Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

Recently it has been discovered that Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze has an achievement system buried inside the game, something that was never implemented in the final release. The Cutting Room Floor dived into the game’s coding and retrieved this list of achievements from a file relating to the Miiverse. As someone who has played this game to death I found this very interesting, and I’ve done pretty much all of those on my own. However, I’m writing this article to emphasise how glad I am they were removed. I’ve spent 120 hours on this masterpiece so far and I never expected that coming in, but the game continually impresses and engages me with new layers of depth. Would I have embraced the game’s design so much if there was an anti-fun tracker hovering over the screen? Probably not.

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Continue reading “Achievement Unlocked – Tropical Freedom” →

Retro Studios received a bit of grief when the world found out they were making this instead of another Metroid Prime. By the world, I mean 3 angry nerds on a videogame forum with Samus avatars. Despite Donkey Kong Country Returns being a huge hit and selling over 5 million, gamers were surprised when Nintendo green-lit a sequel. To be honest I liked DKCR but not nearly as much as the Metroid Prime games, so I had one foot in the entitled playground myself. At the end of the day we found out Retro gets to make whatever they want which is a good thing. DKCR was a refreshing change for Retro and they did an amazing job, but it didn’t hit that special spot for me and the level design felt a bit tame. Tropical Freeze however, is an entirely different beast. A beast that was frozen and injected with tropical goodness, then unleashed on unsuspecting Wii U owners with tropical fury. I bought the game about a month ago and I’ve already gone through all the levels, then back through them again on Hard Mode. It was a brutal challenge and one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but perfect level design kept me going and I’ve loved every second of the struggle. In my mind it is (without a doubt, far and away) the best 2D platformer ever made and one of the greatest games ever. Retro Studios completely blew my expectations apart and if you’re having trouble getting excited I’m here to sell you some Tropical Freeze. It’ll enhance your performance and keep you going all night for weeks on end.

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