Topic: Donkey Kong Country (Series)

Yes it gets harder than DKC1, especially the bird and roller-coaster levels! I really missed having a heavy and a light character to play as... Part of the reason I preferred DKC1. Thankfully they brought that balance back for DKC3. 😃

DKC2 has an incredible soundtrack though as you'll come to see. Probably my favourite thing about the game.

Yea, it's' gonna get harder than DKC1. Give it time.

Nice! I think this one is my favourite though:

DKC3 GBA's soundtrack is better than the SNES soundtrack. Fight me.

I preferred the SNES soundtrack, but I played it first so the GBA one sounded weird to me. I LOVE the GBA title screen with the Aquatic Ambiance remix though!

I played the GBA version, but regardless, nostalgia isn't the only reason I like the GBA better. SNES' soundtrack is too dark and gritty when it has no reason to be. It's a colorful mascot platformer, not Dark Souls.

@StarRoader Speaking of, here's another version of DK music that's overrated. Brawl remix is best version.

This is a far more controversial opinion than the one you wanted people to fight you over

The DKC trilogy will probably always be one of my favourites. I still remember going to America when I was around 6 years old and seeing a demo booth at the airport with DKC (1) and being absolutely blown away by the amazing graphics and gameplay. This is the same year my parents ended up buying me a SNES which came with DKC (even the box was DKC themed!).

So yeah, it's a franchise that's dear to my heart, though in my honest opinion, the newer DKC's could never match up to the old ones. They're good games, but I don't think they're great, unlike DKC 1 and 2 (to me, from memory, 3 was also a bit lacklustre).

Up to Mudhole Marsh (level 24) of DKC2 now. Such a good game. Think I still prefer the first game but having a rather good time. Bramble Scramble probably my favourite level so far.

I recently replayed Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze again after completing the three original DKC games on Switch Online and I'm sorry to say it left me cold.

As superb as the level design is I realised it just has a much more generic atmosphere and doesn't capture the spirit of the original games, bar a few levels like Busted Bayou and Alpine Incline. It feels more goofy and dorky while the originals had a slightly more serious, cooler and darker atmosphere... even the Kong's new voices sound more dumb and annoying... it's hard to put into words, but I'm sure others have felt it.

I think some of it is also due to the new enemies... they're kind of forgettable compared to the Kremlings and make me feel like I'm playing Crash Bandicoot/Rayman or some other platformer, not the 5th Donkey Kong Country game. The more I think about it the more I feel it was egotistical and a little disrespectful for Retro to remove ALL the Rareware characters, bar the Kongs... especially King K Rool. I can assure you if Retro was asked to make a new 2D Mario they wouldn't be allowed to just replace all the enemies with their own designs.

I've heard the argument that Retro wanted to "make the game their own" but they did that already with various gameplay choices. They didn't have to strip the series of it's whole identity by getting rid of the majority of characters.

And in case anyone says it's just nostalgia, it's not... as I only played Donkey Kong Country 3 for the first time this year and still rate it above Tropical Freeze.

I also realised there's no animal support characters besides a very brief appearance from Rambi. Playing as the spider, parrot, snake, elephant, ostrich etc in the original games broke up the gameplay and added more variety to things.

@Clyde_Radcliffe Interesting perspective!

I just came here to give my thoughts on DKC2, which I'm playing for the first time (and I'm about 2/3rds through). To summarise...I'm a little disappointed.

The original DKC is one of the first games I ever played and thus grants a bit of nostalgia to me. What I love most about it is the atmosphere - especially the soundtrack by David Wise. The gameplay is pretty decent but tbh I don't find it nearly as memorable.

Maybe it's the lack of nostalgia but DKC2's atmosphere just isn't hitting the same notes for me. It feels like it's going for the same thing, but feels a lot more aimless and less consistent. The level design isn't quite doing it for me either - I'm playing with save states as I find there are too many opportunities to mess up easily between checkpoints. Unlike other games where platforming has some momentum (e.g. Super Mario World and, IMO, Tropical Freeze), I feel every obstacle halts you in your path in this game and it's quite difficult to see what other tricky thing is coming ahead. IDK, a lot of the difficulty feels quite "cheap" to me...maybe I just need to git gud. But I find a lot of these levels quite tedious rather than fun.

This issue isn't unique to the Rare developed titles as I remember the difficulty being all over the place in Returns. I feel that Tropical Freeze, on the other hand, has an optimal difficulty curve and never really feels unforgiving.

Also not really a fan of the animal companions. Their mechanics always felt undercooked compared to the main characters, whose abilities I find to be especially refined in Tropical Freeze.

IDK, I don't think I have much love for this series outside of Tropical Freeze and some distant memories of the original DKC.

That said, I'd love to see Dixie in Smash.

Yeah, they really need to bring back Animal Buddies not named Rambi (and non-playable Squawks). I miss Squitter most of all, Squitter is best Animal Buddy.

The one issue though, is that Tropical Freeze's swimming mechanics make Enguarde redundant so he'd have to be reworked or replaced. Enguarde's whole purpose is to give the Kongs an underwater attack but now they have one, so either they'll need to give Enguarde a new purpose or create a new Animal Buddy that complements Tropical Freeze's swimming. I have a good idea for the latter, they could instead have a new jellyfish Animal Buddy that holds the Kongs in its sac giving them infinite air and could have an electrical attack that could defeat enemies and interact with objects that could be powered up with electricity.

I'm not saying this to be rude, but honestly if you want to know my opinion, its mostly the opposite of this post.

@kkslider5552000 haha no problem, I'm aware that I'm in a minority for not being impressed by DKC2.

It's my least favourite of the original three too, for some of the reasons you mentioned (level design, unforgiving difficulty level) and because I find Diddy and Dixie too similar in their handling/size. Have you tried DKC3 yet? I find it a lot closer to the original game than it is to DKC2, even in atmosphere.

Do you guys think Retro will ever complete the DKC trilogy, like they did with Metroid Prime?

@dionysos283 there are rumours a new dk game is coming this year (not sure if developed by retro though as they should be fully heads on prime 4...)

I hope if a another DKC game is released it is retro. I mean Rare ain't coming back and Retro did about the best job we could have hoped for with a modern DKC! Just one thing. Please do whatever you have to in order to bring the kremlings back. I don't know if rare owns those or what but DKC returns and tropical freeze had lame enemies. Especially those dumb Tiki's.

If it's not going to be retro i would welcome another developer but I'd prefer it be something completely original. I liked DK 64 i really did but another 3D DK game probably would either be hated for over doing the collectables or it would never live up to expectations.

Anyway DK please come back! We miss ya buddy!

@Zeldafan79 The kremlings have appeared in various games since Rare were bought my Microsoft like Donkey Kong Barrel Blast and Mario Super Sluggers so Rare don't own them.

I'm surprised by the amount of Ninty fans who think King K. Rool and the Kremlings haven't been used since Rare left. ;p