Game:

Donkey Kong Land III (1997)

Duration: 0:00

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0

Originally recorded: September 26, 2024
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I've got mixed opinions on how this last stream turned out. On the one hand, the remaining two worlds came fairly easy. On the other hand, the fact that full completion is locked behind twelve recycled levels with extremely tight time limits feels like a pretty lame copout. Fortunately, even KI themself recognized just how pointless it was and decided to let me ignore that section. And based on what I can see on VGMuseum, it looks like your prize for getting that far is just a picture of a trophy with "103%" printed on the front and a congratulatory message. Thanks, but no thanks.

While the remaining levels were fairly difficult in their own right, the last two boss fights were relatively easy. In fact, I actually managed to beat the second K. Rool fight on my first try without taking any damage. KI tried to warn me that it was the only time that the game's screen-crunch affected their ability to play... but from my perspective, it might've made things easier. I swear, it's almost like some of those bombs he was throwing didn't even spawn because he was offscreen.

Despite my bellyaching, I did actually try a few of the time trial levels. And honestly, if it had been requested, I would've played through all of them at least once... even if I couldn't beat any of those times. But I immediately recognized the three I played from earlier in the game, so it's safe to say that there probably isn't any new material in the post-post-game. That's good for me.

I remembered hearing that there was a Japan-only Game Boy Color port of this game, so I decided to check it out once I finished things up. And frankly, I do sort of regret not playing this version, if only due to the improved visibilty due to everything have its own individual colors. Hell, apparently, there was even a translation patch for that version that backported the English script into it... so I could've had the best of both worlds. But as with Gargoyle's Quest II, I went with the inferior official English release. And yet, I can't really say I regret it that much in retrospect. They were both still good games, even without the added enhancements in those exclusive re-releases.