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Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is a 2014 platform game developed by Retro Studios and published by Nintendo for the Wii U. It is the fifth Donkey Kong Country game and the sequel to Donkey Kong Country Returns (2010). As the gorilla Donkey Kong and his Kong companions, the player embarks on a journey across five islands to save his homeland from the invading Snowmads.

Gameplay

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See also: Gameplay of Donkey Kong Country Returns

Similar its predecessor Donkey Kong Country Returns (2010), Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is a side-scrolling platform game presented from a 2.5D perspective. The story begins when the Kongs gather to celebrate Donkey Kong's birthday but are attacked by the Snowmads, a Viking-like group of arctic invaders from the northern seas. The Snowmads unleash an ice dragon that turns the Kongs' homeland, Donkey Kong Island, into an arctic wasteland and blows the Kongs away to a faraway island. The player must control the Kongs through various themed islands while avoiding obstacles, defeating enemies, and collecting items to defeat the Snowmads and restore Donkey Kong Island.

In single-player, the player controls Donkey Kong, who can jump; pick up and throw objects; slap the terrain to destroy objects, stun enemies, and discover items; pluck objects from the terrain; roll through enemies; and swim. By breaking open barrels, the player can free one of three partner characters, each providing Donkey Kong their own advantage: Diddy Kong uses a jet pack to cross gaps; Dixie Kong uses her ponytail as a propeller to fly; and Cranky Kong uses his cane to bounce on dangerous surfaces and defeat certain enemies the other characters cannot. In multiplayer, one player controls Donkey Kong while the other controls a partner character separately. The game supports a variety of controllers, including the Wii U Gamepad, the Wii Remote (with or without the Nunchuk), and the Wii U Pro Controller.

The game consists of seven islands that house the 63 levels, accessed via a 3D world map. Some levels have hidden goals that lead to alternate routes on the world map. The player guides Donkey Kong as he jumps between platforms, stomps on enemies, swings between vines, and clings to and climbs ceilings and walls. Some levels require the player to dive underwater, and others see Donkey Kong riding a minecart or a rocket while avoiding obstacles. A pig, Professor Chops, appears multiple times throughout levels to mark checkpoints. Scattered throughout levels are collectible bananas that fill a meter which, when full, allows Donkey Kong and his partner to turn all on-screen enemies into items. At the end of each island, the player must face a boss. Donkey Kong must hit each boss nine times across three phases that increase in difficulty. After defeating the boss, the player can proceed to the next island.

From the map, the player can visit a shop run by Funky Kong to purchase support items—such as temporary invincibility—using collectible gold coins scattered throughout levels. Donkey Kong starts each level with a two-point health bar; the bar grows to four points with a partner character, and can be expanded further with items from Funky's shop. The player's health depletes whenever they are hit by an enemy or hazard. If the player loses all health or falls down a bottomless pit, they lose a life, and receive a game over when all their lives have been exhausted. Lives are replenished by obtaining red balloons in levels or Funky's shop, or by collecting 100 bananas. Like Donkey Kong Country Returns, each level features hidden puzzle pieces and letters spelling K–O–N–G. Collecting all the puzzle pieces within a level unlocks concept art, while collecting all the K–O–N–G letters in an island unlocks an extra level. Once the player collects all the letters in the six main islands and completes the extra levels, they can access the seventh island.

A single-player time attack game mode is available once the player completes a level at least once. In time attack, the player works to complete levels as fast as possible, and may receive gold, silver, or bronze medals for completing them in certain times. Players' times may also be uploaded to an online leaderboard via the Nintendo Network. Once the player completes the seventh island, they unlock Hard Mode. In Hard Mode, there are no checkpoints and the player has only one health point. There are also no partner characters, but the player has the option to control any character. Completing the game in Hard Mode unlocks more concept art.

Development

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Conception

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After completing Returns, Retro staff felt they still had plenty of ideas for the Donkey Kong franchise. With the technological prowess of the Wii U, they decided to develop a sequel.[1]

Retro staff were so impressed with Monster Games' work on porting Returns to the 3DS that they recruited its assistance for the level design, visuals, and programming.[2]

Design

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Retro did not diverge from Returns' core gameplay, but Tanabe felt the team was able to keep the gameplay innovative through the new partner characters and camera movement.[2]

Retro integrated dynamic camera movement, which allowed the team to incorporate different axes beyond traditional side-scrolling into the level design.[3] The concept was developed for Returns, but Retro was unable to polish it in time for its release, so it was deferred to Tropical Freeze.[2] Kelbaugh noted it necessitated filling levels with more elements.[3]

The plucking mechanic was inspired by Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988), a game that Tanabe directed. He suggested it would be interesting to revive it for Tropical Freeze.[3]

The Wii U's processing power allowed for visual elements that the team had been unable to accomplish on the Wii, such as lighting and translucency effects.[3] Retro chose not to use the GamePad's unique features, aside from Off-TV Play, so it could focus more on the gameplay and visuals.[2]

Retro spent considerable time perfecting Donkey Kong's swimming animation. They wanted underwater levels to feel natural in comparison to the SNES games.[3]

Like Returns, Retro wanted Tropical Freeze to be difficult to honor the series' legacy, but Tanabe still wanted it to be accessible to newcomers. The team included the green balloon item from the 3DS version of Returns for this reason.[3]

They removed Super Guide because many players did not want to use it, preferring to complete levels themselves, so they included alternative accessibility options like the green balloon and Kong POW.[4]

The team enjoyed designing the Snowmads. Kelbaugh said that Retro "spent a great deal of time on the slightest of details of even the smallest of them... We wanted to give them a lot of personality and character."[2]

Retro spent a lot of time improving the animation quality. Satoru Iwata requested the fur effects seen on Donkey Kong.[4]

Music

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Release

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The delay allowed Retro more time for polish, such as adding background elements and adjusting the soundtrack.[2]

Reception

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Post-release

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Aftermath

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Rereleases

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Legacy

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Tropical Freeze remains the most recent major Donkey Kong game.

Retrospective assessments

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Influence

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References

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Citations

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  1. ^ George, Richard (June 13, 2013). "E3 2013: Nintendo, Retro discuss future of Metroid". IGN. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Reeves, Ben (December 24, 2013). "Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze: Nintendo answers our burning questions". Game Informer. pp. 1–2. Archived from the original on December 26, 2016. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Parish, Jeremy (June 27, 2013). "Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze full E3 interview". USgamer. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  4. ^ a b Skrebels, Joe (February 19, 2014). "Monkey Men: talking to Michael Kelbaugh and Kensuke Tanabe". Official Nintendo Magazine. pp. 1–2. Archived from the original on March 6, 2014. Retrieved December 26, 2022.

Works cited

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GAMEPLAY:

DEVELOPMENT:

MUSIC:

NINTENDO SELECTS:

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