Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U)
02-17-14, 08:24 PM
#1
DVD Talk Legend
Thread Starter
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U)
Reviews are coming in:
Destructoid: 10/10
Polygon: 8.5
IGN: 9.0
Gamespot: 6
Got it pre-ordered from Gamestop. Been replaying the original trilogy on my SNES. They still hold up great. Can't wait for Friday!
Destructoid: 10/10
I didn't think it was possible, but Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze has topped Returns. It's an incredibly crafted platformer with an HD sheen and an insane attention to detail, and any fan of the genre owes it to themselves to experience it. With the addition of control options to the already proven formula, Retro Studios' rendition of Donkey Kong is pretty much flawless.
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze could've easily been a me-too sequel. Its much-loved predecessor reinvigorated the series and did so much with the 2D framework that Retro could've released a bunch of new stages and called it a day. But 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.
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is a great platformer full of tense sequences and tough levels. Boss battles are a huge highlight, and it’s packed with hard-to-find secrets and collectibles. Multiplayer could use some improvement, but I found myself laughing whenever my teammate and I wiped out on some of these unforgiving setups. But a rewarding sense of accomplishment stuck with me each time I overcame a new obstacle, and that feeling kept me going all the way to the end.
If the regular levels were as inventive as the boss battles, then Tropical Freeze would be a surefire hit, or at least a game that demands more of your attention. No matter how much I was looking forward to seeing DK in HD, it's difficult to maintain that enthusiasm when the end product plays it so safe: even the visuals fail to make an impact. They're nice enough, but like the level design, the environments are mostly bland. While you could argue that the visual style is true to the series, I think even traditionalists wouldn't mind something with a little more pizzazz behind it. As it stands, this a sometimes fun but mostly uninspired and unimaginative entry in the Donkey Kong series.
02-17-14, 10:16 PM
#2
DVD Talk Godfather & 2020 TOTY Winner
Re: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U)
@ that Destructoid review. He didn't think it was possible to top Returns? Has he played Returns? Those were some of the worst, most unintuitive controls I've ever seen in any game, let alone in a platformer.
02-18-14, 08:41 AM
#5
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
02-18-14, 09:14 AM
#6
DVD Talk Godfather & 2020 TOTY Winner
Re: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U)
Okay, fair enough : some of the worst, most unintuitive controls I've ever seen in a non-Kinect game.
From the Donkey Kong Country Returns Thread (which I started) :
From the Donkey Kong Country Returns Thread (which I started) :
I got this yesterday. Ugh, rolling with motion controls is absolutely horrible when going doing time attacks. You pretty much have to shake it non-stop if you want any hope of a gold. Even when doing levels normally, I usually like to roll a lot, but that isn't really plausible. The lack of classic controller support is really frustrating.
Im playing this game now and I fucking hate it. I played DKC 1 & 2 non stop as a kid and loved every second and never had a problem. This game frustrates the hell out of me. I dont know if its cuz Im older and I just dont have time, but I do not enjoy spending an hour on a level with gimmicky motion controls that fuck me over. Thank god I only paid $15 for this headache
02-18-14, 09:19 AM
#7
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U)
Agreed with Decker. Destructoid continues to post these types of things as click bait. It's getting annoying. The original Returns, and it's 3DS counterpart, had horrendous controls and ridiculous difficulty spikes.
02-18-14, 09:57 AM
#8
Suspended
Re: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U)
Still deciding if I want to get this now or just wait. It seems like more of the same like the 3DS version, which I didn't find to be all that great. With South Park coming out in a few weeks I don't know if I'll even bother.
02-18-14, 01:24 PM
#9
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U)
The DK Returns controls were definitely awful, but it did have a ton of a really good levels. I thought the game was quite good, despite the awful controls.
One of the best reasons to soft mod a Wii is that there is a patch that adds classic controller support to DK Returns.
One of the best reasons to soft mod a Wii is that there is a patch that adds classic controller support to DK Returns.
02-20-14, 05:05 PM
#10
DVD Talk Hero
Re: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U)
If the last Mario game didn't move more U systems, I doubt this will.
Regardless, I'm buying it day one (that's tomorrow, right?), as I'm a sucker for a good platformer, I can even enjoy a below average quality platformer.
Regardless, I'm buying it day one (that's tomorrow, right?), as I'm a sucker for a good platformer, I can even enjoy a below average quality platformer.
02-21-14, 10:45 PM
#11
DVD Talk Legend
Thread Starter
Re: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U)
Played the first two levels. Graphics are nice but man the load times are a bitch. Also This game supports a million different controller options but no support for the Wii Pro Controller?! 
02-22-14, 11:55 AM
#13
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Re: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U)
Most systems only give you one controller option. This game supports "a million" and you want a million and one. There's no pleasing some people.
