Hello one and all I'm back again with a brand new review. This time of a fairly recent game, well sort of. Tropical Freeze isn't even referred to as Tropical Freeze Deluxe or anything. It's just (Nintendo Switch Edition.) which I think is very important to understand. This game's lifetime sales are estimated to be around 200,000-500,000 copies sold. That is pretty poor. And probably why Retro is now focusing everything into that new IP.

With that in mind it only really makes sense to release this game as if it's an entirely new game. Because even for most people who bought a Wii U it's entirely new.

And if you really have a problem with the price it's not a big 10 million seller so the price will drop eventually. I mean heck Mario + Rabbids sold great and it's now only 30 bucks at most places.

With that little bit out of the way it's time for a person who's never played a Donkey Kong before to give his take on this platformer.

The game starts out simply enough. Some evil Snomads take over the entire archipelago surrounding Kong Island and do away with the Kongs easily. The first cutscene is so beautiful might I add.

Donkey's fur looks absolutely incredible in this one short scene. Every texture has this beautiful touch to it and the entire cutscene is amazing.

After that you just go. You're greated to a fun tutorial where you can get a great idea of a lot of the game's mechanics and every stage in the first world focuses on a particular Kong's unique abilities.

The stages are visual eyecandy. You're constantly playing with perspectives and doing crazy barrel jumps all over the place.

All of the stages are memorable and offer a lot of challenges with some really uniquely placed secrets. There's two types of secrets in this game. The Puzzle Pieces which normally require finding a secret room or beating a bonus room challenge but if you die you keep the Puzzle Piece.

Then there's KONG letters which are normally out in the open and require a tricky jump or a risky move to get them. If you die you lose the letter until you hit a checkpoint. Collecting all the KONG letters in a World also nets you a really challenging bonus stage that doesn't have any checkpoints and sometimes doesn't have a Kong Partner as well.

Seriously this game is hard throughout the entire experience. You're challenged even if you aren't hunting for all the secrets. But all the challenges feel fair.

You have two hits but most enemies can be taken out with just a little thinking. The levels are constructed around you knowing how the game works to it's fullest.

Not only that but the Minecart stages and the Ramby stages are some of my favorites. When on the Minecart you often get to do some crazy stuff. Sometimes the level is literally built around you in a sawmill or you have to dodge a flaming plane swooping overhead.

The game takes full advantage of the upped processing power. Unlike Star Allies the camera angles are always changing and concepts are never reused.

Some stages have you run in a tornado while others have you run from a giant squid. There's just so much variety.

The controls for Donkey are also astounding. He's responsive and feels really versatile. I actually think he controls better underwater because you get to take full advantage of all the twists you can do around obstacles.

The partners all have unique abilities and serve their own purposes. I don't like Diddy very much but his hover is useful. Dixie has an incredible double jump that has saved me so much time in deaths. And Cranky lets you bounce off of enemies and the ground. If you do a roll jump into this you can create some insane momentum.

They all have underwater perks as well. Dixie gives you a constant but controllable speed boost underwater. Diddy let's you shoot forward like a rocket. Then Cranky serves as an attacker so you can deal damage without the corkscrew attack.

Each Kong Partner is also an extra 2 HP leaving you with more room to screw up if necessary.

This game also looks beautiful. I've already talked about some stages but there's this one that literally on fire and oh my god the stage is beautiful. It's so easy to get lost in the backgrounds.

There's two silhouette stages, technically 3 but the water one doesn't really count. These two stages both artificially look amazing and the second one allows for one of the most creative concepts and some of the most insane stage hazards in the entire game.

The six worlds also have lots of chase scenes in them. Whether it's a squid or a saw blade. They're all really fun and sometimes they even can amount into mini boss fights at the ends of stages.

Speaking of boss fights all of them are so creative and challenging. Seriously each took me multiple tries and I had to use different strategies. When I beat the final boss I was literally shaking. The fight is seriously intense.

Each boss also uses unique concepts and some ideas brought about in that world. Like there's this bird that you damage by throwing enemies at him.

