Donkey Kong Country 3 has always been... the oddball of the trilogy, and somehow, this version intensifies that.
I'll start by talking about the most obvious thing, the fact that they changed the original soundtrack, because it couldn't be ported to the GBA (even though the GB could...). Anyway, because of this, David Wise himself composed a replacement for the game's songs, a new soundtrack by the original composer of DKC1 and DKC2, the concept sounds fantastic, doesn't it...? but the truth is that almost none of the songs (even though I like them a lot) fit the game... to mention some examples, there's a level where a giant saw is chasing you and you have to climb a big tree to avoid it, the original DKC3 had a mystery song, which transformed to tension in that specific level... here is this song... Another example, there's a level where you have to get to the goal as soon as possible because you are chased by an enemy, the song in question makes you feel in danger... while the replacement is a beautiful song that I love, more because the song changes depending on whether you are on land or submerged in water, but it leaves me confused on how I should feel, although since it also replaces another song, it also makes me see it as an excellent replacement. There are some other examples of songs that don't fit at all, like the final boss, which went from having an exclusive theme to having the common boss theme, I didn't like that at all.
All in all there are some occasions where I prefer the new song. To make it shorter, here is a list where I summarize when I prefer the GBA soundtrack:
- Waterfall Level
- Wooden houses level
- Pipeline level
- Forest and lake level (mentioned above)
- Water level
As a final comment about the music, I like it a lot, it's superior to the original, it really shows that the GBA can have compositions that sound this good, I just don't think it fits the game, I would have preferred that all these songs would have been put in a hypothetical DKC4 or something like that. In a way also these songs are the precedent for many of the songs in Tropical Frezze.
Speaking of the graphics, this time Rare finally found the perfect spot between making the colors not look too pale, but at the same time making them reasonable for the GBA screen. Coupled with the fact that this is the best looking game of the trilogy, makes this GBA version possibly the best looking game on the GBA... well, only in the levels, as the overworld map was redone for a very low quality one in comparison, which just looks bad next to how the levels look, and all the backgrounds of the bear houses or kongs also look just as bad. This was a problem in previous ports, but for some reason here it's more noticeable.
Moving on to other things I don't like, is how the mobility of the Kongs feels in this game, it doesn't feel the same as DKC1 and DKC2 for GBA since it's slower, but it doesn't feel like the original SNES version either, it feels bad to play in my opinion.
And finally, in general, it feels like a port that doesn't have the same care that the previous ones had. There's no screen to tell you the completion status of the levels, there's no new collectibles for the levels, the new mini-games are of lower quality... there's no addition that tries to be an improvement to the original game. The only new thing is a new world with several new levels, and I won't deny it, I enjoyed it a lot, but it's the only addition and I don't think it's worth playing this version just to see those new levels.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, I don't see any reason to prefer this version over the original, yeah, Rare had a better understanding of the hardware they were working on making the music sound amazing and the graphics have the colors they should have and not super pale, but you can tell that what they didn't understand was the original Donkey Kong Country 3. I really enjoyed it, but I doubt I will ever play this version again in the future.
I'll start by talking about the most obvious thing, the fact that they changed the original soundtrack, because it couldn't be ported to the GBA (even though the GB could...). Anyway, because of this, David Wise himself composed a replacement for the game's songs, a new soundtrack by the original composer of DKC1 and DKC2, the concept sounds fantastic, doesn't it...? but the truth is that almost none of the songs (even though I like them a lot) fit the game... to mention some examples, there's a level where a giant saw is chasing you and you have to climb a big tree to avoid it, the original DKC3 had a mystery song, which transformed to tension in that specific level... here is this song... Another example, there's a level where you have to get to the goal as soon as possible because you are chased by an enemy, the song in question makes you feel in danger... while the replacement is a beautiful song that I love, more because the song changes depending on whether you are on land or submerged in water, but it leaves me confused on how I should feel, although since it also replaces another song, it also makes me see it as an excellent replacement. There are some other examples of songs that don't fit at all, like the final boss, which went from having an exclusive theme to having the common boss theme, I didn't like that at all.
All in all there are some occasions where I prefer the new song. To make it shorter, here is a list where I summarize when I prefer the GBA soundtrack:
- Waterfall Level
- Wooden houses level
- Pipeline level
- Forest and lake level (mentioned above)
- Water level
As a final comment about the music, I like it a lot, it's superior to the original, it really shows that the GBA can have compositions that sound this good, I just don't think it fits the game, I would have preferred that all these songs would have been put in a hypothetical DKC4 or something like that. In a way also these songs are the precedent for many of the songs in Tropical Frezze.
Speaking of the graphics, this time Rare finally found the perfect spot between making the colors not look too pale, but at the same time making them reasonable for the GBA screen. Coupled with the fact that this is the best looking game of the trilogy, makes this GBA version possibly the best looking game on the GBA... well, only in the levels, as the overworld map was redone for a very low quality one in comparison, which just looks bad next to how the levels look, and all the backgrounds of the bear houses or kongs also look just as bad. This was a problem in previous ports, but for some reason here it's more noticeable.
Moving on to other things I don't like, is how the mobility of the Kongs feels in this game, it doesn't feel the same as DKC1 and DKC2 for GBA since it's slower, but it doesn't feel like the original SNES version either, it feels bad to play in my opinion.
And finally, in general, it feels like a port that doesn't have the same care that the previous ones had. There's no screen to tell you the completion status of the levels, there's no new collectibles for the levels, the new mini-games are of lower quality... there's no addition that tries to be an improvement to the original game. The only new thing is a new world with several new levels, and I won't deny it, I enjoyed it a lot, but it's the only addition and I don't think it's worth playing this version just to see those new levels.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, I don't see any reason to prefer this version over the original, yeah, Rare had a better understanding of the hardware they were working on making the music sound amazing and the graphics have the colors they should have and not super pale, but you can tell that what they didn't understand was the original Donkey Kong Country 3. I really enjoyed it, but I doubt I will ever play this version again in the future.