It’s so very easy to miss the puzzle pieces, meaning replays of almost all the levels are mandatory in order to unlock the secret levels and get 100 per cent completion. The puzzle pieces are often hidden and require players explore the environment to track them down. The KONG letters tend to be hidden in plain sight easy to spot while playing, but difficult to reach from a platforming perspective. This difficulty is compounded with the need to track down the “K” “O” “N” and “G” letters, a tradition originating from the very first Donkey Kong Country game on the Super Nintendo, and then also a bunch of puzzle pieces, which return from Tropical Freeze’s predecessor.īoth these collectibles require different skills from the players. There’s plenty of lives up for grabs to help compensate, but I’m going to freely admit that I ran into more than one Game Over over the course of my adventure.

Getting from one end of the level to the other is enough of a challenge unless you’re a platfomer savant you’re going to bump into some challenging moments just a couple of stages in, and the difficulty ramps up steadily throughout the game. Instead, you’re functionally working through three or four standard platformer levels in each individual one here. See, the levels in Tropical Freeze are long, and each has multiple checkpoints so players don’t need to restart from the start of a level, or even half way through. From that first act, the game transitions through different mixes of that core level theme, often accompanied with a change in background, and this is just as well, because if the levels didn’t feature significant variations within them, they would become very dull indeed very quickly. So for instance some levels focus on climbing, others might focus on swinging from vine to vine, and still others will feature swimming. Most of these levels follow a three or four act structure the first section of the level is a relatively gentle introduction to the core concepts that will repeat through the level. What’s impressive about Tropical Freeze is just how much is packed into these levels. Once in a level, players take control of Donkey Kong and needs to navigate him from one side of the level to the other. Players navigate from level to level over an overworld map, which is pretty standard for the genre now. If you’ve played a Donkey Kong Country game before, then you’ve essentially played this one. Tropical Freeze is a bit of overkill given we already have its predecessor and this sequel strays on the wrong side of “more of the same,” but it’s nonetheless a killer game, and well worth playing if for no other reason than it’s an excuse to turn the Wii U on again. From the primal background music, to the exotic locations, to the animal heroes and enemies, there’s a more earthy theme and style to Donkey Kong than the other major platformer franchises, and I find that earthy style very engaging.ĭonkey Kong Country Returns was a slick game indeed, combining some modern level design with a decidedly retro approach to difficulty, and mixing modern visual and musical touches with classic Donkey Kong Country themes. I’ve always preferred Donkey Kong’s 2D platformers to any others (yes, including Mario).

Donkeykong wii u