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"The Jet Gamer" Game Review: Donkey Kong Country Returns
9 years ago
“The Jet Gamer” Game Review:
Not played one of these games in a while. A first party Nintendo game is usually always a treat.
Donkey Kong Country Returns
Donkey Kong Country, yeah there is a game gamers are likely to remember if they were around during or near the super Nintendo days. Nintendo has brought the franchise back for the first time since the N64 days on the Wii. Is this one just as good as the older DKC games or is there some monkey business that may be going on in this new game that may not be so good? Let’s take a closer look and find out.
Gameplay
This game really does remind you of the days of playing the old Donkey Kong Country on the SNES. You are running just left and right in 2.5D levels, where your main goal is just to get to the end of the level while gathering collectibles as you go. You have the typical four letters to spell out Kong, but there are also puzzle pieces in the levels to collect as well. All of these are used to unlock pictures and such in the extras gallery. If you are interested in these, go after the collectibles. They are nice pictures. Finding the collectibles may sound tricky at first, but the big thing that helps here is Squawks the Parrot. You can bring Squawks into the levels and he will make parrot noises whenever you are nearby to a puzzle piece. This helps a lot in finding them. However, you can’t just use the parrot whenever you wish. You have to pay for him each use. You pay for him by collecting banana coins throughout the levels, and then paying them to Cranky Kong. Yes, Cranky is back, and he is running the shop in this game. You use the banana coins to buy various different things that Cranky sells. One of them being a one-time use of Squawks, along with two other one time use power ups, though there are others. The biggest ones you will need big time are the one up balloons. You can buy extra ones from Cranky, and believe me you will need them. That is where this game takes a big turn in the wrong direction I feel. You remember that old saying, something is Nintendo hard? Well, that’s exactly what has happened here in this game. This game is hard, and I mean damn hard at times. Yes, I know I was going for the collectibles, but even then, just surviving a lot of the levels is on the very hard side. There are many levels where you just have to do such tricky jumps and dodges just to survive, and then the fact that Diddy isn’t always there for you as well. Playing a single player game means that Diddy rides on DK’s back and can use his rocket jets to allow DK to hover for a short time, which makes making jumps a lot easier. However, keeping Diddy around for long periods of times if tricky, and you don’t always get DK barrels when you could use them. I think they did this on purpose to make it a lot more difficult at times. There are certain levels that are harder than others as well, like the rocket barrel, and mine cart auto scrolling levels. These are very precise levels that require you to move in pretty much the patters they have set up for you, or you will fall or hit a wall and die in one hit. This can be very frustrating as there are several levels like this, plus even many of the normal levels that have a lot of tricky jumps and limited checkpoints. Yeah, many of the levels do at times want you to go long times without checkpoints, with the bonus levels not even having any checkpoints. Really, if you want to play this, as long as you can tolerate some very hard and sometimes what seem to be unfair jumps and such, then you will have fun with this game. However, if you can stand and like games that can be this hard then you will likely enjoy this platformer. Luckily, farming banana coins and lives isn’t too hard, so game overing isn’t something you have to worry about too much, but there were a few closer calls here and there. Just keep yourself stocked and you can eventually make it through. I just think they went way overboard with the difficulty here. I have nothing against difficult games, but they just took it so far that I think it killed some of the fun factor at times. That’s where I feel this game lacks and why I gave this category a bit of a hit. The gameplay is alright, but the difficulty just is quite frustrating at times, that playing through this game can feel just annoying at times instead of fun. Other than that, it is an alright platformer that’s for sure.
Story
As you would expect with many first party Nintendo games, the story isn’t exactly strong here, but here is the thing, this DKC game does have a different story sort of that changes it up at least. All the other games were about fighting K. Rool, who was stealing all the banana’s or one of the Kongs. Well, in this one, K. Rool isn’t even here anymore. There is a new set of bad guys, the Tiki’s, a bunch of floating Tiki heads and idols that are floating around. This time, they are the ones that have stolen the DK banana hoard and have also taken control of the minds of many of the animals and creatures on DK island. It is up to DK and Diddy to defeat them and get the banana’s all back. That’s about it on the story. Throughout the rest of the game, it is just about going from world to world defeating these tiki’s, and not only undoing their mind control and beating them up, but of course getting back all the banana’s that they are using in the process. You aren’t going to get much more story than that, and honestly, it is more than I was expecting. I’m honestly just happy they changed up the story a little bit that it wasn’t the same thing once again.
