Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D (Review)

If you already own Donkey Kong Country Returns on the Nintendo Wii, like I do, then going for the Nintendo 3DS version is questionable at best. Maybe you are curious about the additional levels. Maybe you want to play through this excellent game with some novelties. Or maybe you will be just getting this for your collection...

Whatever the reason may be, it doesn't leave a good first impression due to its halved frame rate. At times it even goes clearly below 30FPS, which is unacceptable for a game requiring precise reactions. While it is impressive in itself that Monster Games, the studio behind this port, managed to bring this Wii game onto the Nintendo 3DS, this comes with a cost. And not just the price tag on the box... It just doesn't play as well, especially when you're used to the smooth 60FPS of the original or in Tropical Freeze.

It's also questionable what details were preserved and what not. They certainly were liking the rich backgrounds, which can be rather distracting on the 3DS, while the shadows below enemies are now gone. And we're not talking about complex shadings, but simple "circle below butt" shadows, which were mainly there to give you information with enemies that are above the ground. Those can be critical at times, especially with the final boss, where there was a part that required you to stand right at the edge of its shadow. At least the bubbly background is still there being bubbly...

At least the controls got improved overall, mainly because there aren't any motion controls this time, which originally were used for ground pounding, rolling and blowing (based on your direction). The rolls are the critical part here and they could be a source of frustration with the Wii title, since inputs may not be registered or accidentally triggered. And using a button is simply more precise and reliable. If you can get used to the lower frame rate, then the 3DS version will be more fun to play.

However, this is only true on an XL system, because it may not play as well with the small buttons of a normal Nintendo 3DS. And even if it does for you, then the small screen will still pose a problem, which wasn't really taken into consideration for this port. There are several sections that put you into the backgrounds of the levels, making you very small. Too small for a normal Nintendo 3DS.

The control options also aren't ideal, because you have to pick between the slide pad and the D-pad, they are not active at the same time. Curiously, this also changes the button layout, where the slide pad lets you roll with X or Y and grab with L or R. With the D-pad this gets swapped for no good reason. Why not make it like in Tropical Freeze, which lets you freely set up everything as you want it.

Some of the other improvements from Tropical Freeze have made it into this, though. One of them are the three new items:

• the Crash Shield protects your mine carts and rocket barrels for two times
• the Green Balloon saves you from a fall
• the portable DK Barrels can be used at any time
  

But these are only available in Cranky Kong's Shop when you play the new "Normal Mode", which also adds an extra heart to both Donkey and Diddy. This mode feels more balanced, actually, and it even adds a heart to Mirror Mode, making that one much easier, which you may even need. Similar to Tropical Freeze, there is now an incentive to collecting the KONG letters in Mirror Mode again, because their trophy icon will then turn blue. So, there is some additional challenge to be found there.

In addition, if you play in Normal Mode, you will be able to purchase the pearls in each world, which are normally gotten at the end of the super-challenging K-levels. They are now required to enter the ninth world, which previously was just a single level (the Golden Temple), but now was expanded with eight new levels on the Nintendo 3DS. So, if you want to check them out without going through the hardship of completing all the difficult temples first, then this will be a welcomed option.

None of these new purchases will be available in the "Classic Mode", which works mostly the same as on the Wii, which means that you will only have two hearts per Kong and so on. It also comes with the additional levels, but they cannot be easily unlocked here. Oh, wait... technically they can, because they've also added the Super Guide to the temple levels just in case, which is extremely annoying. The optional K-levels were designed to be mastered step by step and you will therefore die a lot. To have the little piggy appear after a few deaths, offering you help, just feels like the game is taunting you at this point. (This personally frustrated me more than the levels themselves.) If someone picks Classic Mode, they clearly don't want the additional help, so this was uncalled for.

