Hey, I'm RussFrushtick
And today I want to talk to you about how Nintendo brings life to a game world in this case Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze
For what's a pretty simple game Nintendo and rRetro spent ungodly amounts of time getting every detail just right. How many details?
Really way too many to count but I'm going to try. Here are 19 small things that make Tropical Freeze such a treat to watch
I'll start with the basics: the idle animations. If you leave Donkey Kong alone for a few seconds, he'll whip out a Switch and
start playing
Meanwhile his handful of pals each have their own idle animations, of course, which you can see when you're playing co-op. Here's Dixie and
Diddy, and Cranky
But we're not done. There is a unique animations when Donkey Kong is paired with each of these guys
Lastly the Switch version has a new playable character Funky Kong who has his own set of idle animations
So that's some of the easy stuff
It's incredible that they spent the amount of time to animate each of these
But you probably saw some of these before so let's really get down to the nitty gritty now
Donkey and Funky Kong both have different ways of moving around the world
You see this in a variety of ways, but here's one of them: check out this dive
Donkey does a graceful swan dive. Whereas Funky does I guess an extreme cannonball, which is pretty fitting for his persona
But again, the fact that these are different did not need to be in the game, but it is and it's great
Speaking of the difference in Kongs note Funky's fur which is actually way more lush and bouncy than Donkey Kong's
Here's another touch that brings the Kongs to life. If you're reaching for a vine and you get close
they'll reach their arms out even if they just fall short
Didn't need to be in there
But it really does give them a sense of liveliness and intelligence that you wouldn't see if they just kind of fell flat
Another small detail if you've been sitting at a barrel for a while the Kongs will poke their heads out to see what the deal is
Awesome
On certain dark levels, you'll just see the silhouettes of the characters, but they're identifiable characteristics like Donkey's tie or Diddy's hat shine through
Really neat
Cranky Kong has some of the best animations of the game including this one where he tries to balance while donkeys rolling and
Also this one where his beard flows upwards whenever Donkey is falling
The Kongs friends actually get similar treatment Rambi the Rhino for example huff's and puffs when you hop off his back
But it's not just the Kongs and their friends that bring life to this world
It's really everything. Check out this bumbling divers helmet that spits out air underwater
It's super subtle, but that extra clank when it closes makes a big difference giving it the feeling of weight and life
The enemies also bring life to this world. Watch this grasshopper. In most games
he might just jump up and down typical but here he'll jump up and then float down taunting you while he does, which is terrific
Next check out these floating leaves. Another game might just have a gust of wind blowing them up and down
But here we can see they're actually being raised by owls blowing alpine horns in the background
That's an outrageous amount of detail that again does not need to be in here
but I'm so glad it is.
And then there's this little scene that plays out in the middle of a rocket barrel stage it is so quick and
super easy to miss but it rocks that it's in there
So that's 19 small details just taken from the first handful of worlds in Tropical Freeze
There are probably dozens more and none of them need to be in there
They all combine to make this really one of the liveliest games I've ever played and a treat to watch.
Hey, thanks for watching and letting me geek out about Nintendo animations for a little while
I could literally do it all day
If you dug that you might also enjoy this video where the voice of Kratos tells dad jokes, which is spectacular
There's also this really cool video from our friends at Eater where they explain why banana candy tastes nothing like bananas
Perfect for the Donkey Kong family. Thanks for watching