PrinceWatercress plays Donkey Kong Land III: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble - Part 1 of 13

It's high time I played through this one from beginning to end years after playing the second game.

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Donkey Kong Land III is based on Donkey Kong Country 3, and while it shares a lot of things such as music, controls, enemies and level themes, it actually has a different plot much like the first Game Boy game did. The game starts with a hunt in the Southern Kremisphere for who can find the Lost World first. Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong set off to find it, leaving Dixie Kong behind. Dixie leaves and takes Kiddy Kong with her, and it also becomes apparent that Baron K. Roolenstein (also known as K. Rool) is looking for the Lost World as well.

Also like the first Game Boy game, you have new world and level names, but at least you don't have to look them up in the manual this time.

For this game, I'm using a translation of the Japan-only Game Boy Color version, which called Kiddy Kong "Dinky Kong" and fixed some bugs from the Western releases - including fixing the camera so that it more easily catches up with you if you're falling - while also having some omissions, such as missing dialogue and animations, that the Western versions did not. Thankfully, this translation patch also fixes what's wrong with the original Japanese version, and you can find it [url=https://www.romhacking.net/translations/1757/]here.

When you start the game, you'll start in Cape Codswallop. It's time to start moving about.

Cape Codswallop

Red Wharf

Map (by Shiny)

I didn't get the pun behind the level name for years.

Just like in the second game, you move around with Left and Right on the D-Pad. A jumps, and B lets you run while holding it down as well as pick up and throw barrels when you press and hold B for the former and let go of the button for the later. Holding Down and releasing B while holding a barrel lets you put it down. Pressing B on its own allows you to perform a roll attack. If you're playing as Dixie and you press and hold B while in the air, you'll do the helicopter spin that Dixie is known for from the second and third games in the 16-bit and handheld trilogies. Pressing Select lets you switch Kongs if you have both, and Start pauses the game.

Barrels can be used as weapons against enemies. If you find a barrel with the DK logo, you can break it to free the other Kong. Dixie is quick and can float in the air with her helicopter spin, while Kiddy Kong is more like Donkey Kong and is more about powering through enemies and defeating tougher Kremlings with a single jump when Dixie is unable to do it.

Bananas in this game act as coins, just like in all the other games in the two trilogies. A bunch of bananas will be worth ten bananas. Collecting 100 bananas will give you an extra life.

Jumping into barrel cannons will launch you into new areas.

The bear coins will be used at the Sheepy Shops, which I'll go into more detail about later.

To defeat enemies, you can jump on them or hit them with the roll attack. Some enemies cannot be jumped on, and some enemies cannot be rolled into. Other enemies are indestructible and should be avoided.

The K-O-N-G letters will give you an extra life when collected. Grabbing balloons will also give you extra lives, and you can see how many you have at the bottom of the screen.

Each stage will have at least two bonus areas, indicated by Bonus Barrels, barrel cannons that have the letter B inside an explosion shape on them. Entering them takes you to a bonus area. To find the first one in this level, go through the walls to the left after you jump into the watter and get the O.

Jumping into horizontal ropes will allow you to grab onto them and climb along them with Left and Right. Jumping off by either jumping normally or by holding Down on the D-Pad and pressing A to drop down will allow you to let go. One of the horizontal ropes - the final one in the level, in fact - will lead to a bonus barrel that you can jump to.

The first bonus area is "Find the Token." For this type of bonus area, you'll need to search the area to find the Bonus Coin; when you find the coin, you'll complete the bonus level. In this type of bonus area, you may see enemies, but defeating them is not required. In every bonus area, you'll have a timer in the upper-right corner, so you'll need to be quick to find it. Thankfully, if you fail a bonus level, you can always go back to where you found the Bonus Barrel to try again. 

The second bonus area is "Collect the Stars." Much like in the second game, you'll need to collect all the stars in the bonus area before time runs out to get the Bonus Coin to appear so you can collect it. In this specific bonus area, you can control the barrel cannon with the D-Pad and launch yourself out of it with the A button so you can collect all the starts. The Bonus Coin will be on the roof on the far right.

