Donkey Kong Country Returns just has a lot of moments where you will say “wow” to the visuals, at least when you’re not trying to lose lives while trying to adapt to constantly the evolving landscapes. Some other unorthodox levels also add to the game’s presentation, including the infamous sunset levels where the levels are compiled entirely of silhouettes. These smaller elements also add to the presentation and charm that the final product wears proudly, and it’s these smaller details that Retro Studios always seem to get right that put them ahead of the bunch. Donkey Kong and his companion Diddy Kong are animated beautifully and some rather hilarious animations are included for idle stances as well as some moments in the game where the player makes a mistake. Sometimes it’s just too much to take in, but that’s not really a bad thing either. The attention to detail graphically is just astounding in Donkey Kong Country Returns, with wind and trees blowing and reacting to Donkey Kong’s footsteps, blowing and smashing dynamically to really build up a persistently “alive” world. All of these effects combine in a similar fashion on other levels to create a very fast-paced and alive atmosphere throughout the game, which is something that is great to see in a game that doesn’t provide a lot of freedom. Expect to run across a very stormy beach with crashing waves while dodging the limbs of a very menacing squid/octopus creature in one of the levels. Graphics are very smooth, the characters themselves are modelled almost perfectly and to top it off, the game runs with such fluidity when so much stuff is going on. Speaking of that, Donkey Kong Country Returns is a game that boasts some of the best presentation on the console ever.
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This isn’t a dramatic epic, but the addition of these sequences is a nice touch that properly utilises today’s technology to present an updated iteration of Donkey Kong. I never really felt the need to skip through them and despite being completely devoid of voice acting, they were still interesting and successful in getting the Kongs’ emotions across properly. There are a few cutscenes dabbled throughout the gameplay which do a great job of telling the story in a rather comical fashion while still getting their points across promptly. It certainly feels a little bit dumbed down to have this approach taken with the game’s story, and it would’ve been nice to have some continuity remain from the original trilogy and to build upon the Kongs’ long lost rivalry with K. Enemies within Returns simply don’t have anywhere near as much personality as the original enemies in the original trilogy, with these new enemies being decidedly generic. Rool are long gone from Donkey Kong’s adventure this time, and part of the charm the original games had is unfortunately lost quite a bit. Yes, you heard right, the Kremlings and King K.
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Of course, these animals weren’t malevolent by nature, but instead controlled by a group of shamanistic, err, things known as the Tikis. Still, read on to discover why this might just be one of the best platformers available for the Nintendo Wii, nay, for all consoles.ĭonkey Kong Country Returns sees the return of the familiar storyline – Donkey Kong’s most treasured banana hoard has been stolen by the local animals in the jungle.
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Thankfully, Retro Studios have managed to capture most of the essence of Donkey Kong in Donkey Kong Country Returns, although there are a few issues I have with it overall. I’ll admit that Donkey Kong is one of my most revered franchises that I have experienced in my whole gaming “career” so to speak, and when a remake of this calibre was announced I was understandably quite sceptical. And now, here we are with yet another revival of a classic franchise. GoldenEye 007 on the Nintendo Wii was a large success both critically and commercially, which was great to hear. I’ve noticed a bit of a trend recently, and that is a few developers are doing their best to revive classic franchises that RARE brought to life back in their, well, let’s face it, better days.