DKC: Tropical Freeze Impressions

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.

dkctf-underwaterThis 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.

dkctf-crankyThe 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!

Buy Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze at Amazon

Super Mario 3D World – World Bowser

It was time to resume my game of Super Mario 3D World, so I headed off to the eighth world, known as World Bowser. It starts off with Spiky Spike Bridge (World Bowser-1). It’s a tricky level played in the rain, with raindrops running down the “camera.” And of course there are a multitude of spiky bridges and dangerous jumps. I must say, I really like the graphical style of these last couple worlds.

sm3dw-b1World Bowser-2 is another Plessie dino-riding level. But instead going down a river, this time Plessie plunges down sand dunes. These Plessie levels may provide a change of pace and some variety, but I don’t really care for them that much.

sm3dw-b2World Boswer-Train: The Bowser Express is a cool train level, where each car of the train has a different type of enemy or obstacle. One car has a spiky trapeze to avoid, another has bullies that try to push you off the train, and one even has an underwater segment. Once you reach the front of a train, a Hammer Brother guards the pipe to the boss fight.

sm3dw-btrainWorld Bowser-4: Footlight Lane has you walking on a series of invisible platforms and bridges. Parts of them become visible as you stand on them, so you can see the area directly around your character, but not much beyond that. The level also has some Thwomps however, and their hard landings will make the platforms temporarily visible. The stage is a bit tricky, particularly in the later part of the level, but it’s not as bad as it may look in pictures.

sm3dw-b4In World Bowser-6: A Beam in the Dark, Mario has an unusual power-up to wear. He essentially puts a flashlight on over his head body and rides moving platforms through a haunted house. If you direct the beam of light onto ghosts and hold it there for a couple seconds, the ghosts will be defeated. This is a unique, creative level and it’s a lot of fun.

sm3dw-b6World Bowser-7: Grumblump Inferno has you riding a rotating block through fields of lava. It reminds me of those challenge levels from Super Mario Sunshine (the ones where you didn’t use the waterpack). It can be a challenge to keep your footing, but it’s also a very enjoyable level.

sm3dw-b7After a couple of encore fights against previous bosses, I made it to World Bowser-Castle: The Great Tower of Bowser Land. You need 170 stars to unlock it, but I only had 168. However, it didn’t take me long to revisit a previous level to get the other two stars I needed. I was then able to enter the castle.

sm3dw-bcastleThe level consists of a huge tower you must ascend. The final boss reveals itself about halfway through. I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t played this far yet, but I’ll say it wasn’t exactly what I expected. In fact, I laughed out loud when I saw what I was up against. I continued my climb upwards, and at the top, I easily beat my opponent in about three seconds flat.

The game started acting like I had beaten the game, but I knew that couldn’t be it. The little rainbow fairy munchkin girls were freed from their bottle, and the path to the flag was right in front of me. I just knew something was going to happen right before I got to the flag. But nothing did. A message said “Course Clear,” so I figured there must be another level waiting for me. And then…the credits started rolling. What? Seriously? There were no tricks, I had beaten the game. That final boss fight wasn’t really even a fight. That was a bit disappointing, although World Bowser overall was quite impressive and fun.

And even though I’ve beaten the game, I still haven’t completed it. I’m going to go back and get all the stars and stamps that I’ve missed. I’ve had a lot of fun with the game, and it’s not over yet. There may still be another blog entry about Super Mario 3D World, and later on, a review as well. So stick around!

Super Mario 3D World – World Castle

It was time to play some Super Mario 3D World, so I started up my Wii U and resumed my game. I’m on the 7th world, but it isn’t called World 7. It’s called World Castle (actually it uses a castle icon instead of the word castle), which just sounds a bit strange. But it takes place within Bowser’s castle, with lots of fire and lava everywhere. I started the first level, World Castle-1, which is subtitled Fort Fire Bros. It has a unique visual style, with blue lava surrounding everything. Piggybacking Goombas may carry power-ups or even other enemies such as Fire Bros. It’s an easy, but enjoyable level, and a good start to the world.

sm3dw-c1The next level is World Castle-2: Switchblack Ruins. It takes place in a dark cave and Mario has limited visibility. Some parts of the level have torches that can be lit with a fireball; it reminded me of Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. There are some rooms in this level that have better lighting (thanks to lava), and those areas often have you stepping on tiles, turning question marks into exclamation points.

sm3dw-c2World Castle-3: Red Hot Run is a race against the clock. Mario has only 100 ticks on the clock to make his way through across narrow platforms while avoiding spikes (and spiky rolling pins). It’s a tricky level, but it’s fun.

sm3dw-c3World Castle-5: Trick Trap Tower is quite an interesting level. It has lots of moving platforms and Thwomps that you must climb to ascend to the top of a tower. Once you reach the top, you’ll fight three Magikoopas on the Lego-covered roof.

sm3dw-c5aYou then move on to another tower, where you have to collect five keys. But reaching the top of this tower unleashes some purple poisonous gas, and Mario has to escape in a hurry! Me-YOWZA!

sm3dw-c5bWorld Castle-6: Rammerhead Reef is an underwater level where Mario must avoid the “rammerheads,” whose heads resemble the spiky rolling pins I mentioned earlier. There are also bloopers swimming around. I’m not generally a fan of water levels, but this one is pretty cool.

sm3dw-c6Once you reach the castle, it’s time to fight Bowser in the ridiculously named “World Castle-Castle.” Also known as Bowser’s Lava Lake Keep, this level has you battling Bowser in his car. It’s a pretty cool boss fight, but after knocking Bowser into the lava, I saw this:

sm3dw-timeIt was kind of funny to run out of time right then, actually. But I beat him again, this time with more time remaining on the clock. This is a bit of a spoiler coming up, so you may want to skip the rest of this blog entry if you don’t want to know what happens. But as I crossed the flag of this world, all seven of those floaty fairy munchkin girls were there. I guess the game was trying to trick me into thinking I beat the whole thing. But then suddenly, Bowser drops in and puts them all in a bottle again and takes them all away. I’m not sure how Bowser recovered that quickly, but that’s video game logic for you.

I found myself back on the world map, and I took a clear pipe up to the 8th world, World Bowser. This world appears to be a noen-filled amusement park…I love it! It looks great, and I’m looking forward to going there next time.