The WORST Level In ANY Donkey Kong Country -- Designing For Donkey Kong December

I hope it's pretty obvious that I love Donkey Kong Country by this point. However, there are some stages that even I'll admit are disappointing, frustrating, or both. But which, in my overly ape-obsessed opinion, is the absolute worst? The one that combines nearly every single bad aspect the series has to offer into a dull, frustrating time where failure isn't your fault, it's the level's: Barrel Drop Bounce from Donkey Kong Country 3.

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[Charmolution]

Baron K. Roolenstein: "Don't forget: You're here forever."
Diddy Kong: "Do it for her."

[Driggsdamonstah]

DKC3 as a whole was very gimmicky. When the gimmicks landed, they were some of the best levels in the series. And the polar opposite whenever they didn’t land. Gimmicky levels aren’t inherently bad, it really depends on how much they complement or disrupt the flow.

[icarus]

People don't like "Squeals on Wheels"?! They can eat butt, cause I love it.

[jameso]

From a design standpoint, the first idea that came to mind as a fix for this level is: replace the falling barrels with falling barrel cannons (with opening facing upwards). This solves multiple problems:

1. The barrel cannons are larger, which makes them easier to land in.
2. The collision on barrel canons sort of "sucks you in" to it, which removes the annoying "slippery" problem of sideways barrel platforms.
3. The level designers could do more interesting things with falling barrel cannons, such has have tumbling (rotating) barrels that you have to time you blast from.
4. Barrel cannons would allow for much more interesting verticality in the level, since the barrels wouldn't be limited to spacing them only at "jump height" accessible distances.
5. Having the players jump into barrels that fall down a waterfall would be a cool historical nod to the real life "barrel rides" that people did down the Niagra falls, making the level itself a sort of clever real world reference.

The other major fix would be to obviously fix the barrel spawning issue. But other than that, 90% of this levels problems would be solved with barrel cannons.

[justinwallace]

One thing DKC is good about is placing secrets in a way that encourages exploration. This is one of those levels that does the opposite and punishes secret exploration. The one level I found more frustrating in this aspect was the one where the fish follows you and have to feed it before it attacks you. Not only was the fish mechanic wonky, but backtracking for bonus was a chore since there was nothing for the fish to eat, so it attacked me

[DixieforSmash]

I LIKED THAT LEVEL. But everything you said, the way the barrels work, how easy it is to fall off; how haphazardly the bonuses are found, leading you to jump to your doom while looking for them. IT'S ALL TRUE! 😢

I think I like the idea of the level more than the execution. Excellent video and analysis.

[CoinBox]

I was ready to type up a defense for this level, but I wasn't aware of the inconsistent barrel spawning. Totally valid

[unknown]

You're probably better off ditching Kiddy for the entirety of this stage because you do NOT want to end up with just him at the halfway barrel. Dixie's hair twirl really does help in addressing the issues this level has, though. :3

[Club_Weeg]

"...is clever" *shows Kleavar on screen*. Thanks I hate and love it

[MarMaxGaming]

Winky’s walkway is a cool stage, I like how it came right after the first world and seemed so industrial and creepy

[bobjeezorham]

I definitely understand your criticisms of Barrel Drop Bounce. DKC3 has been my favorite of the trilogy for a long time now and even I have to admit this level is just not great. I pretty much never fall off the barrels as an adult, but I remember how frustrating it was to platform off of those as a kid. There's a part where you have to ride on a bunch of barrels that I still have no idea how to get through without Dixie's hair glide, whenever I only got Kiddy in this part of the level (which thankfully isn't often) I have to purposefully die and start again. I imagine there has to be some kind of way to get through that with just Kiddy, but I was never able to figure it out even after I just 103% the game lately. On the plus side I was able to find all the bonuses in my recent 103% run without having to look up a guide but a large part of that is just because I've been playing the game for so long that I remember where a lot of the secrets are just from that trial and error of playing it so many times.

[cattysplat]

I love how as adults we can go into detail articulating all of our problems of our childhood games. As a kid though, it was pretty much scream in anger and throw the controller, rip out the game cart and put in something else.

[alejandrotti]

I wasn't sure if Barrel Drop Bounce was even remote to the worst level of the entire DKC series, since DKC3 was the game I completed the fastest for the original trio and this was one of those levels I didn't "die" the most (also I don't even remember the lag but maybe that's just me) UNTIL you mentioned Krack Shot Kroc. Then I remembered I spent so much time learning the patron of the barrels and how to use Kiddy for half of the game just because Dixie kept diving onto the blue crocodiles, that I got incredibly clunky with Squitter for the next level, which made it the worst for me until I had to backtrack for some bonuses.

There may be worse levels than this, or maybe this is only a subjective matter, but I totally understand why the hatred.

[nintendoloverin]

9:44 ...that fucking tiny wriggling arrow... it doesn't happen often that I choke on something laughing, but that one got me so hard...

[MagillanicaLouM]

Final video will be a "Kiddy Kong is best character" essay

[macuser]

There have been 2D platformers that had waterfalls with falling logs, but nothing this crazy.

[catsareevil]

This stage drove me mad, and I partially did not 103% this game simply because returning to this stage and clearing bonus stages built on falling barrels sounded like one of the middle circles of hell. The lag was so nasty.

[mccuish]

People call either the saw level or the lightning level the hardest level in DKC3, but this level is the hardest in the game

[runningoncylinders]

Rocketbarrel stages in Returns, partly for the theme, give me big car impressions.
So I like that they are 1 hit and that's it. They're not so long that a daredevil clear is unreasonable, but they are as tense as the theme and ride suggest. I wouldn't mind single hit mine carts either if the tone of the level suited it.

[SuperGoomba]

Right when I was at the end of the video I exited full screen, causing the video to restart. I quickly jumped back to the end and managed to time the jump perfectly to make it sound like you were saying "The Donkey Kong Country series has like the worst level in ALL of Donkey Kong Country."