Back in the 1990s, Rare was on a roll. Following a series of hits they developed on the NES, the company's purchase of a few advanced SGI workstations gave them the ability to create high-tech 3D visuals for the time. This tech landed them a spot as a second party developer for Nintendo, namely in how they were allowed to make games using Donkey Kong, a series that had previously been dormant for a while, for the SNES. This series, Donkey Kong Country, was a huge success, and if you ask some people, they'll tell you it's what ended up winning Nintendo the '90s console war, or at the very least, it was a huge factor for that.
DKC was a treasured series from the very beginning, but it was the second game that really allowed it to come into its own. To this day, DKC2 remains, from what I can tell anyway, most people's favorite one. I'm sure many would be satisfied if the series had just ended there, but you know how that goes, game companies are almost never content with only two games. And so, DKC would join many other game franchises when it received a third game in 1996. However, it wouldn't be so picturesque this time around, and there were several outside factors that worked against DKC3, including the emergence of the 3D generation with the PS1, N64, and Saturn, which ultimately led to the game being forgotten about by most.
Back then, it was well-received by the relatively few who played it, but these days it seems like people can't really agree on this game. Some consider it the worst in the series, some the best, and others fall somewhere in the middle. So, having taken a look at these games lately, explaining what I think makes them so great, I want to toss my hat into the ring and explore my own thoughts on DKC3. Will I rescind my statement that DKC2 is my favorite in the series from the previous video, or am I just as mixed on this game as some other people can be? Buckle up, because it's on like... well, you know the rest.
SECTIONS:
0:00 Intro
9:05 Story and Presentation
24:07 The Graphics
42:11 The Soundtrack
58:06 A Complicated Beast of a Game
1:20:18 Level Design and Difficulty Balancing
1:43:20 103% Completion
2:04:02 The Finale
2:14:22 Conclusion
Again, I know I said this in the video, but thank you guys for all the support this year, it means the world to me. Here's to another year! Oh and yeah I know this is technically my first video of 2024, but I personally consider it my last 2023 video... if you don't agree with that well you can just buzz off
In all seriousness, I hope you guys enjoyed this one, because it was a lot. I'm really looking forward to the future of this channel, even if I may become less active due to personal stuff, and will probably try to start shooting for more concise videos because this really gets to be a lot sometimes. There's gonna be some changes in what I have access to for videomaking, such as a couple PC upgrades, so hopefully I can get better and even more efficient at this as well. Regardless, thanks for watching, happy new year, and I'll see you guys around
monke