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Tropical Freeze isn't particularly unique in its level design, though it does an excellent job of rewarding exploration of your limited 2D plane. Accurate jumps and timing are essential to making it through even the early levels. I couldn't resist playing the game the way it's meant to be played, though, which by comparison is brutal. He also looks pretty rad, with a California surfer–style outfit, shades and a board. He has a double jump, air glide, permanent roll attack and way more health points. Playing as Funky Kong is the game's equivalent of an easy mode. In fact, it's the only major difference between the two versions. It's worth noting here that I'm playing on the classic setting, not the new Funky Kong mode that's exclusive to the Switch edition launching May 4th. It feels almost like Super Meat Boy meets Super Mario, only the deaths sting that much more. Don't let the cartoony graphics and cuddly characters fool you: This is a precision platformer. Perhaps in time I'll come to value the help more, because I haven't actually played that much of the game yet - not through lack of trying, but because it's really hard. It's very easy to bank up a shedload of coins, though, and since none of these items are anywhere near essential to completing levels, they feel like an element you could completely ignore if you wanted to. I find the parrot particularly useful, which squawks when you're near a secret, helping massively with hard-to-find collectibles. You collect coins within levels, which can be exchanged for things like extra lives, fall saves or a Kong on your back when you start the level.
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What's relatively unique about Tropical Freeze is that on each world, there exists a shop. There's also the mid-level power-ups - in this case, Diddy, Dixie and Cranky Kong, which hop on Donkey's back, give him more health points and augment his jump to make everything a bit easier.
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A set of collectibles on each stage for the completionists among us, à la Crash Bandicoot? Absolutely. A little map of the world you navigate to move between levels? Check. Name a platformer trope, Tropical Freeze has it. I think that's what's happening, anyway, but who cares? You're not here to get wrapped up in believable storyline you're here to bounce off penguins' heads and beat the game. They spoil DK's birthday party with the family, so they have to be sent packing. The opening cutscene shows a fleet of ice-covered ships crewed primarily by penguins encroaching on Donkey Kong Island, presumably seeking warmer shores. This starts with a completely random and unimportant storyline. I would say Tropical Freeze is the ultimate archetype of a 2D platformer, but then Nintendo basically defined what makes a game like this good decades ago, so no surprise there. Little Big Planet 3 is the closest thing I can think of, and that's a completely different type of game, really. Outside of some great indie games, I couldn't tell you the last 2D platformer I've played from a big developer. Franchises like Zelda, Grand Theft Auto and Mario have conditioned us to expect sprawling 3D worlds as the norm, and yet Tropical Freeze plays almost exactly like the original Donkey Kong Country released on the SNES almost 25 years ago. (It's in a cupboard at a friend's house right now, where it will probably live forever.) What particularly interested me about this DK game was that it's a 2D platformer in a very real sense. But putting a less cynical hat on, it does mean people get a chance to play games they would've missed out on had Nintendo tried to forget the Wii U ever existed (like everyone else).Ĭase in point: I'd never even heard of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze until a colleague flagged it, and I had a Wii U. The fact that Nintendo did this very thing with Mario Kart 8, positioning it as a Switch launch-window title, did not sit well with me. This presents Nintendo with a unique opportunity to recycle some of its better Wii U titles for a new, Switch-wielding audience. And if they didn't, they more than likely picked up a game or two and let the console gather dust in between major launches.
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It means the company's formula of quirky hardware plus treasured IP is working once more, but better yet, there's a whole wave of Switch owners out there who will have skipped the Wii U altogether. The Switch sold more in nine months than the Wii U did in its entire lifetime, which is very good news for Nintendo.