Okay, so
it doesn’t take much to buy me off.
Big deal.
Everybody’s got a price.
And some of us have discount prices, don’t be a dick about it.
Doesn’t always take much to get results.
Actually, this is a great example of that.
When you have a game as amazing as Donkey Kong Country Returns and you want to make
a sequel…well, it doesn’t take much.
This is like Returns Returns.
I mean, it’s just more Donkey Kong.
Only this time, he’s cold.
It’s Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze.
Now, I don’t just mean it’s cold because, “Oh, there’s an evil race of penguins
and the game’s called Tropical Freeze, so it’s cold.”
No, I mean this game, is cold.
Seriously, you’re gonna lose monkeys like a one-eyed zookeeper, in this game.
Crumbling platforms, unexpected spikes?
That’s just the beginning.
Wait ’til you get to the special Kong levels.
And you’re doing stuff like this.
And this.
Which is usually followed by this.
Told you…game’s cold.
Of course, game’s pretty awesome, too.
Tropical Freeze is a masterful platformer.
And what’s interesting about it…is that, even though it doesn’t stray very far from
the original, in terms of its gameplay, it gets creative with just about everything else.
And it does it within the context of the series.
So like, the mine cart levels.
Classic Donkey Kong Country, right?
And Tropical Freeze has lots of ‘em.
But at the same time, it also reinvents them.
So for example, there’s a huge sawmill…where you’re riding a mine cart, you fall out
of the mine cart…and you land inside a log.
Now it’s a log ride, all the sudden.
That is, until you have to go back into the sawmill.
A few spins of the blade…
And now it’s a mine cart again.
And Tropical Freeze is full of stuff like that.
These awesome moments where something so familiar, and so Donkey Kong…gets a creative little
tweak that makes it even cooler.
Oh, and speaking of cool…this game has penguins, penguins like it cool.
And actually, I think the penguins, and the story, and the entire concept gives people
the wrong impression.
I mean, you hear Tropical Freeze, and you think, “Wait, so it’s all snow levels,
or…?
Has Pauline been replaced with Queen Elsa?”
It’s not at all representative of what’s actually here.
Because what’s actually here…are some of the most colorful, and vibrant, and diverse
environments I’ve ever had the pleasure of platforming through.
Mangroves, mountains, caverns, autumn forests…I mean, the game may be cold, the story may
involve ice…
But this game’s a lot more tropical than it is frozen.
And you know, it’s not just that the game’s beautiful.
‘Cause it is beautiful.
The graphics, the music…but it’s also that the places feel alive, even more than
a lot of 3D games.
There’s always something happening in the background.
And there’s some great foreshadowing, too.
You’ll see enemies way off in the distance…only, later on, they won’t be quite as distant.
And that, along with the game’s use of depth, and how you’re always launching into the
backgrounds, or sideways into new grounds…it makes it seem bigger than a 2D game.
It’s almost like a 3D game that happens to be a side scroller.
But actually, I think my favorite thing about Tropical Freeze…is how the worlds evolve.
Not the levels, the worlds.
There are six of them, and of course, each one has its own aesthetic.
But this is where it gets interesting.
Because the aesthetic evolves.
And I think the savannah world is a great example.
In level one, it’s this picturesque African scene…
From there, you move onto a nearby river gorge, everything’s still upbeat…but in the third
level, things start to change.
You’re hit by a dust storm.
And it’s gradually getting worse.
Suddenly, lighting strikes to strike, and by the fourth level…
That lightning’s turned the savannah into a hell-scape.
It’s the same world, same environment…but it’s like a whole new place.
And the places aren’t the only thing that’s new.
There’s also a couple new Kongs along for the ride.
In addition to Diddy Kong, who returns from the original…you also have Dixie and Cranky.
And if you’ve never played Donkey Kong Country Returns, uh…it’s a little different from
the original Country games in that, the other Kongs aren’t really playable.
They’re more like power-ups.
And each one gives Donkey Kong a different ability, but you can really look at them like
two groups.
Diddy and Dixie offer temporary boosts in midair.
Diddy has jetpacks that let you hover, and Dixie’s spinning ponytail helps you reach
higher ledges.
But then there’s Cranky Kong.
Who’s, like…
The only person in his group is Scrooge McDuck.
The new Kongs play a huge role in the game’s level design.
Specifically, the creativity of the level design.
By basically adding two new jumping mechanics, that really opens up the design to a lot of
new ideas.
You’re making different kinds of jumps, you might need certain characters to collect
certain items…again, it’s the same core gameplay as the first game.
As tight and responsive as ever.
Just…tweaked.
And added to.
And more creative than ever.
And you know, that’s this game in a nutshell.
Or a banana peel, I guess?
There’s nothing new here, necessarily…but there’s not much that’s predictable, either.
And when the game does give you something you know, it spins it around like it’s blasted
out of a barrel.
Head over heels, twelve times a second, until what you thought you knew…is blowing your
mind all over again.
And I’m not just saying that because the monkey paid me to.
Although the monkey did pay me to.
It’s Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, for the Nintendo Wii U.