Topic: Donkey Kong Country 2D platformers > Mario 2D platformers

DKC: TF > DKCR......in just about every way.

Yeah it is too similar for just a 4 year gap.

Didn't used to be like that we got Yoshi's Island not a direct sequel to Mario World or DKC2 which is quite different again and a bit harder. (Which is good as well).

Only other time I am ok with a sequel so soon is when it is night and day better than the last like 3D World.

(It is not that I didn't like playing Topical Freeze but I liked the experience of playing Returns more than anything for a very long time - Maybe more than anything I have played since 2000).

You don't need to play a game to know what its gameplay is like, you can find out about all of the new gameplay mechanics from various sources and see how they play out by watching gameplay videos. And in an argument about stagnation in gameplay mechanics, that's all you really need to see. Such gameplay mechanics are typically immediately evident anyway.

I wouldn't even call 3D World a good example either. Better examples would be the Metroid Prime Trilogy or 64 -> Sunshine -> Galaxy.

While most of that is true, I feel you still need to play a game to complete understand its gameplay. From just watching you miss a lot in my opinion

DKC may be more interesting as a game world, but Mario is more accessible to me. I can play a Mario game 3 times over to every play through of a DKC game.

I've played all of the other DKC games, so there's really not that much to miss.

IMO, watching the game for a long period is fine if you're just trying to get a sense of whether or not you'd be interested in trying it yourself. For a platformer at least, I wouldn't say it's a good substitute for actual experience when it comes to discussing its gameplay, though. You can definitely get the gist of the game's "feel", but not a whole lot more than that...

I too have played all the DKC games except Tropical Freeze, but I would not claim to know how TF plays without actually playing it. You may know how a game looks but you cannot say you know how it feels without playing it.

I've never really cared about how a game "feels" in the first place. As long as the controls are semi-decent, I'm happy.

I think both DKTF and NSMBU are solid games but I'd like to see some more innovation in the 2D platformer genre. Mario has been a great laugh for multiplayer and DK still has great charm with its theme being so different to Mario but I'd like to seenew fresh ideas. I'm also curious to see whether a new 3D DK game could be great.

But it's a platformer? What else is there to care about? The story???

I don't understand how any reasonable person can see the concepts in some of these levels (many of which were not done in previous DKC games and create new obstacles for the player to deal with) in addition to a couple gameplay mechanics which are very much new (at least to the DK platformers), and still claim the game is just a rehash of previous entries in the series. I'd like to see these people make a game with the same amount of polish as TF and also have tons of unique gameplay, because they're apparently experts on what is and isn't original. It's ridiculous that people expect a sequel to be 100% original, especially when a lot of gamers like at least one game which doesn't meet that criteria.

New gameplay mechanics. Create a new character that does something completely different. Add a new move to the gameplay. Something along those lines.

All that affects the flow of the game so what were saying again about the feel not being important?

That's not the aspect of it I'm concerned with though. I'm concerned about what kinds of actions you can do that you couldn't before. How can the new gameplay mechanic help me in the game? How could the levels be designed to take advantage of it?

Super Mario Bros. 3 is honestly better than most Donkey Kong games.

Like what Mario platformers do?

Dixie's ability can be used as a double jump to get an extra boost of height or correct a bad jump, and Cranky's pogo-bounce ability can help you bypass obstacles on the ground (such as spikes). Those two along with Diddy provide three big mechanics in the game (two of which being new) that can help players out: hover, double jump, and bouncing. They're designed to provide alternative methods of bypassing obstacles, and reward players for holding onto the extra characters (since they pretty much function as power-ups that can also take hits).

Barely. The new gameplay mechanics that modern Mario games add are little more than gimmicks, they're only useful for a handful of levels or very specific situations instead of the entire game.

And what Donkey Kong Country mechanics are useful outside of a handful of levels?