Donkey Kong Land III/any%

Current Fastest Time

Timing Note

RTA timing begins from file select, and ends when collecting the bonus coin after K. Rool Duel. SDA timing would begin slightly later, with the endpoint being identical. The in-game timer is only accurate to the minute, and is therefore not used.

Preliminary Notes

Donkey Kong Land III is a simple platformer, and so much of the run above speaks for itself. Only tips non-obvious from watching a speedrun of the game will be included here.
One such tip is: when starting a level, you should actually not be holding B. If you do, your character spins on the spot for a while. Instead, hold right (or left) and press B as soon as you see the character on screen.
If a stage has (L) next to its name, then the stage starts by moving left. Otherwise it starts by moving right.

World 1: Cape Codswallop

1-1 Red Wharf

1-2 Seabed Shanty

1-3 Ford Knocks

1-4 Total Rekoil

After going through the warp, you should hold B as well as left as you reappear: you spawn in the air so you won't spin on the spot. This is the only time this happens in an any% run.

1-5 Koco Channel

1-6 Liftshaft Lottery

Boss: Barbos Bastion

A good way to time the attacks here is to watch the Lurchin flash. After seven flashes you should attack, and that should time it just after it opens up.

World 2: Primate Plains

2-1 Coral Quarrel

2-2 Minky Mischief

It's faster to climb up vertical ropes by jumping back and forth than climbing, but the motion is a bit tricky.

2-3 Jetty Jitters

2-4 Black Ice Blitz

2-5 Riverbank Riot

2-6 Miller Instinct

Boss: Bleak Magic

World 3: Blackforest Plateau

3-1 Rocketeer Rally (L)

3-2 Vertigo Verge

3-3 Polar Pitfalls

In the snow levels, wait a bit longer before pressing B at the start of the stage. Otherwise, your start will be quite slow.

3-4 Surface Tension

3-5 Tundra Blunda

3-6 Redwood Rampage

Boss: Arich Attack

If you're not Kiddy already, switch to Kiddy at the start of the fight.
You can do the damage boost on any hit and it will save an equal amount of time. The video above demonstrates it on the third hit, and you should aim to get hit by the last shot as it comes into a vertical line with the rightmost of Arich's legs. Then hold A as the character switch occurs, and Arich should drop instantly into his diving attack.

World 4: Great Ape Lakes

4-1 Jungle Jeopardy

4-2 Footloose Falls

Switch to Kiddy at the start of this stage. Jump over the Ellie barrel, you don't need her, but you do (almost always) have to take one hit for the trouble. And Dixie is better for the rest of the stage.

4-3 Deep Reef Grief

4-4 Karbine Kaos

4-5 Simian Shimmy (L)

4-6 Rockface Chase

Boss: Krazy Kaos

Switch to Kiddy at the start of this stage. The fastest hit to skip is the second. After the first hit, Kaos will sweep across the bottom three times: just before Kaos gets all the way to the right on the third sweep, do a full jump and land on Kaos, then hold A as the character switch occurs and you should jump up to Kaos in its starting position and get another hit.

World 5: Tin Can Valley

5-1 Tropical Tightropes

5-2 Clifftop Critters (L)

5-3 Rickety Rapids (L)

The second T barrel after halfway carries you across to a rocket barrel to a higher part of the stage. It looks like you should be able to glide across to it, as with one earlier in the stage, but do not try it: if you do, the rocket barrel won't actually be there.

5-4 Bazuka Bombard

5-5 Ugly Ducting

5-6 Stalagmite Frights

Boss: K. Rool Duel

The K. Rool fight goes like so:

Round 1: 1 high laser from each side, run barrel to the right
Round 2: 3 lasers each side, from high to low, only need to jump over the low one, throw barrel to the right
Round 3: 3 low lasers from the right side only, throw barrel to the right
Round 4: High, low, low, high from each side, jump and throw barrel to the left

The barrel always appears in the same spot, near the right hand side.