Donkey Kong Country Returns

In retrospect, perhaps Donkey Kong didn't have it that bad following Rare's departure from Nintendo. An observation that may be heresy to some, but as I recall, the following output was hardly disposable: Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat was the stellar (2D!) debut of Nintendo's famous Tokyo branch, Mario vs. Donkey Kong was born in this era (although it had admittedly grown tired), the Donkey Konga games were entertaining spin-offs in their own right -- that they remain the only Nintendo-published products you'll ever hear Rock Lobster and songs from Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo surely counts for something -- and supposedly Paon's handheld action games were pleasant enough. On the downside, you had technically-inferior Game Boy Advance ports of the original Donkey Kong Country trilogy (albeit developed by Rare with new features), although only Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast drew particularly harsh ire; admittedly, having only been subjected to the abominable character designs from Super Smash Bros. Brawl's trophies, I suppose it was enough to taint the series’ image.

Regardless, fans demanded a true spiritual successor to the Donkey Kong Country trilogy, and our prayers were answered through a most unexpected savior: Retro Studios. Having wrapped up their own Metroid Prime Trilogy, transitioning from a series of highly-ambitious first-person shooters -- I'm sorry, first-person adventures – to a mere sidescroller may have seemed like a stepdown for some; true, Donkey Kong Country Returns is as much of a revival as Metroid Prime before it, but we had previously witnessed an unknown studio masterfully revive one of gaming’s most beloved franchises into practically another genre – certainly, a 2D Donkey Kong game would be beneath Retro’s talents, yes?

Similar objections were raised with 2014 follow-up Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, but even if the complaints were a bit more sympathetic there (and even then, only in the dire context of Wii U) – we must not forget a first-rate studio is a first-rate studio, and that’s how we ended up with what was not only the finest Donkey Kong game ever produced (for about three years, anyway), but an exemplary 2D sidescroller easily on par with some of Mario’s finest. Retro is no stranger to matching Nintendo’s most celebrated output: at the very least, it was downright spooky how Metroid Prime instantly ranked alongside Super Metroid, and Donkey Kong Country Returns doing with the same with Nintendo’s universal golden goose was nothing short of extraterrestrial voodoo. 

And this is to say nothing of Rare’s original efforts! Barring Donkey Kong Country 3, we have discussed my feelings on the first two members of the beloved SNES trilogy – they are fine platformers. Good platformers. Donkey Kong Country 2 is a particularly great platformer. But they are not, to my mind, masterworks of the 2D genre, even if I say that with a heavy heart regarding the presence of their respective soundtracks and groundbreaking tech. Not that Nintendo's classic Mario games didn't improve as they went on, of course, but the Donkey Kong Country games had far more evident instances of trial-and-error, and so they were always left chasing after the plumber's shadow.

Naturally, with fourteen years worth of review and roughly a decade's worth of critically-acclaimed development under their belt, Retro Studios was in a prime position to take Donkey Kong to newfound heights; at the very least, I cannot imagine calling Returns inferior from a level design standpoint. Bursting with imagination and and pitting our platforming skills to the test, the very first world eclipses alone most anything from the original and perhaps even Donkey Kong Country 2 -- take, for instance, how familiar concepts are revived in mine carts, barrel cannons and even daringly rolling through bottomless pits to nab a floating collectible. One early level, channeling the original's Barrel Blast Canyon stage by consisting entirely of those meticulously-aimed kegs, heightens the stakes beyond timed presses and avoiding flying enemies, with Screaming Pillars threatening to topple upon our contained apes, and so we must fire away from the collapsing spectacle (this is, of course, after we've already been accustomed via the aforementioned classic set-ups, and its conclusion requires special attention: the habitual button presses gradually give way to directional aiming, trapping players locked into automation)

It goes without saying this interactive spectacle is wonderful to look at, but we'll get to that shortly; really, the point here is the aggressive design does not, at any one point, lead to a single dull moment. Not that Returns always has the pedal on exhilaration -- the silhouette levels, host to jazzy music and calming shadows are appropriately chill --  but levels never cease in overwhelming us in scope: we constantly shift between the foreground and background, the camera zooms back to highlight the scale between Donkey Kong and towering hazard or faraway level-ending Slot Machine Barrels. In juggling its imagination in escaping from giant octopuses and rhythm-based machinery, rarely is anything poorly telegraphed, and we are continually left reeling from Returns' roller-coaster of ideas. When juxtaposed alongside new ideas such as climbing, we're led to discover their density, too; alongside the new Puzzle Pieces, the KONG letters now lead to unlockable levels, so now there's an actual incentive to grab them.

