Donkey Kong Country Returns [Wii]

After reading Impressions like this and seeing the gameplay footage like this... It makes me really want to get the game. It looks fun, the music sounds great.

It comes out in a month's time and thankfully it isn't going to be delayed... I hope.

 

The Legacy of Donkey Kong Country

Good read. Ten more days. Omg.

 

Odd trying to trademark a phrase like that, although it could fit with the game. Kind of late to try and trademark it though, considering its just another few days.

 

I haven't heard the phrase much, but I don't follow stuff like King of Kong much either. I just find it odd that they're trying to trademark it less than a month before the game is coming out. I thought they would've done at least a few months before, if not when they announced it (I think it was at the last E3?). Unless the news is only spreading now, but with the way gaming websites are these days, the effort to trademark it is probably recent.

It would be funny seeing that kind of phrase on the box. Although now I have to resist the urge to start humming the DK64 opening song, but the music from the new game should be quite memorable, given what's been shown so far. Even though I'm almost afraid of the difficulty, but oh well, its not like the original DKC games weren't all that easy either. Those reversed control stages still haunt my memories somewhat. Gotta remember to go play through them again sometime though, to see if they're as hard as I remember.

 

Anyone played this yet? I just got it last night as an early X-mas gift for my fiancee. She's a huge DK fan and even loved that god awful DK64 game.

I had preordered it from Gamestop since they offered a Wiimote banana covers with the preorder, but they were closed by the time I got out of work. So I went over to Target and they luckily had 10 copies left. They also offer a $10 gift card with the DK purchase. So that's definitely a better deal than Gamestop (unless banana sleeves are worth $10 to you, I guess).

Anyway, I haven't gotten a chance to try it yet, but I'm excited!

 

Got it, played it up to the beginning of the fourth world, loving it. Just too bad my hand is already cramping. I decided to go with using just the Wiimote might be a bit more accurate than the Nunchuk's joystick, not to mention going for that old-school controller feel. Now going back to start looking for some of the collectibles (puzzle pieces, KONG letters, etc.), though now I'm getting the hang of figuring out where they're hidden. This game is not easy, but its not quite super hard, at least not yet (wonder what the later worlds will be like), but I miss how you could roll easily in the original games. Although I did spend the morning playing through a little bit of DKC 1, 2 and 3 to brush up on my skills. I sorta wish the game would've said when it was saving, I didn't figure it out till I looked online. At least the game keeps track of how many lives you get, rather than just starting to scratch every time you start the game. I've got like fifty lives, and at the rate I'm dying, I'm probably going to need them.

 

For me, that DK64 game felt too much like Banjo-Kazooie to be a DK game.

I can't wait to get DKCR... it comes out on Dec 2nd where I am, so just a bit over week to go. The gameplay videos going about has me excited.

 

Still haven't played yet. What do you mean that you can't tell when the game is saving? What did the Internet tell you about the save function?

 

Well, whenever you start or finish a stage, there's what seems to be a loading screen between the world map and the stage. I thought that was just a loading screen, but apparently the game auto-saves whenever you finish a stage. I'm just usually used to seeing some sort of loading/saving data screen. I'm probably just too used to the old games where you had to go find someone's place to save at. Or like in New Super Mario Brothers Wii where at first you could only save after you cleared a castle stage.

On the fifth world now and... yeah, this game is hard. I haven't quite resorted to the Super Guide option... yet, although I've gone through at least... 90 lives, with some stages taking 30 tries (mainly cause I keep screwing up at different parts of a stage). This game really is hard, but its still fun.

 

My fiancee and I just played the first three levels last night. Without looking at the manual, there seems to be kind of a learning curve. But once you figure everything out, it's all very sweet and nostalgic.

I kind of miss the "bubble" feature from Mario Bros Wii, though. I'm playing as Diddy and it seems like her Donkey is so much faster and I'm always being cut off of the screen (which gives me 3 seconds to catch up before I apparently die). She just takes off in these games lol


One thing we both appreciated, though, was that Donkey and Diddy apparently can't physically interact like Mario and Luigi and can in Mario Bros Wii. Bumping into each other in Mario Bros Wii became a total disaster and led to some pretty chaotic game play if playing with 2 or more players. In fact, it led to some outright fights. "You bumped into me and I fell off the ledge!" "You jumped onto my head and pushed me down!"

 

On the second world now...damn this game is hard. It's very fun, though. The level design is really neat, but also very challenging.

 

I'm on the boss in the Vines world now, I think it's the fifth world.

1) Retro Studios went all out on the difficulty. It took me at least half an hour to finish 1-K (and later realized having Diddy makes it a whole lot easier ). And that was just on the first world. Returns is easily the most challenging of the series, and I'm dreading how hard it's gonna get from here.

2) Some of the control decisions do take some getting used to, but it all makes sense. I'm sure I'd be rolling off some ledges if pressing 1 made me roll like it did the originals. Being able to press the run button without the character automatically moving is nice. Shaking the remote to roll instead is a little tricky, and a few times I accidentally rolled instead of smashing the ground like I intended, but that doesn't happen too often. The shaking does get old though, as it seems that there's always something to be smashed or blown for some extra bonuses.

