Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze Review

I've always loved Donkey Kong Country! The Super Nintendo trilogy was packed to the brim with creative and challenging levels that were memorable and left an impression; each level had its own theme and gimmick that meant you could never mistake it for another. The revival on Wii from 2010, Donkey Kong Country Returns, was also an outstanding game in the same ways. Tropical Freeze continues to provide the same dynamic and creative levels that the series has always given us, but it's hard to not wish Retro Studios had done a little bit more.





So first off, what's new in this game? What sets this one apart from the previous 4 entries? Well first of all, the characters. Instead of an expanding roster of characters, the DKC games have always had more of a shifting roster that maxes out at 2. The first game starred Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong, then Diddy Kong and Dixie Kong in the sequel, then Dixie Kong and Kiddie Kong in 3, and Returns came full circle and brought it back to simply DK and Diddy. This game takes a different approach, and is the first game in the series to provide more than 2 playable characters. In addition to the returning DK and Diddy, Dixie Kong is now playable as well, and for the first time in a DKC game you can even take control of Cranky Kong! The characters are all very unique with pros and cons over each other, but truthfully, they're also the cause of some of the game's biggest frustrations.

 Obviously multiple unique characters is a good thing, and they really deliver in that regard in Tropical Freeze. Diddy uses his trademark jetpack from Donkey Kong 64 the same way he did in Returns, Dixie can get extra jump height off of her ponytail spin, and Cranky Kong can bounce around on his cane like a pogo stick ala Scrooge McDuck. In single player, you actively get to switch between these partner Kongs, which is brilliant in my opinion. You can enter a level with Diddy, but realize mid-way that it's more suited for Cranky. That's not a problem because you can easily switch between them if you find a barrel! This keeps things fresh and interesting and frequently gives you the opportunity to experiment with different playstyles. But as I mentioned, the system is flawed as well.

First of all, you can only have 2 players at a time. At first I thought it was kind of weird since we're in an age where 2D platformers like New Super Mario Bros., Rayman Legends, and Kirby's Return to Dreamland encourage co-op for up to 4 players, but truthfully the levels here really are not built for 4 players so it's understandable. Hell, honestly, there are times where things get too chaotic for even 2. The next important thing to note is that Player 1 is always locked into Donkey Kong, in single player or multiplayer. This is kind of a huge bummer to be honest. If you're playing alone, you'll always be DK, and you'll encounter your friends as you go along. When you find them, they'll hop on your shoulder and lend you their special abilities, like Diddy's jetpack and Cranky's cane bounce. That's a nice touch and definitely very helpful, but...why can't I just pick the character I want and go into the level with them? Even in co-op, player 1 HAS to be DK, while player 2 can freely change between the 3 Kongs. It was the same way with Diddy in Returns, but when one of the focuses of this game is the diversity among playable characters, why can't you enjoy them fully outside of co-op? It seems like an unnecessary restriction that honestly leaves me wondering what they were thinking, and it doesn't help that Donkey Kong is a slow and boring character with no special abilities while the rest of the cast is so exciting. There's also the issue that when you're playing co-op, you lose two lives every time you die, even if one of the players was already dead. This honestly makes no sense and serves only to drain away all your lives in the blink of an eye; my partner and I bought roughly 50 extra lives and were stunned to see that they were all almost gone after just a handful of levels. All these restrictions and complications honestly make me want to say that Tropical Freeze is better as a single player game than a multiplayer one.

Climbing across the puppets in Grassland Grove was a huge highlight.

But beyond all that, when you get to the meat of the game itself, ohhhhhh my God it's really good. While this has been the case with all DKC games, Returns and Tropical Freeze specialize in very dynamic levels. You're going along what seems to be a simple path, but suddenly, something happens that radically changes the gameplay of the level! Paths dip and rise, floors break beneath your feet, everything is constantly changing. Even so, the game gets you in this really cool sense of concentration where no matter what happens, you still know exactly where you need to go and what you need to do. There were times during my co-op playthrough that I got stuck, but more often than not, instinct and common sense were enough to guide me through. That's not to say this game is easy! Because, um...it isn't. At all. The DKC games have always been infamously difficult, with most agreeing that Returns was the most relentless of all upon its release. I'll just say this; if you thought Returns was hard, Tropical Freeze will beat your ass without hesitation. But it almost feels...good, y'know?

Like...it's hard as shit. It's one of the hardest games I've ever beaten, probably among the hardest I've ever played. But every time I died, I had this really weird three-step reaction that went like this:

1)  Make an angry grunt in frustration.
2) Look over at my friend in shock with my jaw hanging open.
3) Burst into hysterical laughter.

Accurately representative of my friend and I after finishing an obnoxious level.

A lot of the time I got mad, a lot of the time I got genuinely really frustrated with the game and myself. But instead of getting so frustrating I wanted to stop, it gave that perfect amount of frustration that gives you a kick in the ass and heightens your senses and encourages you to go back and try again. As early as the second world there were levels that I got stuck on for an embarrassing amount of time, but sitting down, putting all of your focus into what you're doing, and giving it your best effort doesn't go unrewarded. The feeling of satisfaction you get from blazing through a difficult level is probably the best part of the game.

