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Donkey Kong Country Returns |OT| Retro Studios Has Done It Again!
- Thread starter Tricky I Shadow
- Start date
I didn't notice until someone pointed it out, but the music in the Golden Temple?
Pretty neat.
It's not as bad as it sounds. I thought the same thing, but I'm a good way through. It's amazing how much better you get at the game by just playing it. It's fun making your way through a level on mirror mode that seemed impossible the first time through.
I didn't use items most of my first time through, though I used the extra heart for a couple K levels and Squawks when I went back through looking for puzzle pieces.
Actually, I don't think I've used the invincibility potion once. I should try it out just for the hell of it.
Remix of the Donkey Kong Jr. music.
Ben2749 said:
It's not as bad as it sounds. I thought the same thing, but I'm a good way through. It's amazing how much better you get at the game by just playing it. It's fun making your way through a level on mirror mode that seemed impossible the first time through.
I didn't use items most of my first time through, though I used the extra heart for a couple K levels and Squawks when I went back through looking for puzzle pieces.
Actually, I don't think I've used the invincibility potion once. I should try it out just for the hell of it.
Socreges said:
This wasn't the problem though, I know how to jump in this game. I've done it perfectly all the way up until world 4. Just for some reason this one enemy it wasn't working. I finally got it to do it but that was after I was like Hey Idea lets not take Diddy Kong with me. I'm not sure why that would make a difference but it seemed to on that enemy. Perhaps it was just bad timing on my part or just maybe I was tired I'm not sure. I really started to think though my game was broken for a while. Though I do really find it odd it worked perfectly the one time I decided to leave him stuck in the barrel on that stage.
Shotgun Kiss
Member
KevinCow said:
Yeah, but doing the K levels? Forget that.
Battersea Power Station
Member
Wait, I don't get it; so you used the items?Shick Brithouse said:
Shotgun Kiss
Member
I never expected DKCR to be as good as it is. The DKC games are my favourite 2D platformers of all time, and although I had high hopes for DKCR, I didn't expect it to be as good. However, I think it surpasses the original DKC at the very least. I need to play DKC3 again to decide if I prefer that, but I know I still prefer DKC2.
Still, the fact that it's as good as the old games, much less better than any of them, is mindblowing. Retro Studios are now one of my favourite developers. I pray they make a sequel to DKCR, as it's wonderful to see the Donkey Kong franchise back in the hands of somebody who actually respects it, rather than shoehorning Donkey Kong into games where he's easily interchangeable with any other character (Donkey Konga, Jungle Beat, etc).
Still, the fact that it's as good as the old games, much less better than any of them, is mindblowing. Retro Studios are now one of my favourite developers. I pray they make a sequel to DKCR, as it's wonderful to see the Donkey Kong franchise back in the hands of somebody who actually respects it, rather than shoehorning Donkey Kong into games where he's easily interchangeable with any other character (Donkey Konga, Jungle Beat, etc).
TheGreatMightyPoo
Banned
Shick Brithouse said:
You don't want Squawks, finding the puzzle pieces yourself is a lot of the fun of the game.
TheGreatMightyPoo
Banned
Shick Brithouse said:
I am not sure if you fly around with them.
I thought they just made noise whenever you were by a piece.
I don't know though.
TheGreatMightyPoo
Banned
Shick Brithouse said:
The sequel should have more animal buddies, to think of what Retro could do with them in levels...
Ben2749 said:
Mirror mode isn't bad at all, especially if you start at world one and work your way up. At worst, I spent may be 40 lives on a K level (the one with all the spikes). Most of the time though you'll be okay. If you take a hit, then you only go back to the checkpoint. One section at a time. It's a fun challenge. I only have five more levels to go (6k,7k, 7 and 8 bosses, and one other...)
Shotgun Kiss
Member
Sklorenz said:
Ah, if there are checkpoints, I guess that's not too bad. Do you just have to get to the end of the levels, or are there collectables/time trials to do as well?
I've been doing speed runs today in Worlds 1 and 2. I've been doing good in World 1 with golds and silvers, but World 2 is proving to be more tricky. I've only managed to get a bronze in Poppin' Planks.
I also did four levels in World 8. I thought they were hard. I've died about 40-50 times in almost each level :lol
I also did four levels in World 8. I thought they were hard. I've died about 40-50 times in almost each level :lol
Tricky I Shadow
Banned
Finally got 200%!
Ive gotten all the KONG letters, all of the Puzzle Pieces and done every single level in Mirror Mode!
Some of the levels in Mirror Mode were an absolute nightmare, especially with some of the bosses!
Ive currently got 5 shiny gold medals and 2 gold medals. Im planning on getting every shiny gold!
Im still not sick of this yet....if that doesnt tell you how much I love this I dont know what will!
