Donkey Kong 3: Dai Gyakushū

Donkey Kong 3: Dai Gyakushū (ドンキーコング3 大逆襲) is a game developed and published by Hudson Soft in 1984. The game had versions for the PC-6001mkII/PC-6601, PC-8801, and X1, all of which had differences between each other (palette and flow of gameplay, respectively). The same year, Hudson had released and would release Punch Ball Mario Bros. and Mario Bros. Special, respectively. This was the last Donkey Kong game until Donkey Kong on the Game Boy.

Unlike Punch Ball Mario Bros. and Mario Bros. Special, the game was not released on the FM-7 - a version was planned and possibly even completely programmed, but was canceled for unknown reasons.

The game was lost for many years, but the Sharp X1 version was found in December 2017 at an online auction. The PC-8801 version was subsequently uncovered in January 2019.

Gameplay
Like Mario Bros. Special and Punch Ball Mario Bros., the game is not a port, but more of a semi-sequel to Donkey Kong 3. Stanley the Bugman's ability to jump is removed, along with the need to protect plants, making it much closer to a traditional shooter, à la Galaga.

Enemies come down from the top of the screen in groups of five, swooping to the bottom and trying to target Stanley. After swooping around a bit, the enemies will exit the screen (usually from the bottom, though sometimes from the sides) and loop back around to the top. This will continue until Stanley dies, shoots Donkey Kong to the top of the screen, thus completing it, or kills the five insects, all of which take two hits apiece to kill. If Stanley kills all five insects before any of them loop back to the top of the screen, a flag reminiscent of one from Rally-X will appear, and shooting it will net him 1,000 points.

There are twenty new stages, looping back at Stage 21. Every five stages a Bonus Stage comes up, where Stanley must spray all the bugs before the time runs out. The game sees him chase Donkey Kong into the countryside, through space, and eventually into a city on an alien planet, with no conclusion to the story.

Main programmer

 * Fumihiko Itagaki