Here we are at last (though have we really been waiting that long?), Nintendo’s Wii U reunion tour has finally gotten around to DK and pals in another Donkey Kong Country game. Retro Studios did a fantastic job of reviving the 16-bit series for the original Wii a few years back so they get the chance to reprise the role here with the sequel and the benefit of HD, and it’s hard to argue with the results of what they’ve whipped up in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze.

The game starts innocently enough with all your favorite Kongs celebrating Donkey Kong’s birthday, until all of a sudden some evil penguins and their armada crash the party, summoning a huge ice dragon and turning their tropical paradise home into an unfriendly ice cube of a landscape. Your job is to conquer back each island on the way to setting things right. Simple enough, right?

Well being a true Donkey Kong Country game, you’ve only got a few abilities at your disposal as DK. Of course you can run and jump, but at somewhat of a plodding pace and limited height compared to his old nemesis, Mario. Making up for that though is the ability to pound the ground to stun enemies and somersault into them to steamroll them as well as just jumping on them. Donkey Kong can also pick up barrels and toss them at enemies too, as well as free one of his buddies, either Diddy, Dixie, or Cranky Kong to piggy back and help him along the way. Diddy gives you the ability to hover a bit further on your jumps with his jetpack, Dixie adds somewhat of a double jump effect that adds more height and distance, and Cranky can cancel out the effect of spikes by pogo jumping with his cane, kind of like Scrooge from DuckTales. Rambi the Rhino also makes appearances whenever you need to plow through rock barriers and get a move on. You normally have only two hit points indicated by hearts, and your lives are represented by balloons, but you can add to that temporarily by buying items from Funky Kong at various points in the map using your banana coins you’ve collected along the way. Other unlockables include puzzle pieces and the K O N G letters that give you various bonuses and open up hidden levels.

All in all, there’s a lot to do in this game for replay value, but just getting through it the first time is challenge enough, as Retro Studios did a fine job of finding the balance between difficulty and great level design. Of particular note are the mine cart stages, which mix things up by throwing in multiple tracks and even flip the script with a log ride that almost kind of controls opposite of what you’d expect, having to dive into the water to execute jumps, for instance. But also, the boss battles are a blast to figure out the patterns to and master. My particular favorites were the ninja baboons who work together to swing in from above and attack with bombs and melee attacks. Yes all this inevitably leads to numerous deaths, but you’ll be accumulating so many bananas and balloons it won’t really matter. One last tip I have it to take Dixie Kong with you every chance you get, her ability makes a lot of the jumps and underwater sequences MUCH easier, trust me.

Graphically there isn’t much to say about the game except that it lives up to its predecessors and looks even sharper now thanks to the Wii U. Really, this is the what we dreamed about playing back in the Super Nintendo games when we were pretending the original Donkey Kong Country was 3D and not just a bunch of prerendered sprites. I gotta say though, one thing I absolutely loved about this game was the soundtrack. Almost every bit of level music fits perfectly, in fact one world actually dances to it, and it’s quite memorable and worth listening to on its own. The sound effects, well they’re there but it’s just the typical Kong grunts and screeches for the most part.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is just another fine platformer to add to your Wii U roster. It also makes a great co-op title as your friend takes control of DK’s buddies. If anything, that’s something Nintendo already has in spades on their system, and for vets and aficionados like me, that’s a great thing, maybe not so much for others. That’s no knock on what Retro Studios has done here though, and I’d say don’t pass this up if it intrigues you in the least.

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