Whatever path you choose to get into the new "Cloud" world, you won't be missing out much in any case... It's this typical theme-recycling in a final world or area, which you have seen in many Nintendo games before. You will find eight islands in the clouds and each island is based on the stuff from the game's normal eight worlds, without really doing anything with the whole sky theme. That's exclusive to the final level, which already existed on the Wii. So, you get a jungle level, a beach level, a temple level, and so on.

These new additions are well done, but they wouldn't stand out if they were just part of the original worlds. You may not even notice that they are new in that case. Only the factory level truly shines, where you assemble a gigantic Donkey Kong robot in the background, which takes action at the end of the level. This is a memorable highlight, but otherwise these additions are rather forgettable and not a real reason to purchase the 3DS version. They may even feel like filler, padding the game before you can play the Golden Temple and unlock Mirror Mode. But they are still better than nothing...

The Good:

• No motion controls
• Eight new levels, though slightly unimaginative

The Bad:

• Bad frame rate
• Some important details are missing, like enemy shadows
• Things get too small on a normal Nintendo 3DS
• Super Guide is even more annoying

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Review)

Retro Studios shows Nintendo how it's done – whether it's Metroid games, Mario Kart courses, or Jump'n'Run levels. And the latter is especially creative and motivating in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze on the Wii U. It's quite different from New Super Mario Bros. U, where you get the same plains, desert, forest, ice, mountain, sky, and volcano worlds for the forth time. Instead, it clearly sets itself apart from its predecessor, Donkey Kong Country Returns, with new ideas.

For example, the Autumn Falls take place in a Bavaria-inspired alpine scenery, including big beer mugs. The Bright Savanna, which will transition into a canyon, offers something new in every level, where this even tells a story of how the world is progressing. That's also true for the fifth world, the Juicy Jungle, where you may expect your typical forest- and jungle-themed levels, but it's actually a sherbet factory. First the fruits will be plucked, then sliced, then turned into jelly, and finally frozen, where Donkey Kong has to survive all these steps. The final world then brings back him back to his Island from Donkey Kong Country Returns, where each world of that game was turned into a single level that is frozen over. There's a ton of creativity found in Tropical Freeze, something that Super Mario has been lacking lately.

But it's not just the worlds and their themes, the levels themselves are also very well done. Well, similar to the previous game, you will have to learn them to a degree, because the levels may change as you keep going. And with certain things it's hard to react when you don't see them coming. That may not be to your taste, but once you've got to know a level, they will offer a nice flow, where most of them where clearly designed for speed-running, which requires you to truly master each level. If one jump doesn't have the right timing, it can already be over.

That may sound frustrating, but the levels stay surprisingly motivating, so that you keep trying. The game's Hard Mode may even bear testimony to that, despite the fact that there are no checkpoints and you only get one heart, so that you will to start over after a single mistake. That sounds impudently frustrating on paper, but it's charmingly addicting. Of course, unless you're just exceptionally good at Jump 'n' Runs, you will die a lot, but there is a joy to be found in mastering the levels step by step. And this is coming from someone, who didn't like the Mirror Mode in Returns as much, even though that one still had checkpoints. It's not Tropical Freeze is the easier game of the two, but it's certainly the fairer one.

Additional modes like this also offer you more replay value. You won't just run through the game once and that's it. In Tropical Freeze Hard Mode might be where the real game begins for you, and everything until then was just the warm-up. Additionally, the game also comes with a Time Attack mode again, where you have to speed-run each levels to earn different medals. This has much improved from the predecessor, because a death will now reset both the level and the timer. In Returns the timer kept running, which meant that you had to leave and reload a level whenever you wanted to truly start over. That was already cumbersome enough, but with the loading times in Tropical Freeze this would be a catastrophe.

That's one point of criticism that needs to be mentioned. We're used to short loading times with Nintendo games, but in Tropical Freeze you are staring at clouds. Even the loading screens are freezing sometimes! Looks like Retro Studios has lost mainly their optimizations talents, less so the creative fellows.

