Donkey Kong Country Returns was already released in December and normally I get Nintento blockbuster titles at day one, however I hesitated with this game for two reasons. On the one hand I never really was a Jump'n'Run gamer to begin with, played the Super Mario Land games on the GameBoy and then never touched a Jump'n'Run game until New Super Mario Bros. Wii - a game I got primarily for the multiplayer. Then I played the Mario Galaxy games, which were really good, but when DKCR came out I just wasn't in the mood for Jump'n'Runs. And on the other hand I never really played the original Donkey Kong Country games. I tried them, but never started to like them. Yeah, yeah, shame on me. But because of all this I was uncertain whether I should get this game or not. But the fact that Retro made this game, a game studio that made the Metroid Prime Trilogy, three of my favorite games in the last years, certainly made me curious. And then there was a "buy 3 games get one for free" deal at our local media store, so I just couldn't resist anymore. And I don't regret it, this game is a blast.
This game has to compete with two other ones. These are the original Donkey Kong Country games on the one side and New SMB Wii on the other. I guess most people bought this game, because they liked the original games or because they thought they will get something similar to the very popular New SMB Wii. However, when you expect a faithful addition to the original games combined with New SMB Wii style multiplayer Donkey Kong Country Returns doesn't deliver so well. Fans of the originals express their disappointment about how the game lacks certain aspects of the classic DKC games like some characters or the realistic visuals. And the multiplayer certainly isn't as great as in New SMB Wii. But is DKCR a bad game because of this? Hell no, this is one real fun and solid platformer in it's own way.
The game doesn't have as many levels as New SMB Wii, but you'll play through all the levels many times. Unlike in New SMB Wii, where you'll play a level once and never touch it again. Maybe twice if you missed one of the coins or if there's a secret exit. But not in DKCR, there's many stuff to do with each level, which will motivate you to play all the level many times. And this without getting boring. Well, one of the first things to do in each level are the four KONG letters. They are pretty similar to the coins in New SMB Wii, but you'll have to get all four of them in one run without dying, though checkpoints count. You'll probably remember them from the SNES DKC games, however this time they are of more use than an extra life. Collecting all KONG letters in each level of a world opens the temple level (or K-level) in this world and those are really hard. Finishing all K-levels opens a crazy final level, where you can unlock the Mirror Mode. But getting all the KONG letters normally isn't a hard task, because they are alway in plain sight unlike the hidden puzzle pieces. I really like the puzzle pieces. You keep them even if you die, you just then have to complete the level to get them. And looking for them is real fun for me, it's an element from the Metroid games which Retro included here. You have to look in every little corner, can't leave a stone standing while looking for them. Collecting puzzle pieces unlocks stuff in the gallery, another nice feature Retro took from the Metroid Prime games.
Next to collecting stuff in a level there are two other disciplines: Speedruns and Mirror Mode. Most levels were designed in a way, that you can quickly speedrun through them, if you know the level really well and if your timing is perfect. Bouncing off enemies and the sorts. You'll notice this in some of the harder levels, where you die many times and repeat some of sections as often. You'll get better and better, faster and faster. However, you don't have to speedrun if you don't want to. You can earn four different medals for each level (bronze, silver, gold, platinum), but there's nothing else to unlock from speedruns. So, if you don't like speedruns, you won't have to do them. Mirror Mode is the hardcore mode of this game. It's not only that the levels are mirrored. In fact this is not even a big deal. I already told you how confusing the mirroring of Twilight Princess was for me and sometimes I have trouble with the mirror courses in Mario Kart, but in DKCR it was never a problem. However, in addition to the mirroring you won't get to use Diddy Kong and you can't get hit, it's one mistake and you're dead. In some levels this doesn't really make a difference, for example the mine cart or rocket barrel levels, in others this is a huge deal. Especially some of the bosses. So, beating the Mirror Mode can be quite a challenge and I haven't even done it yet myself.
Retro tried to make each level unique in some way. And some ideas are pretty cool, for example there is a level with a Kraken in the background, which destroy parts of the level or tries to attack you. Or in one level you're hunted by men eating killer ants, I hate that level. :D However, even if each level has something unique to it, some gameplay ideas are repeated to often and it feels like the game is lacking in variety. Especially the mine cart and rocket barrel levels, there are just too many of them and it gets annoying at one point. On the other side there are only three of those really awesome sundown background black foreground levels, they really look awesome. And you'll only get to use Rambi four times in the game, some more animal buddies would have been nice and added more to the variety. The worst thing, however, are the "collect 'em all"-minigame rooms, they get repetitive, boring and annoying. But you get a puzzle piece from each one of them, so you'll have to do them.
