There's two ways to look at Donkey Kong Country 3: A decent yet underrated send off to DKC that released too late and whose reputation was tarnished by the boom of 3D gaming, or a piece of crap garbage game that replaces Donkey Kong with a baby. A baby!!

Me? I like to think the truth is uh, somewhere in the middle.

While this is wild speculation, the impression I get from Double Trouble is that much of the talent from the last two games vacated before this project began to get to work on titles for the Nintendo 64. The formula is intact, this feels like a proper Donkey Kong Country on its surface, but the level design is so much more flat, gimmicks don't land nearly as well and are often irritating, and outside of a mostly unnecessary but kinda cool overworld, there's not a whole lot that feels like it's pushing these games forward in a positive way. It would not surprise me if this was a Mega Man 5 situation where everyone shrugged and asked "well, what the hell do you do after Diddy's Kong Quest?"

You put a hideous baby in the game, apparently. I don't like babies! I think they're gross! I gag when I see baby-related paraphernalia, I don't want to play as one. Every time I see a baby I think "Ugh. Baby." Babies vomit and crap all over themselves, they cannot forge for food, their skulls are soft, they are not the protagonists of video games! You might protect a baby in a game, but they aren't the stars of their own adventure, you don't put them on the front of a box!!

It's also a little weird that there's three Donkey Kong Country games for the SNES and you only play as DK in the first one, right?

Even the presentation is off. There's this uncanny quality to a lot of the sprites, the music feels very uninspired, and the setting lacks a lot of the charm and uniqueness of the previous games. Yet despite all my misgivings, I don't think Double Trouble is a bad game, so much as it's just mediocre. Diddy's Kong Quest was a tough act to follow, especially for a game coming out on the very tail end of the SNES' lifecycle and during a holiday season where it had to compete with games like Mario 64. I've heard people talk about this game in extremely negative ways, and like, if they played Mario 64 before this - or worse, were expecting Mario 64 for Christmas and got fucking Dixie Kong's Double Trouble instead - I honestly can't say I'd blame them for harboring some long-standing resentment for it. I'd be pretty disappointed, too.

Reviewed on May 26, 2023


8 Comments


10 months ago

yeah its easily the worst dkc game

10 months ago

i hate babies so much g,od damn

10 months ago

You really shouldn't be so mean to babies. I don't share this with many people, but I myself was a baby once.

10 months ago

what do you mean you don't like gormless kong?

10 months ago

@PirateKingGabe I hate him, he is the worst. -.5 star for this game because baby. die, kiddy kong, die

@DeltaWDunn You really think you know someone and then they reveal THIS.....

10 months ago

"the setting lacks a lot of the charm and uniqueness of the previous games"

Bruh, this guy HATES Canada!

10 months ago

@RaftAnts Canada is the most boring place you can set a game. I'm just dealing in facts here.

@Mur Trying to remind myself if I did in fact unlock the lost levels, but Retro Achievements (which I'm sure has one for that) is 504ing for me so I guess I'll never know.

2 months ago

"While this is wild speculation, the impression I get from Double Trouble is that much of the talent from the last two games vacated before this project began to get to work on titles for the Nintendo 64."

Wild speculation that is in fact totally correct - most of the leads on DKC1 and 2 did not work on 3 in favour of working on what would become Banjo.