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Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze will inspire a range of reactions. Fortunately it's not exactly a wide range of reactions, so we can probably just run through them one by one.Let's start with those of you who haven't played Donkey Kong Country since the days of the Super Nintendo. I think you will like Tropical Freeze, although you probably won't be blown away by it. Donkey Kong handles really well in these long, generously appointed 2D platform level obstacle courses. He's slower and heavier than Mario, of course, with a lolloping jump, but that's part of his charm, and he still has that forward roll move he can use to clatter enemies or combine with his jump to reach more distant platforms and barrels.
While other developers have sought to reinvent the platform game over the years, Retro Studios seems happy just reinventing platforms. The modern games have all the usual flavours - moving ones, bouncy ones, disintegrating ones - but there are also platforms that undulate as you move over them, and rocky ones that you have to cling onto as they break free and dangle off cliff faces and change orientation. As you venture forth, enemies trundle towards you, sometimes hop around and often throw things that need to be squashed or avoided, all of which makes navigating the platforms more complicated, but the gravest threat you face is the bottomless pit, because every level is stuffed with them.
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