The difficulty level of this game is a good topic. This game has great difficulty level, it's really challenging, you'll die many, many time, but it never gets frustrating and you won't loose motivation so easily. In some levels I died about 30 to 50 times, especially the temple levels were really hard. In other games, when the difficulty level is too high, I get easily frustrated and ragequit. However, never in this games. The one thing is, the game is never unfair. Well, actually some levels can't be possibly beaten in your first run, because you have to know what's coming. But you'll always get a little further, you'll get a little bit better. You really have to study some of the levels, die many times doing so, but you get better and beat them at one point. It's this progress that keeps your motivation up, "on the next try I'll do it!". And before you know, you became so good at a level, that you could beat it blindfolded without getting hit (very good for Mirror Mode). What also adds to the motivation are the collectibles. "I have all those puzzle pieces, I just have to beat the level now, so let's keep going." Especially in the temple levels this was a factor for me, otherwise I probably would have lost my motivation and quit some of these levels early.
And in case you really struggle with this game, there's always Cranky Kong's shop, which really helps you. You can buy lives here for the coins, which you collect in the levels, there are enough of them to easily stock up 99 lives. In New SMB Wii I would play the first level over and over again until I got enough lives. But no need for grinding here. And then there are three other items, which you can equip for a level, Squawk the parrot, the extra heart and banana juice. Squawk helps you finding puzzle pieces by squawking at an area, where a secret is hidden. I normally wouldn't use something like that, but in longer and harder levels, where you only miss one puzzle piece, this can be a help. And the Squawk doesn't spoil how to get the puzzle piece, he just tells you an estimated area. The extra heart might feel useless at first, but becomes very handy in later levels. The banana juice works like 10 extra hearts, it's only good for boss battles though, because once you die you'll lose it. Also, the shop offers a key for each world, which unlocks a new area in this world.
Controls are okay. Shaking the Wiimote for certain actions was already used in the Mario Wii games, so I'm used to that. Only blowing stuff felt out of place. And the timing for bouncing off enemies by pressing A at the right moment felt sometimes very harsh. I don't know how many times I died just because I didn't really bounce of an enemy...
There is multiplayer, where you can play with someone else. However, like I said already it's no match to New SMB Wii. For playing DKCR I invited a buddy, with whom I played through New SMB Wii two times already, so we're a good team in this. But playing DKCR just felt terrible. To begin with as the main player you'll lose Diddy Kong, who is essentially a power up, which gives you two more hearts and floating ability. This is gone in multiplayer and you have to get used to it, if you haven't played without Diddy Kong yet. And there are just too many collectibles for multiplayer. I want all those puzzle pieces and KONG letters, the second player though does not, because he doesn't get anything for it. So, while the second player just wants to proceed through the level, I had to call him back, because I wanted to investigate a secret. "No, come back, come back, there might be something hidden here!!" - "Uhh, who cares?" With the coins in New SMB Wii this wasn't a problem, there were only three of them in each level and hunting them was fun. Also, it unlocked new levels. But all the stuff here is just too much for multiplayer. Don't get me wrong, I love all those collectibles and secrets, I'm a Zelda and Metroid fan after all, but it just doesn't suit the multiplayer. And most important there are many levels, where the second player is of no use at all. Mainly the mine cart and rocket barrel levels. The only difference is, that you will lose two lives instead of one each time you crash. Not fun. So, if you're looking for another game like New SMB Wii, you'll probably be disappointed with Donkey Kong Country Returns. This game is meant to be played alone.
And then there are the fans of the original Donkey Kong Country games expressing their disappointment with the newest installment. "It doesn't have the dark, realistic looks!", "Where are the Kremlings?" and so on. However, since I didn't really play those games, I couldn't care less about this. This game is really good as it as. And I like the Tiki as an enemy, especially their music (final boss was awesome). Talking about music, like mentioned in a previous post the soundtrack was made by Mr. Kenji Yamamoto, known for his soundtrack of the Metroid Prime Trilogy. He's really good at catching old tunes and mixing them with fresh tunes. The soundtrack of this game is great and already on my MP3 player.
