Donkey Kong Land III

Donkey Kong Land III (or Donkey Kong Land 3) is a video game for the Game Boy developed by Rareware and published by Nintendo in 1997. It is loosely based on the Super Nintendo game, Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!, as it shares a similar setting and characters and stars Dixie Kong and Kiddy Kong. Donkey Kong Land III is the third and final entry of the Donkey Kong Land series. Like its two predecessors, it had specific Super Game Boy enhancements, including its own border, this one pocket watch themed, and is housed on a yellow cartridge.

The original Game Boy game was never released in Japan. Instead, it received a Game Boy Color port in 2000, with the unique title, Donkey Kong GB: Dinky Kong & Dixie Kong (ドンキーコングGB ディンキーコング＆ディクシーコング). Unlike Wario Land II's port, it is not backward compatible with the Game Boy, which is evident from the transparent cartridge the game is contained in.

Like its two predecessors, Donkey Kong Land III was released on the Nintendo 3DS's Virtual Console. The Game Boy Color port was released in Japan on May 7, 2014, while the original Game Boy port was released in Europe and Australia in October 2014 and North America in February 2015.

Story
The game's story takes place after the events of Donkey Kong Land 2, and the Northern Kremisphere is at peace once more. During the story, announcements of a contest to find the fabled Lost World, which was said to have dominated legends for centuries, attracted "would-be" explorers all over the world to seize the long awaited chance of fame and fortune. Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, and Baron K. Roolenstein all hear of the contest, and the Kongs set out leaving Dixie Kong with her cousin, Kiddy Kong. Wanting to become part of the competition themselves, she and Kiddy decided to show the other competitors that they are just as good as the others. The story's description ends with Kiddy, not knowing much about what was going on, following Dixie into the jungle.

Dixie and Kiddy will confront Baron K. Roolenstein at the end of Tin Can Valley, and upon defeating him, he will retreat to the Lost World. In order to access the Lost World, the Kongs must collect all of the DK Coins and Watches in the Northern Kremisphere. DK Coins are found within each level, and Watches are obtained by finishing Bear's Memory mini-game in each world. In order to access the mini-game, the heroes need a certain amount of Bonus Coins, which are won from Bonus Areas within each level. Within the Lost World, the Kongs must collect all the DK Coins and the final Watch to have a final showdown with Baron K. Roolenstein. Emerging victorious from the battle will crown Dixie and Kiddy as the victors of the contest. Baron K. Roolenstein will then concede the remaining six Watches and allow the Kongs to try out the Time Attack mode.

Gameplay
Donkey Kong Land III continues the Donkey Kong Country-style gameplay. The player controls two different characters, Dixie Kong and Kiddy Kong, as they progress through levels. Along the way, several minions of K. Rool and other obstacles hinder the two. Items, including Bananas and Bear Coins, are also scattered throughout levels. Dixie and Kiddy retain most of their abilities from Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! Dixie can use her ponytail as a whip or spin in it a helicopter-like fashion to slow her fall. Kiddy is a heavyweight, allowing him to hurt certain enemies Dixie can't (i.e. Krumple). However, they both lost the ability to pick each other up and throw each other due to the limitations of the Game Boy; the Team-up ability has been removed. When exploring levels, the pair must avoid enemies and use their attributes to safely move on. In levels, they can come across bonus rooms and items essential to finish the game. Also within each world is a Sheepy Shop run by Bear. If Dixie and Kiddy have enough Bonus Coins, Bear will allow them to play Memory, a memorization based mini-game.

Certain levels allow the usage of Animal Buddy companions. The Kongs can transform into these animals by using Animal Barrels. There are a variety of buddies in the game, and they can help progress through the levels they're featured in. Enguarde the Swordfish returns from the previous games, being an adept swimmer, and can use his bill stab attack to defeat aquatic adversaries. Enguarde lost the ability to do a charge stab, but is no longer needed because there are no bonus rooms found by breaking open a wall underwater. Ellie the Elephant returns and can now use her water spray attack without having to acquire more water. She also no longer has a Sneek phobia. Squawks the Parrot is playable, unchanged from previous games, he can freely fly around and use a nut-spitting attack to defeat enemies encountered, including Buzz enemies. Lastly, Squitter the Spider is the fourth playable animal buddy. He can use a web spit attack and create web platforms to get over abysses, or gain height.

Donkey Kong Land III features six worlds, with six levels in each world. A boss battle appears at the end of each world, and must be completed to unlock the following world. The game is only considered 97% complete if the player collects every Watch, DK Coin, and Bonus Coin; a full 103% completion is only possible if every high score is beaten in the Time Attack mode.

Levels
The game features over thirty levels, each with a similar theme to the levels in Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! Each non-boss level also contains two Bonus Levels, which must all be completed to unlock Time Attack mode.

