Game:

Donkey Kong Country 3 (1995)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 20:40

666 views

2

Baron K. Roolenstein may be down for the count (temporarily), but the game isn't over yet! There's a whole 'nother world to explore...the LOST World! It didn't have a name in DKC2 and didn't even exist in DKC1, but in DKC3, the Lost World is called Krematoa. You can technically access it as soon as you beat Kremwood Forest and get the hovercraft from Funky, but I chose to save it for last and do the whole thing at once.

At the start of the Lost World, we're introduced to Boomer, the Bear Brother of the world, who takes bonus coins as payment for opening new stages WITH EXPLOSIVES! Whoo! There is a rock before each of the five stages in the Lost World, and each one costs 15 bonus coins to remove except the last, which costs 25. This does mean that you can come here with, say, only 33 bonus coins, let Boomer blow up the first two rocks, do the first two stages, and hold off on the next one until you get 12 more bonus coins.

As for the stages themselves...well, let me just say right now that Krematoa may be available after World 2, but it definitely feels like World 8. I ended up splitting this world into three videos rather than two because the stages were so difficult, so this video contains only two stages instead of three like all the rest up till now have. If you think the stages are bad, though, get a load of the bonuses. Oh, jeez, the BONUSES...some of the bonuses in Krematoa are downright sadistic. I've grown to hate the Grab 15 Bananas bonus, because it causes more trouble than the other three bonus types put together.

Anyway...8-1 is Stampede Sprint, another jungle one. This one has an interesting twist to it, though, starting with the fact that you're transformed into Ellie for almost the entire stage. She sure seems to get a lot of screen time, doesn't she? Ellie is in seven stages by my count, more than any other animal buddy...although Squitter and Squawks technically appear in this stage as well, if only in one bonus area, and if you count them here, Squitter also appears in seven. Four of the seven stages with Ellie involve being in her form for all or most of the stage, though, so you definitely spend the most time as her. But I digress. The transformation is key in this stage, however, because...well, Murky Mill isn't the only time we see Ellie's fear of mice. Shortly after the transformation, three mouse baddies stand up on their hind legs to scare Ellie (on purpose!), and it works. She freaks out so bad that she starts running, and you can't slow her down or go backward. You can only jump when you need to to prevent landing on an enemy or in a bottomless pit. She runs pretty darn fast, too...once you see an enemy or pit ahead, you have less than half a second to jump it. My reflexes aren't the greatest, certainly, but this stage isn't terribly long, so it can be memorized relatively easily, and memorization definitely helps (unless you anticipate the enemies and jump too early, which I have done before). This is also the only non-boss stage in the game without a midway point. Unfortunately, there's another reason you'll be glad this stage is short...remember how I said some of the bonuses in this world were really nasty? Most stages have three bonuses instead of the normal two, and all three of them in this one are Grab 15 Bananas. The first two are bad enough, but at least they are at the very beginning of the stage; it's the third one you really have to worry about. Besides Ellie, you also get Parry in this one, so you'll be an elephant with a bird flying above you. Unfortunately, the No Animal sign for Parry is right at the end, and the prize it gives you is the third bonus barrel. If you don't keep Parry for the duration of the stage, you don't get the bonus...and the bonus itself is no picnic either, since you'll be using Parry to grab all the bananas that appear too high above your head to reach with a jump. There is a bee in the bonus, and the bananas are easy enough to get when they appear underneath it or on one side. The problem is when they appear directly above the bee...you have to get a running start and jump to let Parry sail over the bee to collect the banana without getting hit. And of course, if you lose the bonus, you have to do the whole stage over again.

8-2 is far more benign. It is called Criss Kross Cliffs, it's a mountain stage, it has the normal two bonuses, and only one of them is annoying. (No prizes for guessing which bonus type it is.) It gets its name from the fact there a constant stream of barrels are being fired up from a narrow gap in the middle of the stage, which you often have to jump on to gain height, and there are platforms on either side that hold all the items. Sometimes, you must change the steel barrels to TNT barrels and back again to get rid of obstacles. This is probably the easiest stage in this world, though.

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