There you go. Save for the multiplayer and some repetitive level ideas I would say that Donkey Kong Country Returns is a great platformer, probably the best Wii exclusive game of the last year. I had tons of fun with this game, in fact I'm still having fun, because I'm not done yet with Mirror Mode and speedruns. There's a lot to do, a lot to discover and collect, a lot to unlock, the difficulty is great, very hard, but never frustrating and you'll keep up motivation. Retro Studios has proven with this game, that they are indeed Nintendo's new ace in the hole after Rare. I can't wait to see what Retro'll do next, a "Donkey Kong Country Returns Again" was disclaimed for the moment. I really hope that they'll make a Zelda game at one point in the future, because this could turn out to be the freshest and most exciting Zelda game in years.
This game has to compete with two other ones. These are the original Donkey Kong Country games on the one side and New SMB Wii on the other. I guess most people bought this game, because they liked the original games or because they thought they will get something similar to the very popular New SMB Wii. However, when you expect a faithful addition to the original games combined with New SMB Wii style multiplayer Donkey Kong Country Returns doesn't deliver so well. Fans of the originals express their disappointment about how the game lacks certain aspects of the classic DKC games like some characters or the realistic visuals. And the multiplayer certainly isn't as great as in New SMB Wii. But is DKCR a bad game because of this? Hell no, this is one real fun and solid platformer in it's own way.
The game doesn't have as many levels as New SMB Wii, but you'll play through all the levels many times. Unlike in New SMB Wii, where you'll play a level once and never touch it again. Maybe twice if you missed one of the coins or if there's a secret exit. But not in DKCR, there's many stuff to do with each level, which will motivate you to play all the level many times. And this without getting boring. Well, one of the first things to do in each level are the four KONG letters. They are pretty similar to the coins in New SMB Wii, but you'll have to get all four of them in one run without dying, though checkpoints count. You'll probably remember them from the SNES DKC games, however this time they are of more use than an extra life. Collecting all KONG letters in each level of a world opens the temple level (or K-level) in this world and those are really hard. Finishing all K-levels opens a crazy final level, where you can unlock the Mirror Mode. But getting all the KONG letters normally isn't a hard task, because they are alway in plain sight unlike the hidden puzzle pieces. I really like the puzzle pieces. You keep them even if you die, you just then have to complete the level to get them. And looking for them is real fun for me, it's an element from the Metroid games which Retro included here. You have to look in every little corner, can't leave a stone standing while looking for them. Collecting puzzle pieces unlocks stuff in the gallery, another nice feature Retro took from the Metroid Prime games.
Next to collecting stuff in a level there are two other disciplines: Speedruns and Mirror Mode. Most levels were designed in a way, that you can quickly speedrun through them, if you know the level really well and if your timing is perfect. Bouncing off enemies and the sorts. You'll notice this in some of the harder levels, where you die many times and repeat some of sections as often. You'll get better and better, faster and faster. However, you don't have to speedrun if you don't want to. You can earn four different medals for each level (bronze, silver, gold, platinum), but there's nothing else to unlock from speedruns. So, if you don't like speedruns, you won't have to do them. Mirror Mode is the hardcore mode of this game. It's not only that the levels are mirrored. In fact this is not even a big deal. I already told you how confusing the mirroring of Twilight Princess was for me and sometimes I have trouble with the mirror courses in Mario Kart, but in DKCR it was never a problem. However, in addition to the mirroring you won't get to use Diddy Kong and you can't get hit, it's one mistake and you're dead. In some levels this doesn't really make a difference, for example the mine cart or rocket barrel levels, in others this is a huge deal. Especially some of the bosses. So, beating the Mirror Mode can be quite a challenge and I haven't even done it yet myself.
Retro tried to make each level unique in some way. And some ideas are pretty cool, for example there is a level with a Kraken in the background, which destroy parts of the level or tries to attack you. Or in one level you're hunted by men eating killer ants, I hate that level. :D However, even if each level has something unique to it, some gameplay ideas are repeated to often and it feels like the game is lacking in variety. Especially the mine cart and rocket barrel levels, there are just too many of them and it gets annoying at one point. On the other side there are only three of those really awesome sundown background black foreground levels, they really look awesome. And you'll only get to use Rambi four times in the game, some more animal buddies would have been nice and added more to the variety. The worst thing, however, are the "collect 'em all"-minigame rooms, they get repetitive, boring and annoying. But you get a puzzle piece from each one of them, so you'll have to do them.