Time Attack mode
The player can unlock the Time Attack mode by completing the game with every Bonus Coin, every DK Coin, and by defeating Baron K. Roolenstein in the Lost World. By doing so, the player can instantly access the Time Attack mode by opening a game file where it was unlocked. The "RE-ENTER GAME" option at the bottom allows the player exit back into the main game.

Time Attack lists twelve levels on a wooden dashboard. Each of these levels do not appear under their usual name but rather named after their theme, such as "Cave" or "Machine". The objective of Time Attack is for Dixie Kong or Kiddy Kong to complete a level within a time limit. Once this is done in every level, the player completes the game entirely, with a 103% ranking.

When the player starts the level, an on-screen timer appears at the bottom of the screen, keeping track of their time as move through the level. If the player completes the level under the default time or their previous time, it overwrites the previous time. If the player finishes a level below the default time, an exclamation mark appears next to the level's name.

In the Game Boy version, the most recent time is displayed on the bottom of the screen (unless the player exits a level with + or loses a life). For reasons unknown, this was removed from the Game Boy Color version.

Version differences
The Game Boy Color port, Donkey Kong GB: Dinky Kong & Dixie Kong, featured some differences from its original iteration. It is mostly a direct color port of Donkey Kong Land III and is not as different from the original like the handheld ports of the original Donkey Kong Country trilogy were.

General changes:
 * The player's last time is no longer displayed on Time Attack.
 * Due to the game being on a Game Boy Color (which boasts a faster CPU), there is less lag. An example is in Clifftop Critters, where less lag eliminates the possibility of deaths in which the Kongs lose a life from falling too far down.
 * Additionally, the title screen's Jetty Jitters demo is not synchronized, and the Kongs cannot reach the end of the level. This is because of timing differences between the Game Boy and Game Boy Color, which has a faster CPU.
 * In the original version, there was a bug where Dixie and Kiddy could enter the Lost World without enough DK Coins; this was fixed for the Game Boy Color version.

Graphical changes:
 * The splash screen and title screen were slightly redesigned.
 * The game features fewer animations. The world maps are not animated, and the interior of Wrinkly Refuge and Sheepy Shop do not have flashing lights. Bear is also no longer animated.
 * When text appears on-screen, it appears one character at a time, somewhat like a typewriter. The original version displayed all the text at once.
 * The game does not clearly indicate when it is paused. This is because the screen does not darken upon being paused, unlike the original.

Revisional differences
Two versions of this game are known to exist for the North American release. The easiest way to tell the difference are the two title screens.

Cheat codes
Like its prequel, Donkey Kong Land 2, Donkey Kong Land III features cheat codes that the player can activate by entering a certain button combination from the title screen. This plays a sound effect, and most cheats go into effect when the player enters a save file.

Unlike Donkey Kong Land 2, this game only uses the D-Pad for its button combination instead of the and  buttons. Cheats appear in both the original and Color versions of Donkey Kong Land III, whereas cheats did not appear in the Japanese version of Donkey Kong Land 2.


 * Pressing Up, Down, Up, Left, Right grants Dixie and Kiddy fifty extra lives.
 * Pressing Up, Up, Down, Left, Right causes the player to play the mini-game Memory after they exit from the title screen.
 * Pressing Up, Down, Left, Left, Down, Up, Right unlocks every area except the Lost World. The Watches, Bonus Coins, and DK Coins are not unlocked.
 * Pressing either Left, Up, Down, or changes the level of the title screen's gameplay demo, depending on the number of times every button is pressed. The Kongs eventually die in every gameplay demo, except for the default Jetty Jitters demo in the original Game Boy release:
 * One time: Rickety Rapids
 * Two times: Whiplash Dash
 * Three times: Deep Reef Grief
 * Four times: the gameplay demo resets to the default Jetty Jitters.

Sales
According to Rareware's website, 600,000 copies of Donkey Kong Land III had been produced as of 1999.

Trivia

 * Despite his name being featured in the title, Donkey Kong does not appear in Donkey Kong Land III. However, he is mentioned in the manual's story. Aside from Diddy Kong Racing, this game is the only title of the Donkey Kong series that he does not appear in.
 * The game's soundtrack consists of 8-bit re-orchestrations of the music from Donkey Kong Country 3. However, the tracks "Frosty Frolics" and "Pokey Pipes" do not appear; the snow and pipe levels use "Cascade Capers" and "Cavern Caprice" instead, respectively. In addition, "Rocket Run" is programmed into the game—however, it is unused and can only be accessed by ROM hacking.
 * Several elements from Donkey Kong Land III were later used for the Game Boy Advance port of Donkey Kong Country 3, for example, when the player automatically collects the DK Coin from defeating Koin.