Donkey Kong Country Returns

Once again, Nintendo is back to whipping all its Original I.P's into the ground with constant sequels and reboots. While not really a bad thing, it's always nice to see something new come up. And here we have... Donkey Kong Country Returns. Fantastic. A reboot of a classic SNES title. I wonder where they got that idea?... Oh wait.. Nintendo have already done that for Mario. Silly me.

STORY
Under the hypnotic powers of Tikis from the Tiki Tak Tribe, the animals of DK Island have stolen Donkey Kongs bananas and, obviously, the giant ape is pissed the fuck off. When did people think it was a good idea to steal I giant gorillas bananas?!
Anyway, the story follows Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong as they try to reclaim the stolen yellow fruit.

I would go on and on about how boring the story is, but lets face it... Nintendo don't have the mental capacity to write good stories, let alone come up with enough bad ones to retire the old ones. We see it in almost every Mario game, and we're seeing it here too. Best not to dwell on it, yea?
The story is good enough to give us a reason to play the game, but not enough to make us care about anything, really.

PRESENTATION
Donkey Kong Country Returns sticks to its 2D roots but, much like New Super Mario Bros. Wii, the game featrues fairly slick 3D graphics. Coupled with this however, are the occasional levels with different art styles. For example, one level seemed to have a limbo-inspired silhouette style, which factored into the gameplay too.

The memorable music from the original make a return as well, and the sound effects are as memorable as ever. My one major problem with the presentation is that there weren't really enough of the visually interesting levels to keep the game interesting.


GAMEPLAY
DKCR features classic side-scrolling platforming that would familiar to anyone who played the original. The wii-mote + nunchuk can be used, but many players will opt to just have the wii-mote held sideways. The controls are simple enough so that even the most basic of vine-swingers will navigate the levels with ease.

I do have one big problem with the controls, and it was the same with New Super Mario Bros. Wii. The addition of motion controls to this game are completely unnecessary. You don't want to be running through a level, only to have to shake your controller to attack a specific enemy. It breaks the immersion for me, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Donkey Kong Country Returns does change up the side-scrolling format occasionally with rocket barrels, visual styles that impact the gameplay and some occasional jumping from mid-ground to foreground to background. It's these things that keep the game from becoming stale.

REPLAYABILITY
DK Country Returns features several challenges for each level, including finding puzzle pieces, letters of the word KONG and time trials to beat. Every level can also be played in co-op with the 2nd player as Diddy Kong. Aside from that, the game doesn't hold much replay value, but hey, its a fun game without it!

OVERVIEW
While I am a bit sick of Nintendo just pooping out sequels and reboots of their most overused properties, I did find myself enjoying DK Country Returns quite alot. It has a lot of humour for a game without a script, and it honestly looks really good, even for a Wii game. The addition of motion controls was fucking moronic, even if it plays a small role; but it doesn't really affect the awesomeness that was DK Country Returns. This is one for the nostalgia freaks AND new gamers alike.

O.K guys, I'm off to the new house, and then off on holiday. If I'm able to, I'll post a review over there, if not, see you next month!