Review-
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is a game that has garnered a lot of disdain from the gaming community. Whether it was the idea that this games existence meant that Nintendo truly is out of ideas when it comes to new experiences. Or whether it was the other argument of them wasting the incredible talent and potential of the game developer Retro Studios. I always looked at it as retro simply continuing a trilogy of a game series they revived, much like they did with Metroid so many years ago. So is Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze simply what people thought it would be? A simple, safe, and familiar sequel? Or is it a truly ambitious game filled to the brim with new ideas for the Donkey Kong Country series? The answer actually lies at a happy medium, and not a full-blown yes or no for both scenarios.
Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze controls like your traditional side-scrolling 2-D platformer. Much like the original you will be jumping on platforms, and from left to right avoiding hazards such as pits that lead you to fall to your death. Much like the previous title, platform stages vary greatly and you will not always be traversing on foot through the stages. The game controls are tight and responsive, and Donkey Kong’s weight feels great. He has a bit of a float, but his weight feels just right for timing specific jumps that are tricky. The only time you will feel a little out of control is when you do the ground pound and roll maneuvers. The abilities are mapped to the same button with the only difference being the that you can press down on the d-pad to do a roll. This at times can cause accidental deaths when trying to do a pound near a ledge, and you end up rolling off the edge instead. But this seemed to rarely happen, and Retro Studios gives multiple button layouts options for the gamepad, and pro controller.
Platforming mechanics from previous game make there return such as the rocket barrel, Rambi the rhino, and the mine cart. These stages do a great job in breaking up the traditional platforming stages found in the game. They do however at times feel very familiar to the previous title, even if the locales have changed considerably from the first
game.

Retro studios have done a great job in adding some newer platforming mechanics to the game. The first is the return of the underwater levels, found in the previous Donkey Kong Country trilogy. These stages are a beautiful edition to the game and play wonderfully. These underwater segments add another lair of variety in traversal of the stages, and overall level design of the game. These segments also give other levels, where swimming is not the full focus an excellent extra lair in-depth when it comes to exploration and finding secrets of the level. The only downside to these new stages, is the absence of Enguarde the Swordfish from the original Donkey Kong Country trilogy. Unfortunately he is not included, and it seems like a missed opportunity to give the levels even more diversity.

The second most noticeable inclusion to the new platforming mechanics is the Dynamic Camera Angles. These camera affects basically do a shift from the traditional 2D plain into a 3D plain. While these camera affects mostly occur during barrel blasts there are some special cases, where the camera angles add another…’’dimension’’ in certain platforming segments, where you have more control. The angles are always entertaining, and do a good job in showing just how much depth these the levels have. The Dynamic Camera was clearly made with a lot of care and consideration to the situation you are in. I can’t remember a time in my play through when I thought they were actually ruining or causing unnecessary deaths during the game. They add variety and offer a nice break from what would other wise be familiar plat forming for the series.

In addition to Diddy Kong making a return as a playable character, 2 other kongs join in as choices for playable characters. Cranky Kong is one of the new additions and he has his own unique ability of using his cane to bounce. This gives the player extra height after a landing and gives you the ability to jump on hazards you wouldn’t normally be able to. Dixie Kong is the other option and she serves as more of a buffed Diddy in a sense. Not only does she give a float jump. Dixie is also able to gain extra height while in mid-air with her pony-tail. When playing as a single player one Kong can be brought along or acquired during a stage. This provides Donkey Kong their abilities to use in the stages, and also gives him extra hearts.
The Kong’s do offer variety when it comes to control and different play styles for the player. Unfortunately however they are not fully used to their potential. Some levels will only allow you with a certain Kong to use. However they are not required to complete these stages. And most other stages simply give you the option to select any of them to use at your discretion. This is done by smashing barrels that are laid out through the stages. This is once again a missed opportunity when It comes to creating variety for the game levels. If the Kong’s were used as simply power-ups, their could have been even more potential in some of these stages. One of the best things about platformers are when stages make you master specific mechanics of the game. It is not that none of the stages offer this, far from it in fact. But when some of the stages feel this familiar to the previous game, it would have been nice to see what stages could be made with the different Kong’s provided.

Those aren’t all the of the slight alterations though. One thing this game lacks from the previous title, is the super guide. Rather than having the super guide in this game retro has included are some new items in the shop to use. By using banana coins collected throughout the stages you can buy a variety of items from the in-game shop provided. All the items from the previous game make a return as well as some new ones. Two examples of these new items are a green balloon that lifts DK back up from the pit he may fall into during a stage. And the other being a an extra vehicle heart for stages that involve the mine cart or rocket barrel. These items are of course optional, and you never feel gimped without them.
The only issue I have with the technical side of things are the loading screens. Specifically the Initial launch of the game once you’ve selected your control method. It just takes longer than one would expect. There are also times when abruptly a stage could take slightly longer to load into. They occur rarely though and do little to dampen the flow of the game. The game does run beautifully in stages and has a very clean smooth look, when it comes visuals and frame rate.
One of the biggest knocks against Donkey Kong Country: Returns was the lackluster, or unimaginative presentation. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze has remedied that greatly this time around. The art direction of this game is top-notch, and the stages have a great variety when it comes to the environments. Stages that range anywhere from jumping on parade animals, beautiful silhouette scenes, swinging through a beehive, or swimming under the sea. It all does a great job in capturing the feel of the Donkey Kong Country Series. The other criticism of returns was the at times the uninspired music. The music in this however is extremely diverse, and entertaining all the way through. The whole game just sounds and looks great, and it is great to see such a minor thing to some like music be handled so well.
Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze is a tough thing to grade definitively. On the one-hand the game looks, and plays fantastic. On the other it honestly seems like retro played it too safe when it comes to the overall game design. there are some missed opportunities when it comes to the possibilities of level variety, and design. But that doesn’t take away from the great things Retro Studios did do to expand some of the design choices of the previous game. The Dynamic Camera angles add a great new spin on the levels, the underwater segments expand greatly on level exploration, and the platforming despite being too familiar at time is hands down better than what its predecessor offered. Overall Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is a great game, but it is just unfortunate that Retro left so much on the table. If you are a fan of the original Donkey Kong Country trilogy or the previous game returns, then I can’t recommend it highly enough. But if you are someone who is expecting a HUGE revolution in terms of level design from the previous title, than you could be left still feeling relatively Luke-warm even after completing it.