Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze Nintendo Switch Game Review

Reviewed by Max C. on May 16, 2018

Rating:

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is even better now that its on the Nintendo Switch! Check out Kidzworlds review of the new game!

By: Max Cannon

Donkey Kong Country was a SNES franchise made by Rare (a team that is now owned by Microsoft) but the beloved team behind Metroid Prime, Retro Studios, continued the franchise on the Wii with Donkey Kong Country Returns. The follow-up to that challenging platformer was an equally challenging game for the Wii U, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze.

Funky Kong is the most obvious addition to this version of the game.Courtesy of Nintendo

One of the Wii U's Best, Now on Switch

Here's what we had to say back in the Wii U days when we first played Tropical Freeze!

"Wii U may be struggling in sales but its limited yet quality selection of titles continues to grow for Nintendo fans. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is another great entry from Retro Studios and worthy of your time.

Tropical Freeze's start-up screen for the Switch.

Right from the start, no time is wasted and we're introduced to Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong and the rest of the gang at a party. But something stirs in the distance. Animal Vikings are sailing towards the island and before you can say "banana", Donkey Kong and his friends are blown off his island and on to another far off one. His home island in the meantime, being frozen over by the cold and hostile Vikings.

Retro Studios and Nintendo have done it again. Another great platformer built on a classic and long-running franchise. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze deserves to be in your collection. But be prepared for a challenge."

Donkey Kong Country Returns to Switch - Weekly News

Almost all of the praise that we had to shower on that game back then still holds true today, however, a few added tweaks make some aspects even better than before and a bit of time to reflect since the original launch shows aspects of the game that didn't hold up quite as well.

A Few Changes

The biggest addition to the Switch version is obviously the inclusion of Funky Kong as a playable character. The game is consistently challenging, which is offset by the multitude of extra lives you'll come across on your adventure, but the stronger health and ability to avoid traps like spikes make Funky a viable choice for less experienced players. On top of the obvious character addition, there's a bit of a graphical boost to being on the Switch rather than the Wii U.

Each Kong brings their own special move to assist the game's tight platforming.Courtesy of Nintendo

But that's mostly all you'll see in terms of new content here, of course, I'm happy to get an awesome Wii U game onto the Switch but there's not a ton of new stuff to justify the full $59.99 price tag. Also, some aspects of the game hadn't aged so well in the short time since the initial launch.

It's not a Donkey Kong Country game without a mine cart sequence.Courtesy of Nintendo

Final Thoughts

If you missed out on Tropical Freeze during the Wii U era then you should absolutely add this rerelease to your Switch library. But, if you'd played through the game once before, veteran players wouldn't need to play this unless they absolutely loved every inch of the game back in early 2014.