Hands-On – Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze was released to critical acclaim on the Wii U in 2014. Unfortunately, lackluster sales of the console meant that many a gamer missed out on the adventure, which was one of Nintendo’s best side-scrollers in years. Now, the game is just months away from arriving on the Nintendo Switch, a system enjoying much more popularity and attention, and the DK crew will undoubtedly land in many more consoles this time around.
So what’s new? The biggest single addition to the game is Funky Kong, and this character really changes things. Funky can take five hits in total, which makes him the most durable monkey in the game. He can utilize a double-jump to find hard-to-reach secrets, and he can glide in mid-air. This glide slowly cuts into Funky’s airborne momentum, so he’ll eventually come to a stop if you hover for too long. His board also allows him to stand on spike traps and withstand other environmental hazards, which makes the game much more forgiving on the whole. Think of Funky as a kind of “easy mode” for a game which does not hold back on the difficulty.
Retro Studios has also made considerable improvements to the loading times in this port. The Wii U version of the game was held back somewhat by its considerable load screens, which cut into the flow of the adventure and became a bit of a distraction. On Switch, Tropical Freeze loads its levels noticeably faster; it’s not instantaneous, of course, but it’s a dramatic improvement nonetheless. It seems that no graphical sacrifices were made to achieve these faster load times, as the game looks every bit as good as it did on the Wii U. In some cases, the game actually looks better, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Switch renders the game out in a higher resolution while docked than the Wii U did on its own.
Donkey Kong Country Returns on Wii utilized motion controls for some of your character’s movements, such as ground-slapping and rolling, and the Wii U version of Tropical Freeze brought them back in certain controller configurations. The same idea applies here – playing with two detached Joy-Cons affords you motion controls, but playing with a more traditional controller setup allows you to bind everything back to buttons and, in some cases, replicate the GamePad control experience.
At its core, though, this is still the Tropical Freeze experience you know and love; all of the rock-solid gameplay and exciting level set-pieces are back and better than ever. If you never bought a Wii U and missed this game when it first came out, this is your chance to scoop it up and throw yourself into the action. If you already own the game, figuring out whether or not to buy this version is a bit tougher. If you weren’t crazy about the Wii U version, then there’s little in this port that will change your mind. If you liked or loved the original, however, you’ll want to keep your eye on this one; Tropical Freeze is a great game, and soon you’ll be able to take it on the go with you. Sounds good to me.
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze lands on Nintendo Switch on May 4th.
