Donkey Kong 3 retrospective: Farewell, my monkey vine | NES Works

[@mattiasjohansson1727]

IIRC there is actually a connection between DK and Popeye. I think that DK was originally planned as a Popeye game, but they didn't obtain a license at the time... So Donkey Kong - Brutus is probably a closer match than one might first think of.

[@seanwade8188]

I think he mentions that in either his donkey kong or popeye video!

[@dozerfan1979]

I always thought this one fit in nicely with the first two. Donkey Kong was a big thing and that has never stopped.

[@underwaterlevelz1947]

Donkey Kong III is an underrated game. It had two really big pairs of shoes to fill...Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr....but on it's own DK3 is definitely a fun and innovative video game. The unique shooter-disguised-as-a-platformer was a great idea, and it functions very well. Not sure why this game gets so much hate.

[@victorycry8849]

The only issue with this video is that your forgetting the ties to this game and G&W Greenhouse. That's were Stanley first came from, and a lot of the enemies and concepts feel derivative of it. For example, the bottom screen has spiders that can be pushed back up there web, which is sort of similar to how DK works in this game. I always assumed this was an arcade sequel to that G&W game, and they just shoved DK in to drive more interest. You could easily replace him with giant worm or spider, and it would make a lot more sense, as well as make it easier to look back on.

[@caryslan5890]

Donkey Kong 3 is such an underrated classic. It manages to set itself apart from the countless shooters of that era and is a charming game that is still fun to play.

[@qubee8572]

I loved DK3 as a kid and it's still awesome to play today.

[@JVeg199X]

I always wonder what would've happened if this game followed the storyline pattern set by DK and DK Jr. Junior would get his revenge by kidnapping Mario and Pauline would have to save him. This would be followed by another game in which Pauline would get her revenge by kidnapping Junior and DK would have to save him (maybe this is where Return of Donkey Kong would have fit in?) Then this cycle of revenge, kidnapping, and rescuing would restart at the beginning and loop forever and ever...

[@JeremyParish]

The abduction storyline is in DK3, too. Stanley's trying to rescue his beloved: A bag of fertilizer.

[@preservationera9768]

Dai Gyakushuu ruins that theory, though...seems a bit hard to suddenly come back to Earth pick up where things left off, not to mention based on the first world of the game DK '94/DK GB could've directly succeeded the events of DG.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

Geez, humans are crazy beasts!

[@CoryTheRaven]

I like it! Sign me up!

[@nahumgardner]

Its a good thing Kong already had his kid. Who knows what kind of damage that bug spray did.

[@BitsofJoshua]

I really enjoyed this video, your writing and delivery is great. subbed. I haven't played the NES version, but in the arcade the bees aren't endless- in fact there are two ways to beat levels. by getting Kong to the top, or by destroying all the waves of bees. :)

[@JeremyParish]

That may be the case in the NES version, I don't know. I've tried, but I can never survive long enough to clear out the hives.

[@preservationera9768]

Same here, but I've heard several places saying that it is possible on the NES version. I think it's even a challenge on NES Remix.

[@alasyon]

Melwing - Jeremy also hosts a fantastic podcast called Retronauts - definitely recommend it if you liked this!

[@BitsofJoshua]

alasyon thanks! I'll check it out

[@Retrosys]

Jeremy Parish he’s right. That’s one of the methods to clear the levels except for the ones where the beehive is above DK’s head. That one you have to push him up into it.

[@jcchaconjr]

I don’t know - I can’t speak for the game’s performance as a whole in arcades; I only know that the.game was REALLY popular in my cousin’s arcade where I worked as an attendant at the time. To this day, I’ll fire it up in MAME to play. Your analysis of where Donkey Kong himself stands in terms of the universe and scenario are spot on when you think about it, but back then, the game was just plain fun. The complexity of all the things going on (keeping Kong on the vines, protecting your flowers, keeping the caterpillars out of the way), combined with the Galaga-inspired gameplay elements, made it really fun. And that’s what’s interesting from my perspective. The Galaga regulars at the arcade were the ones you could find playing DK3 most often, for when they wanted something different from playing Galaga. Heck, at one point, we moved DK3 to the left of the Galaga machine (with Ms. PAc-Man on the right) so that waiting players could play that while they waited for Galaga to free up.

