You control DK while they can choose between Diddy, Dixie and Cranky. MultiplayerĪs with DKC Returns, a second player can join in with your adventure if they hook up a Wii remote or other peripheral. These viking-themed critters are a more charming bunch than the last game's adversaries. DK's enemies in Tropical Freeze are an icy band of arctic animals known as the Snowmads. We expected more mine cart and rocket barrel levels, of course (the latter now oh so poignant as Flappy Bird slips away from us), but the silhouette level idea is a copy-and-paste job too. Wider level concepts are direct lifts, too. Clouds still rush towards the camera when you load your save game, bananas fan out from a DK logo whenever you skip a cut-scene, and a surprising amount of level furniture is recycled, from tumbling totems and bulbous plants that cough up bananas to pirate sky-ships and any of dozens of other examples. When he raps the haunches of his rhino friend Rambi as they race in the path of a wall of lava, the animation is beautiful.īut while the level designs are strictly speaking new, the vast majority of the game is not, from innocuous superficial details down to the deepest mechanics. When he bounces through a fish market where his penguin enemies are sorting today's catch, it's charming. OK, it's the first game in the series to appear in high definition, and that means that when the camera breaks free of its moorings and follows DK's mine cart down a sheer drop into a dark cavern, it's a glorious rush. Or rather you're not, because DKC Tropical Freeze is an extremely straightforward sequel. If you have been keeping up with the Kongses, though, and played through DKC Returns on the Wii, then you're going to see things a bit differently. If you use the TV, the GamePad screen switches off entirely. You can play DKC Tropical Freeze on your TV or on the GamePad. Like a craftsman endlessly seeking the perfect table, Retro Studios has spent a long time considering all the different ways of teasing you with platforms, ropes and angry animals, and the result is an enjoyable game, albeit one a little lacking in ambition. At one point halfway through the game I had around 65 spare lives by the end credits I was down to a dozen.ĭKC Tropical Freeze will be familiar in lots of ways, then, but if there's room in your life for an old-school 2D platform game with a rock-hard final third, you'll get a lot out of this. Tropical Freeze starts off gently, allowing you to gather so many extra lives over its early levels that you feel invincible, but after a couple of its six islands your total starts to fall, especially if you devote yourself to the acrobatics required to locate each level's secrets. These games are as tough as you remember them, too. "While other developers have sought to reinvent the platform game over the years, Retro Studios seems happy just reinventing platforms." Others include balloons that save you from your first tumble off the bottom of the screen. Squawks the parrot is one such perk, sitting in the corner of the screen and piping up when you get near to a puzzle piece. There are secrets galore, but as well as bonus rooms and K-O-N-G letters, the modern games add puzzle pieces and small gold coins that you can spend on power-ups. Other familiar elements have been tweaked as well. Manage cookie settings Is Tropical Freeze worth picking up? How much does it matter if you played DKC Returns? Are the swimming levels amazing? Find out in this handy video. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. As you venture forth, enemies trundle towards you, sometimes hop around and often throw things that need to be squashed or avoided, all of which makes navigating the platforms more complicated, but the gravest threat you face is the bottomless pit, because every level is stuffed with them. The modern games have all the usual flavours - moving ones, bouncy ones, disintegrating ones - but there are also platforms that undulate as you move over them, and rocky ones that you have to cling onto as they break free and dangle off cliff faces and change orientation. While other developers have sought to reinvent the platform game over the years, Retro Studios seems happy just reinventing platforms. He's slower and heavier than Mario, of course, with a lolloping jump, but that's part of his charm, and he still has that forward roll move he can use to clatter enemies or combine with his jump to reach more distant platforms and barrels. Donkey Kong handles really well in these long, generously appointed 2D platform level obstacle courses. I think you will like Tropical Freeze, although you probably won't be blown away by it. Let's start with those of you who haven't played Donkey Kong Country since the days of the Super Nintendo. Fortunately it's not exactly a wide range of reactions, so we can probably just run through them one by one. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze will inspire a range of reactions.
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