What's really frustrating about the game are puzzle pieces, however, which is another thing worse than in Returns. For the most part the puzzle pieces used to be about discovering hidden secrets, which can be a lot of fun for those who love to explore, like myself. And to a degree this is still true for Tropical Freeze, but more than often this has now turned into banana-collecting mini-games, where you have to grab a given number within a time limit and/or under challenging circumstances. So, instead of getting the puzzle piece directly from a vase, it spawns some erratically flying bananas, where you have to jump around like a monkey to not miss one of them.

The rocket barrel levels are some of the worst offenders, where you have to perfectly catch a stream of bananas. If you don't want to replay the entire level whenever you have missed a banana, you will have no choice but to kill yourself and try again from the latest checkpoint. And then try again. And again. It's not exactly the best video game design if it encourages in-game suicides on such a degree, where I have called the game "Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Frust" after some point. Given, this only matters for completion and it has already been a problem in the previous title, but not as badly.

This is also true for the bonus rooms, which only add insult to injury here. They still interrupt the game, as they did before, but they have even less to offer. There are now only ten configurations, instead of twelve, and they lack the visual variety this time. You also won't get any balloons or coins anymore, because that's apparently too much of a bonus, and instead you have to collect exactly 100 bananas in each of them. This gets old very quickly and also requires these rooms to be larger, where the image is zoomed out quite a bit, making this even harder. And you can't repeat the bonus rooms, so again you will to kill yourself for another attempt at the puzzle piece. (In one level this wasn't even possible with a bonus room at the very end, which means you really have to repeat this from the beginning if you screw it up.) If you are a completionist, then the puzzle pieces will probably become the worst part of the game for you.

Another topic of interest are Donkey Kong's barrel buddies, where next to Diddy Kong you will also be able to play as Dixie and Cranky this time. That's fantastic on first glance and a main selling point of the game, but the problem is that Dixie completely outshines her boyfriend in all aspects. While Diddy can hover for a bit in the air and also get a single boost underwater with his jet pack, Dixie's hair lets her gain additional altitude after a jump and can be used like a propeller when submerged. So, there is no good reason to ever pick Diddy, unless the game forces you to.

At least Cranky Kong has some usage with his pogo move, which is helpful against certain bosses and even required from some of the secrets. But when playing Hard Mode, where you can chose any character, Dixie will be the way to go 95% of the time. And that's just shows how unbalanced they are. Also, there are still no other animal buddies besides Squawks (for finding puzzle pieces) and Rambi, who again is as rare as the beautiful silhouette levels. At least with the re-introduction of underwater stages you would have expected to meet Enguarde somewhere...

This might have helped with those levels being quite slow-paced, which is in stark contrast to the snappy gameplay ashore. World 4, which primarily takes place under the ocean, can therefore be a real pace killer. But there is again an answer to that in the form of Dixie and her propeller hair, letting you breeze through the waters...

Finally, the soundtrack by David Wise also needs to be mentioned, because it's tremendous. While Kenji Yamamoto's work on the games from Retro Studios, including Donkey Kong Country Returns, was also great, the music in Tropical Freeze offers a groove that perfectly matches the action.

The Good:

• Sublime level design in creative worlds
• Perfectly crafted levels
  
• Difficult, but motivating
• No annoying super guide
  
• Ear candy soundtrack
• Responsive controls
  

The Bad:

• Frustrating "get all bananas" puzzle pieces
• Dixie makes Diddy obsolete
• No new animal buddies
• Long loading times
  

Hyrule Warriors' Playable Characters

Next to Link you will get to play with Impa for the first time, which is certainly exciting. But it was mentioned that there were many more playable character (Aonuma was even surprised about how many characters there were), where I have trouble wrapping my head around what characters this could be... Zelda? Groose? Beedle? Scrapper?

Well, what I definitely would like to see in the character roster would be some badass Goron. He could use a hammer (maybe even the Megaton Hammer from Ocarina of Time) as a weapon or simply his fists like Darmani in Majora's Mask. In similar fashion a Zora Warrior could be introduced, fighting with a spear made of fish bones. A Gerudo Warrior would also be nice (and add more boobies, because we know that Team Ninja won't stop at Cia). They could aim for introducing their own six sages in the game, but this time each of them is a strong warrior.

