DonkeyKong Country 3 vs DonkeyKong Country 3

[Neweegee]

Remember Donkey Kong Country 3? Well, like all of the original Country games, it got a GBA remake, and it added an extra world and some other stuff, but there is one change that I didn't notice until I played the SNES version...the music.

The guy who composed the music for DKC1 and DKC2 returned to do the music for the GBA remake, instead of the other person who did the music on the original DKC3, so the whole soundtrack was replaced.
I think this was for the best because to me the SNES music didn't stand out much like the other two games, while the GBA music almost sounds like MP3s and the soundtrack is overall better IMO.

But what do you think?

[Gors]

I kinda voted on the gameboy version jocosely but turns out it was the most voted option so far. WELP

Though i like the GB version, i always thought it was great considering the limitations, and i love hearing chiptunes of SNES music.

I do love DKC3 SNES and GBA soundtracks though, both were hit or miss in some aspects but none of them have bad tracks.

[Koopaul]

Its very hard to decide especially since both soundtracks have their ups and downs. DKC2 has a flawless soundtrack though!

You can appreciate the visuals and atmosphere better on the console of course, but they do have that extra world in the GBA version... gah its so hard to choose!

[Goemar]

The GBA's sound quality (even with headphones - which with most games made it worse, google it) was a bag of crap. So even with the most awesome tunes available the SNES is always going to win out.

[Gors]

to say that an inferior chip is a bag of crap is to say that NES music is also a bag of crap. music isnt just sample rate, its also ... actual composing. the gba had some amazing compositions and thats the biggest point, along with execution, to rate a music.

[Crappy Blue Luigi]

i disagree. the gba's soundbank was capable of instrument samples just as clear and crisp as the snes, but its sound output greatly hampers the quality. the nes does not suffer that problem at all; its sound output is just fine. the gba's sound chip isn't inferior to the snes' in the same sense that the nes' sound chip is (which is already a debatable claim), because it's like the snes' sound chip, but not as good. the snes' sound chip is literally capable of the same sounds as the gba's sound chip, but objectively better.

while it's a nice sentiment to focus on the quality of composition, you can't rule out the factor of sound quality. i can deal with the fuzzy audio output sometimes, but some soundtracks just have it bad.

[Gors]

i understand and my example is not the best but to factor out something entirely because of instrument quality is equally as debatable, especially when he gba version of dkc3 is pretty well crafted.

for example the first level theme in snes dkc sounds pretty dumb compared to what gba dkc tries to aim. it wont matter how sampling or stuff is.

though i am now touching the subjective part of the soundtracks.

[Goemar]

My issue was more with the output than the 'sound chip' - the GBA's speaker was simply bad. And headphones didn't seem to improve the quality - just make the badness more clearly bad (there was an article about why this was because I can't find it anywhere now).

DKC3 isn't the most offensive of GBA music by any means (R-Type 3's mega shit port gets that) as it actually has good music but it's hard to say which one is better when one can be played through a sound system and sound awesome while the other is always going to sound like it's coming from a tin can.

[Gors]

in such case i agree; though ive played it on emulator and i ddnt really feel any problems. could be because its better in emu, could be because my ear didnt catch it.

[Kriven]

Well, there's a difference between the song itself and the performance of that song. While judging a unique song probably has more to do with the composition, judging the performance (which is what you're hearing from your game) should totally be about the sound being produced.

Just my two cents.

[ImSpidey2]

I chose the GBA version because it has an extra boss. And the boss music is addictive in that game. XD

[Kosheh]

I actually haven't played the GBA version, but I'm pretty sure the music was changed due to the limitations set by the cartridge and the amount of storage/method of output on the GBA. Remember, the GBA version adds extra features (as well as scaling other features of the game back), so probably due to being unsatisfied with the sound quality from the previous two GBA ports, they felt compelled to bring David Wise back to work on the soundtrack.


That said, after checking Youtube for samples, the GBA version sounds better IMO, since it kinda brings the DKC atmosphere back from 1&2. I don't know why, but DKC3 just felt....too goofy to be a DKC game for me :/

[Gors]

I wonder, if in the past two GBA DKC games they had resampled everything and optimized the instruments, and actually rewritten the melodies from scratch instead of simply converting the music file, would it sound better than what we got?

[Crappy Blue Luigi]

i just gave the entire GBA DKC3 soundtrack a listen, and i gotta be honest... most of the tracks are way better than the SNES ones in terms of atmosphere and that Donkey Kong Country feel (i wouldn't expect any less from Wise), with exception to the really happy, jolly ones. i think the optimal soundtrack for the game would be all of the GBA tracks for everything but the tree and snow levels.