You must collect the Bonus Coins to get credit for the bonus area, and you'll need all of the Bonus Coins to collect everything in the game. If you see an exclamation point next to a level name, you've found both bonus areas.

There's also Koin, a guy holding a shield with the DK logo on it. You'll need to hit him in the back with a steel keg, and thankfully, he's always facing you with his shield in front of him, so while you cannot hit him head on, you can hit him from behind. In this level, Koin will be above the goal. Just throw the steel keg over him from the left. It will bounce off the non-existent wall on the right and hit him in the back. Defeating Koin gives you a DK Coin, and you'll need to get all of them to fully complete the game. You'll also get a DK Coin icon next to the level name signifying that you have found that stage's DK Coin.

The flag at the end is the goal. If the flag is limp, you didn't find both bonus areas; if the flag is fully unfurled, you did.

Seabed Shanty

Map (by Shiny)

Once you have some areas opened up, you can use the D-Pad to move around the map and the A button to enter levels.

You'll need to hold Left and Right on the D-Pad and repeatedly press A to swim. Down on the D-Pad allows you to descend faster, and you can ascend faster by swimming by holding Up as you move. Holding Down while pressing A allows you to ascend more slowly.

Going down and to the left at the start will take you to an Enguarde barrel. Swimming into it will turn you into Enguarde the swordfish. Enguarde can move in eight directions freely with the D-Pad, and the B button will allow him to stab forward and defeat enemies.

If you move into an Enguarde barrel while already Enguarde, it will count as breaking a DK barrel and you'll get an extra Kong, which is the same as getting an extra hit point in this case.

The enemies with the spiky shells are called Barbos, and they can only be defeated by Enguarde and only when they are fully opened. If they are closed, touching them will result in you taking a hit. If you're not Enguarde, avoid them.

The green fish that come out of the pipe-like coral in the wall will constantly move in one direction from one pipe to the other. 

The first bonus area is down and to the left after the N. In "Bash the Baddies," you'll need to defeat all of the enemies before the time runs out to get the Bonus Coin to appear. In this particular one, you're defeating all the fish with Enguarde.

The second bonus area is before the two sets of bananas making arrows pointing right to the goal near the end. When you see the first "arrow," go down instead. This is another "Collect the Stars" bonus area where you're collecting stars with Enguarde the Swordfish.

The DK Coin is above the G. In underwater areas, the DK Coin will not be guarded by Koin; instead, they will be in plain sight, and you can collect the coin by moving into it.

After this level, you'll be able to head to the Wrinkly Refuge. You can save your game here, and in this game, it's always free.

Ford Knocks

Map (by Shiny)

If you drop down at the start to play as Enguarde and get the K, you'll miss the first bonus area. You'll have to play through the level again to find the first bonus area.

The flying ladybugs - known as Knick-Knacks - act as aerial platforms that take you to other areas, but you can only jump on them once.

The flying enemies with the angry smiles are called Buzzes. They are much like the Zingers from the earlier games, and you can only defeat them either with a barrel, with invincibility or with the abilities of certain animal buddies. 

The first bonus area is above the wooden awning after the start. There will be a barrel cannon; jump into it to be launched into the Bonus Barrel. Hit the Booty Birds here with barrels to defeat them and take their items, then get the Bonus Coin.

At one point in the level, there is a gap with a 1-Up Balloon in it. Drop down and get the 1-UP to find the bonus area. Thankfully, you just have to defeat the enemies here, which is dead easy.

The DK coin is in plain sight at the end of the level; just throw the steel keg at the left wall while standing to the right of Koin.

To exit a level you've already completed, press Start to pause, then press Select to return back to the map screen.

PrinceWatercress plays Pendragon - The Longplay

...and now for the game, minus commentary! Enjoy!

Let's Play

Pendragon is a clone of Pengo for the BBC Micro written by Gordon J. Key and published in Volume 4, Issue 4 of Micro User from June 1986. Much like in Pengo, you'll be kicking blocks around not only to make a path around the level, but also to temporarily get rid of enemies.

In this particular close, you play as Polly Pendragon, a parrot working in a sugar processing factory. The factory is infested with an enemy known as "the yellow peril" (we're better than that), which eat the sugar as well as attack anyone who is in the factory. You'll need to keep them at bay while pushing four large emeralds into each corner of the room in order to move on to the next room. If you run into an enemy, you're losing a life.

