Ugh, I give up on Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. I tried to give it another chance, but it just sucks. The controls are a bit slow and clunky, Donkey Kong just doesn't move the way he did in the original SNES trilogy. I'm pretty sure this was an issue with DKC Returns as well. Also, I hate that I can't switch to Diddy, who was always faster and more agile in the old games. In this game, he is just a power up, not a playable character.
The first boss fight was terrible. It's waaaaay too long. Boss fights in games like this shouldn't be long and tedious. Also, there's this stupid, button mashing, quick time event at the end of the boss fight and no matter what I do it's like the game just isn't registering my button presses. It says to mash X and Y, but when I do so Donkey Kong just hits him one time. What's the point of these stupid QTEs in the game anyway? And why is it so easy to pull them off when you hit the barrel at the end of a stage but doesn't work at the end of a boss fight?
Also, I've heard people praise the music in Tropical Freeze. Nothing I've heard so far compares to the music in the SNES games, even though this one supposedly had the same composer. The music for the first boss fight is this really generic sounding, awful, rock and roll track. This is coming from someone who really enjoys rock music too. If I'm not impressed, then that means it's not good. Also, since when do the DKC games have rock music? What the fuck is that all about?
DKC 1 and 2 on the SNES had PHENOMENAL music, nothing I've heard in DKC Tropical Freeze compares to this stuff:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMBFdtRbFD0https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2KjJlmpnmchttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZN10mb25_ohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5rAjOjTGtchttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSoZeZEkOX8https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAovYwVQwB8If I want to be really mean, I could point out the graphics too. Don't get me wrong, Tropical Freeze is not an ugly game. However, part of the wow factor of the SNES games was that they looked like games that shouldn't even be possible on the SNES. They looked "next gen" so to speak. The new DKC games just don't have that same effect. It might have been interesting if they opted to go with a unique visual style to at least simulate that effect, like maybe something cell shaded to make it look like a cartoon. Just something to make the games stand out visually as that was one of the defining elements of the SNES trilogy. Nothing else at the time looked like they did.
God I miss Rare. Not other studio should be allowed to make Donkey Kong Country games. Based on these games I have no inclination to try out the Metroid games from Retro Studios as I have to assume that they suck as well. Nintendo hands this company these big IPs, but I don't think they understand why those games were great in the first place.
