Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze originally released on the Nintendo Wii U in 2014. It had decent sales but with the low sales of the Nintendo Wii U, the game didn't see its fair share of success. That is why Nintendo decided to bring the game to their new more successful console the Nintendo Switch. As Nintendo is deciding to do with many of their old Wii U successes, they want to see a new life for those great games on a more successful console. Nintendo has already seen more success with the re-release of Mario Kart 8: Deluxe than the Mario Kart 8 on Wii U.
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze was on the top of many people's list for games to be ported to the Nintendo Switch. The game didn't see much success and they needed to get it out to a larger audience. The game itself is a solid platformer and is one of the best 2-D platformers of this generation. It takes inspiration from classic Super Nintendo platformers like Super Mario World and of course, its predecessor the Donkey Kong Country trilogy. These are solid games to pull inspiration from and Retro Studios did a great job reimagining these platfo✨rming classics.
With the game finally coming to the Nintendo Switch did Nintendo fix some of the things that plagued the original or is this just a bare-bones port? You'll find out as we dive into 25 of the worst things about the ported version of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze.
25 ☂ Just A Port
When we take a look at Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze from a distance it looks like a solid 2D platformer and a nice entry to the Switch's library. To many people, it is the first time they will play it so from that retrospect this is a great pickup. However, for anyone who played this when it was out on the Wii U, there isn't much of a reason to pick this title up again. That's of♛ course without Nintendo trying to push new features to old players. However, with the price tag (which we'll talk about later) and the lack of features, this is just a port, unfortunately.
The game will see much more success being on the Switch than it did on the Wii U, but we can't shake the feeling that this should have been the third game in the rebooted Donkey Kong Country series. With this coming out on the Switch it may confirm that Retro won't be working on a new Donkey Kong Country and it may spell the fact that we won't see another Donkey Kong Country game for a few years, or even in the Switch's lifeti🐷me.
24 Is Funky Mode Enough To Save The Game? 🌳
The newest edition to move copies of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze on the Switch is the addition of a new kong known as Funky Kong. Funky Kong has been a staple helper kong in the series ever since the first Donkey Kong Country back on the Super Nintendo.❀ Now he is her♛e as a playable character. That's not to say he didn't have a place in the game already as a shop owner where players could purchase upgrades and extra lives from him on their adventure. Funky Mode brings a new play mode to the game.
Players have nicknamed this mode 'easy mode' as it grants the player with an easy way to traverse the difficult levels.
Funky is the strongest kongs rocking 5 lives and has a surfboard that helps him float in the air, perform double jumps, and walk on spikes. Funky also has an infinite roll mechanic that can be utilized to help speedrunners get through the game even quicker. We can't wait to see the Funky category at SGDQ (Summer Games Done Quick). With all ofꦯ this said Funky Kong may not be enough to justify the port of the game and the hefty price tag.
23 🌺 𝓰 Too Many Ports
The Nintendo Switch is quickly becoming a port machine. This means that the majority of games that are coming out on the Nintendo Switch are ports. The latest release of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is proof of💮 this mindset Nintendo has. This isn't a bad strategy for Nintendo's market but for hardcore Nintendo fans, this can be frustrating as they supported Nintendo when these games originally released.
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is an example of Nintendo trying to add in additional content to get the people who originally bought the game on the Wii U to purchase the game again on the Nintendo Switch by adding in additional modes.
Often these modes aren't worth the price tag and the original releases of the game can be found for over half of the re-releases price. Nintendo will have to perform a balancing act of new and old games if it wants to maintain a substantial player base from hardcore 🐼Nintendo fans who pౠlayed on the Nintendo Wii U.
22 G𝄹raphics Upgrade Or Downgrade꧟?
Typically when we see games being ported to the Nintendo Switch we see similar graphics and models being used as they already have the assets and they can save on animation costs. However, sometimes companies will try 👍to add extra detail in small areas to make the game seem like it looks better on the re-release. This is to add a little extra bang for the customer's buck and is a way to better utilize the new system's power.
A few images were taken from the Wii U version of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and the Ni🍸ntendo Switch version showing them side by side.
The differences are a bit concerning, to say the least.
The one on the images show stills of Donkey Kong st💦anding idle at the beginn♏ing of a level. The images show the amount of detail in Donkey Kong's fur has drastically decreased to the Nintendo Switch version of the game. The changes don't stop at Donkey Kong's fur as he has a whole change in the face as well. These details aren't super noticeable but a weird downgrade nonetheless.
21 Ea♕sy Mode May Ruin The Game Overall ♋
When Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze first rel🍨eased it got slammed for having harder levels that were too challenging for casual players. By introducing the new character Funky Kong, the developers hoped to fix this issue from the first release. However, they may have gone a bit overboard. As mentioned before Funky Kong has a bunch of new moves that put him far above the other Kongs.
Funky's unique move-set includes 5 hearts, a surfboard which helps him gains an extra jump, a hover mode, and the ability to walk on spikes.
