled. Even so, this kind of variation seems to be less prevalent than in the 16-bit companion where almost every level featured a gimmick of sorts. This allows for the prevalence of more traditional platforming fare. That is not a bad thing in itself but it does leave the whole experience a tad sober when compared with the overabundance of ideas and concepts found in Dixie Kong's Double Trouble.

The controls are generally responsive and sharp. The only real issue is activating the special abilities of the animal buddies which is done with the select button. This button lies just a bit too far out of the way to be used comfortably, especially in situations where speed and agility are of the essence. Especially the Squitter sections become much more annoying to play because of this. The player can work around this problem but he really shouldn't have to. Collision detection, which used to be a problem with the first Donkey Kong Land, works fine.

Donkey Kong Land 3 is moderately challenging. Most levels can be completed relatively easily, with only a few at the end raising the difficulty level a bit higher. As always it is the search for the game's secrets that defines it's longevity. There are unfortunately a few difficulty spikes and they mostly come from the bosses, something that can mostly be attributed to the unpolished nature of these engagements. After finishing Donkey Kong Land 3, a time trail section is unlocked in which a dozen or so levels from the game must be traversed within a set amount of time in order to finish the game completely and earn that 103%. It's a nice albeit slight addition that is still really the only thing unique to this game.

Like Donkey Kong Land 2, the game uses the basic template of it's 16-bit companion. That means that it's levels adhere to the same themes and use the same gimmicks and gameplay mechanisms. Unlike it's predecessor, Donkey Kong Land 3 isn't nearly as slavish in what it copies. It doesn't just transport the 16-bit version to the Game Boy and alters the layout of the levels, Donkey Kong Land 3 actually tries to be it's own game, building new worlds around the aforementioned template. In doing so, the game takes a cue from the first Game Boy iteration while not going as far as to actually introduce elements that it can call it's own apart from the time trails. A good example of this unwillingness to change things too drastically are the bosses, who are switched around and altered slightly but still retain their attack from their 16-bit versions. Add to the above the removal of the relatively non-linear map, the whole Brothers Bear and banana bird mechanism and some of the Kongs and it becomes clear that while Donkey Kong Land 3 tries to be unique, that attempt comes with a price. Still, at least the game has a distinct feel absent from it's predecessor.

FINAL REMARKS
Donkey Kong Land 3 suffers from the same problems it's predecessors did. Firstly, the game remains too derivative of it's 16-bit counterpart and thus doesn't really develop a distinct personality of it's own. Secondly, both the gameplay and presentation come across as a watered down version of Donkey Kong Land 3's inspiration. A lot has been taken out, the cooperation between the two apes for example and the trading system, while nothing fundamental has been given in return. The time trails are a nice touch but don't add all that much while the reshuffling of the themes and gameplay mechanisms only goes so far as to make the game feel fresh. That the presentation would never sparkle as it did on a far more powerful console is a given.

And yet, despite the above, Donkey Kong Land 3 does do a lot of things right. The first Donkey Kong Land did offer a few original elements but suffered from a few annoying flaws with regard to the gameplay. The second game fixed a few of those but was in turn held back by it's slavish devotion to Diddy's Kong Quest. Donkey Kong Land 3 travels the middle road and takes the best of both worlds, being both a very competent platformer while gaining at least a semblance of an unique identity. As such, it's the best entry in the series albeit one that can never scale the heights of both it's obvious inspiration and those classics developed specifically for the Game Boy.

As such, Donkey Kong Land 3 is the one to get for fans of the 16-bit trilogy who are curious about how the series was adapted to the monochrome handheld. For Game Boy aficionados the game is a fun platformer they can enjoy when they are done with the likes of Wario Land, Darkwing Duck and Donkey Kong 94.

OVERALL: a 7,3.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/04/12

Game Release: Donkey Kong Land III (EU, 10/30/97)