Z and X move Polly Pendragon left and right, : and / move up and down, Space pushes the block you are facing, and M toggles the music, which can get a little annoying after a while.

You start out by facing one monster in the first stage, two in the second and the maximum of three in the third. After that, it's three monsters for every stage after the third. Dealing with enemies is easy: just kick sugar cubes or emeralds at them. It is possible for your attack to miss the enemy, causing them to be unaffected, so keep that in mind. Enemies are best dealt with by giving yourself some space and hoping that the enemies line up with you so you can kick something at them. The more distance you have, the better, for it they are right near the sugar cube you are about to kick, they will destroy it before you can attack. Thankfully, they can't destroy the emeralds.

Placing the emeralds in the corners is a pretty unique way of clearing the stages compared to Pengo as well as other Pengo clones, but it is possible to kick emeralds around in such a way that you cannot get the emeralds into all four corners. If that happens, kiss your chances of moving on to the next level goodbye.

After making a Let's Play out of this game, I wasn't as frustrated with this as I was with Mango. The game controls well as Mango did, and I had a little more room to maneuver. I also liked some of the presentation, such as the diamond on the title screen opening up when you press Space, the instructions being typed out one letter at a time, and the vortex that gets drawn on the green screen before the game begins. 1986, from what I've gathered from the games I've played up until this point, signifies a time when people who were still making BBC Micro games even after the 16-bit micros started taking over knew more about how not just to make a game, but also do some pretty impressive stuff. With that said, this is one of the better arcade-style games that I've played for the BBC Micro, and it's hard to believe that this is a type-in game. If you're looking for a good Pengo clone, this is a good place to start.

PrinceWatercress plays Pendragon

Let's follow up a Pengo clone on BBC Micro with...another Pengo clone on BBC Micro. Yeah, that's what I get for randomly selecting BBC Micro games for playing at times.

Longplay

Pendragon is a clone of Pengo for the BBC Micro written by Gordon J. Key and published in Volume 4, Issue 4 of Micro User from June 1986. Much like in Pengo, you'll be kicking blocks around not only to make a path around the level, but also to temporarily get rid of enemies.

In this particular close, you play as Polly Pendragon, a parrot working in a sugar processing factory. The factory is infested with an enemy known as "the yellow peril" (we're better than that), which eat the sugar as well as attack anyone who is in the factory. You'll need to keep them at bay while pushing four large emeralds into each corner of the room in order to move on to the next room. If you run into an enemy, you're losing a life.

Z and X move Polly Pendragon left and right, : and / move up and down, Space pushes the block you are facing, and M toggles the music, which can get a little annoying after a while.

You start out by facing one monster in the first stage, two in the second and the maximum of three in the third. After that, it's three monsters for every stage after the third. Dealing with enemies is easy: just kick sugar cubes or emeralds at them. It is possible for your attack to miss the enemy, causing them to be unaffected, so keep that in mind. Enemies are best dealt with by giving yourself some space and hoping that the enemies line up with you so you can kick something at them. The more distance you have, the better, for it they are right near the sugar cube you are about to kick, they will destroy it before you can attack. Thankfully, they can't destroy the emeralds.

Placing the emeralds in the corners is a pretty unique way of clearing the stages compared to Pengo as well as other Pengo clones, but it is possible to kick emeralds around in such a way that you cannot get the emeralds into all four corners. If that happens, kiss your chances of moving on to the next level goodbye.

After making a Let's Play out of this game, I wasn't as frustrated with this as I was with Mango. The game controls well as Mango did, and I had a little more room to maneuver. I also liked some of the presentation, such as the diamond on the title screen opening up when you press Space, the instructions being typed out one letter at a time, and the vortex that gets drawn on the green screen before the game begins. 1986, from what I've gathered from the games I've played up until this point, signifies a time when people who were still making BBC Micro games even after the 16-bit micros started taking over knew more about how not just to make a game, but also do some pretty impressive stuff. With that said, this is one of the better arcade-style games that I've played for the BBC Micro, and it's hard to believe that this is a type-in game. If you're looking for a good Pengo clone, this is a good place to start.

