Welcome to our full review of Donkey Kong – Tropical Freeze, releasing on Nintendo Switch on the 4th of may 2018.
In my preview of this game, I spoke extensively about the history of the Donkey Kong franchise and how it had its own place in history, seeing the light at the same time as a few other iconic gaming characters, Donkey Kong is right up there with one of the biggest titles on the gaming scene.
Over the years, the series evolved into the franchise we have right now. Despite often feeling it has been left out a little, Donkey Kong is now almost available on Nintendo Switch and this game is both a port of the Wii U version and with the addition of Funky Kong, it can also be called a brand new game.
Allow me to explain those crazy words! Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze is originally a Wii U game, this is well documented and while the base game has not been altered at all, we got this platforming game where you play the original cast in a challenging fashion. With just a few hearts, you sling from one place to the next, grabbing collectibles along the way. As I said, this game is challenging and you should take that as truth.
When playing the original mode, both on Wii U or on Nintendo Switch, it becomes pretty clear that this game is not your everyday Kirby game, enemies are far from easy and with the classical Donkey Kong mechanics that you either love or hate, add one of your friends and increase your hearts. All while collecting bananas, K-O-N-G-letters, red balloons, … This game is varied and sports the typical Country feeling that the franchise brings to the table.
All this is unchanged for the Nintendo Switch edition. The graphics look pretty like they always have, a relatively small game size which is handy for your storage in case you go digital, … This game aged very well and is much like its’ Wii U counterpart a great addition to any collection.
Now let us talk about the second part, Funky Kong.
Funky Kong is both an easy mode and not an easy mode. Several features are included to make it easier for you, sporting his surfboard, Funky Kong can just land on spikes without taking damage. He can do a double jump to hit those higher places for those collectibles you will pursue. Swimming underwater is another one of his added bonuses, though not realistically, he can swim underwater without the need of coming up for air. There is the hover function that allows you to slowly hover down instead of falling. Oft helping you avoid certain death…
The added bonus of having a different jumping pattern is really welcome too. It might have been my main gripe with the original game, when you just reached short of reaching a barrel to move on or when you just could not reach that high up collectible… It was often a frustration but the addition of Funky Kong changed all that. At least it did for me, do let me know by commenting if you feel the same.
While Funky Kong has a lot going for him, the core gameplay did not change. This is still a very challenging platformer which does benefit from his skills. You will be able to hover your way out of certain bad situations, you can jump higher and swim deeper down. It makes it easier, but it does not make it easy!
Grabbing the collectibles has never been easier, but some are still a true feat of skills. Timing and skills are actually the 2 prime words that come to mind. Timing in order to get in the right spot for when you have flying bananas or you need to jump out off your mine cart in order to survive. It is so much fun to play this game, I can not stress this enough.
As this game is releasing on Nintendo Switch, I need to address one more thing. How does it perform technically? While I am no expert on frame rates, I do notice if and when they occur. I must say there were some in the almost 8 hours I played prior to writing this review, but they were very few. The game performs so nicely while in handheld mode and I can not recommend this game enough!
In conclusion, while some may say there are too many ports, I can not wait to get more games of this caliber! I think this game runs really smoothly in handheld mode and I can’t wait to finish the game!
My rating for this game is based mostly upon my gameplay of Funky Kong as he is just so funky, you can’t stop playing!
My rating is 90%
