• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Donkey Kong Country Returns |OT| Retro Studios Has Done It Again!

Ranger X

Member
sphinx said:
Don't you guys try to get 100%, complete files in your playthroughs?

I have played DKC2 like 10 times and DKC3 like 5 and I haven't left a single playthrough incomplete. DKCR won't be the exception.

I personally get all the KONG letters and puzzle pieces but the gold on time trials? No thanks. That crossed the line from hard to "not fun" for me.
 
Dartastic said:
I'm at him now. Whoever made the decision to make you lose Diddy if you die during the battle and have to retry can die in a fire.

Eh, he isn't needed. Sure it takes the hit count to 2 but it's still completely doable. In fact I think it would possibly be a bit easy after a few tries if you still had Diddy. It's very memorization based stuff.
 

Garcia

Member
sphinx said:
Don't you guys try to get 100%, complete files in your playthroughs?

I have played DKC2 like 10 times and DKC3 like 5 and I haven't left a single playthrough incomplete. DKCR won't be the exception.

I'm also an obsessive completionist, I can't give up on a game until I get everything. I won't ever consider I'm done with DKCR until I get all shiny golds, even if it takes me half a year to achieve lol .
 

LevityNYC

Banned
Dartastic said:
I'm at him now. Whoever made the decision to make you lose Diddy if you die during the battle and have to retry can die in a fire.

Just buy the stuff that gives you 10 hits. You have to pass the rocket barrel part each time, but it shouldnt' take that long
 

baylon452

Neo Member
Finally got round to playing this last night for the first time, and played all of world 1 in coop. Had a shit load of fun. What do you guys think of the coop, is it the way to go forward? Like am I at any sort of disadvantage playing it coop. Or should I play it on the sly without my sister on my own first to get the max enjoyment out of it and then go back and play it coop?
 

jufonuk

not tag worthy
just got round to playing it (it's been in my backlog) game is awesome..and hard thought i was losing my touch but realised the game is hard lol phew.
 
Last boss.... I probably lost 20+ lives on it, mostly due to the hand clap thing... went back and got Diddy, beat him first try when I had him. totally changes the approach.
 

Hieberrr

Member
baylon452 said:
Finally got round to playing this last night for the first time, and played all of world 1 in coop. Had a shit load of fun. What do you guys think of the coop, is it the way to go forward? Like am I at any sort of disadvantage playing it coop. Or should I play it on the sly without my sister on my own first to get the max enjoyment out of it and then go back and play it coop?

I have a co-op save file and a single player save file. I find that playing by yourself is a lot easier, since everything is up to you. You have 4 hearts, and the whole package of tools. Playing coop is definitely harder, because (at least for me) I tend to keep track of both players on the screen and sometimes mess up. I also need to wait for the other player at times, and sometimes waiting for the other player to grab your balloon and crate can take forever... BUT! having said that, it is definitely more fun with 2 players.
 
World 7
chicken in a robot
boss is annoying as fuck. I'm sure there are more annoying adventures ahead.

I don't give a shit about collecting all the KONG coins or puzzle pieces. Fuck you game!
 
timetokill said:
Last boss.... I probably lost 20+ lives on it, mostly due to the hand clap thing... went back and got Diddy, beat him first try when I had him. totally changes the approach.

The clap was very frustrating for me until I realized you could
safely bounce on the hands while they're at the edges of the screen
.
 

richiek

steals Justin Bieber DVDs
I finally beat the game and am now trying to get all the KONG letters to unlock the K levels. I've encountered my first major problem in world 2-7 trying to get the O letter.

It's floating on top of water, so if I jump at it, I die. I try to throw Diddy's barrel at it, but it doesn't work. How in the fuck do I reach it?
 

boiled goose

good with gravy
richiek said:
I finally beat the game and am now trying to get all the KONG letters to unlock the K levels. I've encountered my first major problem in world 2-7 trying to get the O letter.

It's floating on top of water, so if I jump at it, I die. I try to throw Diddy's barrel at it, but it doesn't work. How in the fuck do I reach it?

roll of cliff then do a roll jump.

you can jump in the air if you are still rolling.
with diddy it is even easier, as you can roll forever
 

Ranger X

Member
_Alkaline_ said:
Taste the awesome.