Graphics
Okay, despite the difficulty of this game, this game just looks gorgeous. That’s one thing you can say about Nintendo and their first party games on any console. They do try their best to keep them looking good. DKC looks so bright and colorful as you would expect it to be. That style Nintendo likes to use, they took it full force here and did make sure to make this game look the best it could be. IT really does look like a forest, an ocean, or factory when you are playing through this game, of course with its own twists to show you that it has been taken over by these tiki’s and to also look very perilous at the same time. This is once again once of those times where something just looks so good that I have very little to say about it. You need to see it for yourself to understand how good the game looks overall. I see very little that needs to be changed as there is no graphical glitches to speak up at all. There was no slowdown, and honestly, everything looked to be in its place and representing perfectly what it was supposed to be. I have no complaints at all here.
Sound
Just like with the graphics, I have little to no complaints here, and have nothing by praise. Nintendo make a good call here and brought back a lot of the music from the older games and remade them to modern music standards so that you could enjoy a lot of the music tracks from the original DKC game in this new DKC game. You will not only hear familiar tracks from the older game, but you will have plenty of new music that was made for Returns as well. These are the kinds of tracks that you will want to listen to in your spare time. That’s how good it these music tracks are to me at least. The sound effects are the same way. They do the job of making you believe you are in certain environments. DK and Diddy sound just fine as well, and you hear all the grunts and ooks that make you believe they are a real ape and monkey. There is obviously no voice acting, as that is sort of typical of Nintendo games, nor are there any text boxes to be seen at least for most of the game. The only one that even gets text box speaking is Cranky while he is in the store. No one else in the game talks nor have text boxes. You don’t really need them though, as you can tell just by the looks and sounds of the anger these guys have for these people that took their bananas. That’s quite a feat to be honest, and one they did very well here.
Control
This game has pretty good controls, but there are times when you will get somewhat frustrated with them. Throughout the normal levels, you won’t have too much trouble controlling DK. I was using the standard Wiimote holding it sideways, but there are other methods of controlling the game if you so choose. This is the method that I used and will be judging the game on for the review. The main trouble though you are going to have is that sometimes you do have trouble keeping momentum at times which is needed to hit certain jumps. This is most of the time the players fault, but some of it is still there from the difficulty that I mentioned earlier. This game isn’t easy and does require pretty good controls which luckily it has. The main trouble once again will come with the precision that is needed to complete some levels, plus there are once again the rocket barrel levels and the rail car levels. Anything that is auto scrolling as well is where this game can be a bit tricky to control. The tricky jumps will frustrate you at times and sometimes if you don’t do the buttons just right, this will annoy you. While some of it is player error, the difficulty of the game sort of bleeds into the controls I feel. While the controls aren’t that bad at all, there will be times you will yell at them due to the precision that is needed. Just don’t give up, but be ready for it.
Replay Value
As I just mentioned in the controls section, I do feel the difficulty sort of bleeds into the replayability of this game as well. While there is plenty to do in this game, even after you beat it, there also has to be the motivation to want to keep playing. Due to how hard this game is, it is more up to how well the player deals with difficulty and how much they want to keep at it that will determine how much you want to keep playing this game. Playing through the game normally won’t be that hard to do as you will want to play through the game the standard way and see it through. However, if you want to collect all the collectibles you will be in for a long hard time. The game even rewards you for getting them all by making the game even harder, if that’s even possible. So really, if you enjoy super difficult games, then will enjoy this game here as well and want to keep playing to unlock every single little thing. There is a lot to do after all, the super difficult mirror mode, and the time trials. Both of which will likely take days to complete and even longer to perfect them. So yes, there is a lot to keep playing for, but it is up to the player if they have the motivation to endure the difficulty though to play it all.
Overall, I would say that Donkey Kong Country Returns is a very faithful representation of what the DKC series has always been and follows the formula exactly as it should be. The game looks and sounds great and is a pretty faithful platformer to anyone that remembers the original game. However, the super high difficulty is likely to turn some people off and keep some people from finishing this game. If you can get past the difficulty though, there is an enjoyable platformer here for the Wii to enjoy. Just be ready for a hard time if you do pick this game up, but enjoy it as well when you can. It is worth it honestly, even if it is super hard to play through at times.
Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Donkey Kong Country Returns an eight out of ten.
