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Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze |OT| There's always money in the banana stand

D

Deku Tree

Member
dark10x said:
Anyone feel as if some of the levels are just a bit too long for their own good?

First time through, not a big deal, but I find myself not really wanting to replay a lot of the stages due to just how long they are. I've realized that all of my very favorite platform games all feature levels which can be finished in 1-2 minutes during normal play. I'd rather have more shorter levels than a handful of long stages.

This applies doubly to boss fights which are WAYYYYY too long for their own good. Most of the patterns are simple enough but you spend so much time waiting that retrying after failure becomes tedious.

Still great, of course, but just the one small thing that has been annoying.
Click to expand...

Yes. ABSOLUTELY. A larger number of shorter levels would be MUCH MUCH BETTER. Often times I just want to play a few quick levels. That is close to impossible with the length of the levels in Tropical Freeze.
 
Clockwork5

Clockwork5

Member
dark10x said:
Anyone feel as if some of the levels are just a bit too long for their own good?

First time through, not a big deal, but I find myself not really wanting to replay a lot of the stages due to just how long they are. I've realized that all of my very favorite platform games all feature levels which can be finished in 1-2 minutes during normal play. I'd rather have more shorter levels than a handful of long stages.

This applies doubly to boss fights which are WAYYYYY too long for their own good. Most of the patterns are simple enough but you spend so much time waiting that retrying after failure becomes tedious.

Still great, of course, but just the one small thing that has been annoying.
Click to expand...

I like the length of the stages. It plays into the adventurous feel if this game. I think they are about on par with the levels in Rayman Legends. Yeah, they are longer than most Mario stages but Mario has more of an obstacle course feel that lends itself to shorter stages.

The levels are not even that long, maybe 5-8 min each.
 
M

Mr. Bamboo

Member
Just had a friend over. He doesn't have a Wii U, so I thought I'd show him a few games to kind of entice him a little. He ended up really enjoying Super Mario 3D World, but he said Tropical Freeze was definitely his favourite. Co-op, however very hectic, was a great deal of fun.

on a side note: I was incredibly cruel to set up the 4th boss for him to play. Did not go well :D.
 
E

EVH

Member
Watch Da Birdie said:
W-whoa...

KhEgYQK.jpg


That rock...
Click to expand...

Thats King K.Rool. Even the bananas look like the crown.
So you made it guys. He is in the game.
 
Pila

Pila

Member
Yesterday I started the fifth island. I'm so glad tomorrow it's friday, it's gonna be a great weekend.

Retro <3
 
D

Deku Tree

Member
Clockwork5 said:
I like the length of the stages. It plays into the adventurous feel if this game. I think they are about on par with the levels in Rayman Legends. Yeah, they are longer than most Mario stages but Mario has more of an obstacle course feel that lends itself to shorter stages.

The levels are not even that long, maybe 5-8 min each.
Click to expand...

Maybe I suck at TF in 2014, but I am finding that most of the later levels in the end worlds are taking me over thirty minutes or longer to finish on a first play through.
 
E

emb

Member
dark10x said:
Anyone feel as if some of the levels are just a bit too long for their own good?

First time through, not a big deal, but I find myself not really wanting to replay a lot of the stages due to just how long they are. I've realized that all of my very favorite platform games all feature levels which can be finished in 1-2 minutes during normal play. I'd rather have more shorter levels than a handful of long stages.

This applies doubly to boss fights which are WAYYYYY too long for their own good. Most of the patterns are simple enough but you spend so much time waiting that retrying after failure becomes tedious.

Still great, of course, but just the one small thing that has been annoying.
Click to expand...
I agree. I always like that aspect of 2D Mario; each level stays just long enough to leave you wanting more. By the time you reach the end of levels in the new DKC games, you're ready for it to be over. It helps that the stage is usually chasing me or crumbling around, so I'm at least thinking about other things though. It also helps that checkpoints are handed out like candy most of the time, since it avoids too much repetition.

Agreed on the bosses. Platformer bosses with the wait-dodge-wait-dodge-hit cycles can get old fast because of all the waiting. Extending them is a little annoying, because then you have to play the first 3 minutes again while nothing exciting happens. I guess it's ok though, since without the length there wouldn't be much satisfaction in finishing them. They'd need to be made harder (and stopped from dropping hearts) to compensate.
 