The game does only have six worlds but outside of the first one they have six regular stages. On top of that there's 2 bonus stages and the KONG temple.

The game is decently long which is why it took me a while to get this review out. A lot of the secret exits are decently hidden. Though their pattern of hiding the exit behind a Kong partner you get at the beginning of the stage and having the secret exit being at the very end is obnoxious.

When you know what you're doing you can get through stages decently fast, that is of course after playing through them over and over.

The music in this game is actually astounding. I don't get how it's so good but the music is some of the best I've ever heard. Like I just have my Switch next to me playing some songs from the game.

They make 4 original tracks for each world not counting the bosses and there's this one water song that I will never forget. And I suck at getting music stuck in my head.

Just when you thought the game was jam packed with content if you beat every KONG temple and the main story you get access to a bonus world of 3 stages. Once you do that you unlock Hard Mode.

Hard Mode gives you 1 heart, no Kong Partners, and no items. For every stage. Including the final boss. No damage. On the FINAL BOSS.

I haven't dug into this yet but I do intend on getting 200% and I have to tell you I'm pretty excited. Between getting all the puzzle pieces, getting the collectibles from the shop, and beating every stage in hard mode this game will easily net you 50 hours for 200% but likely more.

The shop feature is fun and gives you everything you need to never use a guide. First off you can buy Squaks for 15 coins and he'll tell you when a puzzle piece is nearby. Then you can buy balloons(which are this game's lives.) green balloons which save you when you fall, and blue balloons which let you breathe underwater longer.

There's also other cool items and Kong Barrels for each partner. The game throws banana coins at you so it's a no brained to use the shop.

Funkey Kong Mode is just an easy mode. Even if you aren't being Funkey everyone gets 3 hearts instead of 2. It's clearly meant for newer players.

Local co-op is fun. The little experience I've had with it at least. It'll definitely entertain a friend. Especially on the more visually stunning stages .

This game has a ton of collectibles you have to win in this capsule machine thing but luckily there aren't too many that it's ridiculous and they're decently cheap.

This game has to be one of the best 2D platformers I've ever played. The game is brimming with creativity but I have just a few small problems.

There are these Rocket Barrel stages where you use this poorly controlled nightmare in literally every world. Seriously why! It's a pain to use and while some of the level themes are interesting I can't pay attention because if I do I'm dead.

Why aren't the silhouette stages used more? Just seems like wasted potential to me.

The amount of bonus rooms is stupid. There can sometimes be two in the same stage. It's made worse by the fact that there's not much variety. A lot of rooms repeat and even when they aren't exact copy pasted bonus rooms they are practically the same thing with a tiny difference. It's not rewarding or challenging. It's repetitive.

each world has an overworld map Donkey jumps around on but he just looks ugly in this world. All the animations look like they were ripped right from the Wii game and just feel off.

I also think the textures for Donkey's fur are a bit ugly. Seriously everything  looks so good except for his fur.

There are some cheap deaths in this game. You cannot go into a stage blind and beat it without dying because they're throw something at you out of nowhere and then you die.

The ending is pretty underwhelming. You get the reveal of the secret baddie but he just kinda fights you. Nothing at all. Even Kirby has some sort of story towards the end.

And then the boss doesn't even have a second part. Sure he has three phases like every boss but the core method of damaging and fighting him remains the same so it doesn't really count. This is the very end of the game and we couldn't have even gotten a little chase scene or anything? Sure you get to beat the crap out of him but that happens when you beat every boss in the game. And you still have to get the timing right.

Overall however this game is so expertly made. If you never picked up the game it's a no brainer to grab this version. If you're really iffy about the price I'm sure it'll go down in a few months.

Next time we'll be talking about the serious flaws with Breath of the Wild that most people ignore. And after that maybe I'll finally talk about how excited I am for Octopath Traveler.

Thanks so much for reading today's chapter. I hope you enjoyed. Let me know what you think of Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze. Until next time, have a great day! Bye!