| Developer: | Rare |
| Publisher: | Nintendo |
| Designer: | Gary Richards Huw Ward |
| Composer: | Eveline Fischer |
| Series: | Donkey Kong |
| Released: | Game Boy Game Boy Color |
| Genre: | Platform |
| Modes: | Single-player |
Donkey Kong Land III is a 1997 platform game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy. A port for the Game Boy Color was released only in Japan in 2000 under the name . Like its predecessors, Donkey Kong Land III served as the portable version of and follow-up to its SNES counterpart, in this case , was enhanced for the Super Game Boy, and was packaged with a "banana yellow" cartridge.
A contest has begun with big prizes for the first person who discovers the Lost World. Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong have already left to find it, leaving a disgruntled Dixie Kong behind. Deciding to prove herself every bit as capable as them, Dixie partners up with her toddler cousin Kiddy Kong. Baron K. Roolenstein and the Kremling Krew are also searching high and low for the fabled land. The level archetypes are the same as in Donkey Kong Country 3, which takes place in the "Northern Kremisphere". While the levels have the same environments and the Donkey Kong Country 3 bosses return, the worlds and stage layouts are all unique.
Wrinkly Kong is the only non-playable Kong family member to make an appearance. A character simply titled Bear or "Brother Bear" gives Dixie Kong and Kiddy Kong hints and can teleport them to another world as well as hosting a card mini-game. He bears a resemblance to Bazaar Bear from Donkey Kong Country 3. The Animal Buddies Ellie the Elephant, Enguarde the Swordfish, Squawks the Parrot, and Squitter the Spider all return. Donkey Kong Land III also marks the only time in a Rare Donkey Kong game where Donkey Kong does not actually appear.
Donkey Kong Land 3 was coded by Ian Manders. Manders started at Rare in 1994 with his first project being Ken Griffey Jr.'s Winning Run. The game used the same engine that Robert Harrison wrote from the ground up for Donkey Kong Land 2. Manders said that programming the game was a challenge as he was new to the tighter constraints for which the CPU of the Game Boy allowed.
The game deviates more from its console counterpart Donkey Kong Country 3, if not more than the first game which had new enemies in addition to new scenery and level design. Harrison stated that this was because most of the attention was being made for games for the Nintendo 64 at Rare and that using an existing game engine allowed for more original elements to be made for the game.
On 28 January 2000,[1] over two years after the game's North American and European releases, Nintendo released an updated Game Boy Color version of the game in Japan. Titled Donkey Kong GB: Dinky Kong & Dixie Kong, it was not released outside of Japan. This version is the same as the Game Boy version, but lacks some animations and dialogues.[2] This version was also released on the 3DS Virtual Console in Japan in 2014.[3]
Donkey Kong Land III received a score of 81.25% at GameRankings based on four reviews.[4] Nintendojo praised the game and awarded it 8.5 out of 10, citing the "brilliantly designed" levels and "impressive" visuals.[5] Nintendo Life gave the Virtual Console re-release 9 out of 10.[6]