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So, this isn't Zelda, but I feel I need to talk about this game so people will get it. That being said, enjoy. Story: What's the story of EVERY Donkey Kong game? Bananas. Someone has stolen the bananas and you must retrieve them. In this case, freaky tiki musical instruments have hypnotized the animals of Donkey Kong's island with their funky island beats to steal all the delicious bananas, and take them to this HUGE tiki monster coming out of the volcano in the center of the island. Since the tiki monsters are unable to hypnotize Donkey and Diddy Kong, the two must stomp, smash, and destroy anything and everything in their way to rescue the yummy treats, and save all the hypnotized animals. But the real question is, why do the tikis need your bananas? Specs: Donkey Kong Country Returns is the fourth Donkey Kong Country game and was released on December 3, 2010 for the Wii. The third DKC was released in 1996, so there's quite a gap between the two games. As of March 2011, it had sold 4.96 Million copies. Positive points: Once again, this is my opinion. Differing opinions or points I may have missed that you liked may be posted below. To be honest, Donkey Kong never really was my thing. I played Donkey Kong 64 a little, but mostly I was playing Zelda or Mario. So when Donkey Kong Country Returns came out, I thought, "Huh. I wonder why it's taken them so long to release a sequel." and dismissed it. But then my Dad gave it to me for my birthday, saying he saw it and said it looked like fun. I played the first couple of levels and then quit because a couple of games I had purchased/received seemed to me like they were better choices to play. Just recently, I started playing it again and actually made it past the first stage. And boy did I realize I had been missing out. Seriously. Why hasn't this game been more talked about? It's the most genuinely all around fun game I've played in a while. If you played and enjoyed the first DKC games, I don't know why you haven't picked up a copy of this yet? First, let's talk about level design. Flawless victory. In a sidescroller like DKCR, you can guess how levels work. There are eight worlds, each world has around seven levels, and you're always going right from point A to point B. Sound monotonous right? Wrong. Dead Wrong. I will admit that the first world starts out slow, but after that, the levels get really creative. I'll give you an example. I found out that in world four, (which is cave themed) every world is either a minecart or rocket barrel level. At first I was disappointed because cave levels are usually used for exploration. I mean, they're caves right? But then I played them, and EVERY level was in some way different. One minecart level was you going in the same direction as a bunch of other moles on minecarts so you had to jump on or over them. Another was you getting bombed by a mole in the foreground and he was destroying the track and such. And then their were rocket barrel levels where you were flying through caves as moles were throwing pickaxes at you or bats were shooting sonic booms at you. My absolute favorite world was the fifth which was forest themed. Specifically the level before the boss. Muncher Marathon. You can keep a level head in most situations where you have to run from things in videogames. Lava flowing towards you? (Which happens in the game) Piece of cake. Level sinking and you have to go up? (Which also happens in the game) No problem. Running away from millions and millions of bugs? Holy cow. This, in my opinion, was the best level in the game. The music that was playing was INCREDIBLE. Look it up. It was extremely nerve-racking running from a wall of bugs through a jungle, and at one point, the game makes you run BACK TOWARDS THE BUGS to pick up a Kong letter. They pulled off what could be just another "fleeing from death" level, and made it amazing. Kudos to them. The collection aspect is tough but not to tedious. You can collect bananas, banana coins, balloons (Lives), Kong letters, and puzzle pieces. To 100% the game, you only have to collect the Kong letters. Which fortunately, aren't too difficult to find and collect. Usually. (There was a certain G in the last stage that almost made me pull my hair out, but I got it so it's all good.) If you go the extra mile and collect all the puzzle pieces, which can range from 5 to 9 per level, you unlock game art and dioramas. The puzzle pieces are actually REALLY tough to collect, so you have my respect if you can collect all of those. Collecting all the Kong letters in a world unlocks the secret level of that world. These are tough, and ALWAYS aesthetically appealing. You may find yourself just looking at the backgrounds and such. And then you'll find yourself burned, sliced, crushed, or drowned. Or any combination of the above. Which is another point. The visuals. The visuals are amazing. Busy backgrounds are rampant, and there's always some sort of cool aspect of the level going on. The levels are always either actively trying to kill you, or actively falling apart. There was a level in the forest world where you fired out of a barrel and were flying slightly toward the screen through this tube of trees and mushrooms and rocks and I was awestruck at how cool it looked. Negative points: Dat difficulty. I know I sound like a super pansy saying that, but you can't deny it. DKCR is a tough game. Usually it's not frustratingly bad, but there are a couple of levels where you'll want to throw your Wii out the window. I think the most I died was one level in world 8 where I died 24 times. That was absolutely miserable. For the most part, the bosses had the opposite problem. Most bosses you'll be able to beat without even dying once, and ALL bosses will drop hearts at some point during the battle. the most I died on a boss was in world 7 when I was killed about 6 times. I am at least glad that on the final boss he would drop FLAMING hearts and you had to wait for the hearts to extinguish before you could pick them up. This is what I think was my BIGGEST complaint with the game. To be vague, as you would expect, for getting all the Kong letters and beating all the secret levels, you unlock a final bonus level. Suffice to say, this level was very very unsatisfying. For specifics, highlight the white text bellow. Okay, you've collected all the Kong letters and, more importantly, beaten all the bonus levels. After beating the final boss and watching the credits, you unlock the golden temple. It's just one level, and so I go in thinking, "Okay, this is going to be a super hard level to test my skill and whatnot." The level takes place in the clouds. There is giant floating fruit. EVERYWHERE. Now, I see this is a novelty level. So NOW I'm thinking, "Well, at least this just means this is fun to play, and no REAL difficulty to worry about." Here's the issue with this level. It's this sort of manufactured difficulty that isn't fun to play. And what I mean by that is, while you're trying to go through these levels, there are these freaking tikis that teleport random places and shoot arrow heads at you. This is extremely annoying, and killed me quite often. I died around 16 times, and since there are no checkpoints, had to do the WHOLE level over again. Which doesn't sound too bad, but there are a lot of points where you have to just wait for the correct time of these floating moving fruits to jump across. It was really tedious, and I was just glad when it was over. So unfortunately, the game ends on a low note. Overall: This game is a trip. It's extremely fun. Doesn't slow down. Makes you react quick, and feel like a boss when you do. In short, Donkey Kong Country Returns kills aliens and doesn't afraid of anything, and that's why I give it a 4/5. It could have gotten a 5/5, but that last level left a bad taste in my mouth. I've almost beaten Ocarina of Time 3D, so that will be my next review. Look forward to it!
