Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze

D....K....Donkey Kong!

I love this game series and for many years I never owned my own copy of a Donkey Kong game. The first time I played it was over my friend's house as I didn't own a Snes. I had a Nes however. 

But now I have my Wii U of course! I played Donkey Kong Country Returns for the Wii and that was an awesome game!

So I was clearly going to purchase Tropical Freeze with my Wii U.

I'm happy I did. It's what you expect from a Donkey Kong game. Plenty of bananas, red balloons and barrels galore! The famous rhino makes another appearance but the series still misses the ostrich and swordfish. Is that what they were? It's still a lot of fun to ride the rhino but some of the levels feature difficult sections with the horned beast. 

Tropical Freeze is a great platformer and still as fun. There are the KONG letters to acquire once again as well as puzzle pieces to unlock artwork and coins to spend on extra items to help you in your adventure. Most of the enemies are arctic such as penguins and walruses. Some penguins use fish as arrows and I didn't like jumping on their heads as penguins are my favourite animals!

Of course these enemies are here due to a Walrus named Lord Fredrik freezing Donkey Kong Island. The Kong's were celebrating DK's birthday too! DK and friends then get blasted several islands away and have to make their way back while defeating Fredrik's generals along the way.

These bosses can be quite a pain and you might lose quite a few lives before defeating them. They aren't so bad once you learn the bosses pattern. Luckily there are plenty of lives to gather along the way.

My favourite kind of levels are the mine cart ones. I'm not a huge fan of the underwater stages and the one wearing a jet pack. I find these a pain to do but it's still all part of the experience.

If you've played a DK game before which doesn't involve throwing barrels at Mario then you'll be used to using Diddy and Dixie Kong who are quite often found trapped in barrels throughout the levels. In Tropical Freeze both characters are available but also for the first time is Cranky Kong! He reminds me a lot of Scrooge McDuck from the Nes Ducktales game as he uses his cane to jump on enemies and to propel himself and DK to greater heights. A nice welcome to the series indeed.

Each character gives you a special ability you can activate when you've filled your bar up full. With Diddy enemies become red balloons, Dixie they become gold stars and Cranky receives gold coins.

There's plenty to enjoy so what are you waiting for? Go out and buy it!