Ive gotten all the KONG letters, all of the Puzzle Pieces and done every single level in Mirror Mode!
Some of the levels in Mirror Mode were an absolute nightmare, especially with some of the bosses!
Ive currently got 5 shiny gold medals and 2 gold medals. Im planning on getting every shiny gold!
Im still not sick of this yet....if that doesnt tell you how much I love this I dont know what will!
DKCR is easier, overall, than so many folks seem to be implying. Yes, you'll lose a pile of lives, but I rarely felt "frustrated" by the game. I completed a good chunk of the levels without losing a single life (although scores were lost when going back to track down missing puzzle pieces and the occasional obscure KONG letter).
Maybe if I had had a greater attachment to DKC2 or 3, it would be different, but DKCR seems like quite a good game and a decent meshing of Jungle Beat with DKC.
Maybe if I had had a greater attachment to DKC2 or 3, it would be different, but DKCR seems like quite a good game and a decent meshing of Jungle Beat with DKC.
agrajag said:
I'm still puzzled by this. I've gone and tried playing through DKC2 for what is, essentially, the first time, and it seems much more difficult than DKCR.
What I'll have to do is play DKC3 for the first time and see how it compares to DKC3. That's the only DKC game I've never touched...
Finally beat the boss on world 8, :lol jesus christ! I must have died a million times and eventually gave up. This morning decided to play it again just for fun and using only Donkey Kong with two hearts I managed to beat him. I was screaming and running around out of joy, my family thought I had gone nuts. I'm not going to do anything more for a while though, this other stuff sounds like a lot of work.
Shotgun Kiss
Member
StevieP said:
I never said it was. But it was a piss-poor use of the Donkey Kong franchise.
CoffeeJanitor
Member
Most of DKC2's difficulty comes from its crappy hit detection. DKCR's comes from its difficult level design.DavidDayton said:
DavidDayton said:
The only things Jungle Beat retains from any previous Donkey Kong games, Country or otherwise, are Donkey Kong, bananas, and one song that's a remix of Jungle Japes. If you replaced DK with an original monkey or gorilla character and changed that one music track, nobody would ever suspect that it was originally a DK game.
I assume that's what he meant that it was a poor use of the franchise.
balladofwindfishes
Member
I see it from another side...KevinCow said:
If you replaced all the generic enemies and the generic animal buddies with Donkey Kong staples, nobody would ever doubt it was a Donkey Kong game. It has great platforming, animal buddies and overall "feels" like a DK game. Unless you defined a DK game by minecart levels, then JB isn't a DK game
Shotgun Kiss
Member
balladofwindfishes said:
So in other words, if you replaced pretty much everything, it would feel just like a Donkey Kong game?
Jungle Beat has absolutely nothing to tie it to the DKC/64 games. No Kremings, no other Kongs (not even Diddy), no animal buddies (goofy nameless animals are not animal buddies) and no pre-established environments besides a jungle.
And it's not just what's absent. Claiming that a game that you play by banging on a set of plastic bongos instead of using a proper controller, and which features stupid-looking enemies like this...
...feels like a Donkey Kong game is a massive insult to everything Rare established with the franchise, regardless of whether it's a good game or not. Jungle Beat is *nothing* like the DKC games, and I recall the developers even said that was their intention.
DKCR is a brilliant example of being faithful to the original DKC, and that doesn't even have Kremlings in it either.
I like Jungle Beat, but you'd have to be insane to say that it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb when compared to other Donkey Kong platformers. It was a terrible use of the franchise, in that it didn't really use it at all. Nintendo has just recently reacquired it from Rare, and obviously didn't know what to do with it yet.
TheGreatMightyPoo
Banned
Cool enemy.
Kai Dracon
Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
TheGreatMightyPoo said:
Cool enemy, bro.
flintstryker
Banned
well i guess i am just gonna have to insult rare then.Ben2749 said:So in other words, if you replaced pretty much everything, it would feel just like a Donkey Kong game?
Jungle Beat has absolutely nothing to tie it to the DKC/64 games. No Kremings, no other Kongs (not even Diddy), no animal buddies (goofy nameless animals are not animal buddies) and no pre-established environments besides a jungle.
And it's not just what's absent. Claiming that a game that you play by banging on a set of plastic bongos instead of using a proper controller, and which features stupid-looking enemies like this...
...feels like a Donkey Kong game is a massive insult to everything Rare established with the franchise, regardless of whether it's a good game or not. Jungle Beat is *nothing* like the DKC games, and I recall the developers even said that was their intention.
DKCR is a brilliant example of being faithful to the original DKC, and that doesn't even have Kremlings in it either.
I like Jungle Beat, but you'd have to be insane to say that it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb when compared to other Donkey Kong platformers. It was a terrible use of the franchise, in that it didn't really use it at all. Nintendo has just recently reacquired it from Rare, and obviously didn't know what to do with it yet.
