Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Switch)
By: Nintendo
FROM grinding organs and flinging poop at zoo-goers to testing the sexiest of make-ups, the humble monkey was handcrafted by God to bring pleasure to humans – but none more so than Donkey Kong. From his barrel-flinging 1981 debut (where, according to the original manual, he was the escaped pet of an abusive Mario), Nintendo's pixelated primate became a pop culture icon.
After a mid-80s wilderness period, Donkey Kong Country brought monkey business to the masses like never before in a technically brilliant side-scrolling platformer that birthed many a sequel.
Following in the footsteps of Mario Kart, Bayonetta and Captain Toad, Tropical Freeze is the latest grave-rob from the Wii U, a console nobody gave a monkey's for. Gussied up for the hotcake-selling Switch, Kong and co will finally find the audience they deserved.
When Antarctic animals invade their island, it’s up to the Donkey clan to journey through jungle, forest and savannah by way of old-school platform-hopping and epic boss battles. Aping the halcyon SNES era, our tie-sporting simian tears up lush landscapes in an OCD collect-a-thon with Swiss watch-like engineering.
Its levels require a Zen-like balance of brain and thumbs, and though boasting 3D models, the whole shebang plays out like a classic 2D side-scroller, its monkey magic taking place over six island worlds. Each introduces new ideas to learn, then warps them in endlessly creative ways as you ferret out bananas, puzzle pieces and KONG letters to unlock bonuses and hidden stages.
If anyone tells you that Nintendo games are for kids, hand them the business end of Tropical Freeze, which really had players over a barrel in its brutal later stages. Soothing novices, the Switch version adds Funky Mode, where the lily-livered can play as the surfing simian.
Funky can double jump, snorkel underwater without drowning and land on spikes with ease, finally letting tender fingers get in on the action.
A hot monkey injection of shiny visuals, the Switch gets bumps in performance and quality, running at 60fps in 1080p while docked and at 720p in handheld, letting the on-screen artistry really sing. David Wise pumps out another belter of a soundtrack, with riffs on classic Kong melodies for old-timers. Best of all, the Wii U's leisurely loading times are drastically reduced.
A masterclass in level design, Tropical Freeze proves the big ape can still hold his own, and in a world where the humble 2D platformer has become the domain of the indie scene, Kong feels like a big budget extravaganza. Though Nintendo's hoi polloi pricing structure means this really isn't worth a full-price double dip if you already have the Wii U version - for newcomers, it's on like Donkey Kong.