Man, I am at world 7-5 right now and let me tell you the world 5-6 and 7 so far I've some of the top moments in any platformers I've played. This is almost right there with NSMBWii top worlds. I can't believe this. I am seeing more imagination in those 2 games so far than in the last 20 years in platformer games.

*bows the fuck down at Nintendo*
 
Ranger X said:
Man, I am at world 7-5 right now and let me tell you the world 5-6 and 7 so far I've some of the top moments in any platformers I've played. This is almost right there with NSMBWii top worlds. I can't believe this. I am seeing more imagination in those 2 games so far than in the last 20 years in platformer games.

*bows the fuck down at Nintendo*

The next two levels are in my top three of the game. Enjoy it pal.
 

ThatObviousUser

ὁ αἴσχιστος παῖς εἶ
MidnightScott said:
I finally beat this bitch. God that game pissed me off so much. So glad to be done with it. I'm not even gonna bother unlocking the extra shit.

I feel kinda similarly. Challenge is fun (in fact I'm have a blast with SMB Lost Levels right now as well) but some of the game's design seems... ill conceived, might be the best term. I'm not saying it in a harsh way, but there are a couple areas I thought the game could have been much better by tweaking simple things.
 

LevityNYC

Banned
GOTY 2010 for me.

The biggest issues with the difficulty was how stingy they were with the Diddy barrels. It drove me crazy when there wasnt a barrel at the beginning of a level or at a checkpoint.
 

KevinCow

Banned
Ha, maybe old, but I just noticed a sticker advertising DKCR on my banana. I know Sega did this with a Monkey Ball game a few years ago. Funny to see Nintendo doing the same thing.
 

Atomski

Member
My mother spontaneously picked this up today cause she knew I loved the old DKC back in the day.

I feel ashamed for being late to the party. Game is awesome so far.
 
Atomski said:
My mother spontaneously picked this up today cause she knew I loved the old DKC back in the day.

I feel ashamed for being late to the party. Game is awesome so far.

I don't know her, but that makes your mum awesome in my book.
 

Gilby

Member
To all those who had trouble with the last boss:

You know you can just bounce on one of his hands until he claps right?
 

DaBuddaDa

Member
Why in gods name does it feel like there is only one single Diddy barrel in every level!? Being Diddyless makes me want to claw my eyes out.
 

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
LevityNYC said:
GOTY 2010 for me.

The biggest issues with the difficulty was how stingy they were with the Diddy barrels. It drove me crazy when there wasnt a barrel at the beginning of a level or at a checkpoint.

I thought the same thing but now realize that was their way of making the game more challenging. I actually really liked the balance.
 
Plinko said:
I thought the same thing but now realize that was their way of making the game more challenging. I actually really liked the balance.

True, but more specifically it was their way of telling you that they had no intention of needing Diddy to beat the level.

You'll find that the level design dictates whether or not Diddy is nearby.
 

DaBuddaDa

Member
I think to balance the lack of Diddy in many situations, they should have given DK a very slightly higher/longer jump (talking pixel counting here).
 
Gilby said:
To all those who had trouble with the last boss:

You know you can just bounce on one of his hands until he claps right?
Ha, I should have read this before I beat it, would have made it way less annoying. Makes perfect sense yet for some reason it didn't come to me.
 
_Alkaline_ said:
True, but more specifically it was their way of telling you that they had no intention of needing Diddy to beat the level.

You'll find that the level design dictates whether or not Diddy is nearby.
I got this game for my girlfriend for Christmas. We had one hell of a lovely time with New Super Mario Bros Wii co-op. After a month, I can say fuck this game. Fuck it right to hell. We're still on the Cave world and having trouble getting much further. The game is way too hard and cheap.

It's probably much better as a single-player game, because wow, some shitty co-op design decisions were made. Too bad Nintendo didn't develop this in-house.
 

Wizpig

Member
The Lamonster said:
I got this game for my girlfriend for Christmas. We had one hell of a lovely time with New Super Mario Bros Wii co-op. After a month, I can say fuck this game. Fuck it right to hell. We're still on the Cave world and having trouble getting much further. The game is way too hard and cheap.

It's probably much better as a single-player game, because wow, some shitty co-op design decisions were made. Too bad Nintendo didn't develop this in-house.
But this game is better than NSMBWii.
A lot better.

