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Nintendo has a great selection of featured characters from Mario, Link, Yoshi, and Samus, but most people forget about poor Donkey Kong. Even Luigi had his own year in 2013! It’s a shame because the Donkey Kong franchise has had some of Nintendo’s best titles in the last 20 years. With Nintendo’s newest title in the DK Country series, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freezewe have one of the best Wii U titles to date.
When the action first rolls around, Donkey Kong and the other members of his gorilla family are celebrating the big guy’s birthday. Like any good action game, nothing goes according to plan. Poor Donkey Kong’s birthday festivities are ruined by the Snowmads causing the tropical island to freeze. Not exactly exciting by any stretch of the imagination, but the Kong family’s reactions are priceless.
Donkey Kong and his family try to take back their home island and fix the icy escalation and return their tropical paradise to normal. Throughout the game, Donkey Kong travels to all areas of the world, and in my experience, all the worlds are refreshing and unique from one another. He could be playing on an island in one setting and then jumping into a desert in another. The classic variety of levels in Mario games is present in ‘Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze’. The game makes the player want to see the next adventure.
As you try to stumble and bump your way through the story, you’ll notice how simple yet extremely challenging this game is. Like the Mario franchise, Donkey Kong has a limited number of moves available. You can jump on enemies like the famous plumber and take part in exciting platforming challenges, there’s a rolling attack that will take down enemies, and the charming brute is surprisingly agile once he climbs up branches and vines. They all sound simple, but the game provides a brutal way to force yourself to master Donkey Kong’s abilities.
The huge difficulty spike could really dampen the spirits of expert platformers along with younger gamers. The game forces you to have pinpoint accuracy no matter what you’re doing. Whether it’s jumping on a baddie’s head to extinguish him or perfectly timing the creeper’s movements to avoid an obstacle. The game never stops, but when you manage to complete the task that has been giving you trouble, there is hardly a more rewarding experience in the game. It is not dark souls ii level of frustration but it’s close.
In addition to the difficult jump, swing and roll game of Donkey Kong, you will have the opportunity to call his family members. Like the SNES classic donkey kong country, Diddy Kong, Dixie Kong and even the wise Cranky Kong will join the adventure. Diddy Kong will help you in your vertical hang time with his jetpack, Dixie will allow you to stay in the air longer with her pigtails. My personal favorite is Cranky Kong, which will allow you to jump higher and longer with his duck tales Stick-style maneuvers. They will only help Donkey Kong during certain parts of the game and you will have to free them from their barrels, but the opportunities are frequent.
You will also need your allies for the game’s outstanding boss fights. Just like any classic Nintendo first party game, you will have multiple stages of the encounter. For example, one that caused me tremendous problems was the giant owl, which was shooting sharp feathers at Donkey Kong and his family. So much happened during the fight that every time a button was pressed it was a matter of life and death. I haven’t had this much trouble (or fun) in a game in quite some time. The feeling of achievement was better than any achievement or trophy unlocked from other systems.
One aspect of this game that didn’t shine as well as other Nintendo platformers was co-op. My friends and I just disagreed when it came to jumping, fighting, or solving simple puzzles. When we were in a boss meeting, it was more successful to just turn off one of the controllers and let one person handle it. There is simply too much action on screen and the game is simply better played with one person. However, the multiplayer option is always there in case you have a curious observer who wants to see what the fuss is about.
Games of this generation are too easy, it’s great to see a game like Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze really challenge the players. Even for younger players, once they get through a part on their own, there’s no greater reward. However, it would have been nice to have actual unlockable characters to work with. The Wii U desperately needs great games and with Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze has found one. This is one of those games more suited to any type of gamer, and if you can resist breaking the controller, you’re in for a rewarding experience.