The Donkey Kong Land trilogy, which could best be described as the Game Boy equivalent of the Donkey Kong Country trilogy, would prove to be as solid as the latter set of games. The first Donkey Kong Land was plenty of fun despite such flaws as a short length and slightly iffy controls. Donkey Kong Land 2 was a nice, if tough, alternate version of Donkey Kong Country 2. Then in 1997 came Donkey Kong Land 3, in which Dixie and Kiddy Kong, fresh from their adventures in the Northern Kremisphere in Donkey Kong Country 3, went on an entirely new quest that shared many elements from previous Land games as well as the final chapter of the Donkey Kong Country series. Having finally had a chance to play it, I dare say that it is certainly the best game of the Land series, and I shall tell you why I believe it to be the case.
Some time after DKC 3, Dixie and Kiddy hear about a special contest: whoever can find the Lost World first can win big prizes and money. Apparently, Donkey and Diddy left to try and find the Lost World themselves, though they are never actually seen in the game. Needless to say, Dixie and Kiddy decide to try and locate this mysterious land and discover all of its secrets themselves. To do so, they must first travel through five worlds filled with Kremlings, led by the crafty Baron K. Roolenstein. As with previous Land games, the story is told only in the manual and not in the actual game, and the story itself is not very deep, but it does serve its purpose.
Dixie and Kiddy will need to travel through over thirty stages in order to defeat K. Rool and ultimately conquer the Lost World. As with previous Country and Land games, the stages take place in many environments: caverns, jungle, underwater, factories, and more. Both Kongs have their own abilities: Dixie can use her ponytail to twirl through the air, which is ideal for slowing her descent and crossing long gaps. In a particular mode late in the game, mastery of Dixie’s abilities will be vital. Kiddy is a bit slower, but he is quite strong and can take out even the toughest foes. Only one Kong can be on screen at a time due to the Game Boy’s limitations. Each stage also has items to collect; namely, bananas and letters that can help give them extra lives and bear coins used at the Sheepy Shop (more on that later).
As usual, various animal friends pop up in this game, and the Kongs can change into them and use their abilities to defeat enemies and find secrets. With the exception of Parry the parallel bird, all of the animals from Donkey Kong Country 3 are featured here. Squitter the spider can once again make attack and platform webs, the latter of which are used to cross gaps and reach places too high for Dixie and Kiddy. Squawks the parrot can spit eggs and fly really high. Ellie the elephant has an unlimited supply of water that she can squirt out of her trunk. Enguarde the swordfish can dart at enemies with his sword like bill, though curiously his super dash from Donkey Kong Land 2 is gone. Strategic use of these animal friends is vital to your success.
While you can simply run through the stages to complete them as fast as possible, a great deal of exploration is needed to find the elusive Bonus and DK coins that will help you attain the maximum percentage possible. The Bonus coins are found in Bonus Barrels that are hidden in every stage, often off the beaten path (sometimes they are invisible!). Each of these barrels has a mini game which, when beaten in the allotted time, will give you a Bonus coin as a prize. Every stage has two Bonus Barrels. The DK coins are mostly held by Koin, a Kremling who uses the coins as shields to protect him. Only by hitting him on the back with a steel barrel will you be able to take his coin. In the underwater stages, Koin is not present; instead, the DK coin is simply hidden somewhere like in Donkey Kong Land 2.
Unlike other Donkey Kong Land games in which the number of stages per world varied, each world in Donkey Kong Land 3 has six stages. In addition to those, there are other areas on each map that are unlocked as you clear the stages. In Wrinkly’s Refuge, the elderly ape will allow you to save your game, and this time, saving is always free. Then there is the Sheepy Shop, where you can use your coins to buy hints as to the whereabouts of some of the Bonus Barrels as well as to teleport to previously explored worlds. The shop is also where you can play a card game in which you turn over cards to match items and characters. This is where the Bonus coins come into play: the bear who runs the Sheepy Shop will not let you play the games unless you have collected increasing amounts of Bonus coins. Win the card game in the allotted time, and you will win prizes, most notably DK coins and watches that will ultimately unlock the final battle.
Every world culminates with a battle against one of K. Rool’s minions, all taken from DKC 3. The strategies to defeat these foes are different this time, though. Succeed in beating these enemies, and you will earn a Bonus coin as well as access to the next world. As you may expect, the battles are quite exciting and often difficult. At the end of the fifth world, you will deal with K. Rool himself, and after you beat him, he will escape into the Lost World, where some of your toughest challenges await you. It all ends with a final duel against K. Rool, but only if you have every last DK coin, watch, and Bonus coin up to that point.
Finding these items will add to your overall percentage, but even if you find every last one of them and defeat K. Rool in the Lost World, you still have not beaten the game completely, having only completed 97%. To do that, you will need to beat the time attack mode that is unlocked after the final battle. Here, you must run through 12 stages, trying to beat a set time in each one. These time trials are quite difficult: often the margin of error is quite small, and you may reach the goal with mere fractions of a second to spare. With a lot of practice, you can beat the records in every course and earn 103%, the highest score possible. Just don’t go expecting a strong ending for doing so: you merely get a trophy with the maximum score as a reward. It should be noted that this is the only Land game in which the maximum percentage is higher than 100%.
Donkey Kong Land 3 is certainly quite a fun game, just like the other Land and Country games. The elements from previous games have been perfected, the card mini games are fun if a bit easy, and the time attack mode gives the game quite a tough challenge. The game is still not perfect, however: it is generally easy, though not without the occasional difficult tasks, and a bit short. Save spots can take a while to unlock, and backtracking to other worlds will set you back a whopping five coins. The bonus areas are not quite as well hidden as before, though I still had a tough time finding some of them. Even so, Rare and Nintendo managed to create one last great Donkey Kong game for the Game Boy, and one that fans of the other Country and Land games are sure to love.
Once again, Rare uses beautifully rendered characters that appear to have been ripped straight from the Super NES, and, combined with nice looking environments, they result in a visual treat on an 8-bit system. By this time, the company had perfected using rendered graphics on the Game Boy. I will note that a colorized version of the game exists for the Game Boy Color, but it was released only in Japan and to date has not been released overseas. The soundtrack of Donkey Kong Country 3 has been remixed for this game, with a number of tunes surviving the translation rather well. Some tunes that did not make the cut such as Pokey Pipes, Frosty Frolics, and Rocket Run (though the latter was considered for the game and can be heard on YouTube) would likewise have been welcome. Even so, the soundtrack as a whole is wonderful, as is par for the course for Rare.
If only Rare was still making Donkey Kong games, they would have surely made more masterpieces like Donkey Kong Land 3. Like Donkey Kong Country 3, it was a great finale to a wonderful series. It has its flaws such as a short length and having to fight through several stages just to unlock save points. However, it also has lots of strengths, including fun stages, great battles, and a time attack mode that may very well hold your interest and challenge you long after you beat everything else the game has to offer. Track it down if you can, play it, and you will love it so much that you will wish that Rare would go back to making Donkey Kong games and give the big ape and his friends another solid adventure.
