DKC Atlas Forum

Three, three, three. The ugly stepchild, the neglected child, the annoying child. A game that nobody wanted. So, the SNES was on its last legs, and the N64 was the new craze. So Dixie was given the worst possible companion for a tag team that re-enforced gender stereotypes. So the game introduced role-playing elements that slowed the game down, took away its fast-paced energy that the first two games of the trilogy were known for. So David Wise was out as primary composer. So there's no Donkey or Diddy to play as, and the game was marketing on the wrong approach. So that's why Donkey Kong Country 3 is seen to most critics as an overall fall from grace... But is it that deserving of its black sheep status?

Here are five YouTube retrospective videos focusing on Dixie Kong's Double Trouble covering a number of the concerns mentioned above. Some of their points are valid and well-critiqued, while others are complaining because it's not the Donkey Kong Country experience they wanted. It's one of these games where the presumed failings of the series can not be blamed on its developers, but on the context and circumstances behind its development. None of these videos contain any walkthroughs, but there are spoilers if you've never played the game before so be warned.

Mistare Fusion: Identity Crisis


Implant Games: Underrated?


Chipss: The Most Misunderstood Donkey Kong Game


The Geek Critique: The Anti-Climax Of The Super NES (Part 1) and Super Nintendo's 16-Bit Swan Song (Part 2)


Transparency: Dixie Kong's Gender Trouble

Very well done, VideoViking!

I've watched all of these before, but thanks for compiling them here, since that should be helpful for others.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who enjoyed these video essays on DKC3! Most DKC3 reviews on YouTube suffer from "constant complaining disease" and dunk on the game because it's not called Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest. Arguments like "it's too childish!" Or "it has too many puzzle elements!" are purely subjective, and most of these videos turn out to be rant videos by angry old nostalgia riders anyway. That being said, the five videos you linked here are good examples of DKC3 video essays done right (except part 1 of TGC's review but I'll come back to that later)! I've seen all of these and I really enjoyed most of them. I'll quickly go over my opinions on each of them.


Identity crisis: The most recent DKC3 video I've seen, and I enjoyed most of it. They were fair to this game, and highlighted a lot of DKC3's great and overlooked aspects. They mentioned in this video that they liked how in DKC3, each level had 2 bonus rooms, and how DKC3 refined the bonus system established in DKC2. Now, the shocking thing is: I don't remember a single other person mentioning this in their review of Donkey Kong Country 3. You'd think that such a noticeable aspect of the game would be mentioned in hour-long video essays, but that's not the case. Although there is a chance that Implant Games commented on this in their video. Speaking of Implant...

Underrated?: I LOVE Implant's reviews on Donkey Kong games. He deconstructs the games in such clever ways, and I really like listening to his voice. While it has been a while since I've seen his video on DKC3, I'm sure I remember it being really good. I remember that he didn't feel any hatred towards Kiddy Kong, which was a huge green flag. It still BAFFLES me how Kiddy Kong is so offensive to some people. I've heard people say some really horrible things about this fictional baby ape from a SNES game released over 25 years ago. But more on that later. First, I gotta talk about

The Most Misunderstood Donkey Kong Game: To be honest I don't remember much from this video, I should watch it again. I'm not sure if I finished watching it.

The Anti-Climax Of The Super NES: God, I hated this review. I hated it with every cell of my body. Weak arguments, whining about things just because they aren't your cup of tea, paired with the lack of DKC3 knowledge you'd expect from someone who doesn't give two shits about this game. However, what infuriated me most about this video was the fact that it's by far one of the most well-known DKC3 videos. I think videos like this are a huge reason for why there's so much DKC3 hate in the first place. Did people really hate DKC3 that much when it released? Did people not buy it just because of the stupid baby and complained about a game they didn't understand online? Probably not. The critics generally were really positive towards DKC3 back when it released as well.

Super Nintendo's 16-Bit Swan Song: Sorry for getting so negative there, but luckily I don't feel that way about that video anymore. Sure, I'm still not fond of it, but the fact that the same guy made a redemption video where he defended DKC3 made up for whatever he was doing in his first video. While I can't remember too much of his follow-up video, I like it because of how this guy's opinion on DKC3 changed so drastically since then. I think him not trying to mention Kiddy for the entire video was mildly annoying, but since he wasn't exactly hating on Kiddy by doing that I didn't really mind.

Dixie Kong's Gender Trouble: This is it. My favorite DKC3 video essay. I love how unique it is! It didn't have the same boring video game analysis structure that spent half of the video explaining that DK and Diddy were indeed kidnapped in this one, but rather spent a lot of time analyzing things like the hate directed at Kiddy Kong. The part where they brought up a few screenshots of people absolutely slandering Kiddy was my favorite, because one of the people shown was an a**hole from Donkey Kong Wiki who wrote huge paragraphs about how he can't believe someone would like Kiddy Kong. I ended up banning that guy for a few days at some point because he just kept getting so angry whenever someone disagreed with him. Anyways, showing how many DKC3 haters were being unfair to the game made this video really comfortable to watch. The creators of this video understood. The best way to describe it is just: They get it!

P.S. This comment got WAY longer than expected, so the tl;dr is that you should really go ahead and watch these videos if you haven't, and if you really just want to pick one then please check out Transparency's video! Thank you

I wasn't exactly a big fan of the last video, since I don't think Dixie being a girl has much importance, but the person narrating almost had a good point. To fully articulate why, I'd likely need to watch the whole video again, but for now: Cranky isn't sexist, and Funky probably gave Kiddy to Dixie to help her out. Both Cranky and Funky probably aren't too worried about Dixie's capabilities by now either, even if Cranky wouldn't openly say so.

I haven't watched all of them before, and I really don't remember any of them well enough. I'll get around to them soon, but Super Luigi is right. And Flurry, well done!

I enjoyed reading your post, flurry. You are the best advocate for dkc3 I've seen!

Super Luigi! wrote:Cranky isn't sexist, and Funky probably gave Kiddy to Dixie to help her out. Both Cranky and Funky probably aren't too worried about Dixie's capabilities by now either, even if Cranky wouldn't openly say so.

I wouldn't say Funky is worried because Dixie is a girl, I can't remember any line of dialogue suggesting that. Cranky on the other hand.... I'm not exactly sure if he makes any remarks about a girl being a hero in this game.

However, this is also the same guy who neglects his wife and doubted Dixie in the last game, so I really can't say with full confidence that he isn't sexist. But I think that's kind of the point of his character. He's an old geezer who's still trapped in the old days and keeps complaining about everything so I think him being sexist doesn't have any greater significance than it being a joke about some cranky old people.

(Plus, if he was sexist towards Dixie, he's probably over it by now anyway. In Tropical Freeze there's nothing that implies that he dislikes Dixie, and I strongly believe Nintendo is gonna keep it that way!)

Cranky is also aware that he's in a video game, and the other Kongs probably are too. I don't think any of them hate each other, and by DKC3, Dixie and Kiddy adventuring together isn't anything special to them. DK and Diddy already proved themselves in their games, and Dixie was half of the DKC2 team, so none of the Kongs seem worried.

I don't think any of them hate each other, it's just Cranky living up to his name. I never really saw the meta commentary from Cranky as canon though. That's part of why I dislike Donkey Kong Land's story... it can't be explained with in-universe logic anymore

Correct. And how can he steal Rare's work for himself!