that water theme song in the first dkc is so good. There's a looped 10 hour video of it on YT somewhere

I started Tropical Freeze again this morning, which I've played through twice in co-op but not given much time to solo. Bosses are much trickier without the balloon save option but having 5HP takes some of the sting out of the main stages. I'm in it for the KONG letters and secret exits for the first time ever, let's do this.

I won't bother pretending I'm up for finding all the jigsaw pieces though.

nick_md wrote:

Working through DKC3 very slowly atm, just an hour or two at weekends.

Snap, about 2 hours in atm.

DKC1 is fantastic bouncy fun. Great gameplay, great level design; the Miyamoto touch is quite evident. On Rare's behalf, they did a great job on the engine, visuals and audio. So much polish you can see your face in it.

Groundbreaking 16-bit title, I might just finish the game this time.

I've found the ten secret exits in Tropical Freeze (leading to twelve sub stages, all of which contain KONG letters), most of which seem to require Dixie Kong as your assist character to reach, which is odd considering each buddy has their own attributes. If you collect the full Kong sets in each world you unlock a 'K' stage, which has no checkpoints (yikes) and grants you a relic piece upon completion. I've only got one so far, but it took a few attempts. I'm unsure what I'm working towards but I'm up for it in theory, it all depends if I've got the skills to get there.

I need to put Tropical Freeze onto my Switch to get list. I really liked DKCR on Wii and I hear Tropical Freeze is even better.

As per usual with most games these days, some of the optional stuff is proving to be the best.  There's plenty of inventiveness saved up for the secret stages. 

Behold, the checkpointless Bopopolis, and marvel at how smoothly this chap blooters through it:



That's what it's all about.

Waggle is buried in the options of TF.  It worked, but much like Punch-Out! on Wii it was better without imo (I'd reach for the 3DS version if I ever replayed DKCR).

I've gone from 66% complete after reaching the credits on Tropical Freeze to a far more respectable 84%. Three worlds of full KONG letters, secret stages and K stages done. I'm expecting some roughstuff ahead but it's superb.

Moot_Geeza wrote:

I've gone from 66% complete after reaching the credits on Tropical Freeze to a far more respectable 84%. Three worlds of full KONG letters, secret stages and K stages done. I'm expecting some roughstuff ahead but it's superb.

I remember we got 100% on the Wii game, and only played to the credits on Wii U. Damn shame it isn't online co-op, I think we would have done it on Switch.

I've seen a couple of reviews that mentioned Tropical Freeze is the trickiest in the series, but I had more trouble with DKC2 recently (well, I didn't have much trouble thanks to the save states I started using, but I was constantly thinking 'this is TOUGH' for at least the last couple of worlds). Trying to do it with one checkpoint per stage would've been brutal, TF has three or four per stage and it's a cinch to build up the red balloons. It's hard ofc, but surely DKC2 is nastier.

Never go full jigsaw wanker

I'm with you on Woolly World, the hunt just isn't moreish enough to demand a player's time if you're not that way inclined, but hard disagree on DKCTF - the extra levels sets that are worthwhile, and I'd wager the expertly designed checkpointless stages are right up your alley.

Worth a watch to assist with a deeper appreciation, mayber (although he does seem to ignore some of the layered hazard work in NSMBU to make his point about layered mechanics in DKCTF):

It's over! 100% shown on the save file, which is unusual as I've only got maybe 50% of the jigsaws, but that's all stages and Kong letters done, and me with the game. Brilliant stuff.

Aye....DKCR has that. Going for medals ended up distracting me from progressing as it's very much my thing.