[@amuzulo]

Super interesting context from arcade experience. Thanks for sharing!

[@unoclay]

I've always enjoyed DK3. Although the things you say are true (DK meanders from villain to victim back to villain), I think Nintendo was actually doing something pretty innovative--playing with reoccurring characters and new storylines, while implementing different gameplay concepts. Specifically to DK3, i think the focus was more on arcade-style action with a quickly ramping difficulty (and thereby lending itself to high score challenges and tough mastery, ala the first 2 games) than worrying about sensible character plots or IP continuity. I play it on my NES all the time, and always think it's pretty cool. I've gotten as high as the 12th level but not without practice....and still keep coming back for more.

[@jokerzwild00]

Strangely enough, I enjoyed DK3 more than any of the other original games. I played this game almost continuously at one point! Something about the fact that you had to juggle the bees as well as Kong simultaneously was appealing to me. I was so young at the time, cut off from what other people thought of the game that I didn't know it wasn't recognized as a good game. Later in life I was a little disappointed to find that one of my childhood favorites wasn't very well liked by most players. There were several NES games that I loved and later found out were considered to be stinkers.

[@fabiofabiobio]

Never imagined I'd live to see Mario blowing smoke up Donkey Kong's ass, but here we are!

[@CoryTheRaven]

In an alternate universe, Donkey Kong is the boss in Super Mario Bros., not Bowser.

[@pentelegomenon1175]

I bet it almost happened, and would have happened if Takashi Tezuka had gotten his way. It looks suspiciously like a Donkey Kong game, there's a big guy who kidnaps a girl and you defeat him by triggering a thing that makes him fall to his death (on every fourth level no less), you can get lives by collecting valuable things and can take different paths through levels to get more of them, there's an item that makes you temporarily invincible, and there are many details reminiscent of a construction site such as moving elevator platforms, platforms suspended on ropes, guys throwing hammers at you, and breakable brick surfaces. And the vines could have originally been ladders.

[@FallicIdol]

I kind of always figured that Donkey Kong NES game would have been similar to SMB or Donkey Kong Country

[@ChrisGorski]

Game Boy Donkey Kong is my all time favorite game for that system. Glorious!

[@KilledByAPixel]

I always wondered if all Kong needs to win is to fall, why not just let go and drop down?

[@JeremyParish]

I don't think it's so much that Kong wins as it is that Stanley, being directly under Kong's 800-lb. ass, loses.

[@unoclay]

I disagree that its overly complicated. I tend to really like the action arcade gameplay of DK3, though sure, its far different than the first two. Anyway, keep up the good work!

[@rubberwoody]

The game and watch adaptations of this game are better than the original

[@ericspratling9252]

UGH THIS PUN

[@jamesmoss3424]

That was an odd game. 😀👍🎮

[@samuelg7673]

what was with that nun clip?

[@JeremyParish]

Friend, you have lived far too long not to have seen The Sound of Music.

[@samuelg7673]

Jeremy Parish I'm sorry Jeremy but I'm under 30 years old. No One has ever shown it to me.

[@JeremyParish]

My five-year-old nephew has seen it a few dozen times!

[@samuelg7673]

I retract my statement, I remembered that my favorite musical is Tommy.

[@alasyon]

What is it you can't face?

[@zeromancer-x]

Another Stan Lee cameo? RIP

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

Poor DK, your 'pride' was not worth being sprayed at!

[@BanditTheCat2017]

Ooof, looks like you are going to be mean to poor little Urban Champ. In my view, as a kid i went directly from Activision's Boxing for 2600 to Urban Champion, so UC was a major eye opener as far as games involving beatdowns ( to be fair, it is obviously primitive compared to similar vintaged Iyeah not a word) Kung Fu for NES) plus, fighting in front of the discount store?

[@quincywilliams1792]

deathcrustpunk

[@Skawo]

Ha I didn't even know a sequel to DK3 existed Hudson, you sly beasts. That said, I'm not sure I WANTED to know there was a sequel to DK3

[@JeremyParish]

It's super weird and involves Donkey Kong being abducted by giant aliens and taken from earth aboard their UFO. Which I guess could explain the lack of future DK games...

