Donkey Kong Country Returns Tropical Freeze

[ZeroAX]

So I've been enjoying my Wii U and looking online for various games to play. I've always been a fan of the DKC series, but I saw we have no thread for the latest one. So I decied to make this thread, and see what you guys think.

I loved the original DKC, but never finished the first DKCR game on the Wii. The waggle was just unbearable for me, especially for such an important move as the roll.

Other than that though, I also found the level design bland and kind of shamy. Also it wasn't focused so much on bashing bad guy heads like the original DKC trilogy, instead focusing more on avoiding bottomless pits and off screen hazards.

Would you say the Wii U sequel is a big enough improvement on the original? I know there's no more waggle, but I'm really curious about the quality of the level design.

[BogusMeatFactory]

It is a huge improvement. The game is very challenging, but doesn't cross into frustrating, there is a lot of secrets and collectibles, so there is replay ability. The only downside I can say about the game is that multiplayer ups the difficulty to an egregious degree. You share lives and it seems like the level design did not take this mode into consideration.

Solo play though is spot on 100%.

[Flake]

It is a great game! I am slowly making my way through it but it's definitely challenging.

[8bit]

It is a great game! I am slowly making my way through it but it's definitely challenging.

Agreed. I'd also like to note that the levels are also very long. These are not the short 60-90 second bursts like a Mario game but rather detailed 3-5 min levels (which adds to the challenge as there is more opportunity to fail and have to repeat long sections between checkpoints).

[Stark]

You should check out the original, as in Donkey Kong Country Returns, on 3DS. No waggle, obviously.

[Xeogred]

I am disappointed ZeroAX! Did you try to get over the waggle? I really don't think it's game breaking or anything. I personally think Returns and Tropical Freeze are about even... the difficulty is a slower curve in Returns but it definitely skyrockets later on (I'd say these are harder than the SNES games). Returns has more worlds and more blatant throwbacks to DKC with the factory world and awesome stuff like that, some of my top favorite levels were in that world. Tropical Freeze is different in that it has less worlds, but the levels are generally a lot bigger, and the difficulty kicks off right where Returns leaves off, pretty much hard mode from the start. Musically I probably lean towards Returns more, since it had more remakes and the tunes seemed a bit catchier (you can hear the Metroid Prime influence/sounds as well sometimes), but graphically... Tropical Freeze is absolutely gorgeous. I'm extremely picky about non-sprite 2D platformers, for looking too busy or just having terrible aesthetics in general, but these games look amazing and still capture that cool atmosphere the original games had. No worthless stories either, these games get right to the action and deliver.

That really sums it up. Is discerning that some fans pick and choose between the two, I think they're both incredible. I don't have an easy time getting into any post 16/32bit 2D platformers, and so it blew me away how much I loved these. As much as I want Retro to return to Metroid, I'd love for them to do one more DKC to close off their own trilogy and maybe bring back the Kremlins. That's my one gripe... does Rare own those characters or something? K Rool needs to make a comeback.

[ZeroAX]

Sorry I couldn't get over it, because it was being used for such an important move :/. And I never wanted to risk my money on buying the 3DS version and then not liking it. Also as I said, it seemed to have a different focus in level design compared to the originals.

That was probably my problem mind you. I'm sure the games themselves are wonderful games, it's just that I was expecting Donkey Kong Country 4, and instead I got something new and different. mind you it was probably for the best that they went on a different direction.




So there are less level themes in this game? And yeah, the villains in both games were just....meh. Where are the Kremlins?

[Xeogred]

I don't see anything fundamentally different about Tropical Freeze's level design compared to Returns though. Returns isn't different from the originals... they both are. Tropical Freeze just has longer levels and brings back underwater stuff. Also thankfully they gave you two hits in the rocket stages, that was a one shot thing in Returns. Obviously yeah they're different and I like that about them, they have a more to the point linear focus compared to the originals to me.

Returns has 8 worlds, I think Tropical Freeze has 6. The lengthy and beautiful levels of Tropical Freeze makes up for it, but Returns had more variety. Both have bonus levels though that are insanely difficult but awesome. Like rom hacking level madness.

Returns has a Factory world. Gets a 10/10 for that alone. I don't think anything in Tropical Freeze was as awesome as this level: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y16pYyRwuRQ

I think this is one case that tops the original track:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQMmMxr605o

My disappoint is that David Wise didn't knock it out of the park when he returned to Tropical Freeze. I almost think it was a downgrade. He went for more ambiance/atmosphere as compared to Kenji Yamamoto and his teams more melodic focus. It was still amazing stuff, but the Returns music has stuck with me more. So in retrospect the SNES's limitations may have been part of the recipe for David Wise' perfection with the DKC tracks.

eh I just love both games a lot. I'd take them over DKC3, and I still like that one a lot too.

[Tanooki]

Sorry I couldn't get over it, because it was being used for such an important move :/. And I never wanted to risk my money on buying the 3DS version and then not liking it. Also as I said, it seemed to have a different focus in level design compared to the originals.

That was probably my problem mind you. I'm sure the games themselves are wonderful games, it's just that I was expecting Donkey Kong Country 4, and instead I got something new and different. mind you it was probably for the best that they went on a different direction.

So there are less level themes in this game? And yeah, the villains in both games were just....meh. Where are the Kremlins?

I had it, actually both, and still technically due to a club reward the 3DS one but I erased it. Your problem with the Wii version was my problem, important stuff tied to waggle while trying to platform, they did this with Mario too, and even on WiiU they did look at the touch pad stuff to play bits -- very annoying and flow breaking. But really what got me was trying to act like it's a throwback to the SNES trio but really the look was there, but the feel definitely wasn't. They amped up the difficulty notably then made the stages as stated like 5min long which just made them get annoying and tiresome after the first few worlds and I'd just wish a stage would end and it would keep going. There was a general less obvious change in variety so it just helped it feel dragged out further so I just put it down and ended my time with it.

[BogusMeatFactory]

Tanooki, you never played tropical freeze if you think they used the gamepad touch screen for things. The screen is blank unless you select off tv play. There are zero touch screen features.