Hey guys welcome to Cool Bits where we point out our favorite moments from popular and
maybe not so popular games.
These Cool Bits might be a secret, an Easter Egg, or just a small detail that really resonated
with us.
This time we'll be taking a look at the highly-detailed idle animations found in Donkey Kong Country:
Tropical Freeze.
Okay, so idle animations are nothing new for video games.
You know, the things that playable characters do when you don't touch the controller for
a while.
And that's certainly the case in Tropical Freeze too--take Donkey Kong here for example,
who can be seen scratching his arm pit if you wait around long enough.
Okay, it's not terribly exciting--but Donkey Kong has a second animation that's a lot more
interesting.
Let's check it out.
Yep, after making sure the coast is clear, DK tries to keep boredom at bay playing his
Nintendo 3DS XL.
Although this isn't really anything new for him since he could also be found playing with
a Nintendo DS in DKCR, but it's nice to see that he keeps up with advancements in gaming
technology.
But there's actually a lot more to this particular idle animation than might seen at first glance,
because if you listen close, you can not only hear the clacking of the 3DS's buttons, but
you can even hear what game DK's currently playing!
However, Tropical Freeze's music tends to drown it out, so in order to really hear it,
you might want to head to an area without music, such as the starting portion of a boss
fight, or turning the music volume down via the options menu
With the music out of the way, let's take a listen.
Did that sound familiar?
Yep, that was Animal Crossing: New Leaf, which is just one of four games that Donkey Kong
might randomly play.
The 3 others are Mario Kart 7, Super Mario 3D Land, and even his very own Donkey Kong
Country Returns 3D--that's pretty meta.
And as it turns out, he doesn't just play the same gameplay segment over and over.
Instead, he actually plays a random 5-seconds from an extended play session.
And if we reassemble them, we can even hear how it all fits together!
In Animal Crossing, you can hear DK starting up a file, stepping outside, and eventually
digging up something Then in Mario Kart we can hear the trademark
countdown at the starting line, then getting a boost-start and performing a trick off a
ramp, followed by grabbing an item box that turns out to be a Super Leaf, all before crossing
into the final lap as a Green Shell's in-bound.
Oh, and did you catch the fact that he's playing as himself?
Yeah, he doesn't have an ego
And speaking of playing as himself, in Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, we can hear Donkey
Kong attempting to buy things in Cranky's Shop, before entering a level, followed by
him breaking open a Kong barrel containing Diddy, then rolling into an enemy, taking
damage, and discovering a secret area
Interestingly, Super Mario 3D Land is odd game out here, as every time DK plays, it's
always the same 5-second segment, where we can hear collecting a coin as a goomba's running
his way--he must really love that part of the game!
So yeah, that's a ton of detail to put into an idle animation that most people probably
won't ever seen--let alone to its full extent
And yet, there's still more to it--3 more things in fact, being Diddy, Dixie, and Cranky
Kong.
Because, like everywhere else in the game, each of them has a unique animation for the
situation, and that even extends to DK's idle animations when they're riding piggyback.
Such as with DK's armpit scratching animation--but as you can see, these ones aren't terribly
exciting.
But things liven up a lot during his 3DS animation.
If he has Diddy on his back, we can see his little buddy will help with the lookout, before
rooting DK on while he plays.
Dixie also helps out on the lookout detail, before grooming DK while he absent-mindlessly
plays away.
And finally, there's Cranky, who's having none of that monkey business, opting to read
a newspaper instead.
It's truly ridiculous how much detail they put into the idle animations--hell, even Rambi
gets in on the fun--albeit with a relatively non-eventful one.
And yet,we're still not done.
You see, if you have the partner characters standing around by themselves, such as when
playing the game cooperatively, they are then bestowed with their own unique set of idle
animations.
First up is Diddy, who might take off his cap and belt out a little ditty of his own.
Or he might yawn, making one of three slightly different sounds
Then there's Dixie, who might perform some acrobatics with two slightly different sets
of grunts.
OR she might play some air guitar, perhaps in remembrance of her Donkey Kong Country
2 days.
Finally, there's Cranky, who only has a single idle animation, which involves using his cane
to clean out his ear.
And if that's all not enough, you can even see some of these same idle animations play
out on the map screen too.
It's not very often that you such a wide breadth of idle animations that even change depending
on what character combinations are being used, and we think that's pretty cool.
And that wraps up this episode of Cool Bits for DKC: Tropical Freeze.
Thanks for watching and keep an eye on GameXplain.com for more!