It’s a good game! I acknowledge I’m blinded by nostalgia toward DKC 1 & 2, but I think DKC3 suffers from getting in its own way more than those games. For one thing, I don’t love the way DKC3 handles secrets. I think they took cues from Diddy Kong’s Quest that they need to cram more secrets in there and make the timer shorter. The challenges aren’t necessarily difficult, but you need to complete them perfectly which is not as fun as a more complex task you can take your time doing.
I suppose it promotes replayability, but I dont think this game’s difficult enough that I need to replay through the same level over and over. Maybe I’m just good enough at controlling Dixie and Kiddie that the pure platforming levels are pretty easy up through the snow area. What isn’t as intuitive are the levels with a gimmick. Stuff like the fish food feeding frenzy are just annoying that you get attacked by an unavoidably occasionally. I don’t particularly care for the ones where you play the whole thing as an animal companion. I think their abilities aren’t that well conveyed. I didn’t use Ellie the Elephant’s water spray until I absolutely needed it, because I didn’t know it existed. It took the entire level of Squirter (!) the Spider to get the hang of how to use its webs. Enguarde is a good boi tho.
I feel that this game is unfairly maligned, but I think the reason is because DKC2 is a big jump forward from DKC1, and this one doesn’t really sell itself an an imporvement over DKC2 and the chances it took aren’t my cup of tea. After 2 games I think a lot of the environments also feel very samey which doesn’t help it differentiate itself. Still I’m happy this game it exists and to have more Donkey Kong Country.
I suppose it promotes replayability, but I dont think this game’s difficult enough that I need to replay through the same level over and over. Maybe I’m just good enough at controlling Dixie and Kiddie that the pure platforming levels are pretty easy up through the snow area. What isn’t as intuitive are the levels with a gimmick. Stuff like the fish food feeding frenzy are just annoying that you get attacked by an unavoidably occasionally. I don’t particularly care for the ones where you play the whole thing as an animal companion. I think their abilities aren’t that well conveyed. I didn’t use Ellie the Elephant’s water spray until I absolutely needed it, because I didn’t know it existed. It took the entire level of Squirter (!) the Spider to get the hang of how to use its webs. Enguarde is a good boi tho.
I feel that this game is unfairly maligned, but I think the reason is because DKC2 is a big jump forward from DKC1, and this one doesn’t really sell itself an an imporvement over DKC2 and the chances it took aren’t my cup of tea. After 2 games I think a lot of the environments also feel very samey which doesn’t help it differentiate itself. Still I’m happy this game it exists and to have more Donkey Kong Country.