I would also like to see Link as Fierce Deity, just because of the fanservice and it could fit in nicely in a game like Hyrule Warriors, where you fight hundreds of enemies as some overpowered entity.

Also, as far as I know the Warriors games usually let you play with the bad guys as well:

It would be awesome to play with these guys, though the problem here probably lies in your opponents. When you play as Link or Impa you get lots of different enemies from the Zelda series like Bokoblins, Lizalfos, Stalfos or even bosses like King Dodongo or Argarok. But what are you supposed to fight as Cia, Valga, Wizro and maybe Demise? Just lots of Hyrule foot soldiers?

Update:
I actually answered my question myself: as one of the bad guys you could fight Goron or Zora armies, even have big enemies like Biggoron or the three dragons from Skyward Sword. Also, there is lots of potential here for the bad guys. You could play as Ghirahim or Dark Link for example.

Hyrule Warriors shows the Rise or Destruction of Skyloft

Wow, this picture is amazing and confusing alike... first I thought it shows the destruction of Skyloft, but then I noticed that it still has the Statue of the Goddess, which shouldn't be there at this point in time. So, I thought the scene shows the creation of Skyloft. But then I noticed Hyrule Castle, which was built after the events of Skyward Sword. Together with the kingdom of Hyrule.

So, it's not quite clear and my best guess is that the artwork is flawed and it shouldn't have the statue. Or somehow the statue moved back up to Skyloft. But at least we know that the game is strongly tight to Skyward Sword. They used Link's design in the Skyward Sword backstory manga after all...

Hyrule Warriors - Boobs & Story

When Hyrule Warriors first got announced last December, I didn't know what to think of it. It looked like some ragtag Zelda mix of Skyward Sword, Twilight Princess and Ocarina of Time visuals. It looked cheap and I didn't like it. Of course at the time the game was in an early development.

By now they added boobs and it suddenly looks all better... :D I recommend taking a look at the official site - it has quite some screenshots and artwork, like the bad guys:

The personality pair to the left is called Shia and she's actually a good witch/fairy/something, who takes care of the balance of the Triforce. However, she fells in love with Link, who only has eyes for Princess Zelda though, and her feelings eventually turn her into the Wicked Witch of Hyrule, turning the lands into chaos together with her two buddies Valga (they guy with the Volvagia helmet) and Wizro (the Wizzrobe guy who looks like a ghost from Ikana).

The story may sound silly, but I like it. Most importantly I like that they didn't just use Ganondorf, but they actually came up with their own new villains for Zelda. The whole game looks like it takes place some time (a generation or two) after Skyward Sword, with the Hyrule Kingdom established, the Triforce there, but no Ganondorf yet. Valga even looks like he could transform into the dragon Volvagia at some point, maybe they really want to create a Volvagia backstory for some more fanservice than just Shia's cleavage.

It's given that Shia looks more like she came from the character creator of Tera Online, but with her story of having feelings for Link, it actually makes sense for her to look as appealing as possible. I always liked how in Ocarina of Time Link had all these female love interests like Malon or Ruto, while he kept chasing after princess blondie. I guess, it's even one of the factors that made the game popular. And it's funny how they use that here with Shia to create a different kind of villain for the Zelda franchise, even though her design might not something you'd expect from a Zelda game.

But while I don't have problems with Shia or sexualization in general, I think that Link looks like a doll in most scenes, way too feminine.

I hope that Aonuma actually lets this game be canon and part of the official timeline. So far it looks like it could fit in nicely after Skyward Sword and tell a different story for the franchise.

Team Ninja is working on Hyrule Warriors

And you can already see what they're up to:

Not that I mind...

But the title might be a good chance to blow out a lot of fanservice, boobies aside. Impa is playable for example and other characters as well. Could turn out to be quite the fun title.