Donkey Kong 3: Dai Gyakushū

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Donkey Kong 3: Dai Gyakushū
The box art of the Sharp X1 version of Donkey Kong 3: Dai Gyakushū
Developer	Hudson Soft
Publisher	Hudson Soft
Platform(s)	PC-6001mkII/PC-6601, PC-8801, and X1
Release date	August 1984
Genre	Fixed shooter
Mode(s)	Single player
Media	3, 3.5, 5.25-inch floppy

Donkey Kong 3: Dai Gyakushū (ドンキーコング3 大逆襲) is a game developed and published by Hudson Soft in 1984. The game had versions for the PC-6001mkII/PC-6601, PC-8801, and X1, all of which had differences between each other (palette and flow of gameplay, respectively). Hudson released it at the same time as Mario Bros. Special.

Unlike Punch Ball Mario Bros. and Mario Bros. Special, the game was not released on the FM-7 - a version was planned and possibly even completely programmed, but was canceled for unknown reasons.

Gameplay

Like Mario Bros. Special and Punch Ball Mario Bros., the game is not a port, but more of a semi-sequel to Donkey Kong 3. Stanley's ability to jump is removed, along with the need to protect plants, making it much closer to a traditional shooter, à la Galaga.

Enemies come down from the top of the screen in groups of five, swooping to the bottom and trying to target Stanley. After swooping around a bit, the enemies will exit the screen (usually from the bottom, though sometimes from the sides) and loop back around to the top. This will continue until Stanley dies, shoots Donkey Kong to the top of the screen, thus completing it, or kills the five insects, all of which take two hits apiece to kill. If Stanley kills all five insects before any of them loop back to the top of the screen, a flag reminiscent of one from Rally-X will appear, and shooting it will net him 1,000 points.

There are twenty new stages, looping back at Stage 21. Every five stages a Bonus Stage comes up, where Stanley must spray all the bugs before the time runs out. Each new stage has a unique background that seemingly moves the game's setting into the countryside, through space, and eventually into a city on an alien planet. According to programmer Fumihiko Itagaki, these backgrounds are photos converted to images simply for aesthetic reasons. The manual encourages the player to imagine and send their own story to Hudson.

Stages

Image	Title	Description
	ON THE HIGHWAY	A highway with mountains, stars, and the moon in the distance. Appears to be around dusk.
	ON THE STRANGE BRIDGE	A long highway bridge with what looks like an Adamski-type U.F.O. overhead. Appears to be a similar time of day as the previous stage.
	ON THE COUNTRY ROAD	A curvy countryside road is visible on the right side of the screen. The U.F.O. from the previous stage seems to have landed on one of the surrounding hills. Appears to be nighttime.
	THE ALIENS	A blank, tan background with large green and black aliens that seem to be watching Donkey Kong and Stanley. Presumably, they came from the U.F.O. seen in previous stages.
	IN THE U.F.O.	Takes place next to the U.F.O.'s apparent flight instruments.
	LEAVING THE EARTH	Appears to take place in space with the Earth in the background, presumably still in the U.F.O., though it is not visible here.
	IN THE ASTRON BELT	An asteroid belt appears in the background.
	AROUND THE SATURN	Saturn appears in the background.
	A MYSTERIOUS PLANET	An unknown planet appears in the background.
	ON THE DESERT	On an unknown desert, with what seems to be a moon in the background. Presumably, Donkey Kong and Stanley have landed on the mysterious planet shown in the previous stage.
	BY THE PYRAMID	A large fissure in the ground is visible in front of a pyramid.
	IN THE CAVE	A cave like pathway with swirling walls completely encircling it.
	AT THE ACTIVE VOLCANO	Appears to be a somewhat overhead view of an active volcano erupting.
	IN THE ACTIVE CRATER	Appears to take place near a volcanic crater.
	AT THE DOME	Takes place near a dome-shaped building.
	ON THE GROUND PICTURE	Appears to take place near some sort of Nazca Line-type geoglyph and some cones.
	AT THE RUNWAY	Takes place near a runway.
	A MUSHROOM CLOUD	Appears to take place in front of a mushroom cloud. The background is completely blank, and thus no further context is provided.
	AT THE SUNSET	Takes place during a sunset, with only the sun and some birds being visible.
	IN THE CITY	Takes place in the middle of a city. Several buildings are shown in the background, as well as what seems to be Saturn and lightning. Stars are also visible. After this stage, the backgrounds loop from the start.

Staff

Main programmer

• Fumihiko Itagaki (Ita)

Gallery

• 

  PC6601 box art

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  Flyer promoting both Donkey Kong 3: Dai Gyakushū and Mario Bros. Special

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  The title screen of the Sharp X1 version.

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  A list of characters that appear in the game.

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  Gameplay of the Sharp X1 version.

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  Gameplay of a Bonus Stage in the NEC PC-8801 series version.

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  Gameplay of the NEC PC-6601 series version.

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	ドンキーコング3 大逆襲 (box) Donkey Kong 3 大逆襲 (title screen) Donkī Kongu Surī Dai Gyakushū	Donkey Kong 3: Great Counterstrike