Donkey Kong series

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I can think of a few really terrible levels in DKC3, itself. I don't know, that game was never much actual "fun" to me, but I'll give it a replay one of these days. I still think that DKC1 is a great game. Its not perfect by any stretch, but its also not too gimmick-heavy and most of its levels are fun.

[Kiddington]

Another one of my favorite tracks from DKC3.

Man, how did I forget this one?

[talonmalon333]

Spark, you say you're not a big fan if animal levels, particularly ones where you spend nearly the entire level as an animal. Yet you're a big fan of DKC3. 

[Spark Of Spirit]

I'm not defending the Parry or Ellie levels. I don't like those, but I do like using Squitter's web platforming and Enguarde's usual swimming gameplay since they still keep the basic platforming and swimming parts the same as they've always been.

Most levels in DKC3 have a different gimmick for each one, I don't even hate Lightning Lookout. Once you figure out that you merely need to stop running before each lightning bolt, it's easy.

[Kiddington]

Speaking of, Ellie is probably one of the few things I legitimately dislike about DKC3. I mean, why not just keep Rambi? And why the fuck is she afraid of rats? I get the whole "elephant, mouse" stereotype going on here, but still. The water techniques are okay I guess, but I dunno. Still doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

Another animal I didn't care for was Winky (the frog) in the original. Awkward controls make it way too easy to mess up on those levels.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I would say Winky was the worst animal friend. The constant hopping just made timing jumps annoying because of the constant motion even when tapping a direction. They fixed that with Rattly by making him a pogo-stick, more or less.

Ellie at least had the water gimmick, which was an interesting idea. Rambi was better, though.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

You know who my personal favorite animal buddy was in the entire DKC series? Squitter. I know it sounds like an odd choice, but I just really liked his gameplay style. It was so unique, and his ability to create his own platforms out of webs was just such a creative gimmick that could really let you mess around in the levels in ways that the developers probably never even intended. On top of all that, he was really easy to control. My least favorite animal buddy was actually Squawks, rather than Winky. I mean, Winky constantly bounced around, but he wasn't that hard to control for me. Something about the flying controls with Squawks really made his sections a chore for me to play through, though. They somewhat improved his controls in DKC2, but he was still the animal buddy that I always least looked forward to playing as, personally.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I like Squawks because he actually had a mode of attack.

The purple one ('Parry'), doesn't even have that. You have to pick up barrels from underneath and fly to the right height to drop them on enemies. It's needlessly lame.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Oh wait, I totally forgot about Parry (most likely because of how forgettable DKC3 is ). Yeah, he's definitely the worst animal friend in the series. I still don't like Squawks, though. The flying controls in these games in general just never felt right to me.

[talonmalon333]

You know who my personal favorite animal buddy was in the entire DKC series? Squitter. I know it sounds like an odd choice, but I just really liked his gameplay style. It was so unique, and his ability to create his own platforms out of webs was just such a creative gimmick that could really let you mess around in the levels in ways that the developers probably never even intended. On top of all that, he was really easy to control. My least favorite animal buddy was actually Squawks, rather than Winky. I mean, Winky constantly bounced around, but he wasn't that hard to control for me. Something about the flying controls with Squawks really made his sections a chore for me to play through, though. They somewhat improved his controls in DKC2, but he was still the animal buddy that I always least looked forward to playing as, personally.

Squitter is the best by far, I think. My brother and I took up calling him a broken partner cause he's so good, though he's really not broken.

But yeah, DKC3's partners are bad and forgettable. It even has a partner that serves no purpose other than to collect bananas and... yeah that's it. Just collecting bananas and other junk.

Putting aside the majority of DKC3's partners, I think the worst is Expresso.

[Spark Of Spirit]

True, Expresso is kind of useless. Again, Rambi already does everything he does but better. He might not be as fast, but it's not like Rambi is too slow or anything.

[talonmalon333]

I think Expresso is way too fast, particularly for a character who can't fight.

My favorites are Rambi, Enguarde, Rattly or whatever the snake's name was, and obviously Squitter.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

My favorites are Rambi, Enguarde, Rattly or whatever the snake's name was, and obviously Squitter.

Yeah, these are my favorites as well. I'm usually not a fan of water levels (they are not bad in DKC games, but they are far from my favorites), but I always look forward to the segments where I get to control Enguarde.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I would say they would easily be the best.

I hope the next DKC game at least puts in Enguarde for the swimming segments. Just Rambi in Returns (and he wasn't in that many levels) felt a bit dry.

[talonmalon333]

I do think the purple Squaks in DKC2 was a bit lame, the one who can only glide. I remember a beehive level where you have to use him to hover through a narrow area. My brother would always just ditch him and hover us to the bottom using Dixie's hair, and it's actually much easier that way.