This review contains spoilers
For the first half of this I was wondering why everyone thought it was by far the worst. I thought it was on par with the 2nd honestly, and far better than the first. The second half though...is a mixed bag. Still better than the first game overall though imo.
The main complaint I see is that this game has too many gimmick levels, which...is true, but so did the second game. And it's not like the gimmicks in either game were too intrusive, they both made clever use of mechanics, enemies, items or otherwise DKC themed obstacles. Of course, the last couple worlds happened and then we get shit like reversed controls, or the weird sniper stage. One of the boss fights is even a freaking snowball fight - which tbf was based on a minigame you had a chance to play many times, so it didn't come COMPLETELY out of nowhere...but still.
These types of gimmick levels were in the minority, and some of them were pretty inventive if nothing else, but they did kinda spoil the endgame.
I have no real problems with Kiddy Kong. While I prefer Diddy overall, I think he and Dixie made for a good duo that made neither objectively better than the other, although admittedly Kiddy was mostly just good for finding secrets via his higher throws, or water bouncing ability. DIxie is definitely the best as far as just general completing stages goes.
Also in the decision to get rid of animal buddies why remove the freaking Rhino and Snake, 2 fun ones, but keep the damn bird. Flying and water levels still suck ass.
Still a few problems with enemies coming too fast to react, mostly in stages that force you to move fast. The worst of it was in that stage where you had to climb the burning rope.
Overall I'd put it between DKC 1 and DKC 2
The main complaint I see is that this game has too many gimmick levels, which...is true, but so did the second game. And it's not like the gimmicks in either game were too intrusive, they both made clever use of mechanics, enemies, items or otherwise DKC themed obstacles. Of course, the last couple worlds happened and then we get shit like reversed controls, or the weird sniper stage. One of the boss fights is even a freaking snowball fight - which tbf was based on a minigame you had a chance to play many times, so it didn't come COMPLETELY out of nowhere...but still.
These types of gimmick levels were in the minority, and some of them were pretty inventive if nothing else, but they did kinda spoil the endgame.
I have no real problems with Kiddy Kong. While I prefer Diddy overall, I think he and Dixie made for a good duo that made neither objectively better than the other, although admittedly Kiddy was mostly just good for finding secrets via his higher throws, or water bouncing ability. DIxie is definitely the best as far as just general completing stages goes.
Also in the decision to get rid of animal buddies why remove the freaking Rhino and Snake, 2 fun ones, but keep the damn bird. Flying and water levels still suck ass.
Still a few problems with enemies coming too fast to react, mostly in stages that force you to move fast. The worst of it was in that stage where you had to climb the burning rope.
Overall I'd put it between DKC 1 and DKC 2