02-23-14, 09:51 AM
#14
DVD Talk Reviewer
Re: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U)
Okay, fair enough : some of the worst, most unintuitive controls I've ever seen in a non-Kinect game.
From the Donkey Kong Country Returns Thread (which I started) :
From the Donkey Kong Country Returns Thread (which I started) :
Complaining of mashing a button in a barrel level? Erm, you can just hold the button down.
'Wish I could just push a button to jump'. What? You can push a button to jump. Not sure about the complaint there.
Were these people using the 'NES' style control play? The 'blowing' mechanic doesn't seem to hurt anything, as you're usually using it to uncover a hidden item, meaning you're not in mid-battle or something and need to use it.
The 'shake to roll' thing isn't really bad either. I definitely would prefer it were mapped to a button instead or something, but never once did the shake and roll thing actually bother me. Then again, I'm not shaking my wiimote hoping to blow through an entire level.
To each their own. I can see why it would frustrate some, but a lot of your comment pulls pretty much say the same thing - they don't like the motion control aspect of it. The other examples you listed were entirely unfounded from what I can tell.
Anyway, if you play DKCTF using the U gamepad, you should be somewhat happier. But there's definitely one thing that's bothering me with this style of controls - you need to hold one of the triggers in order to hold on to a vine. This was difficult for me to get used to, and there are things that I'm passing up just because I know I'm not coordinated enough yet to attempt retrieving them. Not sure why you can't just 'cling' to a vine, and then use a button to jump or another to drop as it's always been.
I haven't tried playing this game with another style of controller yet though.
I will also echo that the load times just seem flat out dumb. Even the loading screen has a tendency to 'stutter' while the system is trying to load the level. Gameplay is smooth as can be though.
02-23-14, 10:15 AM
#15
DVD Talk Hero
02-23-14, 03:22 PM
#16
DVD Talk Legend
Thread Starter
Re: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U)
Played some more last night and am halfway through world 2. The loading screens are gonna be an issue for me. Not for the times but the twirling bananas load screens made me nauseous.
02-23-14, 07:42 PM
#17
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U)
Those complaints seem pretty silly, to me. It's all subjective of course, but some of these points are way off.
The 'shake to roll' thing isn't really bad either. I definitely would prefer it were mapped to a button instead or something, but never once did the shake and roll thing actually bother me.
The 'shake to roll' thing isn't really bad either. I definitely would prefer it were mapped to a button instead or something, but never once did the shake and roll thing actually bother me.
The complaints about the controls aren't silly. You say yourself that rolling would be better mapped to a button, but you think it is silly that people complain about it just because you personally don't roll much? That is silly.
If developers want to change control schemes away from the standard, their new scheme should be an improvement over the old one. The motion controls in Returns failed in that regard.
Last edited by Jeremy517; 02-23-14 at 07:53 PM.
02-24-14, 05:47 AM
#19
DVD Talk Reviewer
Re: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U)
Rolling also makes a number of the normal levels way easier and is necessary for a bunch of secrets in the normal game. Just because you don't roll much in the way that you play doesn't mean that other people don't, and that their complaints aren't valid.
The complaints about the controls aren't silly. You say yourself that rolling would be better mapped to a button, but you think it is silly that people complain about it just because you personally don't roll much? That is silly.
If developers want to change control schemes away from the standard, their new scheme should be an improvement over the old one. The motion controls in Returns failed in that regard.
The complaints about the controls aren't silly. You say yourself that rolling would be better mapped to a button, but you think it is silly that people complain about it just because you personally don't roll much? That is silly.
If developers want to change control schemes away from the standard, their new scheme should be an improvement over the old one. The motion controls in Returns failed in that regard.
"To each their own. I can see why it would frustrate some, but a lot of your comment pulls pretty much say the same thing - they don't like the motion control aspect of it."
And a single argument from some isn't exactly the same as it being the 'worst control scheme ever'.
02-24-14, 09:44 AM
#20
Suspended
Re: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U)
I held off on buying this simply because the reviews said how difficult it was. I'll grab it if it goes on sale in the $20's, but for $50, I'd rather not deal with a headache.
02-24-14, 09:48 AM
#21
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U)
Great game, beautiful, and the difficulty doesn't bother me. In the day of constant check points, seeing a flat out Game Over screen is a good change of pace.
02-24-14, 10:02 AM
#23
DVD Talk Hero
Re: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U)
I thinks it's difficult but fair. Haven't had a "game over" yet, as I have oodles of extra lives, and they seem to be easy enough to pick up and there's around 3 checkpoints per level, so you don't have to replay a section from too far back.
02-24-14, 04:30 PM
#24
DVD Talk Reviewer
Re: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U)
02-27-14, 12:02 AM
#25
DVD Talk Legend
Thread Starter