A

AtomicShroom

Member
I don't know if it's just me, but I feel the game has several technical shortcomings that really highlight the kind of technical incompetency that's prominent in most North American developers:

1. I hate the loading times and I hate how the loading screen freezes and stutters... Coming from playing other Wii U games like New Mario U and 3D World, I don't understand how Nintendo in Japan can manage to completely hide loading times to the point where I feel I'm playing a cart game, with asbolutely no stuttering in sight, whereas Retro fails so goddamn hard in this respect. It's staggering how it completely ruins the pacing and makes the product look almost broken compared to Ninty's own output. How can showing a mere title screen take so long to load? It makes no sense! Even when you quit the game to return to the title screen, it takes around 15 seconds! Mario 3D World does this instantly!

2. There seems to be a slight input lag in the game, and no it's not my TV (it's an HD CRT). Alterning between Mario 3D World and DKCTF makes this plainly obvious. How and why?

3. I'm playing co-op with a friend (sue me), and I don't understand why I'm cursed to play with DK and why my friend is stuck with a specific character. We've noticed many hidden/secret paths that seem only accessible by a specific kong, but having my friend switch kongs implicates this absolutely mind-numbingly painful flow: 1. From the map, go in the pause menu 2. Go in Options 3. Select Add/Drop player 4. Drop my friend 5. Acknowledge (which kicks you out of the pause menu). 6. Return to the pause menu 7. Go in Options. 8. Select Add/Drop Player. 9. Have my friend join in. 10. Have my friend pick a different Kong. That's TEN STEPS. TEN!!! Just to switch a kong! What the hell?! Am I missing something?? And if so: The game fails at not having made this clear!
 
D

Deku Tree

Member
AtomicShroom said:
2. There seems to be a slight input lag in the game, and no it's not my TV (it's an HD CRT). Alterning between Mario 3D World and DKCTF makes this plainly obvious. How and why?
Click to expand...

I notice that too. Sometimes I clearly pressed the jump button in time but I fall to my death anyway because the game didn't register the jump even though I was still standing on the moving platform after I pressed the jump button. I find that in some places I have to time things to press the jump button a little early but not too early.

This never really happened to me in Mario 3D World or NSMBU or NSLU.
 
L

LTWood12

Member
Deku Tree said:
I notice that too. Sometimes I clearly pressed the jump button in time but I fall to my death anyway because the game didn't register the jump even though I was still standing on the moving platform after I pressed the jump button. I find that in some places I have to time things to press the jump button a little early but not too early.

This never really happened to me in Mario 3D World or NSMBU or NSLU.
Click to expand...

I can attest to this. Rayman Legends I always felt like it was my fault when I died, and knew how I'd screwed up. In this I know I pressed jump but will just fall off.
 
N

Nocturnowl

Member
Chiming in on level length, Mario games tendency to leave me wanting more from a stage is my main gripe with them. 3D World in particular has so many cool ideas up its sleeves that the arrival of the end of stage flagpole is like my most feared obstacle of all, the one that signals the end and said stage gimmick is likely to be packed up and not seen again until a sequel.
Of course I also understand that Mario is the platformer for everyone, it's not about to make all its players participate in an endurance run , it still follows the classic level design formula of safely introducing some kind of mechanic and the gradually ramping up its usage up to the stages finish only in a more condensed way that's manageable for the majority of players and that's fine by me, I wouldn't change that.

And this is why Donkey Kong has always been my man over Mario, Rare's approach to level design in the original trilogy has the same base formula as a good Mario title but they were more willing to push each stage concept to its limit, to have that extra extension on a stage that Mario willingly drops and offer a higher difficulty level from this final stretch. If Mario's approach was more a delicious bite sized snack that has you wanting to sample more then DK has a world full of main courses for the person with a voracious appetite, too much for some I'm sure but that's part of the DK identity as far as I see it.
If you prefer smaller stages then that's fine, but this series in particular isn't one that I feel should ever be cutting back on level length. In actuality the stages aren't overly long anyway, it's hardly Puppeteer. A higher chance of death from higher difficulty is going to be the difference between a 2-3 minute perfect run and 30 minutes of spelunking down bottomless pits, in a sense you might be surprised how different a stage's length feels when returning to it later on when you have a handle on it.
Retro continuing the DKC series approach to level design make me chuffed as chips and shows that they "get" Donkey Kong.
 
T

TheSpaceBetween

Member
dark10x said:
Anyone feel as if some of the levels are just a bit too long for their own good?

First time through, not a big deal, but I find myself not really wanting to replay a lot of the stages due to just how long they are. I've realized that all of my very favorite platform games all feature levels which can be finished in 1-2 minutes during normal play. I'd rather have more shorter levels than a handful of long stages.