This robust level design is hardly distracting, but just in case, the more active playing field compels some compromises; for one thing, DK can now take two hits instead of one, a health boost doubled upon teaming up with Diddy. Meanwhile, Diddy himself acts more as a power-up as opposed to a full-fledged partner, his Rocketbarrel Jets and the continuous Kong Roll joint maneuver broaden DK's mobility to help him keep up. Some take issue with Diddy's playability being reserved for co-op, but these are otherwise fine accommodations: the thrill of upgrading to Kong Roll and plowing through everything in your path can't be understated, and I always thought it was dumb an 800-pound gorilla could be taken out in one hit, anyway (a trivial complaint, yes, but for whatever reason Donkey Kong games have always pressured my suspension of belief -- for instance, just how does Cranky Kong divide time between all those different cabins?). 

Still, there exist complaints the game is not as visually diverse as Donkey Kong Country 2. While I sympathize given that game’s own brand of imagination, such criticism misses the point: this is a successor to Donkey Kong Country, the most well-known out of the original trilogy and what most people associate with the brand. For a revival to succeed, we must not risk engaging in over-ambition and instead go back to basics with jungles, ruins, and factories. However, this hardly equates to a baser direction on an aesthetic level; yes, it’s probably impossible for a more cartoonish take to revolutionize the industry as did the SNES CGI, but such is its strength: none of the absurdly fun character designs are subject to aging and DK Island itself is insanely lush with detail and depth, be it callbacks to the original (remember the abandoned treehouses?), different themed bonus rooms for each world, the rustling of the factory world's cling-able ivy leading us to recognize they're actually chains, and as seen above, the eye-catching shadows of the silhouette levels (I can only recall one thematic mismatch: a sudden return to pirates in the Ruins world, but, well, it’s such a fun level that it doesn't really matter, anyway).

It's thanks to this that the game peaks mid-way through in what's perhaps one of the finest sequence of levels in 2D gaming: the mine-cart focused Cave world. Witnessing the moles' subterranean mining town is perhaps the game's most immersive example of world-building to the extent of injecting itself into the actual levels. Look no further than the game's best stage in Bombs Away, wherein a renegade Mole Miner bombards our heroes with explosives, inducing crystal stalagmites to crash through the railway as the track eventually reveals itself as an unfinished project, the protagonists having no choice but to ride within the rolled-up dead end, the rail disk crashing through crystal fields as we desperately wheel about to the exit. It's thrilling, it's dangerous, it tells a story, and it's all through actual gameplay.

The super fun character animation is also a winner. While the familiarity of the Kremlings is missed, DK Island’s horde of hypnotized animals and gang of sentient Tikis provide the most animated foes hitherto: I think of the glamorous diva turkeys flouncing about on their bamboo legs, the ravenous Toothberries stacking up and launching themselves into oblivion, and the poor Bopapodamuses we must hop upon to traverse their forest homes. Even the Checkpoint Pig is glorious, his nerdy countenance and the way he shakes his belly up-close on a Time Trial completion imprinting himself into our hopes and dreams.

Perhaps it's our one relief upon the achievement of a well-earned Shiny Gold medal via Time Trial? While experience has made subsequent playthroughs easier to digest, attempting the Time Trials and Mirror Mode levels is perhaps most difficult Nintendo challenge on Wii. This comes as no surprise: the Donkey Kong Country games were also difficult in themselves, and so channeling their toughness largely through optional areas and modes keeps in line with the Wii’s objective: easy to access, hard to master. Not that the main game doesn't throw some old-fashioned difficulty in their one-hit-kill Rocketbarrel levels and the final boss, but it doesn't get especially tough until the final world.

