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The Donkey Kong Country series is well known for having some of the most iconic Nintendo platformer games going toe to toe with the Super Mario series, starting with the original Donkey Kong Country back in 1994. I have never gotten my hands on the original but I did play one of the later games developed by Retro Studios: Donkey Kong Country Returns, released on the Nintendo Wii in 2010. As a child, I thought it was probably one of the toughest, most brutal games I ever played. Until of course, I eventually got good and beat it myself properly as an adult not too long ago. Embarrassing details aside, I thoroughly enjoyed my second playthrough of it. It is very well-paced, charming in its world design and the challenge progression is consistently steady. I am glad to say that the latest entry in this series, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze which was originally released for the Wii U in 2013, which I played on the port for the Nintendo Switch, shares a lot of its predecessor’s appeal and even adds to it.
Premise
Like any Nintendo platformer out there, the plot follows the usual. Donkey Kong is celebrating his birthday with Cranky, Dixie and Diddy Kong when on the distant horizon a new big baddie with a flotilla of the ‘Snowmads’ spots the island and decides to make his landing. The Snowmads want the island to themselves, so they kick out the Kongs and set up shop. Donkey Kong and the gang are understandably upset and embark on an island-hopping adventure to reclaim their home and their bananas. There are 6 islands to hop between, with an additional secret one to be unlocked towards the end of the game. Each island offers a series of platforming challenges, mine cart and rocket barrel levels, boss battles and even secret unlockable stages. All these levels are arranged in such a way that it always keeps things fresh and interesting.
Characters
In Donkey Kong Country Returns, you can play either solo or co-op with a buddy, with player 1 as Donkey Kong and player 2 as Diddy Kong. Donkey Kong has 2 lives/hearts and plays as you expect. He can walk, hop on and bounce off of enemies, thump the floor and roll. If you’re playing solo, Diddy Kong sits on your back, adds to your heart count totalling it up to 4 and augments your jump by adding a short hover. This helps in making more precise landings, especially for navigating wider chasms. However, if you get hit by an enemy or hazard twice, you lose Diddy Kong but still get to continue as Donkey Kong. This presents a fair and interesting gameplay balance that rewards you for playing carefully and rightfully punishes you for carelessness. But now in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, you get to play with not only Diddy Kong but also Dixie Kong and Cranky Kong. Similar to the previous game, if you come across a barrel with their initials on it, breaking the barrel puts either of these 3 on your back. Hence you are offered a choice of 3 additional abilities with the new ones being: Dixie Kong adding a mid-air propel and Cranky Kong adding a cane-bounce that helps you bounce on hazards without taking a hit (inspired by the DuckTales video games).
Alternatively, if you’re seeking an easy mode to experience the game, you may play as Funky Kong. He has 5 lives and comes with a surfboard that can allow you to surf through spikes and hazards. He can also jump higher with an extra mid-air hover. Sometimes, you may wish to purchase helpful assist items from Funky Kong’s shop and fortunately using these does not penalise your save file.
Gameplay and Design
Regardless of your choice, the platforming here is precise and perfect. The game excels at teaching you about the world, its enemies and its obstacles gradually, without ever halting to a complete stop by employing tutorials. Once you grasp the initial lesson the level teaches you, it then tests what you learnt by adding twists and ramping up the challenge as you progress closer to the finish line. Most importantly, you will also notice that each level is depicting a story. The levels are designed not only to reflect the theme of the island they are on but also to explain what the Snowmads are scheming behind the scenes. I really appreciate this because, with most Nintendo platformers, there is more or less a standard structure to the level design. Their themes tend to follow this order: grass, desert, snow, forest, mountain, clouds, lava. Although Donkey Kong Country Returns did follow a similar trend, here in Tropical Freeze, liberties have been taken to design more creative and memorable levels. What I absolutely loved was towards the end of the game, when you arrive back on Donkey Kong Island, you get to play through some of the stages seen in the previous entry. But this time, those familiar levels now suffer from the icy wrath of the Snowmads. Ever since they kicked out the Kongs, they wasted no time turning their home island into a frozen kingdom. This is fantastic environmental storytelling, and its employment here is wholly unique to the medium of video games.
Enemy design here is fantastic. Each enemy type has its own weakness to be exploited. The bosses for each island are also excellent. Beating them ends your tour of their island on a high note. The soundtrack is quite memorable and conveys various moods that perfectly complement the level theming.
Bonus
Except for the boss stages, all levels have collectables and a select few of them have secret exits. Collecting all the puzzle pieces in each level unlocks cool concept art and figurines. The figurines (up to 41 in total) need to be purchased through the capsule toy machine from Funky Kong’s shop. On the other hand, the KONG letters can be easily collected during your normal playthrough but are slightly out of the way and often require you to employ platforming tricks to get them. Collecting all of these unlocks the secret ‘A’, ‘B’ and eventually the ‘K’ stages of the island (as previously mentioned). Beating the K levels, which are notorious for being extremely hard in assessing your platforming mettle, grants you various pieces of a magical relic. Do this for all 6 islands and you will unlock the 7th island, Secret Seclusion. Beating the 3 stages on this island
and collecting all the puzzle pieces unlocks Hard Mode, where you cannot use items from the shop or barrels in the levels, not to mention you only have 1 heart this time, though you may play as either Donkey, Diddy, Dixie or Cranky Kong. And finally, beating the entire game on Hard Mode grants you ….. a 200% completion on your save file. Yay.
Conclusion
Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze is a triumphant achievement for platformers. Even the underwater levels are amazing! While I do recommend obtaining the KONG letters to fully see everything the game has to offer, I cannot recommend going the distance and achieving absolute completion, lest you truly are a die-hard fan of the series. I think I did a disservice to myself attempting to collect everything as this did involve replaying stages multiple times, looking up walkthrough guides and mostly a lot of head scratching. My time with the game pretty much ended once I arrived at Secret Seclusion because, for me, the money was in the K-levels. After all, beating them felt like a personal accomplishment. Nevertheless, for just a normal playthrough, I highly recommend Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze as it is a wild fun ride.