PrinceWatercress plays Mango - The Longplay

...and now for another look at the game, minus commentary! Enjoy!

Let's Play

Mango is a Pengo clone released for the BBC Micro in 1987 and published by Blue Ribbon Software. In this game, a bird-like creature named Mango is trapped in a refrigerator with entities known only as "The Heat Men." In order to defeat them, he must not only kick the ice cubes at them to hit them, but he must also make a path for himself and get distance between himself and the Heat Men by kicking paths through the walls of ice cubes in the refrigerator. After defeating all of the enemies on a screen, Mango heads to the next level.

Z and X move Mango left and right, : and / move up and down, and Return pushes and/or melts the ice cube you are facing, depending on whether the ice cube you are looking at is obstructed. Kicking ice cubes will be the way of getting rid of the enemies, but you will need some distance between yourself and the Heat Men in order to more easily get rid of them, as they can destroy the ice cube you are above to kick ahead if they get right next to it.

S and Q turn the sound on and off respectively, Copy pauses the game, Delete un-pauses the game, and Escape abandons the current game and takes you back to the controls screen, where you can also choose between three difficulties before playing.

If you can line up the three bonus blocks with the "B" on them, you can get extra points, but good luck getting that to happen with the enemies constantly chasing you around.

With each level comes more and more enemies to take out. Be ready to kick ice cubes and even the bonus blocks to get rid of the enemies when they pop out of the eggs that spawn on screen. Also, points give you extra lives, but you'll need a lot of them: 5,000 for your first and 10,000 for your second.

Despite my frustrations with Pengo clones, I eventually warmed up to this one (as well as the game that I'll be playing after this) after getting better with the game. I like the idea of having to defeat all the enemies to move on to the next level, but the fact that the enemies seemingly move faster than you and tend to move around the block you want to kick more often than not even on the easiest difficulty level makes this anything but easy. The graphics are pretty basic for a game from 1987 yet easily identifiable, and the arcade-like sound is sparse yet is able to get the job done while not getting too annoying. The play control is pretty responsive, too. It may not be graphically impressive in hindsight, but it's still a fine Pengo clone worth playing once you get used to it.

PrinceWatercress plays Mango

This one took me a while to warm up to, no pun intended. 

Longplay

Mango is a Pengo clone released for the BBC Micro in 1987 and published by Blue Ribbon Software. In this game, a bird-like creature named Mango is trapped in a refrigerator with entities known only as "The Heat Men." In order to defeat them, he must not only kick the ice cubes at them to hit them, but he must also make a path for himself and get distance between himself and the Heat Men by kicking paths through the walls of ice cubes in the refrigerator. After defeating all of the enemies on a screen, Mango heads to the next level.

Z and X move Mango left and right, : and / move up and down, and Return pushes and/or melts the ice cube you are facing, depending on whether the ice cube you are looking at is obstructed. Kicking ice cubes will be the way of getting rid of the enemies, but you will need some distance between yourself and the Heat Men in order to more easily get rid of them, as they can destroy the ice cube you are above to kick ahead if they get right next to it.

S and Q turn the sound on and off respectively, Copy pauses the game, Delete un-pauses the game, and Escape abandons the current game and takes you back to the controls screen, where you can also choose between three difficulties before playing.

If you can line up the three bonus blocks with the "B" on them, you can get extra points, but good luck getting that to happen with the enemies constantly chasing you around.

With each level comes more and more enemies to take out. Be ready to kick ice cubes and even the bonus blocks to get rid of the enemies when they pop out of the eggs that spawn on screen. Also, points give you extra lives, but you'll need a lot of them: 5,000 for your first and 10,000 for your second.

Despite my frustrations with Pengo clones, I eventually warmed up to this one (as well as the game that I'll be playing after this) after getting better with the game. I like the idea of having to defeat all the enemies to move on to the next level, but the fact that the enemies seemingly move faster than you and tend to move around the block you want to kick more often than not even on the easiest difficulty level makes this anything but easy. The graphics are pretty basic for a game from 1987 yet easily identifiable, and the arcade-like sound is sparse yet is able to get the job done while not getting too annoying. The play control is pretty responsive, too. It may not be graphically impressive in hindsight, but it's still a fine Pengo clone worth playing once you get used to it.

