The Donkey Kong Country franchise has produced some of the best platforming titles in the Nintendo catalogue and the latest is no different. Compared to the venerable Mario games, Donkey Kong Country has always aimed to be more difficult and the designers have certainly done an excellent job of achieving that goal this time. Tropical Freeze will test your reflexes and muscle memory to a level approaching Super Meat Boy or even, wait for it, Battletoads.
The levels themselves are eye candy. The attention to detail is great, from the simple little flourishes on the characters and enemies, to the sense of scale of every zone. Each one is quite a bit longer than what we are used to compared to typical a platformer. There are checkpoints on these levels, some even get multiple… and you will be using them often. The variety matches the detail – you will see some interesting jumping zones, some puzzle areas, riding areas, and the "ever popular" mine cart areas.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention how excellent the boss fight are in this game – not only challenging, but inventive in having to figure out a new boss' attack patterns and exploit your surroundings to properly fight them. I will say, besides the first boss – you will probably not defeat any boss on first try. Your goal in these battles early on should be to stay alive long enough to see as many different attack types as possible.
The single player mode has you controlling Donkey Kong (hence the billing on the marquee) with the opportunity to have one of 3 buddy characters assist you during gameplay. Donkey Kong himself handles like an agile tank: he can jump high and navigate terrain well but he always manages to maintain a degree of heft when he jumps and you'll spend much time trying to perfect your understanding of his jumping arcs and natural "flight pattern" if you will. The buddy characters each add their own distinct benefits to you: Dixie Kong uses her ponytail like a helicopter to let you reach slightly higher for a few moments which is both spectacular for reaching objects slightly higher than your jump or extending to reach a little further on your leaps of faith; Diddy Kong brings his coconut jetpack back to let you hover for a moment; Cranky Kong finally joins in and he uses his cane to pull a Scrooge McDuck cane hop to help you pass over dangerous terrain and get a little more height on your jumps. Needless to say, you'll find that the right ally can make all the difference for beating that tough level.That's not to say your companion buddies make the game easy… No companion could make some of these levels considered easy.
You will die.
You will die frequently. You will probably even die at the exact same spot 10 times in a row and consider throwing your Wii-U pad at the wall but remember that you can't just go pick up a replacement controller at the store yet and will have find some new really epic swearwords to release your frustration appropriately. Not helping any is that the controller mapping on this title is infuriating. I use either the control pad or the Wii-U Pro Controller so why the hell are their more than two buttons on them? Nintendo seems perfectly happy to have all commands dumbed down so that they can be played on the older Wii controllers… yeah that's friggin' super but how about I get to map the commands I want appropriately instead of have to press the button perfectly to get the result I need?
If for some reason you feel that the game has not destroyed your will sufficiently, there is a Co-operative mode. You and your buddy will play simultaneously and each of you only get 2 health points – instead of single player when your 2 health points stacks with your buddy's 2 health points. If mastering the levels solo wasn't tough enough, coordinating some of these jumps and battles will become a great way to lose a friend. If you or your friend get easily frustrated do not do it. Another caution: the mode works exceptionally well except for when you are trying to switch out characters mid-game. To do so, you have to leave the game, turn off the controller, turn controller back on, and re-enter the game. Nobody thought that someone might enjoy switching a character ever?
All in all, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is not just a must have for Wii-U owners, I think it is a console seller title and it should entice some people to go out and get the machine to play this game.
- Tazman
The Good:
- One of the prettiest games available for the Wii-U
- Incredibly challenging
- Co-operative mode works pretty darn well and adds an even greater challenge
The Bad:
- Lousy controller lay-out, no options to re-map the buttons
- Switching characters in Co-op mode could not be a bigger pain if you tried
Score: 9.0 / 10
