Donkey Kong Land III (initially planned for release with the subtitle The Race Against Time) is the third and final entry in the Donkey Kong Land trilogy of games for the original Game Boy. It was developed by Rareware and distributed by Nintendo. Like the other games in the series, DKLIII served as the portable follow-up to the ground-breaking SNES game Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble. In this case, DKL3 is both a remake and a partial follow-up to Donkey Kong Country 3. Also like the other games in the DKL series, DKL3 was enhanced for the Super Game Boy and was packaged with a "banana" cartridge.
A contest has begun with big prizes for the first person who discovers the Lost World. Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong have already taken off to find it, leaving a disgruntled Dixie Kong behind. Deciding to prove herself every bit of capable as them, Dixie once again partners up with her little cousin Kiddy Kong. Unfortunately, K. Rool and the Kremling Krew are also searching high and low for the fabled land. While never stated outright in the game, it's believed that the setting is in the northern part of the Northern Kremisphere, as the level archetypes are the same as in DKC3 (which took place in the Northern Kremisphere). While the levels have the same environments and the DKC3 bosses return, the worlds and stage layout are all unique.
Wrinkly Kong is the only non-playable Kong family member to make an appearance. A character simply titled Bear or "Brothers Bear" gives the player hints and can teleport them to another world (as well as host a card minigame), but judging from his appearance, it's most likely he's Bazaar Bear from DKC3. Animal buddies Ellie the elephant, Enguarde the swordfish, Squawks the parrot, and Squitter the spider all return. DKL3 also marks the only time in a Rare Donkey Kong game where neither Donkey Kong nor Diddy Kong actually appears.
When Nintendo released the Game Boy Color many games were released again updated to take advantage of the new hardware. In Japan Donkey Kong Land III was given a full color update. This new version is for the Game Boy Color compatible systems only, and will not run on older Game Boy systems. It didn't have a yellow cartridge, instead it had a GBC transparent cartridge to signify it was incompatible with older systems. It was released in January 28, 2000 under the name Donkey Kong GB: Dinky Kong & Dixie Kong only released in Japan and never saw an English release. Because the game refuses to run on older systems, the game may be taking advantage not only of the Color capability but also the high-speed CPU mode or additional RAM.