I tell you why DKJB sticks out like a sore thumb from other DK platformers; it had gameplay that was an order of magnitude better than those of the countries and 64.
Other than that, how can one dictate what feels like a DK game or not when they aren't the ones designing it? If you had said it didn't feel like a DKC game, then I'd have understood, but that wording just doesn't sit right. Just take it for what it is, a different take on platforming and the DK property that was quirky and experimental.
Other than that, how can one dictate what feels like a DK game or not when they aren't the ones designing it? If you had said it didn't feel like a DKC game, then I'd have understood, but that wording just doesn't sit right. Just take it for what it is, a different take on platforming and the DK property that was quirky and experimental.
Shotgun Kiss
Member
AzureJericho said:
But that's my point. Whether or not it's any good or not, or if you prefer it to previous Donkey Kong games, is irrelevant; the fact is that it's so different, it's nearly unrecogniseable.
flintstryker said:
I have to wonder if you're misinterpreting the point which you're arguing there. Again, this isn't about whether the game is any good; it's about whether it's at all similar to the DKC/64 games before it. Which it isn't. In the slightest. That's like saying Super Mario Bros. 2 USA feels just like the other 2D Super Mario games just because Mario and co. were thrown in (of course, SMB2 wasn't a Mario game at all in Japan).
Even DK64 was notably different when compared to the DKC games, but to nowhere near the extent Jungle Beat is.
Ben2749 said:
G-bwuh? That's not what happened at all. Nintendo never lost DK.
I'm sure what happened was they came up with Konga while in talks with Namco, then somebody - probably Miyamoto - had the wacky idea of making a platformer that controlled with the bongos. Since the bongos were created for a DK music game, it was only natural to make the platformer also star DK.
It still doesn't explain why they almost completely ignored the DKC games, though.
Ben2749 said:
Sooo, if I may be frank... What the problem is?
If the developer's clear intentions were to make something with the character Donkey Kong that wasn't like Donkey Kong Country ("wasn't like anything before it") but offered a different kind of DK gameplay, and they did as much with Jungle Beat... What's the issue at hand here? I'm lost. :lol
Shotgun Kiss
Member
KevinCow said:
Just bad wording. They reacquired the *full* rights. They certainly didn't have free reign with Donkey Kong back then. They even had to put "used with permission from Rare" in the credits of games that Donkey Kong appeared in back then, such as Mario Kart 64.
AzureJericho said:
I never said anything of any "problems". I only pointed out that DKCR is the first game to feel like a DKC game since... well, the DKC games.
You said a whole lot more than that, duder:Ben2749 said:
Ben2749 said:
This, to me, doesn't make any sense. Why would they have to use anything from the Rare take? It wasn't a Donkey Kong Country game; they took it in their own direction. But it was still a perfectly fine use of the Donkey Kong franchise.Ben2749 said:
Shotgun Kiss
Member
Well, maybe it's just me, but I think that when you don't use *any* previously established elements from previous games in the franchise, that's a pretty poor use of it. Like KevinCow said, you could replace Donkey Kong with a generic ape, and remove the remix of Jungle Japes, and you'd have no idea it was a Donkey Kong game. The whole point of using a franchise is to make it recogniseable, which Jungle Beat only just manages to do purely on account of Donkey Kong himself.
But that certainly doesn't take away from the fact that Jungle Beat is still an awesome game though. Which is what I meant when I said I didn't have a problem; I meant I had no qualms with the game itself.
But that certainly doesn't take away from the fact that Jungle Beat is still an awesome game though. Which is what I meant when I said I didn't have a problem; I meant I had no qualms with the game itself.
I'm not sure what lens you're seeing this all through.Ben2749 said:
Consider the first DKC. At that point you could have replaced DK with any generic ape and, likewise, it wouldn't have seemed unusual. They took the character and gave him an entirely new universe. People enjoyed it. It was Donkey Kong Country.
The JB designers decided that they weren't interested in using the elements of Rare's franchise. Why should they be obliged to incorporate it regardless? The DKC series doesn't define the character who has been around in a whole lot more than just Rare's offerings. You said they didn't respect the franchise. That's such horseshit.
Kyleripman
Member
Socreges said:
For lots of us, it does.
Though Jungle Beat was very fun.
No, that's something different. Subjectively, you may associate DK with the Rare trilogy, but that doesn't mean that the character is therefore defined by it.Kyleripman said:
You guys are talking about the franchise as if it hasn't always been completely malleable. Really, the franchise is the character, and little else. That became perfectly clear when Rare took DK from his traditionally antagonistic role and made him the hero. He went from the Mario universe to battling fucking Kremlings. He continued to feature in the occasional Nintendo game. There has never been much continuity besides the fact that he's an ape and often wears a tie.