Overview
Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze is the next iteration in the Donkey Kong Country series developed by Nintendo's own Retro Studios, which clung onto fame with the Metroid Prime games and the revival of the Donkey Kong Country series with Returns. Like Returns, the Kremlings aren't the antagonistic force in this game *le gasp*. Instead, viking animals from the frozen seas of the north known as The Snowmads are the antagonistic force.

These are just some of the mooks amongst the Smowmad Ranks.

Story

The game's story starts with what appears to be Donkey Kong's birthday party. Joining him are Diddy Kong, Dixie Kong and Cranky Kong. While this was happening, the Snowmads storm onto the shores of DK Island. Their leader, Lord Frederick, takes out his horn and blows into it, summoning a giant ice dragon that literally takes DK Island with a frozen storm. All four kongs, who looked out of the humble hut to see what the commotion was, were blown away by the storm towards the first island in the game. Now, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Dixie Kong and even Cranky Kong have to fight their way through six worlds to reclaim their home.

The guy who blew the horn that kicked off the events of Tropical Freeze. He looks menacing, doesn't he?

Gameplay

Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze plays more or less like Returns did on the Wii with a few exceptions; the player has several more control options with the Wii U game pad and Pro Controller in addition to the Wii peripheral used in Returns. In addition, rather than just have Diddy Kong as Donkey Kong's buddy, the player can have Dixie Kong and Cranky Kong as their buddies as well. Diddy Kong still has his jetpack ability from Returns, Dixie Kong can twirl her hair and give Donkey Kong and herself an extra jump in the air, and Cranky Kong can use his cane to give Donkey Kong and himself a quick bounce and protection against spikes.

Another new feature that comes with this is the ultimate move known as Kong-Pow; while the player is with a Kong partner and their yellow bar on the top left is maxed out, then the player can obliterate all non-Boss enemies on the screen and, depending on your partner, turn them into useful collectables. When done with Diddy Kong, all enemies on the screen turn into 1-Up Balloons. When done with Dixie Kong, all enemies on the screen turn into Golden Hearts (They not only restore hearts, but collecting Golden Hearts while at maximum hearts gives extended hearts to the bar, indicated by golden hearts in the bar). When done with Cranky Kong, all enemies on the screen turn into Banana Coins.

The shop also returns with Funky Kong being the proprietor of it. Not only are new items introduced (such as the Green Balloons that save Donkey Kong from falling to his death and Blue Balloons that replenish the Oxygen Bar when it runs out), but there is a capsule machine that generates figurines when the player has spare Banana Coins that he/she is willing to spend.

Swimming is back in this game. Unfortunately, Donkey Kong is given an Oxygen Bar this time. Still, the swimming works... swimmingly *shot*.

Good news everyone! If you hated the Barrel Rocket and Mine Cart segments in Returns, Tropical Freeze makes them more bearable by giving the player two hearts (instead of one) and a shield item to be able to absorb a third blow.

Look at that clever Zelda reference he made!

Levels

I could write a 50-page essay detailing on what the Levels in this game are like. Retro Studios did a stupendous job with making every single level feel alive. So, allow me to start with the worlds; there are six worlds in this game plus the hidden world that is unlocked after completing all the Temple Levels and beating the game. There is the airplane graveyard and swamps of the Lost Mangrove, the Netherland-inspired mountain Autumn Heights, The tropical plains that is ZebricaBright Savanna, the chain of atolls known as the Sea Breeze Cove, the factory-driven jungle known as Juicy Jungle and Donkey Kong Island, which takes Returns's levels and basically changes things up by freezing them over.

The levels themselves are all uniquely varied. The player would be so surprised with how much the developers can do in the first world. Busted Bayou happens to be one of my favorite levels just because of how the coloring of the stage is black and green with the Kongs' signature features retaining their color.

Like in the rest of the DKC series, there are collectable KONG letters that the player must collect in order to unlock the Temple levels of each world. Yes, the Temple levels can be soul-crushingly difficult, and two of them even have 'Spike' in their title... Why is it that things I hate in games have 'Spike' in their name in some shape or form? First Mega Man, then Pokemon, then Xenoblade and now this... Is this the world trying to tell me something?

Let's see other platformers get a view like this.

Graphics

You know that the graphics are good if time in the Nintendo Direct was spent on talking about the look of the Kongs's fur in this game. In addition, the graphics are crisp, clean and colorful, the three Cs that guarantee that the graphics are awesome. There's just so much that is done for the environment that players can tell Nintendo took very good care of how it looks.

This is what it would look like on your TV.

Music

You all remember David Wise, composer of all the games developed by Rare for Nintendo, right? He was missing in action with Returns. Thankfully, he returned back to music composition for this game and MY GOD! Just listen to these awesome tracks. The boss music is still awesome. People are already saying that this is David Wise's best OST he composed. With very atmospheric tracks, I have to agree. This soundtrack blows Returns's soundtrack out of the water.

Difficulty

If a player buys this game, expecting it to have the same difficulty as New Super Mario Bros. Wii U, then that player is going to be in for a rude awakening. Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze is definitely a hardcore platformer that demands all of the player's skills and reflexes. Even the first boss can give players trouble if they don't know timing. Unlike Returns however, Tropical Freeze's difficulty is much more legitimate and not because the player didn't see an unexpected change within the environment and couldn't react in time. It's challenging, but it's the fun sort of challenging that would encourage players to keep playing through them to find more secrets and other goodies.

Conclusion

I'll say this and I'll say it now; this game is a must-have Wii U game. If you like platformers and love the Donkey Kong Country games, buying this game should be your utmost priority. It not only respects the DKC name by faithfully expanding on what previous games have established, but it also makes a name for itself within the series in the grandest way possible. Players will not be disappointed with this game.