Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze - Review

Donkey Kong is back for one more swing, but is this a fresh pick from the bunch or something better to be thrown out?

The story in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is very lite on story, but the basic story is that Snowmads have decided to take over the island. After locating the Kong’s the leader of the Snowmads uses a giant horn to summon an ice dragon that causes the Kong’s to be blown away and the island transformed into a land of snow and ice.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze plays almost identically to Returns and that’s not a bad thing. Controlling Donkey Kong is perhaps even easier this time thanks to the abundance of control options, personally I played through the game with Wii U Pro Controller. And perhaps even cooler is the fact that Retro have added the option to customize each controller to suit how you want to play.

Each of the worlds has a singular theme but they are not restricted by that, in the desert world there are still water areas. Sadly we are still only presented with the base world flavours, Jungle, Desert, Water, and Ice and so on, it would have been great if we got some industrial levels like the snes games. But that is my only complaint regarding levels, they are superbly designed with each feeling different yet continuing the theme of the world.

Take the level that see’s you making your way through a saw mill on a mine cart, the fake out when the cart breaks and you are thrown through the air and land in a piece of wood moving through water was amazing. The shadow levels are also amazing in their detail, while you can’t see a whole lot it is the lack of what you can see that makes them so great.

Donkey Kong is joined once again by Diddy Kong and now Dixie and Cranky, making the ways in order to move through each level different depending on if you are solo or with a companion. Diddy returns with his jetpack that allows you to hover for a few seconds, Dixie adds the ability to be able to climb higher with a flick of her pony tail and Cranky allows you to bounce across prickles and even armed enemies thanks to his cane/pogo stick.  But movement is not the only perk to come with the characters, as you progress through the levels, collecting bananas along the way you fill your Kong POW meter.

Kong POW gives you a once off move that will destroy all enemies on the screen and present you with an award. If you have Diddy Kong you are presented with a 1-up balloon for each enemy taken out. Dixie presents you with gold hearts allowing you to take more hits and Cranky gives you the coins you can use to purchase aids from Funky Kong. Yep, Funky returns and is now running the store when you can purchase extra balloons, extra crash protection for your mine cart, partner barrels and squawk to help locate those hidden puzzle pieces.

So each level gives you many ways to complete it, thanks to the addition of the new characters, 4 letters to collect to spell out KONG and any number of puzzle pieces to unlock art work from the menu, which shows there is a lot of things to do. Add to that the special levels in each world unlocked by collecting all the KONG letters in each stage of the world, including the hidden levels and you will find hours of play there alone, of course then you can take your skills online.

The time attack mode has returned but this time comes along with an online leaderboard, meaning that your hard work to complete a level can now be shared with the world. And if you are struggling to get those precious seconds off your time, you can now download replays from other peoples speed runs so you can see what they are doing different to you, which if you are like me will help greatly. Now speed runs are not for everyone, but adding this simple feature provides even more replay to a game that already had a lot of content.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze looks almost identical, in the style department to the last game and that’s ok. Donkey Kong Country Returns had a great style, and seeing it continuing in this latest adventure is a great thing. Though now that Donkey Kong has been given the HD treatment he looks even better himself, with his actions causing his fur to react accordingly. Each of the other characters similarly looks just as good, and the great facial expression they provide when seething with anger or sorry for something is just spot on.

The enemies are also great, each of the smaller enemies reacts great when taken out by Donkey Kong and the boss’ showing character as they get angry with each hit you land on them. The levels also shine with a depth that we could not get with the Wii, and simple things like a dynamic camera that rotates and moves adds something sublime to the experience. Each world has a singular level that takes the top prize for attention to detail with my favorite being Grassland Groove, working in a great level design, and detail from foreground to background and then a great musical score, this level has it all.

Speaking of music, David Wise returns to compose the music for this new installment. David if you are not familiar was the man behind those tunes we all fell in love with back on the Super Nintendo, and hearing a more modern version of those classic tunes brings back rushes of nostalgia to me and I hope they do to you as well. While there are many instances of the classic tunes making an appearance, it is the new melodies that are incredible, mixing in the old to make something new. Again though Grassland Groove comes to mind, just listen to it below, and you will see that the music in this game is great.

When Retro announced that their new title would be another outing in the world of Donkey Kong, most people were a little annoyed. They had hoped that after the first game they would move back to Metroid and I will be honest, I thought the same. However after spending time with the final game I can assure you that the team at Retro knew they were making the right decision. The game is presented with a polish most games don’t ever meet and provides hours of fun and challenge that will keep you smiling and coming back for more.

The Score

8.5

Review code provided by Nintendo

The Pros

+Gameplay is a real blast and can be replayed a lot

+The co-op works perfectly

The Cons

-The difficulty can be harder for some folks

-This is just more of the same that Returns offered