The difficulty level of this game is a good topic. This game has great difficulty level, it's really challenging, you'll die many, many time, but it never gets frustrating and you won't loose motivation so easily. In some levels I died about 30 to 50 times, especially the temple levels were really hard. In other games, when the difficulty level is too high, I get easily frustrated and ragequit. However, never in this games. The one thing is, the game is never unfair. Well, actually some levels can't be possibly beaten in your first run, because you have to know what's coming. But you'll always get a little further, you'll get a little bit better. You really have to study some of the levels, die many times doing so, but you get better and beat them at one point. It's this progress that keeps your motivation up, "on the next try I'll do it!". And before you know, you became so good at a level, that you could beat it blindfolded without getting hit (very good for Mirror Mode). What also adds to the motivation are the collectibles. "I have all those puzzle pieces, I just have to beat the level now, so let's keep going." Especially in the temple levels this was a factor for me, otherwise I probably would have lost my motivation and quit some of these levels early.
And in case you really struggle with this game, there's always Cranky Kong's shop, which really helps you. You can buy lives here for the coins, which you collect in the levels, there are enough of them to easily stock up 99 lives. In New SMB Wii I would play the first level over and over again until I got enough lives. But no need for grinding here. And then there are three other items, which you can equip for a level, Squawk the parrot, the extra heart and banana juice. Squawk helps you finding puzzle pieces by squawking at an area, where a secret is hidden. I normally wouldn't use something like that, but in longer and harder levels, where you only miss one puzzle piece, this can be a help. And the Squawk doesn't spoil how to get the puzzle piece, he just tells you an estimated area. The extra heart might feel useless at first, but becomes very handy in later levels. The banana juice works like 10 extra hearts, it's only good for boss battles though, because once you die you'll lose it. Also, the shop offers a key for each world, which unlocks a new area in this world.
Controls are okay. Shaking the Wiimote for certain actions was already used in the Mario Wii games, so I'm used to that. Only blowing stuff felt out of place. And the timing for bouncing off enemies by pressing A at the right moment felt sometimes very harsh. I don't know how many times I died just because I didn't really bounce of an enemy...
There is multiplayer, where you can play with someone else. However, like I said already it's no match to New SMB Wii. For playing DKCR I invited a buddy, with whom I played through New SMB Wii two times already, so we're a good team in this. But playing DKCR just felt terrible. To begin with as the main player you'll lose Diddy Kong, who is essentially a power up, which gives you two more hearts and floating ability. This is gone in multiplayer and you have to get used to it, if you haven't played without Diddy Kong yet. And there are just too many collectibles for multiplayer. I want all those puzzle pieces and KONG letters, the second player though does not, because he doesn't get anything for it. So, while the second player just wants to proceed through the level, I had to call him back, because I wanted to investigate a secret. "No, come back, come back, there might be something hidden here!!" - "Uhh, who cares?" With the coins in New SMB Wii this wasn't a problem, there were only three of them in each level and hunting them was fun. Also, it unlocked new levels. But all the stuff here is just too much for multiplayer. Don't get me wrong, I love all those collectibles and secrets, I'm a Zelda and Metroid fan after all, but it just doesn't suit the multiplayer. And most important there are many levels, where the second player is of no use at all. Mainly the mine cart and rocket barrel levels. The only difference is, that you will lose two lives instead of one each time you crash. Not fun. So, if you're looking for another game like New SMB Wii, you'll probably be disappointed with Donkey Kong Country Returns. This game is meant to be played alone.
And then there are the fans of the original Donkey Kong Country games expressing their disappointment with the newest installment. "It doesn't have the dark, realistic looks!", "Where are the Kremlings?" and so on. However, since I didn't really play those games, I couldn't care less about this. This game is really good as it as. And I like the Tiki as an enemy, especially their music (final boss was awesome). Talking about music, like mentioned in a previous post the soundtrack was made by Mr. Kenji Yamamoto, known for his soundtrack of the Metroid Prime Trilogy. He's really good at catching old tunes and mixing them with fresh tunes. The soundtrack of this game is great and already on my MP3 player.
There you go. Save for the multiplayer and some repetitive level ideas I would say that Donkey Kong Country Returns is a great platformer, probably the best Wii exclusive game of the last year. I had tons of fun with this game, in fact I'm still having fun, because I'm not done yet with Mirror Mode and speedruns. There's a lot to do, a lot to discover and collect, a lot to unlock, the difficulty is great, very hard, but never frustrating and you'll keep up motivation. Retro Studios has proven with this game, that they are indeed Nintendo's new ace in the hole after Rare. I can't wait to see what Retro'll do next, a "Donkey Kong Country Returns Again" was disclaimed for the moment. I really hope that they'll make a Zelda game at one point in the future, because this could turn out to be the freshest and most exciting Zelda game in years.
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