Still, for all my praise, there exist valid flaws, the use of motion controls being one of them. To my taste, they work to varying degrees of success; on one hand, you have shaking to induce rolling. This is the most cited complaint, and admittedly it is the most head-scratching to me: there’s no issues in executing it, and the physical input feels wonderfully natural and stimulating to pull off especially via Kong Roll. Far, far on the other hand is hand-slapping: while the actual maneuver is imbued into the level design this time, actually pulling it off is an uncertain task. Unlike rolling, flailing the Wii Remote does not leave it in a consistent state, as Donkey Kong tends to randomly stop mid-action -- in retrospect, I’m surprised this wasn’t the dominant complaint, especially considering it potentially ruining Time Trials.

And stuck in the middle is blowing, a mechanic derived from Shigeru Miyamoto himself. In itself, there’s no issues in execution, and I admit there’s an appeal to layering levels with hidden goodies and whatnot buried beneath pinwheels and dandelions. But in a fast-paced game such as this, it feels superfluous and even counter-productive to the game’s momentum, and so it comes across as extraneous. Thankfully, it’s not an especially common mechanic and is typically reserved for exploration and Puzzle Piece recovering and whatnot, so it's not all that intrusive.

Time Trials, too, are hair-raising not just in their difficulty but in one grievous oversight; namely, not resetting time upon death. As the clock keeps ticking even after a screw-up, there's no choice but to manually reset the time trial, a repetitive process only compounding upon our frustration. While the addition of a Shiny Gold medal -- the ultimate reward surpassing even a Gold ranking -- is enough to embolden any accomplished gamer, this neglectful blunder is perhaps Returns' biggest black mark: any taste in music and aesthetic aside, it is the only design flaw approaching anywhere near bad game design, tainting what otherwise challenging mode pushing ourselves to memorize shortcuts and proper jumping routes.

And the last flaw is...well, complicated. In my earlier review, I jubilantly described the music of  Returns as “kick ass”. Kenji Yamamoto (Metroid Prime) and his band of Nintendo musicians (including Minako Hamano, also from Metroid) perform a mixture of original compositions and arrangements largely derived from the first game, with the soundtrack succeeding to some extent. Let’s put it this way: when the game is focusing on arrangements, it sounds incredible; when it's not, it's hit-or-miss, and those only check binary ratings of "wow, that's really catchy!" or "wow, that's really, uh, bland." When considering the consistent highs of the first two SNES games,> the presence of, say, the standard beach and cliff themes -- their low-quality MIDI and lack of any discernible melody and all -- create quite the paradox.

But let us not allow them to taint this experience! Indeed, seeing as how several arrangements even surpass the sacred SNES originals, they were clearly the music team's priority. Life in the Mines, and Fear Factory are the runaway winners despite making a late-game appearance, two of the former's most percussion-heavy pieces taking on a new life respectively via a focused guitar-laden beat and finishing with a newfound expression of fear-roused courage. Mine Cart Carnage receives several mixes depending on thematic context (most notably the Rickety Rails version, perhaps the factor most responsible for making Bombs Away as dangerous as it is), and the originally subdued Treetop Bop instantly makes for some addictive mischief. And even with the lack of swimming, clearly Yamamoto and co. couldn't bear to leave Aquatic Ambiance out of the fun -- appearing in a lighter elevator-themed motif, hitching a ride on a whale has never felt so soothing.

And again, it's not like all the original songs are that bad: the Rocketbarrel Theme is easily the game’s most famous original theme for a reason, the upbeat charge a sharp contrast to our heart-pounding fear of exploding at any minute. Meanwhile, both main Volcano themes are perhaps the sole great original level themes, commanding an aura of power and awe also compounding upon our frustration. The amazing Tiki hypnosis theme probably would've been my favorite had it made more elongated appearances than its amazing final boss version, but I suppose I'll just have to settle with the individually brief instrumentals and wonder what could've been. Can we all at least agree it would've made an amazing licensed ringtone?

Still, any missteps Donkey Kong Country Returns makes may prevent it from reaching the very tippy-top of 2D platforming masterpieces, but that it comes this close renders that a non-matter. Perhaps that shows Retro, masterful as they were, were still learning themselves given this new environment?  Of course, we thank the heavens and earth that their final draft was graced upon this earth, but we'll get to that when the time comes -- as for Returns itself, it is a superb example of a pure video game, one only interested in the thrills it delivers to the player, and by god. By god, what a sight.