I played Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong’s Double Trouble! with the rewind function turned on in RetroArch (an emulator front-end), which takes the game’s default difficulty level of “frequently frustrating” down to “stupidly easy.” Still, it’s fun to see what’s different about this game compared to the previous two games. Rare’s CGI capabilities are better than ever, as we clearly have the best graphics yet in the DKC trilogy. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest is my favorite of the trilogy, owing to its better music and level design. Still, DKC3 pleases for its length and graphics, while slightly bland music and decidedly difficult later levels drag the experience down a bit … a journey made no doubt more enjoyable with save scumming (the practice of using save states to have unlimited retries on difficult segments) or a rewind feature.
The game has you playing as Dixie Kong and Kiddie Kong, two Kong’s that got the boot (so they no longer appear in subsequent games in the series). The first world, Lake Orangatanga, is simple enough, and I probably could have gotten through it without the rewind functionality. But the difficulty ramps up pretty consistently, with some of the last levels in the game being quite challenging, and requiring a lot of rewinding on my part. I found Koindozer Klamber to be the most difficult, a stage right at the end of the game where shielded baddies are constantly pushing you off of ledges unless you time your jumps right. Back in the day, this was a $50-70 purchase, and the developer wanted to make sure you got your money’s worth. I only finished the game to 44% completion (though the end credits rolled). It seems you receive a special ending for 100%-ing the game. I have not looked at the speed-run community for this game, but I imagine it’s fun to watch.
Again, Rare clearly benefited from advancements to the SGI workstations that make the game’s graphics. Apparently they gained an advantage over previous games from new compression techniques. The graphics definitely hold up to this day, and it stands as one of the best looking SNES games of all time. Still, level design is worse than the previous game, and the levels themselves don’t feel as inspired as before. No matter how good the graphics are, they’re not going to compensate for run-of-the-mill levels. The music is a bit dull at times, and never reaches the iconic greatness that is the first game’s music. It seems David Wise, the series’ musical mastermind, composed only a handful of tracks, and the rest of the score was done by the lesser known Eveline Novakovic.
This game was released after the Nintendo 64 came out, and Wrinkly Kong plays an N64 in her “Save Cave” that lets you save the game. You can see some of Rare’s comedic style from the N64 era coming through, where the game’s final boss claims to have used his wife’s best pots and pans to make the second to last boss, a robot. When the game was over, I felt like something was missing. I’ve been playing Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze on Switch, and there’s definitely a strong value proposition for the purchase price. The game has more levels, better bosses, better music, and better graphics. Is it fair to compare a game from 1996 to a game from 2018? Maybe not, but there’s a reason I’m mostly a retro gamer. I’m still trying to dig up gems.
Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong’s Double Trouble! is an interesting case—it’s a solid platformer with impressive visuals for its time, but it lacks the magic that made its predecessors stand out. It’s still worth playing, especially if you had a good time with the first two games in the trilogy (like I did), but it’s not the strongest entry, even compared to more modern DKC games. Maybe Rare’s most talented staff was already hard at work on N64’s Banjo-Kazooie when this title was in development. This game is especially worth playing if you’re looking for audiovisual thrills, like the best of SNES graphics, and fairly OK music. Also, it’s short. It took maybe a little more than a week to finish (with a lot of rewinding). Definitely play it if you’ve played the first two, but don’t be surprised if, after completion, you put it on the digital shelf never to be touched again.
3/5
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