In single-player it's not very hard and absolutely not cheap.

Unfortunately i don't know how the multiplayer mode works, maybe it is cheap, that's why i'd say play it single-player when you can.
 
Akai said:
It's not...
You're gimped either way. You can either have the higher DK jumps or the Diddy jetpack, but not both, unless someone wants to combine and not play. Also, there is hardly any leniency on distance from one another. You both have to be like right next to each other, unlike NSMBW where the camera zooms out when you are far away from each other. Also, there is no bubble mechanic as there is in NSMBW, meaning nubs will never be able to play this with someone who has played video games their whole life.
 
I'm a big time DKC fan -- the original is still my #1 favorite game -- so I figure now that I've spent a lot of time with DKCR I might as well post a few thoughts.

Level design -- very impressive. Some real inspired, "wow!" moments and levels in there. In particular, I really liked Prehistoric Path and Music Madness. Both really showed off how far 2D platforming has come since the glory days.

The look -- love it! I think I agree with most people that the silhouette levels really stand out (insert pun here!). There are definitely multiple areas where you just want to stop and look at the lush scenery. Very well done.

The sound -- honestly, not a big fan. I don't know when they changed the Donkey and Diddy voices to their current versions, but for some reason they put me off. And while I think there are some great remixes of classic DKC tunes, most of the new music is not memorable and the technical quality seems fairly poor compared to other platformers, even Super Meat Boy.

The controls -- I know this has been a polarizing and heated debate in this thread, but sadly I have to pile on here. I'm not a Wii hater or a waggle hater at all -- I think motion controls are great when applied right. But with DK having more momentum to his movements than he ever has, I found myself avoiding the shake unless completely necessary because I never felt confident that I'd get it to work properly. Blame it on the game, blame it on me, blame it on the Goose ... but I really struggled here. The world 7 boss highlighted this big-time for me.

The verdict -- I think this was a great playthrough, but I don't see myself coming back to it to 100%. I think it has really inspired moments, and I'd like to see DK Return again. But please, please, please at least give me the option to try a non-shake control scheme.
 

Akai

Member
The Lamonster said:
Also, there is no bubble mechanic as there is in NSMBW, meaning nubs will never be able to play this with someone who has played video games their whole life.

Yes there IS, it's just not a bubble. The player playing as Diddy (preferably the less-experienced gamer) can jump on DK's back, thus providing safe haven and granting DK usage of the jet-pack...
 

Wizpig

Member
thesurfshop19 said:
The sound -- honestly, not a big fan. I don't know when they changed the Donkey and Diddy voices to their current versions, but for some reason they put me off. And while I think there are some great remixes of classic DKC tunes, most of the new music is not memorable and the technical quality seems fairly poor compared to other platformers, even Super Meat Boy.

The controls -- I know this has been a polarizing and heated debate in this thread, but sadly I have to pile on here. I'm not a Wii hater or a waggle hater at all -- I think motion controls are great when applied right. But with DK having more momentum to his movements than he ever has, I found myself avoiding the shake unless completely necessary because I never felt confident that I'd get it to work properly. Blame it on the game, blame it on me, blame it on the Goose ... but I really struggled here. The world 7 boss highlighted this big-time for me.
The music is still great - some tracks are better than the originals in my opinion.
New tracks are meh, that's for sure.

Controls... i usually feel confident doing the shake and it's not that bad, but man do i HATE it in speed-runs.
Waggle waggle waggle for the whole level, and a level that you may need to try 30 times in a row...

In the main game, where you don't need to "abuse" the roll, it's perfect imo. but not in the speed-runs.

A Classic Controller option? yeah, sure, would've been nice.

ps. As for the look, i love it, but Jungle Beat was better. (not technically... the looks of it)
As for the game itself, i said it 100 times, i think it's definitely better than NSMBWii.

Why wasn't this game in any "2010 GOTY" lists from big websites or reviewers? seriously, guys.
 

T.M. MacReady

NO ONE DENIES MEMBER
It was #9 on the Gaf goty list. I would have voted for it, but I just bought a Wii a few weeks back, didn't play it until voting was over.
 
I just don't feel compelled to play this. I got it for Christmas, I'm on the second world. Like I said though, I just don't feel the drive to play it. One of the things that is bothering me is the length of some of the levels. They feel long.
 
Top Bottom