To put it simply, if you only like 2D platformers then Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is a must play. If you love them, it’s almost certain to become one of your favourite games of all time. Nintendo weren’t lying when they said “Funky Mode” because this is one funky game indeed!
If a 2D platformer gets everything spot on but messes up the way the characters control, it’s going to be a frustrating experience no matter what. Tropical Freeze absolutely nails how Donkey Kong moves, from his jump to his roll and beyond. The really solid foundation from Donkey Kong Country Returns (another excellent game and one of the reasons I bought this game) seems like it’s been refined to a tee. On more than one occasion I thought I was going to die but the controls are so tight that they allow you to get out of tricky situations and it feels so so good every time you do so.
There are 3 Kong buddies that you can find in barrels throughout every level to accompany Donkey Kong; Diddy Kong, who is back from DKCR, Dixie Kong and Cranky Kong. Each of them add a different dimension to your movement, for example Diddy Kong has a jetpack that can give you extra time in the air with each jump. If you play multiplayer, your Player 2 will play as one of these 3 Kongs.
In regards to level design, there isn’t much that I can say besides that it just might be perfect. Going hand in hand with this is the excellent difficulty curve. There’s never too drastic a jump in the level of difficulty and it still manages to get challenging so you aren’t gonna just breeze through each level on autopilot. You will die. That being said, thanks to the genius level design, very rarely, if ever, does a death feel like anything other than your own fault. There aren’t any insane pits or enemies that come out of nowhere, just precise platforming and you feel so good every time you manage to beat a particularly challenging level. If it did ever become too hard though, you could always decide to play as Funky Kong instead (although you can’t switch between Funky Mode and Classic Mode on the fly) and he’ll grant you boons such as extra hearts.
Aside from simply beating each level, there are things to collect as well if you are so inclined! Every level has 4 KONG letters (would it be kinda cool if the letters of our names were just floating around in real life?) and a certain amount of puzzle pieces to find. Every time you manage to collect all of the puzzle pieces in a level, you’ll unlock an image that showcases concept art and the like. While you’ll find some very easily, others will require some intentional searching. There will also be a bonus room or two to find in every level; collect all of the bananas in one to get a puzzle piece. If you’re having trouble finding some you can buy Squawks from the shop to help you sniff them out. The KONG letters are a lot more straightforward, you’ll find the vast majority of them by just playing through each level. Collecting all of them in a world will unlock an extra level. There are also a few secret exits per world that unlock even more levels!!!
Using your banana coins, you can buy figures from the shop of various characters and enemies. While perhaps not quite a collectathon on the level of Donkey Kong 64, there is certainly a sufficient amount of content here. At the end of every world you’ll have to fight a boss (boss fights at the end of a world in a platformer?? I am shocked!) and these range from a giant pufferfish to a walrus. They’ll generally only take a couple of tries to defeat as you nail their pattern down, although I struggled with the final boss for a while (will pretend that he was hard and that I’m good at video games, I swear).
I have to talk about the presentation of this game too, like it didn’t have to be so good. The animations are all slick and fluid and the HD really elevates the looks of the Donkey Kong series. The backgrounds are genuinely stunning to look at sometimes and the levels where all you can see are the silhouettes of the characters are simply spellbinding. And, of course, the music is sublime. There were a couple of times where I had to put the controller down and just listen to the music. When ‘Aquatic Ambiance Returns’ kicked in for the first time? Chills.
If you like great games and haven’t played Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, do yourself a favour. You won’t regret it. And Nintendo, get Retro to complete this modern Donkey Kong Country series as a trilogy please!
Occasional Video Game Reviews 