Brace yourselves everybody, we are not gaming anymore... We are Donkey Kong gaming

While generally I don't have specific videogame genres to which I gravitate towards, as I prefer to keep things interesting and spice things up with different types of games, if you put a gun to my head and asked which of them I've played the most, I would most likely say Platformers, 2D to be precise. I've played A TON of them, and even tho I wouldn't say that most of what I played was that memorable, some of the most incredible games I've played are 2D-Platformers: Rayman Legends, Celeste, Super Meat Boy, Kirby: Planet Robobot, Sonic Mania... the list goes on and on. But you may have noticed the omission of a certain character and series, the lack of a certain... monkey.

Tropical Freeze had something that caught my curiosity the first time I saw it. I really couldn't tell you what it was, at a base level it looks pretty similar to Returns, which I didn’t really love or found particularly interesting, but I don't know, there was something about this one that really made me want to at least try it.

And so here I am, ten hours later.

Yeah... let's just say, there's a little bit of gorilla in my favorite 2D-Platformers list now.

To say that Tropical Freeze is masterfully designed, has amazing music, feels vibrant and full of life and that it controls incredibly well would be the understatement of the fucking decade. This game goes above and beyond everything I thought was possible in a side-scroller, how the hell can something be so consistently fun, amazing and creative non-stop?

DK’s controls just right, it isn’t particularly fast or mobile, at least not on its own, but its weight adds a layer of complexity that makes these challenged incredibly rewarding. The heaviness of its movement feels just right when jumping from one platform to another, swimming or going from barrel cannon to barrel cannon, paired with the sound design (which is amazing across the entire experience) and we have a character that feels just right control, add Diddy, Dixie and Cranky to the mix and the opportunities for thinking outside of the box and experimenting augmented tenfold. I’ll say that Diddy feels kind of underwhelming here; in Returns was perfect, it was an upgrade to DK’s air and ground movement and it gave two more hearts, but with Dixie and Cranky doing the same things except feeling WAY better, giving DK either more height or a way to evade damage and being far more useful, Diddy just feel like a poor option, and when given the opportunity as either of the three, I almost never use him. But ok, the Kong feels pretty ‘’cool’’ (horrible pun VERY intended) to control, but I wouldn’t be praising I this much if it weren’t because the levels not only are a great vehicle to experience the movement, but they stand tall as a masterclass in level design, it sometimes feels like they are just showing off at some points

From the very first level, it’s made clear that they have pulled all the stops: each and every one of the levels feels completely different yet connected. The worlds share a global idea, from exploring an island inhabited by the enemies and going through its towns and windmills, exploring a submerge city with technology beyond our imagination, traversing a country-sized ice cream making complex, and all culminating in exploring a frozen-up version of the original DK island. There’s so much detail, even in the world-maps or the optional levels: the backgrounds are packed with little secrets, everything in the levels themselves makes total thematic sense and as a result they all feel so natural, the enemies are really distinct and animations for even when you make contact with them it looks like they are hitting you instead of just touching them and losing a heart as a result. Everything just clicks, all the pieces fall in place to form some of the most creative and fun platforming I have had the pleasure to play. Also, there are penguins. Penguins that shoot fish-arrows. IN FLAMES. AND THERE ARE PENGUINS WITH VIKING HELMETS. I don’t really know what else could even want, we've reached perfection and humanity probably will reach this high point ever again.

Oh and yeah the OST is probably one of the best I’ve ever heard in my life… ya know normal stuff. All the tracks are masterpieces of their own, not only do they fit the levels in which they are and they keep building on top of themselves as it progress, but whether is a brand new song or an arrangement, it’s simply beautiful, a delight to the ears, and even if you are not that keen or convinced in playing the game, give an opportunity to the soundtrack, please, it ranges from calming to incredibly exciting, specially the boss fight ones. Never I expected battling a circus Viking seal to metal in the background, but here we are.

Tropical Freeze feel like a culmination of what all platformers aspire to be: it’s beyond creative and its constantly jumping from one idea to the next, the control is tight as it can possibly be, it invites you to experiment and try to get every possible collectable, it’s challenging, but at the same time it gives you a ton of options to make things a bit or a lot easier, like the Funky mode or the items you can buy from the store; I didn’t use any of these and I still managed to finish the game with 58 lives to spare without buying any from the store, and I’m not what you could call a ‘’good player’’, so it’s not the most impossible thing in the world, but it really gets hard at times and the feeling of accomplishment after beating certain levels or bosses is pure dopamine.

I know his review has consisted of me just gushing about the game, but I couldn’t contain myself, it truly activated the part of my brain that likes to go ‘’hehe I love jumping and penguins’’. Despite its only one noticeable flaw, a minor one all things considered, it’s truly some of the best level design and thematic I ever played, and it doesn’t have a single one that I could call ‘’weak’’ or ‘’not that good’’. It’s a blast, from start to its end, and I almost feel sad that I didn’t play this sooner. Better late than never I guess, but I’m so happy I didn’t wait any longer.

Long live the Donkey Kong, that magnificent bastard