This list covers every known retail version of the game, including English releases, Japanese releases, and even the 3DS Virtual Console where necessary. The prototype version of Donkey Kong Land III is not currently included here, mainly because there are numerous small level changes, and listing them all here would take up more than half this thread.
If there is anything that is missing here that you are aware of, please do not hesitate to mention it, and I'll happily add it here.
Without further ado... here are all the known changes in the revisions of the DKL trilogy!
Lists of Changes:
Donkey Kong Land
English
- When finishing a level, collected KONG letters only flash if all four have been collected
Japanese
- Title: スーパードンキーコングGB (Super Donkey Kong GB)
- When finishing a level, collected KONG letters flash as long as at least one is collected
Donkey Kong Land 2
English
- Star/Kremling counter does not reset to 0 upon losing a bonus stage (This causes a bug where a sound effect plays if the counter reaches 0 in a main level)
- Various cheat codes can be entered on file select screen (These give you 47 Kremkoins, 50 lives, and 40 banana coins)
Japanese
- Title: ドンキーコングランド (Donkey Kong Land)
- Bramble Blast: Zinger removed before Star Barrel
- Parrot Chute Panic: Zingers removed after Star Barrel (This change was made to prevent a sprite overload issue which would usually prevent a DK Barrel from appearing)
- Kreepy Krow: Rope-climbing section is shortened
- Krow was renamed to Zocky
- Click-Click was renamed to Beetle
- King Zing was renamed to King B
3DS Virtual Console
(Changes observed in American release; unconfirmed for European and Japanese releases)
- Flashing slowed down by half in certain levels (This change was made to reduce the risk of seizures)
- Lava Lagoon / Clapper's Cavern: Light for 21 frames, dark for 11 frames (previously: light for 11 frames, dark for 5 frames)
- Glimmer's Galleon: Light for 27 frames, dark for 5 frames (previously: light for 11 frames, dark for 5 frames)
Donkey Kong Land III
English
- Works on monochrome Game Boy and Super Game Boy; no Game Boy Color features
- A glitch exists that makes it possible to enter The Lost World early (more info)
1.0 |
| 1.1 | * VC Release *
|
Japanese
- Title: ドンキーコングGB ディンキーコング&ディクシーコング (Donkey Kong GB: Dinky Kong & Dixie Kong)
- Supports GBC features (color palettes and double-speed mode)
- Faster speed causes Jetty Jitters demo to desync
- World map animations removed (Likely a bug?)
- Bear animation removed (Likely a bug?)
- Time Attack screen no longer displays most recent time (Likely a bug?)
- Some dialogue from Wrinkly and Bear is missing
- Dialogue scrolls one character at a time instead of all at once
- Screen no longer darkens when pausing
- Credits updated to include people responsible for Japanese translation, as well as having more consistent vertical spacing