Gameplay: 6
Story: 8
Graphics: 10
Sound: 10
Control: 7
Replay Value: 7
Overall: 8
Not played one of these games in a while. A first party Nintendo game is usually always a treat.
Donkey Kong Country Returns
Donkey Kong Country, yeah there is a game gamers are likely to remember if they were around during or near the super Nintendo days. Nintendo has brought the franchise back for the first time since the N64 days on the Wii. Is this one just as good as the older DKC games or is there some monkey business that may be going on in this new game that may not be so good? Let’s take a closer look and find out.
Gameplay
This game really does remind you of the days of playing the old Donkey Kong Country on the SNES. You are running just left and right in 2.5D levels, where your main goal is just to get to the end of the level while gathering collectibles as you go. You have the typical four letters to spell out Kong, but there are also puzzle pieces in the levels to collect as well. All of these are used to unlock pictures and such in the extras gallery. If you are interested in these, go after the collectibles. They are nice pictures. Finding the collectibles may sound tricky at first, but the big thing that helps here is Squawks the Parrot. You can bring Squawks into the levels and he will make parrot noises whenever you are nearby to a puzzle piece. This helps a lot in finding them. However, you can’t just use the parrot whenever you wish. You have to pay for him each use. You pay for him by collecting banana coins throughout the levels, and then paying them to Cranky Kong. Yes, Cranky is back, and he is running the shop in this game. You use the banana coins to buy various different things that Cranky sells. One of them being a one-time use of Squawks, along with two other one time use power ups, though there are others. The biggest ones you will need big time are the one up balloons. You can buy extra ones from Cranky, and believe me you will need them. That is where this game takes a big turn in the wrong direction I feel. You remember that old saying, something is Nintendo hard? Well, that’s exactly what has happened here in this game. This game is hard, and I mean damn hard at times. Yes, I know I was going for the collectibles, but even then, just surviving a lot of the levels is on the very hard side. There are many levels where you just have to do such tricky jumps and dodges just to survive, and then the fact that Diddy isn’t always there for you as well. Playing a single player game means that Diddy rides on DK’s back and can use his rocket jets to allow DK to hover for a short time, which makes making jumps a lot easier. However, keeping Diddy around for long periods of times if tricky, and you don’t always get DK barrels when you could use them. I think they did this on purpose to make it a lot more difficult at times. There are certain levels that are harder than others as well, like the rocket barrel, and mine cart auto scrolling levels. These are very precise levels that require you to move in pretty much the patters they have set up for you, or you will fall or hit a wall and die in one hit. This can be very frustrating as there are several levels like this, plus even many of the normal levels that have a lot of tricky jumps and limited checkpoints. Yeah, many of the levels do at times want you to go long times without checkpoints, with the bonus levels not even having any checkpoints. Really, if you want to play this, as long as you can tolerate some very hard and sometimes what seem to be unfair jumps and such, then you will have fun with this game. However, if you can stand and like games that can be this hard then you will likely enjoy this platformer. Luckily, farming banana coins and lives isn’t too hard, so game overing isn’t something you have to worry about too much, but there were a few closer calls here and there. Just keep yourself stocked and you can eventually make it through. I just think they went way overboard with the difficulty here. I have nothing against difficult games, but they just took it so far that I think it killed some of the fun factor at times. That’s where I feel this game lacks and why I gave this category a bit of a hit. The gameplay is alright, but the difficulty just is quite frustrating at times, that playing through this game can feel just annoying at times instead of fun. Other than that, it is an alright platformer that’s for sure.
Story
As you would expect with many first party Nintendo games, the story isn’t exactly strong here, but here is the thing, this DKC game does have a different story sort of that changes it up at least. All the other games were about fighting K. Rool, who was stealing all the banana’s or one of the Kongs. Well, in this one, K. Rool isn’t even here anymore. There is a new set of bad guys, the Tiki’s, a bunch of floating Tiki heads and idols that are floating around. This time, they are the ones that have stolen the DK banana hoard and have also taken control of the minds of many of the animals and creatures on DK island. It is up to DK and Diddy to defeat them and get the banana’s all back. That’s about it on the story. Throughout the rest of the game, it is just about going from world to world defeating these tiki’s, and not only undoing their mind control and beating them up, but of course getting back all the banana’s that they are using in the process. You aren’t going to get much more story than that, and honestly, it is more than I was expecting. I’m honestly just happy they changed up the story a little bit that it wasn’t the same thing once again.
