![]() ![]() Anyone who remembers the last few games in the series will remember that they were filled with increasingly annoying Kong family members and stale gameplay. In essence, Returns is the formula from the original Donkey Kong Country boiled down to its most simple assets. As you'd expect, your goal is to traverse the jungle, defeat the Tiki Tak Tribe and get yourself some potassium goodness in the process. You see, the animals are under the control of the evil Tikis known as the Tiki Tak Tribe. Life is hard for Kong, he's finally gotten rid of those pesky Kremlins, but now he's got to worry about his fellow jungle animals running off with his banana horde. Strangely enough, Retro studios didn't look to new technology or fancy new features for their attempt to restore faith in the once prominent franchise they merely returned one of Nintendo's oldest heroes to his roots and in the process have surpassed everything Rare has done with the original. It's epic, it's fun, it's gorgeous - it's the best platformer you've played in a long time. Yet, I can't say enough about Donkey Kong Country Returns. I'm not one for handing out praise and gooey words to games unless they really deserve it. I guess I'm accepting the truth: this season, more than any I can remember, is a season of sequels.Donkey Kong Country Returns - Cheat Happens Game Review This holiday has become a poster child for the predictability of the video game industry, from a new Call of Duty down to the requisite rehashes of last year's Rock Band and Guitar Hero titles. Gaming needs more risks, not more comfort food. Pitch-perfect fast-paced gameplay and frustratingly challenging tasks throw me straight back to my 16-bit teenage days, embellished here with plenty of Pixar-esque 3D graphics, but I miss the risks Nintendo used to take when they moved Mario and Zelda to 3D on the N64, or Metroid on the GameCube.ĭonkey Kong Country Returns is an excellent holiday buy, but I hope it doesn't encourage Nintendo to become ever-more complacent. That's not to say I'm not getting fed up with the trend, regardless. In fact, it's probably the most successful new-generation platformer made in years. DKC Returns is, even to a bah-humbug gamer such as myself, a flat-out excellently made game. Rather than push Wii gaming forward into the future, recent games seem to be heading back into the warm embrace of the past. I was a little skeptical of Donkey Kong Country Returns for this very reason, simply because it's more of that same comforting Nintendo blanket. Wii, which is one of the Wii's all-time top-selling titles, and recent releases such as Metroid: Other M and Kirby: Epic Yarn only reinforce the trend. The formula worked for 2009's New Super Mario Bros. Nintendo's crystal-clear strategy this holiday season has been: retro is good. The Wii may not have a lot going for it these days, but classic Nintendo franchise fans both old and new are certainly in great shape. We were a bit skeptical about all of these rebooted series popping up on the Wii this year, but Donkey Kong Country Returns only re-emphasizes the level of effort and details these games have received. That said, there are certainly new additions to the usual mine cart and jungle setting we were treated to the first go-around. ![]() In terms of gameplay, DKC Returns controls excellently, just as if we were playing the original. Also, Diddy Kong is around again for the adventure, and he'll take a vital role in your banana-recovery quest. There are plenty of familiar details fans of the series will identify with: collecting K-O-N-G letters, hidden areas, bonus levels, and more. We really can't stress the difficulty enough here the game is definitely not for the easily frustrated. While we praised Epic Yarn for its success in conventional 2D platforming, DKC Returns innovates within the genre, giving us new ways to play. ![]() If you didn't feel challenged in Kirby's Epic Yarn, Donkey Kong Country Returns will immediately fill that void. The latest of this bunch is Donkey Kong Country Returns, the re-imagined follow-up to one of the Super Nintendo's most successful and iconic franchises. ![]() Lately it seems Nintendo has released more of a time machine than a game console, with its recent titles taking us back 15 years or so, reliving our childhoods spent playing Super Nintendo and the like. Does Donkey Kong Country offer the same amount of appeal? Or is this one franchise that should have stayed dormant? Continuing the onslaught of rebooted gems from the past, Nintendo's one-two holiday season punch began with Kirby's Epic Yarn and finishes with Donkey Kong Country Returns for the Wii.Įven though we found Epic Yarn to be a bit simplistic, it was still engaging enough to justify a playthrough. ![]()
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