Use both characters’ special skills to overcome all kinds of obstacles and explore each stage to the full – hop Diddy onto DK’s shoulders and use his Barrel Jet to hover them both over large gaps, or roll to your heart’s content and trample everything in your path. Stomp on enemies, grab banana bunches and ride rockets, rhinos and much more in classic 2D platforming gameplay, stuffed full of spectacular scenes and tricky traps. Jump, race and roll your way across Donkey Kong Island on a quest to rescue DK’s beloved banana hoard from the trouble-causing Tiki Tak Tribe.
You don't need to seek out the extras to appreciate Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, but I enjoyed the excuse to keep playing.Go ape with the swingin’ king of the jungle! Donkey Kong and his simian sidekick Diddy Kong are back for more action-packed platforming antics in Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D for the Nintendo 3DS. Additionally, each stage holds a number of hidden puzzle pieces, good for unlocking art and music. On top of the eight-ish stages in each area (including the levels accessed by purchasing keys from Cranky), there are secret stages, opened by obtaining every single K-O-N-G letter in each level of a given world. It's still annoying, but it happened with far less frequency than it did on the Wii.Ī glut of secrets and bonus content add replay value and extra challenge to Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D. This can result in disaster - with DK rolling straight into an enemy or falling to his death. The most frequent of which is Donkey Kong's tendency to launch into a barrel roll when you really just wanted him to ground pound. Donkey Kong is and always has been a heavy character who can't turn on a dime - but for the first time, I felt like I was controlling his momentum instead of guessing at it.
The circle pad allows for more accuracy and nuance than the Wiimote's stiff D-pad, and all commands are mapped to buttons instead of fired when you physically shake the controller. Regardless of the mode, Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D's controls are worlds better than they were on the Wii. But the "new" difficulty level hits a better balance between "this time I'll get it" and frustration. It's still a challenging game on "new mode" - the frequent insta-deaths on mine cart levels and bottomless pits nearly everywhere else are still uncompromising. Both Donkey and Diddy can take a bit more punishment, and the items bought at Cranky Kong's storefront in each world are much more helpful. The 3DS version offers the chance to play the game in its original mode, or in "new" mode, which eases things just a bit.
All are pattern-based fights that recall the best old-school bosses in the series - half the fun is figuring out what to do, and the other half comes from finally punching the offending tiki in the face.ĭonkey Kong Country Returns was at times brutally tough on the Wii, with some stages requiring dozens of playthroughs just to make it to the goal. Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D aims to keep you on your toes, across stages and in boss fights.Įach world has a big bad, many of which come back for rematches in later worlds. In fact, the entire game feels engineered to keep you in a platforming flow-state. You're always moving and facing new challenges, but it never feels like ADHD game design.