Donkey Kong Country Returns is the spiritual successor to the N64 series of Donkey Kong Country games. To me, it reminds me of the "New" Super Mario Bros series and the old Super Mario Series. It feels updated and remodelled for a new audience. But if you're a hardcore DK fan, you will still find a lot to love. As you play, you will take control of DK and his chimp partner Diddy Kong. As DK you only have two hearts, but with Diddy on your back, you have four. Diddy also gives you unlimited rolling powers and a jet pack. That's right. A jet pack. This game obviously has had loads of effort poured into it, much more than new Super Mario Bros Wii. There are a ton of levels with fantastic ideas behind them. There's one where there is a wave crashing from the background into the foreground and you must reach shelter before the next wave. Also, there are level specific gimmicks, both of which I hate. The first one is the rocket barrel. Gah, I hate the rocket barrel. Basically, you are going horizontally on a barrel that acts like a rocket ship. You press a button to go up and let go to fall, but if you hit anything, anything. Putt, game over. Start the WHOLE level again. Graah. So frustrating, The other thing I didn't like was the mine cart levels. They are basically the same, but this time, you are in a mine cart which moves forward on its own and you have to do a lot of tricky timed jumps. But, like the Rocket barrels, you die if you touch anything dangerous in one hit. Now, lets get to the fun stuff. The rest of the game. DK Country Returns is full of good old platformy goodness and that's what makes is great. You will have to make some difficult jumps, but all of this is made much easier with Diddy on your back. A second player can jump in as Diddy at any time, buuuuut, that does mean that some jumps will become harder to make. But, at least you don't slllliiiidddeee when you land unlike in New Super Mario Bros Wii where traction is something that was apparently thrown out the window during development. Enemies are also built differently, so you never have the "What? But I landed on his head and he didn't get hurt" moments like you do in Mario as well. You always know when you land on the enemies heads. Throughout each level there are 3586012356089`2356 billion banana's to collect, earning 100 will get you a life. Banana coins will allow you to buy things at Cranky Kong's store like lives and other items. You're going to need some of the items at Cranky's store for some of the amazing boss fights. A lot of them revolve around the same theme of "hit their weak spot" but the fights are very well done and you will have a lot of trouble with some of them. One of my favourite things about Donkey Kong Country Returns is the boss fights and they have pushed me to the limit of my gaming skillz, which I do enjoy. Overall, you are doing yourself a favour picking up DK Country Returns, weather you're a long standing DK fan, or a newcomer, this is truly a great game.