Anyway, the premise is that DK and his friends have DK Island taken over by a group of animal vikings called the "Snowmads". While my initial reaction was disappointment that the Kremlings were continuing to be ignored, I gotta say, the more time I spent beating these guys up the more they grew on me. They have such an adorable, distinct style to them. Like, there are these little penguins that wear pointy viking helmets and carry around fishbones as swords, and these big fat viking walruses, and these goofy-ass viking owls, and every single one of the enemy designs is adorable and creative in-game. While I don't know if they're as likeable as the enemies in the SNES trilogy, these guys are much more memorable and well thought-out than the rather generic Tiki Tribe from DKC Returns.

The bosses though? Um...well, I'd say they're a mixed bag. On one hand, they're all pretty creative and fun to fight against, and each have several stages that introduce new attacks and give you a new way to damage them. Dynamic and multi-tiered bosses are definitely a plus in my book, but on the flipside, most of them are unreasonably long and difficult. If you spend 5 minutes fighting a boss down to his last stage of attacks, then slip up and get yourself killed, you gotta go back to the very beginning. Replaying a level after dying in DKC: TF is usually not so bad; they're pretty, you find hidden bonus rooms and other secrets, you can go through as fast as you'd like, it's not so bad. But replaying the same damn boss battle 20 times is different. You can't really speed it up, you're not doing anything new, you can't really employ new strategies, you're just doing the same silly fight over and over until you have the pattern memorized and can survive the entire battle. But God help you if you make a single misstep, because you'll end up doing it all over again from the very beginning. I got stuck on several levels throughout the adventure, but every boss after the very first one gave me more trouble than I would've liked. I'm not the most skilled player perhaps, but I don't consider myself an idiot either. When I know what to do against a boss, I try my very best several times, and I STILL have trouble dodging a particular cheap attack or landing a really-freakin'-hard-to-land hit, I think that speaks more about the quality of your boss than the quality of my play. Like I said they bring forth new ideas, but none of them have any checkpoints or cut you any slack. Maybe some people enjoy this, but with fights as long as these, they feel more frustrating and drawn-out than fresh and new.

And of course, as you could guess, the visuals and music are absolutely without equal. The original Donkey Kong Country revolutionized the way people looked at graphics in games, and at music in games. That game's release marked a complete turnaround in so many ways during that era; this was the point where 3D graphics really seemed like the future, and where video game music and actual music started to sound more like the same thing. Every subsequent installment did a great job at keeping that standard raised high, and Tropical Freeze absolutely knocks it out of the park. The graphics are colorful and diverse, no two levels alike. I'm not kidding, and any jerk-ass reviewer who tells you otherwise doesn't know what they're doing. This may be the first game where I could literally count the furs on DK's back; everything is so organic and colorful, but so detailed and realistic. The cherry on top of this game's wonderful presentation is that David Wise, composer of DKC 1 2 and 3, is back on-board and gives some absolutely top-notch music to this game's soundtrack. Remixes and original music alike are phenomenal and fitting, and there were more than a few moments where I legitimately felt goosebumps just enjoying the atmosphere that the graphics and soundtrack set. It's...it's something, man.

The shop is much more up-played than in the last installment, thankfully.

Lastly, let's talk about the collectibles and secrets. First, there are a lot of banana coins this time to be spent at the shop, where you can buy lots of cool upgrades like extra lives, extra hitpoints, balloons that save you from falling down pits, etc. Unlike previous games you really don't need to make much of an effort to go out of your way and look for these coins, and also unlike those games, the shop's items are much more affordable and helpful. I found myself going to check the shop out every few levels and it was cool to have these options available. There are also, like in Returns, a set number of puzzle pieces and 4 KONG letters in every level. You have to go a little bit out of your way to get the KONG letters, but the puzzle pieces are, in my opinion, a complete waste of time. There are up to 9 in every level, and while you'll almost always at least get 2 or 3, you've really got to either a) have a walkthrough or b) spend a WHOLE lot of time to find every last one of them throughout the entire game. Unlike Mario 3D World, this is NOT the kind of game that I enjoy 100%ing and I have no plans to go back and do that (I'm still not sure how I survived long enough to see the end credits roll, to tell you the truth). But if you're a collector and completionist, you'll be pleased to know that there are plenty of cryptically hidden objects awaiting you.

In the end, the game lives up to the high standards set by the games that precede it, even if there are a few areas that I would've liked to see Retro do more with. I would've liked more animal buddies to ride than just Rambi the rhino, I would've liked for the boss battles to have been a little bit less unforgiving, and most of all, I really don't appreciate the arbitrary restrictions put on character selection for no reason. Every character has the ability to get through the game on their own and locking me into Donkey Kong, almost indisputably the most boring of the bunch, honestly feels like a misstep. I don't know how Mario 3D World can do character selection and co-op so right, but just a few months later another huge 1st party Nintendo title can manage to screw it up so badly. But when all's said and done, Retro still managed to craft an absolutely masterful platformer. It's gorgeous to look at, amazing to listen to, and it feels so, so right to play. There are some kinks to be worked out, but at its core, this is one of the most rewarding 2D platformers of the past decade.

8/10