Nintendo freshens up the old SNES series and takes to the Wii; and be ready for a challenge.
He'll traverse the island he lives on starting right from the front door of his tropical hut and journey across each level bouncing off baddies, collecting bananas, banana coins, life balloons, KONG letters, and this time around puzzle pieces too. In the earlier games, these did nothing more than help earn your more lives to stockpile so they were completely irrelevant to your progression through the game. This time, the KONG letters and puzzle pieces you collect do unlock some bonuses that are not essential to finishing the game per say, unless you consider finishing the game to mean getting %100 on your file. Simply collecting these are more for completionists and anybody who just likes to relish the challenge.
I absolutely must point out that the levels in this game are absolutely gorgeous. Everything is bright, colorful, and the level designs are brilliant. Landscapes can change, you'll play between the foreground and background (kind of like in the Paper Mario series) and the cameras work in coming up with some more cinematic sequences just make this game such a pleasure to play. And of course be on the lookout for those bonus spots and barrels. The game wouldn't be complete without those.
Most of the gameplay has remained the same, but now the Kong duo have a few extra moves that are definitely fun to use, and are needed to get through several levels. You can play through the game solo, or co-op, but when playing solo Diddy is not available to use as a character. He instead works more as a power-up for Donkey giving him more health and the use of Diddy's jetpack. This was disappointing since the tag-team aspect is gone when playing solo. And not to mention that coming across Diddy's barrels is much more sparse than before. There are many levels where there isn't even 1. And once you lose him, it's difficult to get him back. and with the searing difficulty the game ramps up as you progress, the help Diddy gives you can save you a lot of time and frustration.
Yes, this game's level of difficulty is brutal as you get further into it. Some levels you'll lose lives in the double digits just trying to finish once, and in Mine Cart and Rocket Barrel levels missing the jump button at even the slightest or for the wrong duration will grant you death. So there may be some times where you may want to chuck the controller at the TV (but of course don't!). One thing this title does much better than the original games are boss battles. The battles require just a bit more thought to finish off, and that was a welcomed challenge.
One other thing I missed was the inclusion of Donkey and Diddy's buddies mostly. Rambi returns but only for 3 or 4 levels out of the roughly 70 that you'll play through. There are no other pals for you other than Squawks who's only role is to help you find those puzzle pieces. But he is a valuable asset in that way, so I'm glad he was included.
I looked at Donkey Kong Country Returns in this way. The core of the game is there, and it is still fun as ever. Some things they made better, while some of the things missing or changed made me miss them. I suppose your take on DKC Returns all depends on your level of devotion to the original games and whether or not you'll miss what's missing or not.