Review: Donkey Kong Country Returns
Nintendo fans rejoice! Donkey and Diddy Kong are back in an all new adventure! While not the 3D adventure some had hoped for from the DK64 days, it’s still amazing to see Donkey Kong back in a platforming game.
What you’ll immediately notice about Donkey Kong Country Returns, in addition to its awesomeness, is the level of difficulty it offers. It’s been a long time since a platformer has tested my patience like DKC Returns has. It used to be games like Mega Man and Contra that were the kings of difficult platformers, but DKC Returns is right up there with them. Thankfully, Nintendo has us covered by allowing for 2 people to play through the entire single player mode co-operatively.
When you first start DKC Returns, the story will be quite familiar to you. Someone has stolen DK’s bananas and it’s up to him and his scrappy pal Diddy to get back the banana horde. Instead of King K. Rool being the culprit, it’s a group of hypnotizing Tikis that have taken the bananas. It would’ve been fun to see the Kremlings return, but the Tikis are alright enemies to have too. The gameplay is pretty basic although there are plenty of expert moves to learn as you go. The roll, in particular, is very potent against most enemies and even for getting to hard to reach locations. Just like in the original DKC games, you can roll off the edge of something and then jump to give you an extra boost. Learning this move is crucial for mastering the game.
Most of the gameplay has you going through various levels and the game is split into 8 worlds. Some of the levels involve barrel blasting, Rambi smashing, and even mine cart levels (my favorite). There are also all new types of levels and gameplay elements. One in particular involves a rocket propelled barrel that you can guide by pressing the ‘A’ button with the right timing. Press/hold ‘A’ longer and you’ll fly upwards; let go of ‘A’ and you’ll go down. Seems pretty simple, but the levels are quite arduous in which this rocket barrel is used. The one noticeable omission from the game are underwater levels. There’s not a single level where you get to swim underwater which is a shame (and I thought monkeys loved the water!). Despite this, the level design is absolutely amazing and it’s no wonder since Retro Studios was the developer (amazing level design in all the Metroid Prime games).
The graphics in the game are simply fantastic. The style is charming, the backgrounds are vivid and all rendered in 3D. There are all sorts of cases where you have to interact with graphics in the background or be shot into the background on a different ship. The levels are so well done and the graphics keep up at a smooth 60 fps all the way through.
The cooperative multiplayer is by far one of the best parts of the game. I didn’t realize how much more fun it was to play with someone along for the ride than by yourself. When playing just single-player, there are less DK barrels and so using Diddy Kong is a rarity. It’s always nice to have a friend along even when things get hectic because they can always climb on your back a la New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
Conclusion
Donkey Kong Country Returns is an absolute joy to play. It can be difficult at times, but honestly the challenge is half the fun. The fact that you can dig tons of hours into this game and still not collect everything is a testament to its replayability. It is simply a must-own for all Wii owners.
Donkey Kong Country Returns gets a 9.6/10
March 26, 2011
I really like this game, even though there are a few things I think they could have done a better job on, especially the controls. I loved the original Donkey Kong Country games, they were easy to control, and had a very “real” feel to them from the graphics (which were pretty good for that game system, anyway). The tradition has continued in this game, the graphics are really amazing, and even interact with you now and then (like the famous “wave” level). It took me a while to get used to the controls for this game, especially the rolling, I kept instinctively pressing the run/grab button to try to roll, and sometimes I would roll and overshoot what I was trying to jump to. Once you get used to the controls and decide on a few things not to do (example: not rolling as much, lol) the game gets easier. It has great replay value, the secrets of the levels are generally tied in to puzzle pieces, which you can collect to unlock extra galleries from the main menu. My favorites are the dioramas, where you can rotate and zoom around a model based on scenes from the game. It’s another neat way to get a good look at the graphics in the game. I have a project to go through the levels in the game and create a detailed walkthrough for finding all of the puzzle pieces and KONG letters, it’s still a work in progress, but someone might find it useful. http://www.brighthub.com/video-games/wii/articles/97966.aspx This game is great, and it’s still one of my favorites, but it could have been even greater if they had fine-tuned the controls further. Hopefully if they ever make another Donkey Kong Country, they’ll take that into consideration more than they did this time. Oh, and the multiplayer mode can be really, really tough, depending on whether whoever you’re playing with has gone through the levels already or not. It’s sometimes much easier for one player to go through the levels. One of the main reasons it’s challenging is because the Kongs go off screen very easily if one goes too far ahead, it’s really too bad they didn’t make the screen zoom out like NSMBW does, and sadly, that seems to be the main problem with this game’s multiplayer mode.