In their prime, Rare was one of the most beloved game developers of all time. And for good reason: their extreme artistic talent blended beautifully with an eye for atmosphere and attractive quirkiness. They were able to take just about anything and turn it into something noteworthy, including the holidays. When they're not using the holidays to stir up substantiated rumors, they're adding small secrets to their games. In Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!, the developer included a special "Christmas Mode" which altered the bonus games to add a slight holiday feeling.
With a lack of the previously explained date memory on the SNES, this mode is accessible by entering the cheat menu. This is accomplished by highlighting a saved game file at the beginning selection screen. Press L, R, R, L, R, R, L, R, L, and R to display a cheat menu. Finally, enter "MERRY" into the text prompt. You can witness this at the beginning of the included video. Then, by skipping ahead to a little after 2 minutes in, you can see the bonus mode made all Christmas-y. Again, it's a small touch but still a nice one. And in case you're still wary of code-compatibility after the VC neutering of Kid Icarus' passwords, this mode works just fine on your downloaded DKC 3.
