2000 · Game Boy · Game story
Donkey Kong GB Lets Dixie and Dinky Turn Being Left Behind into a Race
The Japanese Game Boy Color original gives two overlooked Kongs a Lost World expedition built from different movement styles, changing bodies, stubborn barrels, and a map that makes curiosity part of the race.
In this story
- 01 A race starts with a sulk
- 02 A gap looks different to each Kong
- 03 A route is more interesting than a straight line
- 04 Four animal bodies, four new conversations
- 05 Barrels are objects with jobs
- 06 Collecting is a way of listening
- 07 A colour return with its own personality
- 08 The Lost World is an excuse to keep going
A race starts with a sulk
The most charming thing about Donkey Kong GB: Dinky Kong & Dixie Kong is that its grand expedition begins as a very small indignity. Nintendo's manual says a rumour of the Lost World sends treasure-seekers into a frenzy. Donkey and Diddy rush off to join the race, leaving Dixie behind with baby Kong Dinky. Dixie watches Dinky charging about the jungle, lets out a sigh, and then decides that the two of them will find the Lost World first. It is a fine comic starting point for a platform adventure: the heroes are late, mildly offended, and immediately determined to turn the bad mood into momentum. 2 1
Nintendo lists this Japanese title as a 28 January 2000 Game Boy Color action game, and its official manual makes Dinky and Dixie the pair the player controls. That pairing gives the journey a different emotional temperature from a generic contest for treasure. Dixie knows exactly why she is going. Dinky only grasps that something exciting is waiting, and follows her happily into the deep jungle. One character supplies the stubborn purpose; the other supplies cheerful velocity. Before there is a map, a barrel, or a banana, the game has already given its journey a two-person rhythm. 1 4 3 2
Trivia The manual says Dinky does not really understand Dixie's plan at first; he simply recognises that a thrilling adventure is ahead and bounds after her with delight. 2
See it in action
A gap looks different to each Kong
The manual gives the partnership its practical shape. Dinky has a rolling attack. Dixie has a ponytail spin, and holding the command while she is airborne slows her descent. Both can press jump after dropping from their signature move to extend a jump in mid-air. Those instructions do more than list buttons. They invite the player to see a stretch of ground as a choice. Dinky turns a run into a forceful line. Dixie turns a fall into something she can stretch and negotiate. The same ledge can become a question of speed, distance, height, or how long someone can hang in the air. 2
That is why the duo feels more expressive than a simple extra-life system. The manual allows the player to switch between Dinky and Dixie while both are available, and describes how being hit can exchange the active character before a true miss. The pair are therefore visible both as contrasting tools and as a little bit of insurance for a rough route. Dixie does not merely look different from Dinky; she gives a jump a different ending. Dinky does not merely look larger; his roll changes how a player approaches the beginning of the next move. Their trip to the Lost World is built from these miniature changes of mind. 2
Trivia Dixie's slow fall is activated by holding her ponytail-spin command in the air, while her mid-air extension follows a drop from that spin rather than an ordinary jump. 2
A route is more interesting than a straight line
The world map prevents the Lost World race from becoming a single arrow pointing right. Nintendo's manual says the player selects an area to explore, advances to another level map by defeating a level-map boss, and can find places that offer help. The file display records played time, bonus coins, completion rate, clocks, and DK coins. On the map, symbols mark a level map after every DK coin or every bonus coin there has been collected. Progress is presented as both forward travel and a record of what the player paused long enough to find. 2
That bookkeeping is unusually fitting for a story about two latecomers. Dixie and Dinky are trying to reach a destination before their rivals, yet the game keeps making the route matter. A bear shop can exchange Bear Coins for information or travel to a cleared level map; Wrinkly's hideout saves progress. A bonus barrel takes the pair to a timed task, where earning a bonus coin clears the challenge. None of these stops feels like an interruption to the adventure. They are the practical little institutions that make a vast jungle feel inhabited, legible, and worth revisiting. 2
Trivia The save-file screen keeps separate tallies for play time, bonus coins, completion rate, clocks, and DK coins, giving a small cartridge race a surprisingly detailed travel diary. 2
Four animal bodies, four new conversations
The Animal Friends do not arrive as decorative cameos. Nintendo's manual says that jumping into a barrel marked with an Animal Friend transforms the Kongs, and that a no-animal sign returns them to normal. Ellie the elephant can fire water, including diagonally upward or downward shots. Squitter the spider fires web attacks, and those webs can be turned into platforms. Squawks the parrot rises and fires eggs. Enguarde the swordfish dashes while attacking. Each new body changes what the player can ask of the screen, so an obstacle becomes an invitation to try a different creature's answer. 2
The transformations extend the same pleasure already present in Dinky and Dixie. A pair of heroes has two movement temperaments; an Animal barrel temporarily makes the question wider. Water can become a projectile. A web can become a foothold. Height can become a parrot's upward flight, and underwater speed can become a swordfish dash. The manual's list is delightfully concrete, which lets the game feel playful without becoming vague. These are specific capabilities tied to specific animal forms, handed over one barrel at a time. 2
Trivia Squitter's fired web can become a platform, while Ellie can send water diagonally as well as straight ahead; the manual treats both actions as part of their standard toolsets. 2