This applies doubly to boss fights which are WAYYYYY too long for their own good. Most of the patterns are simple enough but you spend so much time waiting that retrying after failure becomes tedious.

Still great, of course, but just the one small thing that has been annoying.
Click to expand...

Nope I love it. As others have said, it makes it feel like more of an adventure game. And luckily there are FAR more than a handful of stages. The fact that there is no filler is incredible. There are A LOT of shorter stages though. Alpine Incline, Cannon Cluster, homecoming Hijinx, Aquaduct Assalt, all the K levels, etc.
 
T

TheSpaceBetween

Member
The perfect Dark said:
Okay I just found the worst level ever made:
6-B
. The last part with
the barrels
is just trial & error. NO FUN AT ALL.
Click to expand...

Nothing on that level is even remotely close to trial and error. There is a good 3-5 second window you have to react after pressing each switch and the zipline parts are no different from the previous two. Cranky am dissapoint.

Edit: My bad, you are talking about the icicle level. Yeah I will admit that end part was kinda bullshit, but the rest of the level was fine.

Phire Phox said:
God I hate the 4th World. Too many damn water levels.
Click to expand...

There are 4/10 levels on that island that require no swimming at all.

Deku Tree said:
I notice that too. Sometimes I clearly pressed the jump button in time but I fall to my death anyway because the game didn't register the jump even though I was still standing on the moving platform after I pressed the jump button. I find that in some places I have to time things to press the jump button a little early but not too early.

This never really happened to me in Mario 3D World or NSMBU or NSLU.
Click to expand...

Eh. I can't recall a single platformer where this didn't happen to me at least a few times.
 
D

Deku Tree

Member
It would be nice if console manufacturers nowadays offered the option of a wired controller for people who care about input lag. Or at least if they offered the option of a wire that you could plug into the controller that made it a true wired controller.
 
A

AtomicShroom

Member
Deku Tree said:
It would be nice if console manufacturers nowadays offered the option of a wired controller for people who care about input lag. Or at least if they offered the option of a wire that you could plug into the controller that made it a true wired controller.
Click to expand...

But the input lag problem in DKCTF has nothing to do with wireless controllers though. The wireless controllers on the Wii/WiiU don't suffer from any noticeable input lag, otherwise you'd see it in NSMBU and 3D World as well.
 
L

Linkhero1

Member
Played Bramble Scramble last night...I was disappointed that they didn't use Stickerbrush Symphony and wasted it on a rocket level =/

Kurtofan said:
Nah man Kongs are bad for this level (except Cranky), kills all momentum.
Click to expand...

I find the K levels easier with just DK at times. I think they just thew Kongs in the first one to give you an option and then you're on your own for the remainder of the K levels.
 
T

TheSpaceBetween

Member
Deku Tree said:
It would be nice if console manufacturers nowadays offered the option of a wired controller for people who care about input lag. Or at least if they offered the option of a wire that you could plug into the controller that made it a true wired controller.
Click to expand...

It's funny... When I first started playing the game on the gamepad it felt like there was an imput lag, and in it really annoyed me. But as soon as I switched to the Wiimote/nunchuck it disappeared and felt exactly like DKCR. I loved shake to roll and groundpound in DKCR and I don't think I will ever go back.
 
D

Deku Tree

Member
TheSpaceBetween said:
It's funny... When I first started playing the game on the gamepad it felt like there was an imput lag, and in it really annoyed me. But as soon as I switched to the Wiimote/nunchuck it disappeared and felt exactly like DKCR. I loved shake to roll and groundpound in DKCR and I don't think I will ever go back.
Click to expand...

Oh so I have to try that control scheme. I will do it later on... Thanks!
 
C

Conezays

Member
So I'm going through the secret exit levels and the K levels. Fantastic stuff.

However, what does getting all the puzzle pieces get me? Is there any reward for collecting lots of banana coins (I know you can buy toys in the shop...but how many are we talking?)

Feel free to answer in spoilers! Would be much appreciated...my friend and I have been doing co-op the whole game, but don't want to waste his time while over if it's just meaningless rewards for those two things.
 
G

Gartooth

Member
Sendou said:
It's a side profile of an alligator. Two smaller rocks in the middle are its teeth.
Click to expand...

OK, that makes more sense. At first I thought it was supposed to be directly facing the screen, and wondered why everyone was going crazy over an eyeball shaped rock.
 
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