Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze was originally released on the Wii U back in 2014. I actually did not play this game until the Switch port of the game released earlier this month, as I am not (and will never be) a Wii U owner.
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze starts off with the Kong family celebrating DK's birthday. Just as he is about to blow out the candle, he notices a snowflake fly past him. An army of Pointy Tucks invade DK Island, using a horn to blow massive icy winds, sending DK and the rest of the gang flying and turning their home into an icy wasteland.
Similar to Returns, you go through various platforming levels while facing some of the many challenges the game throws at you. The main playable character is, of course, Donkey Kong, but this time there are more characters joining the adventure. Diddy Kong returns to this game with the same mechanics as the previous game. Also joining the fray include; Dixie Kong, who has her Helicopter Ponytail from the SNES game for extra airtime, Cranky Kong, who is basically Scrooge McDuck in terms of gameplay and Funky Kong, who has a double jump, surfboard for airtime and travelling through spikes with no harm and unlimited air for underwater travel. Funky, however, is part of is own mode for those who may not be too confident to take on the main game and its challenges. Funky Kong also has 5 hearts instead of two like the rest.
Funky Kong's shop returns, where you can buy Balloons, power-ups, and Squawks, who will help find those puzzle pieces in a level.
Personally, I use Dixie Kong the most in that game, as I feel she has the best abilities of the bunch, plus I played her the most in DKC2 and 3.
There are 6 worlds in this game, two less than Returns in terms of main game content, but the developers decided to make levels longer to try to make up for it. I don't know... I really don't think that making the levels longer is a good trade-off for lessening the number of worlds to go to. This is a similar problem that I had with Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams, where the levels would drag out far longer than they should do.
The soundtrack is a massive step up from Returns as well, with full-on rock themes for bosses to fantastic renditions of level themes from the older games. I especially got a kick out of hearing an orchestrated version of the Underwater theme from Donkey Kong Country 2, as that was one of the best tracks in that game.
Overall, DKC Tropical Freeze, while slightly held back by unnecessary level length is one of the best Switch games that I have played so far. I'm glad that this game got a Switch port, despite the controversy surrounding Wii U to Switch ports. If you need a platformer fix or you haven't played this game yet, I suggest you go and pick this title up right now!