PrinceWatercress plays Daffy Duck: Fowl Play - Part 6 of 6

It's now time for the final stage of the game!

First | Previous

Stage 6: Desert

A lot of the enemies you'll meet will be the ones you've seen in the Plateau, but there are some new ones that you'll meet once inside the pyramid for the second section.

The coyote fires arrows forward. You'll want to avoid those arrows and throw dynamite onto his head to get rid of him.

The spiked ball that drops when you get under it cannot be destroyed with dynamite; however, dynamite will make it move. Use this to your advantage.

Near the end, you'll have to deal with fires that shoot upwards, falling anvils and the rolling boulder. You'll want to jump over the fire when it doesn't shoot up, but you also want to avoid the anvils that fall. There's also a rolling boulder midway through, but there is an area that you can crawl into by moving diagonally with the D-Pad to avoid it. If you ever see the rolling boulder again, keep in mind that you can stand on it as it moves.

The dark gray stone platforms will fall when you land on them, so get to the other side quickly.

This time around, instead of avoiding Bugs and his traps, you'll have to throw dynamite at him at the right time so that it blows up in his face when you throw it straight up. Bugs will move back and forth, and he occasionally stops to fire a lightning blast downwards. Bugs takes six hits to defeat, and when you do more damage to him, the lighting blast becomes a fire bomb that produces fire waves that travel a bit across both sides when it hits the ground. If you can time it right, you can hit Bugs with the dynamite when you throw it straight up with Up+B with ease. Even while you're holding B to hold the dynamite, the timer still goes down from three, so you'll need to wait until one before jumping upwards, holding Up on the D-Pad and letting go of the B Button so that the explosion hits Bugs. After six hits, Bugs runs away, and you can touch the final treasure chest to beat the game and roll credits.

The "RTJ3" level lets you play the final stage with 49 lives.

You just beat Daffy Duck: Fowl Play!

PrinceWatercress plays Daffy Duck: Fowl Play - Part 5 of 6

The abundance of bottomless pits and the lack of invincibility frames can really make this stage miserable.

First | Previous | End

Stage 5: Plateau

Prepare to do a lot more jumping here compared to the second part. Also, whenever you die from falling into a pit, you start back at the current section, and the enemy selection that you have for the section you died in changes. Compared to the previous stages, you now have three sections to play around with, and they all look different this time around.

The rocks will bounce up and down, and while you can jump on them when they are about to hit the ground and ride them, it can be a tad difficult at times to time it due to the bouncing being pretty fast. The scorpions will move back and forth and will come at you if you get close enough to them.

The vulture acts as a platform. Jump on it to get to the other side; do not bomb the vulture with dynamite.

The cacti need to be destroyed with the dynamite in order to get rid of them. When destroyed, they also leave a smaller, spiky ball. You'll need to destroy it or jump over it.

The big bat attacks much like the regular, smaller-sized bat, and while it is easier to throw dynamite on top of it, you're better off avoiding it if you can.

The boss battle here is made amazingly difficult by the fact that Bugs Bunny flies around in the background before showing up to drop a bomb. You'll also have two cacti to destroy; the first one is easy enough to blow up and then jump over the smaller ball that comes out of it with, but for the second cactus, you'll need to blow it up, then get near the right edge of the platform before that cactus and duck so the smaller spiky ball that flies out doesn't hit you.

All the while, you'll still have to deal with Bugs, and in order to avoid the bomb that he drops, you have to move back as soon as you see it come down. You have to simultaneously blow up the cacti and avoid the smaller spiky balls that shoot out and avoid the bombs that Bugs drops from his plane at the same time, and the geography of the boss stage containing short platforms that barely give you enough room to avoid the bombs does not help. Also, don't be surprised if you get hit by a bomb, land by a pit, and then suddenly fall into the pit, all the while losing two or three lives at once because the game's lack of invincibility frames suddenly makes doing this even more nightmarish than it should be.

Once you somehow make it to the treasure chest, it's on to the final stage of the game.