He also has an infinite rolling mechanic which can be used to get through levels at high speeds. Sure this move can be used to complete cool speed runs but the Funky mechanic is there to help players through the game at an easier pace. This takes away from some of the game's old-school charm. These old school games that Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is inspired from made difficulty fun and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze doesn't skimp on this idea. Now with the inclusion of Funky Kong easy mode, it seems like the harder level design♐s won't be played to their fullest potential.
20 Where Is The Third Donkey Ko♏ng Game?
Many people were waiting for the announcement of a third Donkey Kong game in the line of the rebooted Donkey Kong Country series. The first game in the series released on the Nintendo Wii under the title Donkey Kong Returns and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze released a few years later on the Wii U. The Switch was the next in line and many were waiting for a Nintendo Direct announcement or an E3 announcement of a third game in the line of g♉ames.
This isn't to say that we won't get a third Donkey Kong Country game on the reboot of the series it just stands to suggest that it won't be announced or released anytime soon.
It's likely if Nintendo were going to release a third game in the Donkey Kong Country rebooted series they would have released this game to hype that game up or they would have bundled the two to create more sales for the game. The third Donkey Kong Country game most likely won't see🎃 itself on the Switch but if it does we predict it will be towards the end of th🐈e Switch's life-cycle.
19 The Over🐎-sat🅠uration of 2D Platformers
Nintendo has always been keen to include a hefty number of 2D platforming games on their consoles. This is to rejuvenate the old ways of the NES and SNES systems and their games which were very successful. Nintendo has seen even more success by rebooting the Super Mario Bros. series with a mainline string of Mario 2D platforming games that released on the Nintend🅷o Wii, Wii U, and 3DS systems. Since then they've taken that same conc✱ept and applied it to Donkey Kong, Kirby, Yoshi, and many more classics.
However, with this comes the question of: Can there be too many 2D platformers on the Nintendo Switch?
This answer may vary from person to person but to the average Nintendo Switch consumer, the 2018 lineup of Switch exclusive games may seem a little too oversaturated in the platformer department. With the release of Kirby Star Allies earlier this year then the release of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, and a new Yoshi game coming out later this year it seems Nintendo is really pushing 2D platformers hard. Likely Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze will be the game to burn out consumersﷺ on 2D platformers as it's a summer release.
18 You Can't Teach Old Kongs New T🌟ricks
The inclusion of a new Kong character may spell the end for the already implemente❀d characters in the game. Funky Kong is a character that takes all the other Kong's abilities and crams them into one undefeatable playable character. This means that the inclusion of the other Kong's (besides multiplayer) is pointless. Diddy Kong has a jetpack ability that helps Donkey Kong hover across larger gaps. Now Funky Kong can just surf over gaps with his surfboard.
Dixie Kong is also present in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and presents an ability in which she can lift Donkey Kong higher in the air for a few seconds. Funky Kong now has an added double jump feature which eliminates the need for Dixie Kong's hair twirl. Then there is Cranky Kong. He has an ability that mimics Scrooge McDuck from DuckTales where he uses his cane to hop on enemies and on 🌳spikes. This, of course, is once again replaced by Funky Kong's surfboard which he can use to stand on spikes. Not to say nobody will play as the supporting Kongs but it's more likely players will gravitate more to🅰wards Funky Kong because he has all the abilities as opposed to just one. Picking the different kongs allowed for diversity and new strategies to attacking different levels. Now players can just zoom through the game on Funky's surfboard.
17 🌟𝄹 Difficult Game For New Audiences
While many people will definitely gravitate towards Funky Kong some players will still stick with the original cast. This will present a higher difficulty for new players. Also, more casual players will still have a difficult time completing levels with Funky Kong. Funky Kong has abilities to avoid most dangers however the biggest threat that is presented towards Funky Kong is pits. Funk🔯y still has the ability to fall into pits which will spell the end for Funky Kong in a second.
With the added bonus that Funky Kong can move fast, it can present more danger in the segmented levels.
As mentioned before the original release of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze received lower review scores because of its difficulty. Many people think that the difficulty was unwarranted and not in the player's favor. This came from professio𓄧nal game journalists so a casual player picking up this game for their Switch library may find the game too difficult to play through much less like. Not to say these levels are bad or the game suffers from its difficulty (mostly). The later game presents players with harder levels that will test thei𝄹r patience which harkens back to the classic Super Nintendo platformers.
16 No New Story ꦑ ๊
With a re-release of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze on the Nintendo Switch, many fans weren't expecting too much of a change to the gameplay or story. However, no new edition to the game's story or gameplay may be disappointing to players who have already played Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze on the Wii U. Especially with the e🐲dition of Funky Kong into the cast of Kongs Nintendo could have at least included an introductory cutscene to the character.
With the amazing cinematic opening and ending to the game, we wanted to see more of what Nintendo could do with pre-rendered cutscenes.
Not to say the story for Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is bad in any way, quite the opposite. Many found the story in Donkey Kong Returns on the Nintendo Wii to be lackluster in the story department, so the refreshing enemy variety that Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze presented offered players with a story that they could actually care about. The ice Viking enemies may not be the classic Kremlings we remember from back in the day but they are a great replacement for the time being. Here's to hoping they may returඣn in the third game!