Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze Reviews
Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze remains an excellent platformer and one of Retro Studio's greatest works. While all its additions may not be enough to justify a second time purchase, Tropical Freeze is a must play for all Switch owners that never the chance to experience the Wii U version.
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A smooth, finely tuned blend of wonder and punishment
You might be tempted to overlook Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, but if you did, you'd be missing out on an excellent platforming title with tons of style and polish. While it's true that it doesn't explore a lot of new territory, iteration within a genre is only bad to the extent which creativity and permutation are not applied. In other words, if it's fun and feels fresh enough, it was worth the effort—and Tropical Freeze is every bit as enjoyable as its Wii predecessor.
Though it fails to innovate in an engaging way, the base on which Tropical Freeze is built is solid as a glacier.
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze barrels some monkeys, blasts them into some trouble, but ultimately provides an archipelago of satisfying hardcore gameplay for Wii U.
Tropical Freeze adds intelligently to the formula, with new characters that imbue subtle nuance to the gameplay, a better-tuned challenge level and an increased emphasis on replay value. These features make Tropical Freeze consistently worth coming back to, and mark it as a high point for the series.
The evolution of Tropical Freeze from its predecessor isn't quite a giant leap for apekind, but it's a step in the right direction. It doesn't just maintain the status quo as a challenging platformer, but mixes in just enough new elements to prevent it from being just another rehash of the previous game. You'd be bananas to pass up the chance to add Tropical Freeze to your Wii U horde.
Building on the success of its forebears, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze look great, features some excellent boss battles, lots of well designed, challenging levels, and enough secrets to keep you coming back for more.
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze isn't the most ambitious game, but it throws its characters into unique and clever challenges with each new level. Nintendo would be pushing it if they went for another Donkey Kong game in this style, but for now, Tropical Freeze can sit alongside Super Mario 3D World as one of the finest platformers of this generation.
Retro Studios has demonstrated once again that it can take a treasured Nintendo franchise and keep it relevant, with modern thrills and retro nods expertly combined. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze utilises the Wii U's graphical capabilities beautifully, with levels both stunning in design and looks, and impressive set-pieces that never skip a frame and can test any gamer's skills.
[I]t's a great game – exactly what we expect from Nintendo. But in a way, that's also its problem: anyone with a Wii U would be a fool not to buy it, but so few people have committed to the Wii U, and in order to rectify that, Nintendo needs to woo the unconverted with all-new gaming experiences. And the gaming experience that Tropical Freeze provides may be rich, enjoyable, challenging and frequently hilarious, but it isn't anything conspicuously new.
A highly competent 2D platformer, but one utterly devoid of any new ideas or any reason to buy a Wii U in order to play it.
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze's unimaginative level design saps the fun out of this retro-inspired platformer.
Tropical Freeze does little to justify the Wii U's existence, but it's still mostly a fun, challenging platformer. Fans will certainly enjoy this difficult, beautiful romp through Donkey Kong's islands, but it will frustrate less-enthusiastic players.
Tropical Freeze is hard. Even when it is hard it is adorable. The difficulty escalates at a steady pace, and never spikes dramatically, which is what a game's difficulty should do. Every aspect of the action, from the standard platforming to the periodic undersea investigations to the exploits involving mine cars and rocket ships, fits smoothly into the game's world. And best of all is our itinerant rhino friend, always ready to bear up to two gorillas aloft and bulldoze its way to the end of the level.
The inclusion of a touted hard mode and time trials that can automatically upload footage of your attempts online suggest that Nintendo has that traditional hardcore audience in its sights. While that's encouraging for players who fit that category, many others will be deterred. Those willing to put time into this game will be rewarded, but given that difficulty and the lack of Wii U consoles out there, how many people will?
However, each level of atmosphere conveyed by the visuals would be nothing if it weren't for an equally atmospheric soundtrack, and Tropical Freeze certainly delivers on that front. David Wise, the ex-Rare composer who worked on the original Donkey Kong Country trilogy, has returned for Tropical Freeze, after missing out Returns, and his influence is an incredibly welcome one. While fans of the original trilogy will recognise the odd leitmotif here and there, these new compositions are fantastic. The Lion-King inspired savannah themes, and the chilled underwater tracks are certainly the highlights of the game.
The list of first-party titles for the Wii U is growing, with several big titles on the release list this year. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is a great way to start the year for Nintendo. It has an endearing quality that will capture you, and a challenge level worthy of even the most skilled players. The new characters and online features add just enough extras to keep things fresh. If you're craving an old-school platformer, need a break from all the shooters and MMOs, and just can't get enough of DK's snappy red tie, this is an absolute must buy for you.
"Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze" is a top-tier offering for the Wii U, but it doesn't break the mold the same way "Super Mario 3D World" did late last year. It's a Wii U exclusive, but it fails to take advantage of the GamePad. This is a good game that missed opportunities to be great.