It's February 8! Every year when February 8 rolls along, I think about how on this day in 1997 I defeated Donkey Kong Country 3's Arich boss for the first time. My mind is weird like that.

When I first beat Arich in February 1997, my second-grade self was super-excited to get past what I felt to be an unreasonably difficult boss. Months later, I obtained a strategy guide for DKC3 and learned the truth: that there's actually a much easier way to beat Arich.

I was trying to beat Arich by standing on the top ledge, grabbing a barrel, and throwing it in an arc so that it hits the narrowest part of Arich's near leg. If I did it just right, the barrel would clip into what should be a solid spot and brush Arich's jaw, thus scoring a hit. I found it much easier to do this using Dixie, but Kiddy could pull it off as well. So it turned out that this boss was really hard because I was trying to exploit a glitch to beat it!

This fact may or may not be particularly interesting.

I had trouble with this exact same boss, probably in 1997 as well. I don't remember how I was doing the fight, but he was a brick wall to me when I rented this as a kid.

I remember that I had the player's guide, as a kid. We got it as a subscription gift for Nintendo Power. I never owned the game, but thankfully, it's easy to get on Switch. Given that, I think I could fire DKC3 up next chance I get and kick Arich's ass now that this post has shaken loose some memories.