Barrels are objects with jobs
A barrel is never just a barrel in this game. Nintendo's manual says ordinary barrels can be carried, thrown, or used in a charging attack against enemies. Steel barrels can also be carried and thrown, but do not break when thrown. A Continue Barrel makes the place where it was broken a restart point after a miss. A DK Barrel restores the ability to switch characters, but cannot be broken while that ability is already available. The familiar round object keeps changing the terms of play: weapon, durable tool, checkpoint, or reunion with the other Kong. 2
Then the manual adds the stranger members of the family. Tracker Barrels move a character left and right. Booster Barrels rise to reach higher places. Bonus Barrels lead to bonus stages. Barrel cannons fire in a particular direction, while some can be turned and fired by the player. It is hard not to enjoy the sheer practicality of this catalogue. Rather than giving Dixie and Dinky one abstract power for every problem, the jungle keeps leaving a useful object in their path. The adventure feels like a game of noticing what this particular barrel wants to become. 2
Trivia A DK Barrel restores character switching, whereas a Continue Barrel changes where the pair restart after a miss; Nintendo gives two visually related objects sharply different responsibilities. 2
Collecting is a way of listening
The game's objects make the race feel full of side conversations. The manual identifies clocks as necessary for reaching the Lost World. A completed K-O-N-G set in one area adds a Life Heart; a Life Balloon adds one; one hundred bananas add one. Bear Coins buy information at the bear shop, and DK Coins come from defeating an enemy carrying one. Bonus Coins are found in bonus stages and carry a particularly mischievous promise: collect them and something may happen. The detail is playful because every bright item asks for a different kind of attention. 2
This makes exploration feel more sociable than a bare tally of treasure. A clock connects the player to the Lost World destination. A Bear Coin connects them to local information. Letters and bananas build a little resilience for the next dangerous stretch. DK Coins leave a mark on the map after a whole level map has been searched. The result is a jungle that rewards both urgency and patience. Dixie can be racing ahead in spirit while the player keeps noticing that the quickest-looking path is full of things worth stopping for. 2
Trivia The manual's teasing line about Bonus Coins says only that collecting them may make something happen, preserving a small secret inside an otherwise very direct item guide. 2
A colour return with its own personality
The Japanese Game Boy Color release has become a particularly interesting way to encounter this journey. Nintendo Life's Donkey Kong retrospective calls Donkey Kong Land III a handsome close to the Game Boy trilogy and notes that Japanese players received an enhanced Game Boy Color version. The current Nintendo Classics record gives that version its Japanese title, its 2000 date, and a 4 December 2024 service release. Together, those records make a useful invitation: this is a portable story with a longer life than its small cartridge once suggested, and its colour version keeps the focus squarely on Dinky and Dixie. 7 1 6
Its history also leaves a neat paper trail. Retromags' catalogue for Nintendo Power issue 124 lists Donkey Kong Land III among that 1999 issue's Classified Information, showing that the underlying handheld adventure still had a place in a contemporary Nintendo magazine after its original run. Nintendo's UK page preserves the separate English-language Game Boy listing as Donkey Kong Land III. The Japanese Game Boy Color title earns attention on its own terms, though, because its official manual gives readers an unusually vivid duo, a Lost World race, and a jungle of machines, animals, shops, maps, and tiny errands. 8 5 2
Trivia Retromags identifies Nintendo Power issue 124 as a September 1999 issue whose contents include Donkey Kong Land III in its Classified Information section. 8
The Lost World is an excuse to keep going
The lovely trick of Donkey Kong GB is that the Lost World gives every detour a destination without flattening the detours. Dixie wants to win the race; Dinky wants the promise of an adventure. Along the way, the pair are asked to choose between a roll and a slow descent, to read a map's coin marks, to spend a Bear Coin on help, to trust a barrel, or to become an animal with a new verb. The objective is clear enough for a child to repeat, yet the route is crowded with choices that keep changing what travel means. 2 1
That is why this particular two-Kong story feels so companionable. It does not ask the player to admire a champion arriving first; it starts with people who were ignored, then lets them prove that a race can be made from care, curiosity, and a great many moving parts. Its manual keeps returning to concrete acts: trade a coin for a hint, break the right barrel, collect the letters, take the animal form, or choose a different Kong. Those instructions make the large goal feel close enough to touch. Dinky's happy rush and Dixie's deliberate glide remain the perfect summary of its tone. One sees the next exciting thing. The other works out how to reach it. The Lost World may be the prize, but the pleasure is in all the small decisions that make getting there feel like their adventure rather than somebody else's. 2 3
Trivia Nintendo's manual calls clocks necessary for reaching the Lost World, turning a familiar racing symbol into an explicit part of this adventure's destination. 2
Sources & image credits
Facts were checked against the links below. Official media remains the property of Nintendo and the relevant rights holders.
- ドンキーコングGB ディンキーコング＆ディクシーコング | Nintendo Classics Nintendo ↗
- ドンキーコングGB ディンキーコング＆ディクシーコング electronic manual Nintendo ↗
- ドンキーコングGB ディンキーコング＆ディクシーコング | Nintendo 3DS Nintendo ↗
- ゲームボーイ Nintendo ↗
- Donkey Kong Land III | Game Boy Nintendo ↗
- Nintendo Classics タイトル一覧 Nintendo ↗
- Best Donkey Kong Games Of All Time Nintendo Life ↗
- Nintendo Power Issue 124 Retromags ↗
