Donkey Kong Country 2 already had some perfectly memorable boss fights.  But the third game’s penchant for gimmicks meant the bosses tended to vary even more in their mechanics, from a snowball fight with a nightmarish snowman to feeding bugs to a giant sentient barrel until he burps himself off the stage.  Frankly, I found the bosses in this game to be as creative as they were frustrating.  So just as I did with the second game’s biggest baddies, let’s rank the boss fights from Donkey Kong Country 3 according to their difficulty, from easiest to most aggravating!

8: Belcha’s Barn – As the very first boss, it’s no wonder Belcha is the easiest battle in the game.  Even so, defeating this angry giant barrel is a tad tricky.  You see, you must throw these bugs into his mouth with just the right timing to get past his gnashing teeth.  If you succeed, the snack will result in a hearty burp that will send him backwards.  Last time I played the game, I beat Belcha with just two bugs, but if you’re a bit less lucky than me, he can potentially push you off the left side of the stage, so you better hurry up and feed him!

7: Arich’s Ambush – This creepy spider bounces up and down on a thread and must be defeated by hitting his stomach with a barrel.  I have no idea how you’d beat this guy with Kiddy, considering the oversized toddler holds the barrel in front of him rather than overhead like Dixie does.  With that said, as long as you can keep Dixie alive, just avoid this massive spider and the unidentified balls of green goo that he spits out, and this encounter shouldn’t be too tough. 

6: KAOS Karnage – Avoiding KAOS’ flames or the lasers he shoots later on isn’t that terrible, but reaching his head to attack him is another matter.  I just despise attempting to jump up those moving blades spinning around him before the boxing glove pushes you away.  It’s not even that difficult, but it is aggravating!

5: Kastle KAOS – Yes, I’m putting the final battle against Baron K. Roolenstein this early in the list because it’s actually pretty easy.  The worst thing it has going for it is probably the sheer length, though for the final fight, that’s pretty much to be expected.  The stage begins with a quick skirmish with KAOS, followed by a rather simple battle where you must hit this mad kroc in his jetpack with a barrel.  Avoiding this guy isn’t that difficult, even when the floor is covered by a beam of electricity.  Sure, it’s not exactly a walk in the park, but it sure as heck is much easier than the battles that follow….

4: Squirt’s Showdown – Squirt can’t actually harm you, but he can push you off the stage with his stream of water.  You’ll be fighting this bizarre monstrosity with Ellie the elephant, who will need to jump over Squirt’s liquid beam in a hurry and shoot the boss in the eyes with water of her own whenever you get the chance.  The awkward layout of the battle makes for a stressful affair that I didn’t enjoy one bit!

3: Barbos’ Barrier – Yet another battle that’s fought using one of your animal buddies, this one being Enguarde the swordfish.  In order to damage this giant urchin, you’ll need to first remove its spiky little bodyguards.  This can be accomplished by either knocking the other urchins into them (which is difficult to do with any real precision, plus urchins can easily injure you if you attack at the wrong time) or by tricking these pointy creatures into launching themselves into the boss’ barriers.  After these first two stages of the fight are done, you’ll then need to avoid the spikes that Barbos shoots at you, which isn’t too difficult, but just getting to this part is tricky enough!  A spiker battle you shall not find!

2: Bleak’s House – This creepy snowman is the stuff of nightmares.  You’ll need to hit this freak of nature with snowballs while avoiding his own projectiles.  After hitting the tiny target on his scarf, you’ll then need to avoid much larger snowballs that he launches from his tophat, with very little warning as to their arrangement, making avoiding them quite difficult!  This guy’s evil chuckles will haunt me for the rest of my life….

1: Knautilus – While our first encounter with Baron K. Roolenstein isn’t that bad, our second battle against him inside his secret submarine is pure misery.  For one thing, hitting him is really tough, as you must throw barrels into this hole in the ceiling to make it land on him when he’s in the background.  The absolute worst part, however, is the end where a spark of electricity is coming your way.  You can’t jump over it because of the beam of electricity overhead, so you must go to the other side of the steel barrel so it can absorb the spark for you.  But make sure you don’t run because you’ll pick the barrel up and probably doom yourself!  You know what, I don’t think I need to ever see the game’s secret ending again.  Not worth it…

DKC3 Title Screen from Official Nintendo Site