It's alright but it doesn't feel like it's doing anything particularly special even for the time. Mixing together a platformer and a smhup is an interesting concept but I feel the execution is not anything to write home about. Best thing it has going for it is the visual charm in my opinion, but it's not like the gameplay is bad by any means; it's a perfectly acceptable arcade smhup, just not something I'd come back to often or at all even.

After two classic arcade platformers, Nintendo decided the third entry should involve Donkey Kong tormenting a bug man, who has to fight him and all the bugs in a manner similar to a shmup. It's...okay, I guess, more of a curiosity than the classics that the original and Jr. were.