Anyone else ever have this problem? The game freezes and you can't go back to the Home menu, you can't even turn off the Wii, but instead you must unplug the power cord. It seems to happen on some levels more than others. The buzz-saw level appears to be the worst offender.

Maybe this happened in the original game, but I don't have the SNES cartridge to compare it to. Seems odd that it would freeze the whole system though, since it's being emulated.

no. delete your game and redownload.

According to my sources, you should stop playing DKC3 altogether and play Donkey Kong 64 instead

Did that, same problem.

Hell no. Unless you're referring to the unlockable games, Donkey Kong Arcade and Jet-Pac, in which case, hell yes!

Never happened to me, since redownloading does not help, does this happen with other Virtual Console games?

Nope, just DKC3. I guess I'll live, but it still sucks. I'm trying to get 105%, but it's kind of difficult if I have to keep going to the console to unplug it and turn it back on. Time to try a different game, I guess.

I have one or two games that frequently freeze as well - only on my Wii, while others never seemed to have those issues. (Family & Friends Party, Lead the Meerkats)
I never had issues with DKC3 and I completed it 103%, and others never mentioned it before, so it's definately not the games fault but maybe something with your Wii (did you get the corrupted data error?).

Oddly, no. Still, perhaps I'll try deleting my save data and starting over.