Nintendo Switch adds classic free game, available to play now

Another classic Nintendo banger is about to land on the Nintendo Switch, and fans of Rare titles are going to have a field day with this one.

As revealed on the official Nintendo UK Twitter account, Rare’s 1997 Game Boy title Donkey Kong Land III is now available to download for Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscribers.

Its addition to the Game Boy library on the Nintendo Switch shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise for those who have been keeping up to date with the service, as both Donkey Kong Land and Donkey Kong Land 2 also landed on the Switch last month.

Although the Donkey Kong Land games often end up towards the bottom half of people’s Donkey Kong lists (shout out to Polygon’s Jeremy Parish for their “definitive ranking” of all the DK series), I remember bloody loving Donkey Kong Land III as a kid.

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The trailer included in Nintendo’s Tweet makes me think the visuals haven’t aged too gracefully however, especially considering these games kinda looked awful back in 1997.

Look, I’m not gonna make fun of a AA-battery-powered handheld from the 80s but… just don’t expect this one to look particularly crisp on your 80-inch, 8k TVs folks.

Also, did you know the colour version of Donkey Kong Land III was a Japan-exclusive release? Because I didn’t.

That unfortunately means that you can’t actually play the non-green version of the game through the Nintendo Switch Online service if you live outside of Japan… unless you fancy being a little crafty.

Turns out, if you make a Japanese Nintendo Switch account and download Donkey Kong Land III using it, you can actually play the Game Boy Color version of the game. Big thanks to the folks over on GameXplain for figuring this one out.

Now hurry up and release Donkey Kong 64 on the Switch already, Nintendo.