Pitting modern Donkey Kong Country against its Rare-developed SNES stepparents is about as apples-to-oranges as games in the same series can get. One could argue that what Donkey Kong Country stood for in the mid-nineties is entirely different from what the top Kong’s games prioritize today, and despite enduring core similarities, there’s a compelling case to be made.
This isn’t particularly surprising. DK was a freshly-minted teen in those days, acutely tuned-in to what was cool in gamer culture, and amply equipped to deliver on it. 1994’s Donkey Kong Country was a marvel of graphics technology on the SNES, and its flagrant “Only For” brag sticker perfectly encapsulated not only its place in popular culture, but the gall and near-arrogant tenacity of a Nintendo long-since expired. It wasn’t just Nintendo fans who fawned over DKC, it was everyone.
Of course, Donkey and his publisher have grown up since then, and Nintendo’s innovative yet underpowered consoles are no longer capable of such shiny-object temptations. If 2010’s Returns felt like the DK equivalent of the fun-but-sterile New Super Mario Bros. line, then Tropical Freeze is Retro Studios’ effort to at least dress up the now 33-year-old ape in a polo and some freshly pressed slacks. Donkey Kong can’t look cool wearing his pants below his buttocks anymore, but that’s no reason to give up altogether.
The renewed attention to presentation is felt immediately upon sliding in the disc, with an angelic “Donk-eeee-Kooong” serenade as the game loads followed by a toe-tapping, tropical-themed melody at the title screen. A few pokes of the GamePad and one genuinely impressive CGI sequence later, and the Kongs are back in action. As hinted by its name, Tropical Freeze’s plot involves a Viking invasion that results in the freezing over of Donkey Kong’s home, and though it’s nothing out of the ordinary, it’s charming and more than enough to set the game in motion.
The most immediately noticeable upgrade from Returns is the jump from Wii’s 480p to full-on high definition on Wii U. The Kongs themselves look fantastic—fur blows majestically in the wind and ruffles in accordance with objects in the environment, while Cranky Kong’s beard whips wildly as he launches himself through the air with his pogo-cane. This is a marked, commendable improvement, and Retro deserves a pat on the back. There hasn’t been a DK this pretty since the wizards of EAD Tokyo conjured Jungle Beat on GameCube. Though it’s not quite as consistent as that game (background objects can often look low-poly, while examples of fancy lighting are few and far between), what Tropical Freeze offers is perfectly respectable.
The downside to this, though still an improvement over Returns, is that “perfectly respectable” defines a disappointingly hefty chunk of the Tropical Freeze experience. This time around Donkey Kong can buddy up with Diddy, Cranky, and Dixie, and though it’s fun to swap them in and out for variety’s sake, the differences between them aren’t as pronounced as I feel they ought to be.
Cranky can bounce across spikes unharmed with his cane, for example, and Diddy retains his signature jetpack, but I found myself reaching for Dixie barrels around 80% of the time. Not only is her flutter ability the most useful (and outright superior to Diddy’s hover), but she can use her ponytail as an underwater propeller, powering Donkey through aquatic currents with ease. As a result, the only real reason to use the other guys is if you get in Donkey Kong’s head and decide you want to give the other two a chance so they don’t feel left out. Role-playing a Kong isn’t exactly a compelling gameplay implementation.
There are definitely exceptions to this, and Tropical Freeze is a game prone to sporadic bouts of truly imaginative level design. Take the first stage of the third island: Grassland Grove. Donkey Kong is dropped into an environment resembling an African savannah, and from start to finish the level is a joy to play. Puppet-like animals populate the area, some of which can be climbed or swung from. The music changes adaptively as you progress, and is programmed such that particularly emotive segments let go their poignant tune at just the right moment. When Grassland Groves’ DK barrel materializes from the undulating environment to signal the end of the level, the macho background music turns ethereal as a burning orange sun sets from the sky. It’s no exaggeration to call these instances sublime, and a modern Donkey Kong Country more fully comprised of them would no-doubt be an instant classic.
As I’ve said, though, Tropical Freeze isn’t fully comprised of sublimity, and ultimately that’s where it stumbles. I’d say about one in four of the game’s levels struck me as truly creative, with the rest falling somewhere between what Returns brought to the table and, well, something else. At its best Tropical Freeze is as good as any platformer out there, but when games like Rayman Legends are jamming dozens of ideas into each and every stage ala Super Mario Galaxy, batting .250 with a few home runs simply isn’t good enough. Rayman’s consistency, though perhaps less dazzling at its best, is simply the new standard.
I’d be remiss not to mention David Wise, the returning ex-Rare composer responsible for the original Donkey Kong Country’s remarkable soundtrack. Though the tunes on display here are a big improvement over the previous game, a composer can only work with what he’s given. As a result, the game’s most interesting levels also feature the best music, while the the rest, like the game itself, is a bit hit or miss. Genius though Wise may be, if the most unique level of the first two worlds is a happy grassland with a bunch of windmills, well, the music is going to reflect that.
Furthermore, Eveline Fischer (Wise’s co-composer on Donkey Kong Country) has not returned, and considering her responsibility for some that game’s best and most atmospheric tracks, her absence is definitely not negligible. In fact, some of her tunes have been reworked into painful, over-jazzed sub-ditties throughout the game, a trend that’s been unfortunately carried over from Donkey Kong’s Wii outing. All in all, Wise’s return is an enormously welcome one, if just a bit short of a second coming.
And that, my simian sidekicks, is Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. If you liked Returns, this is a lot better. If you haven’t played since the SNES, you’ll find greatly-improved controls paired with a mixed bag of levels and music. Considering that Donkey Kong’s age has him hovering right around midlife crisis time, I’d call this a perfectly reasonable effort. With its duo of endeavors completed, though, perhaps it’s time Retro Studios returned to what it knows best, and let the Kong hop back into the Nintendo vault for a while.
Griffin Vacheron is a Writer for CraveOnline. You can follow him on Twitter @novacav.
Wii U copy provided by publisher. Game is exclusive to Wii U.