3) I usually always finish levels missing two or three puzzle pieces. Earlier in the game I accidentally discovered that shooting Donkey out of a barrel seemingly to his death resulted in finding a hidden barrel that shot me into a bonus stage, so I'm sure there are some of those that I'm missing (as there were plenty in the original trilogy). Right now I'm just focusing on making it through the stages and coming back for the extras later. I always make it a point to get the KONG letters though, due to the fact that getting all of them in a world unlocks a bonus stage that usually results in a lot of Wiimote throwing.

4) Retro nailed the nostalgia. From the opening of the first level when I turned around and went back into the treehouse for an extra life, I knew it was gonna be something special. There's a perfect mix of classic music with some new tunes that hearken back to the SNES days, and the gameplay is refreshing but still familiar. The developers didn't rest on their laurels and just pump out a game that would deliver solely on nostalgia, they created an all new experience that feels like a continuation of the franchise and not a rehash.

Oh, and to hell with the time trials.

 

Well, just beat the final boss, and damn, this game was really, really hard! And while I was somewhat tempted, I never once used the super guide either, actually by now I really hate the site of that pig (like Cranky said, who the hell is that pig anyway?). Hm, gotta find out what Super Kong looks one of these days. Just about every level had at least a few tricky spots, and I'm pretty sure I've gone through at least 300 lives in the last week. Although I built up quite a few lives from the bonus stages, but in the end I just resorted to going to Cranky's shop to load up on balloons too.

Fun game, just very frustrating, but it was worth it, most times anyway. The mine cart stages were fun, the rocket ones... not so much (looked cool, but some of the most frustrating, especially as I was aiming for the letters often). Although the sunset/silhouette stages were very simple yet pretty art. I think I still prefer the original DKC games more, but this is a worthy addition to the series. I just hope that if/when they make another one, they throw in more old characters (like the Kong family), and maybe dial down the difficulty a little bit on the official levels, while keeping the secret stages hard. Now, back to go find all those KONG letters I missed, though Kong letters aren't too hard. Puzzle pieces are more annoying, and the time trials scare me (what are they thinking with those times?!).

 

Hm, finding Kong letters is possible, puzzle pieces... well, I'll dig around in all the levels some more before I resort to outside help.

But ugh, why did they have to change the roll to a motion control? Then again, if you could roll whenever you pleased, that might make the game too easy (). You spend a lot of time clinging to a lot of stuff, but aside from DK barrels, don't really think barrels play much of a role in this game. Not like how the steel barrels in the old DKC games were usually there for a specific purpose.

In maybe the first half of the game (the first four worlds), its relatively easy to find hidden stuff, like breakable ledges are obvious, there's a banana there to hint at a hidden stage, but then there are stages with nine puzzle pieces. How am I supposed to find nine pieces?! Oh well, I'll get it eventually. I love all the tunes, they're all so nostalgic, although I think I miss the old DKC2 soundtrack a bit more (here's hoping they remix those tunes someday if there's another game).

 

Fact: This game is too difficult. Doubtful it'll crack my top three at the end of the year (I was expecting it to be #2 at least).

The problem with it is, I get no sense of reward when I finish a level. I get a sense of "Well I finally finished that piece of ****, now onto the next one, which is probably gonna be even more of a *****. *sighs, turns off Wii and plays Rock Band 3*" The game doesn't have that accessibility that the first three did, that "oh let's go one more level" quality to it. 2 and 3 are tough enough, but Returns takes it too far IMHO. And it hurts the overall experience, which is a shame. The nostalgic appeal has worn off to reveal what has essentially become a chore of a game.

Here's hoping Epic Mickey will cheer me up.

 

Are you playing coop or single? I find myself agreeing with Gamespot.com's review when they say that it's hard, but it's a fun kind of hard...you find yourself looking forward to see how next you'll die.

 

Single. I played co-op with some friends in the earlier stages, but there's no way I could do it later in the game. Way too much going on for two people to share the screen.

And I have to disagree with Gamespot on that one. It's not a fun hard, it's a stupid hard.

 

I still like the game, partially for the nostalgia, but I'm leaning more towards the "this is stupid hard" view of the game. Having hard levels is one thing, having hard bonus levels (specifically the K levels) is another, but when almost every single level requires at least 20 lives, this is just ridiculous. Well, not entirely sure it requires 20 lives, but I usually try to get the Kong letters during my first playthrough so I don't have to go through the whole annoying level again.

Its a huge step-up in difficulty from the originals, and I just played through some of them before I got this game (I have all of them on the Virtual Console). Although Mario games have also been quite difficult, but it also lacks some of the variety and charm of the original. Like I don't think there's anyone other than Rambi to ride in this game, and off-hand I don't think there's any underwater levels either. Its still fun, but it can get very frustrating. I almost wish there was a Lost World in this game (at least I don't think there is one).

 

Yeah, I miss the variety. It feels like they deliberately left stuff out for a sequel. No swimming levels, no snow levels, no other companions besides Rambi, no other Kongs besides Cranky, no Kremlings, etc. I was expecting a K. Rool cameo at the end, but nothing (then again, maybe he'll show up if I 200% the thing (I'm at 101% and still have plenty left to do)).

To me, it feels like Retro made every possible effort to make the game challenging, but no effort at all to give it the charm, variety, and personality that the original trilogy is so beloved for. Which is extremely disappointing.