OK, so I know I’m late to the party on this one, but it’s not like you come here for up to the minute news anyway. I got Donkey Kong Country Returns for Christmas – one of if not the last great Wii games I’ve been meaning to get around to playing.
Boy I’m glad I waited because this is AWESOME.
I was a huge, huge fan of the original Donkey Kong Country – I remember seeing video footage of it the night we bought Super Street Fighter 2 on the SNES from some dodgy importer, and I couldn’t believe the SNES had been tricked into such amazing feats. It was one of those rare games (HA) that I counted the days until the release date before gleefully playing the crap out of for days upon end. Same went for the sequels and also the Game Boy versions which I loved to bits AND the cartridge was yellow so how can you complain about that.
Donkey Kong 64 is also my favourite game for a week out of every feew years when I get a reoccurance of tonsolitis and I’m knocked out on painkillers. I don’t know why, it’s actually a pretty average game. Weird.
Anyway. Donkey Kong Country Returns is hard. I mean it’s HARD. Well actually it’s about as hard as the average platformer from the good old days but we’ve been playing wussy games for the past decade or so and our gaming muscles have atrophied to the point where I was dying repeatedly on the FIRST FREAKIN’ LEVEL.
Sheesh.
It pushes all the right nostalgia buttons – the music is there, you can still jump back into your tree house for an extra life, Rambi makes an appearance and Diddy Kong is in a barrel. There’s still vines to swing from, secret rooms to find and collect bananas in, and, most importantly, Kranky Kong.
Kranky Kong is the greatest video game character of all time.
He’s just this old guy who keeps going on about the good old days, how can I not love him? They should have just put him on the cover and I would have gotten it ages ago.
Anyway. Get it. And prepare to swear and curse and sit closer to the TV so you can have an extra fraction of a second to react to the dangers on those bastard mine cart levels while your gaming muslces reawaken after a decade long slumber.
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I, too, have fond memories of the original DKC and remember how the 2.5D style of the game looked light years beyond anything else I had seen on the Super Nintendo. Donkey Kong Country Returns was great and as you said it is probably one of the last great games to get for the Wii.
And yes, I am aware that the newest Zelda game was released just over a month ago. My statement still stands.
Yeah, I can’t say I’m that interested in getting Zelda. There’s been like, five Zelda games since the last one I played (Wind Waker) and I never finished THAT so why should I buy another one I won’t finish?
I forgot about that new Kirby game, but not really having grown up with him I don’t know how interested I should be.