DKC3 is defiantly the black sheep of the trilogy. The game tries new things like putting more emphasis on the over-world with vehicle traversal and secrets to find. A cool idea but didn't do anything for me personally as I just wanted to get in to the next stage. The theming of the game is less striking than the prior 2 games taking away the cohesion those games had. . Ellie is a terrible sub for Rambi and Kiddy is Kiddy. The soundtrack is also a huge step down with very little memorable tunes. There are some great levels that capture the magic of previous games but overall I didn't like this one nearly as much, mileage may vary