Quick Look: Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D

it's MONKEY Kong you morons!

I agree with Patrick with this game being one of the best Platformers in recent memory. Personally, I think it's the best 2D Platformer for the Wii.

Is he the new Brad?

This music is bringing me back...time to go listen to Aquatic Ambience.

This game was pretty freaking awesome. The controls alone make me want to get this version...

It still wasn't necessarily better than DKC2 or 3 but it was super great. I still just love the map music of DKC2 so much. Takes me right back to my childhood.

donkey wheel country.

The 'new' Brad? I think it has always been pretty obvious that the GB staff are below average at games, but we're not here for their mad skillz. Are we?

@nail1080: You must be right; guys who play games for a living are bad at games. Sir, your mother is calling you for pancakes.

Apparently, paying for my membership over several years isn't enough to get my comment(s) posted. I could care less about my own comments, but I pay hard-earned money for this subscription - there are certain expectations associated with that.

I say good day, sir.

he just seems to completely fail to see that rolling in DKCR means everything in terms of momentum and being able to cover the most ground with the most control. not very hard to get a handle on either considering you can cancel out of a roll with a few different moves while maintaining the momentum

I think Super Meat Boy and VVVVVV ruined me on any of these games be less than fucking perfect with the checkpointing. I can't stand an arbitrarily difficult platformer without the means to facilitate its difficulty. Otherwise, I saw good day.

Good for everyone else though who enjoys them.

Man, that minecart level music gives me the nostalgia pangs somethin' fierce

Ryan did horribly showing off DKCR. Lost a lot of credits from me. I don't think it was the timing on DK's jump Ryan. Maybe you aren't cut out for this game. It even seemed like Patrick was holding back on just saying "You suck".

Thanks for the quicklook though. I can see what you mean about the graphics, but it still seems like the gameplay is good so I will most likely be picking this one up.

Not sure if Ryan or 3DS capture kit.

Yup, this is pretty much where I stand on this game. Not enough reasons for me to buy this version. The "waggle to roll" in the original was not a great design choice, but I got used to it quick enough and had no problems.

I have some great memories of playing through the entirety of the Wii game with a friend over Thanksgiving break. Occasionally frustrating, but still exceptionally fun. The fact that both players are in control during the minecart and barrel riding levels when you play co-op made for some ridiculous chaos.

Never really cared for the DKC series. Something about the movement really turns me off. And the character design is pretty substandard.

Looks really boring for some reason, just can't get excited for it at all.

Man those first two DKC games and the N64 game are still some of my favorite games of all time. Such good memories. A shame Retro took a huge shit all over the enemy design, but man this game still looks great

I find that pretty much every quick look ryan leads is best avoided. He never cares enough to learn how to play a game, then slams it because it punishes him for being clueless. If he was funny about it, that'd be one thing, but saying "FUCKING [X]" a lot kinda got old for me by fifth grade.

don't really understand how this version looks bad, I can't speak to the wii version but on my 3dsxl it looks gorgeous.

It's the halved frame rate from the Wii version that's most off putting. It's quite jaggy, too.

Watching Ryan trying to beat the first boss at the newly-created Easy Mode was really painful.

couldn't play the Wii version with the goofy waggle controls, but will be picking this up due to BUTTONS.

One shot those barrels, homie! Ya slippin'!

It looks and plays fine to me, and I've played the Wii version...I think it looks really good to me personally...maybe the characters are a bit small but that's it. It plays smoothly so the slightly worse framerate doesn't matter because it doesn't drop frames.

I had tons of fun with this game two-player. You die a ton, but unlike in single player, one player can just instantly revive the other player in two-player, so you rarely have to go back to a checkpoint.

I had some problems bridging the difficulty of Donkey Kong Country Returns with that of the original SNES games, which felt way easier in my memories. Going back to the originals, the Wii game actually nails the same balance between frustrating and satisfying. Nostalgia-based remakes like DKCR work best when they manage to be as good as your memories of the original (which usually means they have to be even better in order to live up to one's rose-tinted perspective).

After beating DKCR 100% I don't have any interest in an easier version with framerate problems. I wonder who this game is for? People who liked the Wii game but had to abandon it because it was too tough?

I'll back this up; it's pretty great. And no, you never have to jump on the other player's back.

DKC2 is one of the best games ever made. It holds up 100%.

GB crew is just crazy for not recognizing how awesome it is along with Yoshi's Island (besides Patrick).

This was really painful to watch. Good on Ryan for sticking it out and beating the first boss on easy, though. What a champ!

Not buying the 3DS would probably be the best non-decisions I've ever made. Buying a PSP probably has been the worst

@mento said:

I love the DKC series and consider it one of my favorite platformers, but this just seems to exist because it's a recognizable name and it was easy enough to adapt as a 3DS title to get more well known products for that system on the shelves. I'm not really sure who this is "for" specifically, except for the fanbase that is pretty rabidly supportive of anything DKC related, but viewed from the perspective of "how do we slap together some more 3DS titles to keep people buying 3DS games" it makes some amount of sense, and since most of the work was already done it was probably fairly low investment on Nintendo's end.

Completely agree with you.

Gotta be honest, only played DKC 1. Loved and played the shit out of it though. Managed to get a 101% run in one hour and seven minutes. Sent the picture into Nintendo Power, but the best time the fuckers published was like 1:15. :'(

I'll probably pick this up. This is what I'm hoping, that some of Nintendo's later Wii games find a new home on the 3DS.

@bhhawks78: There's a hack for the Wii version to support Classic Controller. It sucks there's no native way to play that one with it without going to those lengths, though.

I was surprised to hear so many people bring up the difficulty when it first came out. Sure, it's tougher than a new Mario or something but it was nothing impossible. I remembered being more challenged by Rayman: Origins and Meat Boy.

I LOVED this game on the Wii. I'll probably use the 3DS version's release as an excuse to go play it again.

Donkey Kong Country Returns is easily the best platformer of the last 10 years. The level design is incredible, the controls are perfect (shaking the Wii Remote to roll was easy), and it's really, really hard.

@patrickklepek You mentioned wondering about what the Metroid Prime folks have been up to since they left Retro, and I thought you might find it interesting that many of the main people behind that series went on to be leads on Halo 4. Thus why it was so appropriate that many people online wondered why Halo 4 seemed to have some similarities to Metroid Prime, particularly in the look of the new visor.

Great,great game .

@rpoland123: Get. A. Life.

I love how people like to complain about Brad but Ryan just played aweful in this QL hehe xD

I played this game on Wii, loved it, so the idea of having a portable version of it sounds pretty great.

I loved this game on the Wii. Hope now more people play this gem of a game.

Needs more bongos!

Upon watching this, only one thing came to mind, and now it's stuck in my head and I can't get it out >_<

For what it's worth, I loved the Lost reference, Patrick.

I actually did not know that. Too bad the campaign was so lukewarm.

Donkey Kong Country 1 is the only DK game I have ever cared about.

DKC2 is still amazing, i play it once a year with my sister and its great!