DKC Atlas Forum

[Wrinky Kong R.I.P]

like Cranky's minigames, a Funky fishery, Candy's challenges, those Pokeys near the green bananas, common bonuses elsewhere (like the first of DKC's 3 phase Reptile Rumble.), extra lives, tokens from buddy animals, etc.

[Super Luigi!]

I think the Game Boy Advance extras were neat, but as the re-release trilogy went on, the quality decreased as well. I also didn't like when levels were switched around.

[Retro]

I thought the Funky's Fishing minigame in DKC GBA was really neat, and I played it a lot (still am curious about the mechanics, and plan to look into it in the future). Candy's Dance Studio in DKC was much less original. Time trial modes in the GBA ports of DKC and DKC2 were appreciated, though apparently missing from DKC3 GBA? I also enjoyed Cranky's Dojo in DKC3 GBA, though it's fairly simple.

In my opinion, the GBA ports are somewhat underappreciated. While they obviously do not reach the quality of the original games in general owing to the hardware of the GBA, they are an entirely playable translation of the original masterpieces. I played the GBA versions first, and only later discovered the SNES versions, but the GBA versions were good enough to cement my love for the series.

On the topic of quality, I believe development was also somewhat rushed for the GBA ports (evidenced by David Wise's decision to redo the entire soundtrack for DKC3 GBA instead of porting Eveline Fischer's original because the high-pitched sounds didn't translate well into the GBA hardware without more work).