Hey now everyone, hope you're all doing well, and welcome to my review of Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze! Anyone who grew up playing the Super Nintendo should be familiar with this series. That original game blew everyone away with it's amazing gameplay, lovable characters, and top notch level design. I still go back and play it every now and again, just because it's so well done. But now we have this latest installment of the long running franchise, and holy cow does it blow those old games right out of the water. I haven't been able to put the controller down since I started playing Tropical Freeze. The same old familiar characters return, with the same gameplay mechanics, but everything is elevated to a whole new level. So let's get started, and I'll tell you all about it.
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is a 2-d side scrolling platformer developed by Retro Studios. This was originally released for the Wii U back in 2014, but unfortunately that system was not very popular, and because of that many people missed out on playing it. Earlier this year, May 2018, the game was ported over to the mega popular Nintendo Switch, and since then it's been enjoyed by a much wider audience. Nintendo didn't just port over the exact same game either, they made a few updates, and changes, that make the title more accessible for everyone. Whether or not you will enjoy this as much as I did depends on how big a fan you are of platformers. If you like their straightforward gameplay, and challenging levels, than this one is for you.
I hear some people saying this game was too difficult, and because of that they gave it a low review score, but I didn't have much of a problem at all. I was just playing the Crash Bandicoot Trilogy, and those games can drive you insane with their cheap level design, and clunky controls. Tropical Freeze felt smooth as butter, and if I died I never felt like it was an unfair death, but instead a mistake I clearly made. You can easily tell how limited developers were way back then, and how they have this genre down to a science now. I always felt like I had full control of my character, and was able to make precision jumps with relative ease. The game does get pretty tough in some areas, and you will probably die quite often, but I never felt overwhelmed or frustrated.
The game features six different worlds, each with their own distinct theme, and a bunch of levels in each one. You play as Donkey Kong, and really only have a couple of moves that you can use. The most important one by far is jumping. You use this for getting over a wide variety of pitfalls and obstacles, collecting items, and defeating enemies. Donkey can also roll across the ground to take out enemies that you can't jump on, or to build up some momentum for longer jumps. He also has the ground pound move, but that's mostly used for finding secret areas, or items. All these mechanics handle just how you would want them to, and everything feels very responsive. These are the fundamentals of any good platformer, and this game nails it.
Visually, Tropical Freeze is just incredible. Everything is so colorful, bright, and crystal clear, nothing else in the series comes close. While playing through the various levels you will come across the familiar barrels that contain one of your sidekicks. You get to choose from Diddy Kong, Dixie Kong, and Cranky Kong, each with their own unique abilities. Diddy gives you the jet pack power, that allows you to hover over short distances. Dixie uses her hair as a propeller, allowing you to float up a little, and swim through the water much faster. Cranky allows you to bounce off of things with his cane, safely jumping on any surface. Each sidekick rides on Donkey Kong's back, so you don't actually control them, but they are all very helpful in certain situations, and each one gives you some extra hearts.
The biggest addition to the Switch port over the Wii U one is the new Funky Mode. Now you can choose to play as either Donkey Kong, or Funky Kong. What this basically does is give the game an easy setting. If you play as Donkey everything is normal, and a bit more challenging. If you play as Funky you get extra hearts right off the bat, you can swim underwater forever without running out of air, you can perform a double jump, and can also jump on any dangerous surface without getting hurt. There's no penalty for choosing Funky, and he's perfect for a level that's giving you a lot of trouble, or for going back through the game and collecting any items you might have missed. This makes the game much more accessible for newcomers, and is a welcome addition.
Each level has four letters to collect that spell out KONG, and if you get all four in each stage of the world you're in, a secret bonus level will become unlocked. Some of these were very tricky to get, and gave me a good reason to go back through past levels to try and find them all. There's also hidden puzzle pieces to collect in each stage, but the number varies for each one. Sometimes there will be eight, sometimes only five. Each of the six worlds in the game has a secret diorama that can only be unlocked by finding all the puzzle pieces. These are actually pretty awesome, and would make a good statue in real life. If you're into collecting everything in these kinds of games, this will probably require at least two playthroughs.
Not only does each world feel totally different from the last, but the levels are always changing things up to keep you on your toes as well. Some are just straightforward platformers, very well done ones, but nothing too crazy. Then you have underwater areas that bring about their own special mechanics that you need to take into consideration. There's also the fast paced mine cart levels, that keep you on the edge of your seat, as you try to not go flying off a cliff. There's sections where you're shooting from barrel to barrel, or flying through the air in a rocket powered barrel. And of course, at the end of each world you'll have to face off against an amazing, memorable boss fight, before moving along to the next area. If you love platformers than you wont want to miss this game. It's one of the best I've played in years, and one that I'm sure will become a classic. I'm going to give Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze a grade of...…………………….
A
Thanks for reading my review of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, I hope you enjoyed it!