Likely in part due to recently opened Donkey Kong Country section of the Super Nintendo World theme park and the success of the Mario Movie, Nintendo has put a lot of focus on the Donkey Kong series again. Indeed, with a trailer highlighting all the Donkey Kong Country games playable on the system, the presence of the first two games on Nintendo Music and various other promotions featuring the Kongs and friends, it’s clear the big ape and his crew have become a major priority for the company once again.
And that pattern is only becoming clearer with the latest games on Nintendo Switch Online. Why? Because not only is the entire Donkey Kong Country series now available in the SNES Online app…
But the whole Donkey Kong Land series is available on the Game Boy one too. Yep, with the addition of Donkey Kong Land 3 to the lineup, both series of 90s Kong platformers are now available on the Switch in their entirety. Here’s the trailer for the latest one on Switch Online:
As well as the rather different Japanese one:
Yeah, that one’s in colour instead. Because while most of the world got the original Donkey Kong Land 3 on Game Boy, as a purely monochrome deal with limited Super Game Boy support…
Japan got a unique Game Boy Colour version with full colour support instead. Hence that’s the one on the Japanese service, and the one you’ll get to play if you download their version of the SNES app.
Unfortunately, the likelihood of this version being available anywhere else is pretty slim. There’s no official translation for it right now, and Nintendo seems unwilling to go through the extra effort of creating one.
Hence it’ll probably never get added to the English Game Boy app.
Thankfully though, it’s an easy problem to work around. The Switch isn’t region locked, and creating accounts in whatever region you want isn’t an issue whatsoever. Hence if you feel like playing DK Land 3 in colour, all you have to do is create a Japanese Switch account, download the Japanese version of the Game Boy app, and play the game through that instead.
And hey, it’s not like you’ll be missing much anyway. The game doesn’t really have a lot of text in it to begin with, nor does it need you to read anything to make progress. Add this to how the English version is identical minus the colour palette, and hey, it should be a very simple game to understand for anyone wanting to play it.
Regardless, that’s the last of the Donkey Kong Land series on Switch Online now. Now we’ve got every Rare made Donkey Kong game on Switch bar Donkey Kong 64, with Returns and Tropical Freeze just a purchase or two away. Happy banana collecting DK fans!
Source:
Donkey Kong Land III – Game Boy – Nintendo Switch Online (YouTube)