Donkey Kong hangs from vines at the center of the screen, and the player-controlled Stanley the exterminator runs and jumps on platforms beneath him. Stanley can fire bug spray at both Donkey Kong and insects flying around the levels. A level is completed by continually using bug spray on Donkey Kong, forcing him to the top of the screen, or by killing all of the bugs. A super spray can on the vines falls down when Donkey Kong is sprayed past it. The super spray only lasts for a limited amount of time, but it pushes Donkey Kong upward at a much faster rate, making it easier to complete the level. It only spawns at the start of each life. The insects are Buzzbees, Beespies, queen bees, Creepy Caterpillars, butterflies, beetles, moths, Beebombs and vine eaters. Some of the flying insects attempt to pick up the flowers at the bottom of the screen and carry them away. Lost flowers decrease the bonus at the end of the round. There are three levels which repeat in a fixed sequence. An extra life is given at 50,000 points, and then the game goes to "survival of the fittest" mode thereafter.
Plot
Stanley is a bugman. Donkey Kong has taken refuge in his greenhouse and it is now up to Stanley to stop the ape from stirring up any more insects that will soon destroy his flowers. Stanley saves the flowers by spraying bug spray on Donkey Kong.
Reception
Reviews for the game were generally positive and was moderately successful in Japan. Despite this, it was a commercial failure in North America, particularly due to the wake of the video game crash of 1983. In Japan, Game Machine listed Donkey Kong 3 on their December 1, 1983 issue as being the fourth most-successful new table arcade unit of the year. Computer and Video Games said that the game's "fast action and superior sound effects" made Donkey Kong 3 a "sure hit" in arcades. Reception, retrospectively, has been divisive, with criticism aimed at its departure of its predecessors and the lack of Mario. IGN gave the Virtual Console version a 6.0 out of 10, describing it as a "radical departure" from the previous Donkey Kong games, calling it "repetitive."
Legacy
A VS. series Game & Watch version of the arcade game has different gameplay. In this version, player one controls Stanley the Bugman and computer player controls Donkey Kong in a duel against each other using exterminating spray cans to move the bees to the other side of them to make the bees sting their opponents. Players can only hold up to three amounts of spraying liquid in their spray cans. On one player mode, the higher player one as Stanley scores, the faster the spraying liquid on the side of computer player as Donkey Kong drops. A version of this game was included in Game & Watch Gallery 4 for the Game Boy Advance, but featuring Mario in place of Stanley and a Boo and a Fireball in place of the bees. The NES version of Donkey Kong 3 was released on the Wii Virtual Console, 3DS Virtual Console and Wii U Virtual Console, whilst the arcade version was released on the Nintendo SwitcheShop as part of Hamster's Arcade Archives series.
Semi-sequel
In 1984, Hudson Soft developed a semi-sequel for the Japanese-only NEC PC-8801, NEC PC-6601, Sharp X1 and FM-7 titled This game is significantly different from the original. While the object to shoot Donkey Kong up in the air remains, it features 20 new outdoor backgrounds such as a bridge, Planet Saturn, a desert, a pyramid or a highway. After the player has completed the 20th stage, the game loops back at stage 21. Stanley can only move from left to right and is no longer able to jump. For decades, Donkey Kong 3: The Great Counterattack was inaccessible to the video game community outside of Japan. In December 2017, a rare copy of the Sharp X1 version was bought by video game enthusiasts at a Yahoo! Auctionsonline auction. In February 2018, it was made available to the world via emulation.
