5. Course No. 11

Like the level before this, this level’s shape fits its position on the o’erworld: much as the previous course was @ the peak where you go up & down, this level continues the downward trajectory. Howe’er, this level has mo’ interesting challenges. The 1st room challenges you to climb down a series o’ thin platforms while dodging the Pirate Gooms. Not the hardest challenge @ this point o’ the game, but it a’least feels fresh.

E’en better, later on in this level they build on this by having ’nother room where you go down thin platforms with Pirate Gooms, but this time they give you a star & let you just ram thru them for free hearts.

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11. Course No. 18

This level saves its best ideas for the treasure, which is fitting, as beating this level doesn’t open anything else. After a bridge o’ switch blocks o’er spikes you reach a long path o’ spikes you can’t cross without taking a hit or maybe using the jet powerup if you have it & a door. @ the end o’ that door’s room is a switch & ’nother door. Going thru this door will seem to lead you back out where you entered, but with a bridge newly created before you, but that’s wrong: this is a repeated setpiece later in the level. If you instead go back to the door in which you entered the switch room & exit that way, you’ll see a newly created ladder just beside the door, leading to the path toward the key.

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17. Course No. 33

The better course no. 35. Being an autoscroller, this level is still slow & boring, & this level still has plenty o’ banal rooms with Pirate Gooms — tho in this level they a’least put the Pirate Gooms up on higher, smaller platforms that leave li’l time to sneak up on them from behind, so they actually pose some semblance o’ danger here.

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23. Course No. 12

This level builds on some mechanics introduced earlier, weakens on others: its combination o’ conveyor belts & bridges in the 2nd room are mo’ interesting than in levels 5 & 11, but the climb up the mountain cliffs @ the end is far weaker than the many times you’ve done that in this mountain world, e’en with the introduction o’ a new enemy, the boomerang-throwing duck, D. D., whom players will see many times later, & who is so slow to throw its boomerang that you can just jump past them with no delay.

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29. Course No. 19

This level presents itself as an increased challenge, which would be fitting for the boss level, but it’s pretty weak. The most interesting, & only truly unique, room has you dodging slow-moving spiky stakes underwater; but I found the hermit crab enemies @ the end harder to dodge. & it’s not as if dodging moving spikes underwater is exciting.

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35. Course No. 25

“Stove Canyon” ends with much o’ the same that filled its center: basic platforming on platforms with basic enemies & lots & lots o’ hopping Bō. Granted, I can see that they tried to add some interest with the sections where you fall into horizontal passages & 1 part where you have to ride a falling bridge part so you can time a jump to a lower platform… Yeah, those are just basic platforming setpieces in other platformers; but they weren’t done in the other lava levels & they’re well implemented — well, ’cept for having to wait for the Bō before the falling sections.

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The 1st Wario Land might be the Mario game that has been worst affected by age. You can see it kind o’ attempt very forward-thinking elements for 1993, including its focus on collecting coins with actual rewards for doing so beyond a high score & extra lives & the focus on finding hidden treasure in levels, making this arguably the 1st collectathon platformer, &, as part o’ that, its alternate endings.

But I say “kind o’ attempt”, ’cause Wario Land doesn’t do much with this collectathon aspect beyond different endings, & I would say it didn’t implement them well. Treasures basically just act as alternate exits like in Super Mario World, including requiring carrying a key to a keyhole, which is on top o’ this game having alternate exits, too, including a whole bonus world that doesn’t offer any tangible reward for completion — contrast to Super Mario World’s fun reward for beating Special World. & as we’ll see, Wario Land’s treasure & alternate exit puzzles are not nearly as clever as Super Mario World’s.

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6. Riverside Race

This level finds the best balance ’tween simple ’nough to not be a miasma as you try racing thru it, but having just ’nough twists to keep it from getting as monotonous as, say, “Ripsaw Rage”. Also, unlike that level, this level’s gimmick o’ having you race ’gain a swarm o’ red-hot wasps ( as well as the time for an o’erworld sidequest, which was a nice touch ) actually encourages you to go fast, acting as a horizontal version o’ DKC2’s “rise to the challenge”.

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14. Ropey Rumpus

In a game that tended mo’ toward slower levels, it’s refreshing to see such an unapologetic romp o’ a level, where you can just zip down ropes, weaving thru intricate layouts o’ spinning or moving Zingers. Going right & left & up & down in zigzag patterns. ¿Is it yet ’nother level where you’re dodging moving bees in a trilogy full o’ dodging moving bees? Yes. ¿Does it repeat some setpieces, like the green Zingers circling red Zingers or the parts with the Zingers spinning round vertical passageways with rows o’ ropes where you have to jump up twice to find a safe spot? Yes. ¿Does this level, like many DKC3 levels, focus a bit too heavily on its gimmick, which isn’t e’en that amazing, rather than add some variety? Definitely. In fact, Zingers are the only enemies, ’less you count Koin as an enemy, in this level. Still, e’en if repeated once or twice extra, the arrangements o’ Zingers are novel & the arrangements o’ the ropes going all o’er the place, while still having coherent paths, are interesting, as well.

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22. Tearaway Toboggan

As I mentioned with “Demolition Drain-Pipe”, these cart levels turn DKC3’s proclivity for repetition into a strength — or a’least not a hindrance — as its mo’ urgent gameplay doesn’t warrant much complication, & like “Demolition Drain-Pipe” — in fact, e’en mo’ than “Demolition Drain-Pipe” — this level is packed with mo’ dangers than this games 2 predecessors. There’s a simple but strong enjoyment in bouncing on 3 Skiddas in a row that, surprisingly, doesn’t appear in any o’ the previous cart levels.

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