I recently bought Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze for Nintendo Wii U. It’s the fifth game in the Donkey Kong Country series, which started with three games on SNES and continued years later with Donkey Kong Country Returns on Wii. As for this latest addition, I tend to abbreviate it as DKC5–even though that’s not an official name or abbreviation. I began playing through the first world of the game today.
The first thing I noticed was that the loading times seemed a bit long. And it’s not just that they were slow to load, but the loading screen animations themselves seemed to stop and restart; as if the loading screens themselves were paused to load. But fortunately, loading seems to be limited to menus, as I didn’t notice any delays during gameplay.
One complaint I had about Donkey Kong Country Returns was that it didn’t have any underwater levels. But mere moments into the first level of Tropical Freeze, I found myself swimming. Even better, the music switched to a subdued version of the underwater music from the first Donkey Kong Country–which is one of my favorite game tunes of all-time. A scuba-diving pig taught me how to do an underwater spin move, which can be used to take out some enemies.
This underwater section of the first level was extremely short, but I’m sure there will be more in the stages to come. Another thing I noticed about the game is that if you choose to play on the TV screen, the gamepad screen shuts off completely. To me, I think that’s a good thing. It’ll preserve battery power of course, but not every game needs a second screen all the time. It’s good to see a Wii U game treat the gamepad as just another controller instead of forcing some gimmick on us. Speaking of forced gimmicks, I’m glad we don’t have to use motion controls for special moves like we did on Wii.
Most of the hop-and-bop gameplay of previous games is intact, as are the K-O-N-G letters and hidden puzzle pieces to collect. Donkey Kong’s helpers Diddy and Dixie have returned, and Cranky Kong is also now available. The helpers ride on Donkey’s back and can alter Donkey’s jumping abilities: Diddy has a jetpack that lets you slowly glide back down after a jump, and Dixie’s spinning hair lets Donkey get an extra, secondary height boost. Cranky uses his cane as a pogo-stick, so DK can jump through spike-covered areas.
The fourth stage (Trunk Twister) is one of the mine cart levels the series is known for. These levels are fun and unpredictable. They often require some memorization, so they can be tricky at first until you have an idea what to expect. But being the first one of the game, it wasn’t too bad. But the twists and turns make this an enjoyable ride. Here’s a video of the level:
Even though this first world only had four initial stages and a boss level (although there are at least two bonus levels I have yet to unlock), the levels seemed a bit longer than you’d expect. I’m only beginning my adventure in DKC5 DKC:TF, but I’m definitely enjoying the ride so far. The graphics and sound are also very good. I’ll provide more updates in the future. Thanks for reading!