Graphics
Okay, despite the difficulty of this game, this game just looks gorgeous. That’s one thing you can say about Nintendo and their first party games on any console. They do try their best to keep them looking good. DKC looks so bright and colorful as you would expect it to be. That style Nintendo likes to use, they took it full force here and did make sure to make this game look the best it could be. IT really does look like a forest, an ocean, or factory when you are playing through this game, of course with its own twists to show you that it has been taken over by these tiki’s and to also look very perilous at the same time. This is once again once of those times where something just looks so good that I have very little to say about it. You need to see it for yourself to understand how good the game looks overall. I see very little that needs to be changed as there is no graphical glitches to speak up at all. There was no slowdown, and honestly, everything looked to be in its place and representing perfectly what it was supposed to be. I have no complaints at all here.
Sound
Just like with the graphics, I have little to no complaints here, and have nothing by praise. Nintendo make a good call here and brought back a lot of the music from the older games and remade them to modern music standards so that you could enjoy a lot of the music tracks from the original DKC game in this new DKC game. You will not only hear familiar tracks from the older game, but you will have plenty of new music that was made for Returns as well. These are the kinds of tracks that you will want to listen to in your spare time. That’s how good it these music tracks are to me at least. The sound effects are the same way. They do the job of making you believe you are in certain environments. DK and Diddy sound just fine as well, and you hear all the grunts and ooks that make you believe they are a real ape and monkey. There is obviously no voice acting, as that is sort of typical of Nintendo games, nor are there any text boxes to be seen at least for most of the game. The only one that even gets text box speaking is Cranky while he is in the store. No one else in the game talks nor have text boxes. You don’t really need them though, as you can tell just by the looks and sounds of the anger these guys have for these people that took their bananas. That’s quite a feat to be honest, and one they did very well here.
Control
This game has pretty good controls, but there are times when you will get somewhat frustrated with them. Throughout the normal levels, you won’t have too much trouble controlling DK. I was using the standard Wiimote holding it sideways, but there are other methods of controlling the game if you so choose. This is the method that I used and will be judging the game on for the review. The main trouble though you are going to have is that sometimes you do have trouble keeping momentum at times which is needed to hit certain jumps. This is most of the time the players fault, but some of it is still there from the difficulty that I mentioned earlier. This game isn’t easy and does require pretty good controls which luckily it has. The main trouble once again will come with the precision that is needed to complete some levels, plus there are once again the rocket barrel levels and the rail car levels. Anything that is auto scrolling as well is where this game can be a bit tricky to control. The tricky jumps will frustrate you at times and sometimes if you don’t do the buttons just right, this will annoy you. While some of it is player error, the difficulty of the game sort of bleeds into the controls I feel. While the controls aren’t that bad at all, there will be times you will yell at them due to the precision that is needed. Just don’t give up, but be ready for it.
Replay Value
As I just mentioned in the controls section, I do feel the difficulty sort of bleeds into the replayability of this game as well. While there is plenty to do in this game, even after you beat it, there also has to be the motivation to want to keep playing. Due to how hard this game is, it is more up to how well the player deals with difficulty and how much they want to keep at it that will determine how much you want to keep playing this game. Playing through the game normally won’t be that hard to do as you will want to play through the game the standard way and see it through. However, if you want to collect all the collectibles you will be in for a long hard time. The game even rewards you for getting them all by making the game even harder, if that’s even possible. So really, if you enjoy super difficult games, then will enjoy this game here as well and want to keep playing to unlock every single little thing. There is a lot to do after all, the super difficult mirror mode, and the time trials. Both of which will likely take days to complete and even longer to perfect them. So yes, there is a lot to keep playing for, but it is up to the player if they have the motivation to endure the difficulty though to play it all.
Overall, I would say that Donkey Kong Country Returns is a very faithful representation of what the DKC series has always been and follows the formula exactly as it should be. The game looks and sounds great and is a pretty faithful platformer to anyone that remembers the original game. However, the super high difficulty is likely to turn some people off and keep some people from finishing this game. If you can get past the difficulty though, there is an enjoyable platformer here for the Wii to enjoy. Just be ready for a hard time if you do pick this game up, but enjoy it as well when you can. It is worth it honestly, even if it is super hard to play through at times.
Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Donkey Kong Country Returns an eight out of ten.
Gameplay: 6
Story: 8
Graphics: 10
Sound: 10
Control: 7
Replay Value: 7
Overall: 8