[@preservationera9768]

Finally, someone brings this game up. It's unbelievably rare, and needs to be discussed. After a couple years of research, I've found the following (not stolen from the Mario Wiki; I actually created its page there): Donkey Kong 3: Dai Gyakushuu (Donkey Kong 3: Great Counterstrike) was released for the PC-6001mkII, PC-6601, PC-8801, and Sharp X1 (not FM-7) in October 1984. Basically a semi-sequel to DK3, Hudson removed all platforming elements to make it more like Galaga, right down to its bonus stages that come up every five stages. It has twenty different stages before looping back at Stage 21 (though unlike Galaga, bonus stages don't count as a chronological stage, so it works as Stage 5, Bonus Stage, Stage 6). Despite a planned version for the FM-7, it was never released on the computer, being cancelled for unknown reasons. The "ITA" on the right panel of the screen refers to Fumihiko Itagaki, who designed the sound for Super Mario Bros. Special and Bomberman. He also helped with technical support on the first three Mario Parties. The first few stages, taking place on road are, apparently according to the manual, based on an American road trip. After that, Stanley chases DK into a UFO, and the ship suddenly leaves Earth while they're inside. They fly through space for a little while, then land on an alien planet with as much civilization as Earth. Stanley continues to chase DK, but after winding up in a city, the game abruptly ends with no conclusion to the story, looping back around. There's no rom of the game (believe me, I've looked long and hard), though I may be able to get a copy to change that, dumping it and scanning the manual. I just won an auction on Yahoo Japan for a magazine from April 1984 with an ad from Hudson notifying all of the eventual release of it and the (non-super) Mario Bros. Special. It may give more information about the game's development, including proof that it was intended to be released on the FM-7, and from the image it looks like DK's artwork was originally a bit darker. It looks like Hudson ran ads all through 1984 promoting its Mario games, as the November issue of that year also had one (though the dump is sadly not clear enough to get the real information out of it). Strangely, in the one I order from April, Punch Ball Mario Bros. appears to be absent, suggesting that it was a rushed work, but that's obviously a discussion for another time. Since this was the arcade era when Mario and DK were thought of as one, I consider it the rarest Mario game I've encountered. Apologies for such a long comment, but opportunities to discuss this game almost never come, and it's definitely something in need of better documentation.

[@Skawo]

That's the strangest sounding concept I've ever heard of. It's like they had another game in mind and decided to slap DK into it at some point.

[@preservationera9768]

+Skawo I wouldn't be surprised. Considering that it was the only DK game made by Hudson, it's very possible they were inventing something, by the stages maybe some ship that was taking off into space, but then realized that their license to use DK was huge and that they could capitalize on it hugely, adding DK in and making a few graphical tweaks. The only problem with this theory is the ad I mentioned before. Keep in mind that the game was released in October 1984, the ad was from April of that year, and that some magazines arrive a month earlier than their print date, meaning it could've shipped in March of that year. Either way, this was six to seven months before the game's release, so we know it wasn't last minute, and the original plotline and graphics might not have even been programmed, but just ideas on paper. I tried to contact Itagaki (he now works as a freelance programmer), but he said he could only respond in Japanese. I have some theories on who else worked on the game (indicated by its built-in high scores), but I haven't found any ways to contact them, so we may never know. And as far as Hudson capitalizing on DK? Well, here we are, with Hudson dissolved, the game undumped, and ITA's contact publicly available. (If you want to try your luck with him, speaking in Japanese, see here: itagaki.eek.jp/contact.php)

[@preservationera9768]

+Joqu It's not in an auction, and I haven't bought it yet. But I may know a store in Japan that has it, though it would be a less superior version (the X1 version is the best, though they sadly don't have that). I'm waiting to hear back from them, and if they do I'll go ahead with it. I may also be able to get a version of (non-Super) Mario Bros. Special that doesn't even have footage available. Hopefully, I'll get something or another undocumented.

[@Riz2336]

I'm in the minority that thinks Donkey Kong 3 isn't all that bad

[@wolfgangfrost8043]

Whatever emulator you're using has a very... "unique" color palette.