Having these returning members of the Kong family on this journey, along with the return of David Wise as composer, really makes Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze feel like a celebration of the franchise. Every sidekick reacts differently in every boss intro, their voices are expressive, and they all have their own idle animations while on DKвЂ™s back. Besides the changes to gameplay, these two characters add a lot of charm and personality.

Diddy Kong still uses his jetpack to add hang-time to your jumps, Dixie Kong using her pony-tail spin to add a bit of extra height to your jump, and Cranky KongвЂ™s cane allows you to jump on terrain that would normally harm you, and make your jumps higher and your landing more precise. The classic goofiness and aloof nature when it comes to anything besides the fate of his bananas is still here, and makes for some hilarious cutscenes.В Dixie and Cranky join Diddy and Donkey this time around, adding both two new ways to extend jumps in single-player, and two new characters for player 2 to select when playing with friends. For the first time, Donkey KongвЂ™s fur looks natural and flows with the wind. The character design in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze falls into a nice medium between gruff sounding Donkey Kong from the N64 and the creepily animated, singing, cartoon version. DonвЂ™t get me wrong using Rhambi is a blast. Winky the Frog has always been my favorite, with ExpressoВ at a close second. ItвЂ™s quite fun, but I did long for the variety of challenges present in the original Donkey Kong Country, as well as the use of more animal friends than just Rhambi during levels. Instead of the secret area looking like the level you are playing, itвЂ™s always a golden ruin where you must collect all the bananas through platforming or using barrels. Just as every game in the DKC series, secret areas return, but are not as varied as in past iterations. Defeating the final boss is one the proudest moments IвЂ™ve had playing video games. The addition of mashing the triggers as many times as possible to pummel the boss after defeating them is therapeutic after dying 10+ times before victory. Boss battles are extremely tough as well, and cap off each world nicely. Though the game starts off fairly easy and increases the pain as it teaches, the end of every level will fill you with a sense of pride. ItвЂ™s clear though, that t his game was made for people who cut their teeth on Donkey Kong Country for SNES. As to not completely alienate the non-hardcore crowd, power-ups and extra lives can be purchased from Funky Kong, and will make completing the game a bit easier. The game supplies you with simple, tight controls (minus the frustrating motion controls from DKC:Returns), and tasks you with mastering your inputs, keeping your patience, and triumphing against some of the most clever, exciting, and challenging level design IвЂ™ve ever seen in a platformer. However, this is by no means a bad thing. ItвЂ™s, вЂњIf you have problems dealing with frustration, please set up a mound of pillows so youвЂ™ll have a safe area to throw your Gamepad,вЂќ hard. ItвЂ™s not, вЂњA few levels gave me some trouble,вЂќ hard.

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