Donkey Kong 3 (NES) Playthrough (Round 16)
0The third game in the Donkey Kong Arcade Trilogy. I don't think Donkey Kong 3 is that good. It's not the worst I've played, but it has many of the unfair design choices that I don't like. On the surface, it may look like a fixed shoot'em up game. However, it's actually more of a hybrid between a platformer and fixed 2D shooter.
The shooter elements are all there. Enemies come down from the top of the screen and you shoot them, and also you can collect power ups to temporarily increase the power of your gun, in this case a can of bug spray. The platforming part is how you must maneuver on the different levels of scaffolds in order to avoid enemies. The problem is that, while Stanley can jump, he can only jump straight upwards, which only has the effect of increasing your firing range a little bit. You cannot jump over gaps or enemies. This means instead, you must ascend or descend the scaffolds and walk around them. This can lead to unfair situations where you have a wall of enemies blocking all levels of scaffolds, leading to an unwinnable situation. It also doesn't help that you fall through the edges of the scaffolds just like a lot of other Nintendo games of the era.
I wish they stayed with the platforming aspects for the third game. Platforming is after all what Donkey Kong is famous for, and it worked out pretty well for the first two games. I think this is a situation of Nintendo just being Nintendo. They tried radical changes, and they jus didn't work out. I did appreciate that there was a little more depth to the gameplay. There are multiple ways to both win rounds or lose rounds, with costs and benefits to both.
00:00:00 Title Screen
00:00:15 Round 01: Blue Greenhouse
00:01:37 Round 02: Yellow Greenhouse
00:02:23 Round 03: Blue Greenhouse
00:03:12 Round 04: Gray Greenhouse
00:04:14 Round 05: Yellow Greenhouse
00:04:59 Round 06: Blue Greenhouse (No Bonus)
00:06:13 Round 07: Gray Greenhouse
00:07:33 Round 08: Yellow Greenhouse
00:08:17 Round 09: Blue Greenhouse
00:09:27 Round 10: Gray Greenhouse (No Bonus)
00:11:16 Round 11: Yellow Greenhouse
00:12:01 Round 12: Blue Greenhouse
00:13:14 Round 13: Gray Greenhouse
00:14:24 Round 14: Yellow Greenhouse
00:14:56 Round 15: Blue Greenhouse
00:15:56 Round 16: Gray Greenhouse (Game Over)