Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

When Retro Studios released Donkey Kong Country Returns back in 2010 they showcased to me their ability to meet an incredibly high standard of quality despite genre hopping. Much like with the Metroid Prime Trilogy, Retro took over the reins of the Donkey Kong Country series and created pure platforming poetry. The intense difficulty, tight mobile controls, and masterfully designed levels were all series standards that had all been well met, but Retro stepped further by introducing outrageous level hazards, highly destructible environments, interacting planes, and dynamic bosses. With Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze Retro is noticeably attempting to take some creative steps further than Returns; Dixie Kong and Cranky Kong have now joined the cast of playable characters, the classic underwater levels are back, and the game touts more thoughtful aesthetics and even bolder obstacles for you to encounter.

The story in this game is pretty simple, the Kong family gets expelled from their home island by an army of arctic themed animals, and they must travel through several themed islands in order to return to their home and recapture it. So the big new feature here are the two new buddies you have at your disposal, Dixie and Cranky. When Dixie is equipped she can use her hair to briefly hover and lift Donkey Kong up slightly, she is also able to shoot bubblegum pellets at enemies to stun them and use her hair as a propeller underwater. Cranky uses his cane as an enhanced jumping ability (just like that of Scrooge McDuck) and can use his cane to attack enemies underwater. Both characters are fun to switch between however Dixie Kong's advanced hover ability kinda renders Diddy Kong completely useless, it would have been nice if Diddy had more of a trump card over the other buddy Kongs. It's so much fun using these different Kongs that I also wish you had the ability to play solo as each of them outside of hard mode...

Let's talk about level design now; as I'd mentioned earlier Retro makes more attempts to up the wow factor in this game. Nearly every level in this game presents a very cool and unique idea and a lot of the time they're blood pumping; like navigating through saws in a woodmill, escaping an F5 tornado in the middle of a thunder storm, or scaling a mountain during a massive avalanche, these are only just a fraction of the insane obstacles you'll face in Tropical Freeze! There is a greater attention to aesthetics in this game as well. Instead of the very basic motifs presented in DKC Returns (i.e. "Beach World", "Forest World", Factory World", etc.) This game puts you in more thoughtful environments like a mountainous Nordic colony, an African style savanna, and an entire island dedicated to fruit processing lol!!! The boss battles are also a highlight in this game, you'll encounter everything from phantom ninja monkeys to a giant sledge hammer wielding polar bear!!! And these fights are quite dynamic and challenging.

There really aren't many things I can complain about with this game with the exception of a few design inconsistencies. You already heard me talk about Diddy's uselessness, but there's also some imbalances within the game's difficulty curve as well. The difficulty curve from Donkey Kong Country Returns was a textbook example of a smooth incline, but Tropical Freeze's curve is a tad bit off. You'll occasionally encounter incredibly long and ruthless stages followed by relatively short and easy ones. There are some incredibly challenging levels presented within the first half of the game and a few levels that were insultingly easy in the later half. There are "hidden exits" and alternate routes that would act as work arounds for some of the game's harder levels, but a few of these hidden paths were pointless at times. Even if some levels like the Jelly Jamboree or Bramble Scramble felt way too easy I still have to give the developers credit for presenting fun ideas in nearly every level regardless of it's difficulty. And overall the game presents a very stiff challenge that only the most seasoned of 2D-platformer fans can tough out.

Presentation wise this game does pretty well. The graphics are colourful and inoffensive, but the real story here is that legendary video game music producer David Wise returns to the series that made him such an icon and delivers this game's soundtrack. It's jazzy at times, epic, mystical, and tons of fun! Here's just a snippet of what Wise brings to the table for this marvellous soundtrack!

So there you have it, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze is yet another grand entry into this stellar series. It builds off of the foundation Retro Studios laid down with their last title and achieves success in nearly every way possible. This game will give you some of the toughest challenges and intense moments you'll ever encounter in a 2D-platformer, I guarantee you that! And with such a great emphasis on design boldness and creativity this is easily one of the WiiU's best titles. Please DO NOT sleep on this game!