Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: July 8, 2025

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What's up and welcome to the Kind of Funny Gamescast for Tuesday, July 8th, 2025. Of course, I'm your host, Tim Getty's. I'm joined today by Blessing Adioia Jr. Good day, Tim. Good day to you. How you doing? I'm doing pretty good. Yeah?

I mean, watch Superman last night. Yes, you did. I did as well. I don't want to give too much of my thoughts because, of course, we have in review coming later in the week. Reviews are, we're not allowed to give reviews yet. Of course, of course. But we are allowed to give initial thoughts.

Would you like to give any? I'll just say I'm coming off of a high. Okay. Yes. I'll leave it at that. Look up. Yeah, look up. You might see me up there. I love that.

That's all I'll say. Okay. Good. Well, I like that a lot. That sounds great. But we're not talking about Superman today. Oh, no. That's Thursday, everybody. We're talking about Donkey Kong today.

Let's go. All right. I'm so excited for this because we're doing a review of Donkey Kong country tropical freeze. One of my favorite platformers of all time. Definitely one of my favorite recent platformers. But then it breaks my heart when I realized this game's over 10 years old. I was going to say not recent. all. I know. Not recent whatsoever.

But you haven't played through it. So this is your first time and you are in the hype leading into Donkey Kong Vananza. You're like, you know what? Now is the time. We're getting funky, baby. We're playing Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze. But we'll get into all that in just a little bit because this is the kind

of funny games cast where each and every weekday we get together to talk about the biggest reviews, previews and topics in video games live on YouTube, Twitch and podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, like viewing old games just to get hype for new ones. I think that's very awesome that we have an amazing audience like y'all that supports that stuff.

So thank you for showing up day in and day out for all the shenanigans we have here. It's kind of funny. If you like them, please get the kind of funny membership on Patreon, YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts to get all of our shows ad free and a daily exclusive show. That show is Greg Way. For a chance to be part of this show, submit your thoughts and opinions as YouTube superchats as we go. What's your hype levels at for Donkey Columnana? we are very, very close.

We're like 10 days away. No way. Like that? Nine days? Oh my God. Right? It's the 17th, I think. Yeah, we're getting, we're getting real close.

Holy shit. Banana. So yeah, remember, housekeeping. We're an 11-person business, all about live talk shows. Games Daily was all about the ghost of Yote's data play being announced coming this week.

After this episode of Gamescast, we are doing a dust-rending to stream with Greg Miller. That should be fun. Yeah. I don't know what he's doing. but building roads. I assume so, yeah. He's already beaten the game since he's just being doing,

I think open world stuff, building roads, delivering packages. And that's, of course, to build up hype for the Death Stranding 2 spoiler cast happening tomorrow. Tomorrow. Wow.

Later this week, this week's been crazy. Time's been flying, man. Life's been crazy. A lot's been going on. I cannot believe Death Stranding 2 is just straight up out. People are playing it.

As of today, the calendar says tomorrow. So we can say tomorrow, the Death Training 2, spoiler cast is happening. Get hyped, everybody. for that's one. If you're a kind of funny member, another thing to get hype for, it is Greg's 21 minute review of James Gunn's Superman. So if you want that hot off the press, fresh out

the theater thoughts from Greg Miller, you got to go get the Greg way today. Thank you to our Patreon producers, Delaney, the Psalm twining. Carl Jacobs and Omega Buster today. We're brought to you by Shady Ray's, but we'll tell you all about that later. For now, let's get into the topic of the show. So it's Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze review by Blessing in 2025, but it's also just a Donkey Kong bonanza hype check. I might want to pull Roger in here at some point because that boy's out there. Oh yeah. No, he's like, we got to start calling him Roger Kong or something.

He's like he's part of the family. Yeah. I think there's something about we got to have a conversation about like me, you and Roger and just like cute furry critters. Because between this, between. between BK. I guess Mario's not furry or a critter. No, he can be.

Sometimes he is. You know, the Tanoi suit. Yeah, but like there's something about these guys. Can I be vulnerable with you for a second?

Go for it. I don't like Mario in the Tanochi suit. No. I like him with the Tanoi tail and the hat with the little ears. I don't like him when he's full Tanoi.

I don't. Never go full Tanoi. No? What is, is it the thing? It's the erasure. That's what it is. Did you not get far enough

in Mario, all the time. Isn't the fact that it's like that's a later game upgrade? There's, okay, it's a couple things. First off, yes. It was a much rarer item. Yeah, you never really saw the TNUK as much. And then you get it.

Jesus. God. Damn Christ. But then you get it and you're like, what's it, what's it too different besides looking adorable? Because yes, it looks adorable. I understand that. This is not an Astrobot situation.

I'm here for the looks of it. It's a good design. let enemies pass you. Yeah. It's useless. It's you. Have you ever used that? Ever?

No. Okay. But like it was cool. I think here's the thing. I think this is why canonically we fuck with the Tannuki. And this is the credit of Mario 3 is that they pace out the power up so well to where a later game you start getting weird shit. And the Tanoi I think was the peak of like, what the fuck?

I'm a statue. Cribo shoe is definitely the weirdest one. Oh, the shoe is weird. The frog suit I fucked with. It's crazy. though. How you go from Super Mario Brothers one and it is like, all right, you can throw fireballs. That's like the one update. And then you

get to Mario 3. And the star, I guess, but that's sure, sure. That's a temporary power up. But you get to Sumeroy Brothers 3 and like somewhere in the Nintendo design room, they're like put him in a frog. Put him in a frog. Put him in a frog. And it's like, what the, how'd you get here? That's the thing. How'd they get there? My favorite thing about Nintendo is the how they got

there is mostly obvious. It's like, oh, they had a full water world. They're like, we need a power up that makes you swim better. What should it be? Frog. Yes. Fucking frog.

They're fucking geniuses. They're geniuses. No one else can pull it off. Tunki, I think it was like the start of like, oh man, there's the first weird power up. Like the real crux of my issue with the Tanuki is, back in the Mario three days, I didn't have beef with the Tanuki suit. I just preferred the raccoon suit, right?

I thought the power, the actual power up ability of Taniki didn't add in any gameplay way I gave a shit about. So I was like, whatever. And I just preferred the way that Mario looked. Also, Kevin, can you please bring up Super Mario Bros. three box art. We're talking about some of the most iconic box art of all time. He's looking so damn good on that thing.

All right? That yellow, just blah in your fucking face. You know what goes great with yellow? Red, blue and white. Fuck it. Why not? You know what you mean? The most garish colored pattern of all time, but it sticks out and it freaking works. But yeah, I love this thing. He has a little tail. He has his little ears. It's great. Then you get to

Super Mario 3D land and they bring back the Tanuki suit for the first time. And they allow them to do all the stuff. Guess what? Raccoo suit's just gone. Raccoon suit erasure, bless. Like gone from the box art? Gone from everything. We've never seen the goddamn raccoon suit again.

It's just Tanoi this, Tanoi that. Wait, you're talking about just in Jensen and like tomorrow. Oh, yeah. I mean, Mario Kart, you know? No. The Tune isn't it? Oh, sorry, raccoon. Sorry, raccoon, damn, I'm doing it now.

I'm erasing the, I mean, you're right. But that's because we got like the super, the, the cape in world. Which is awesome. And I think people, I think the cape became a bit more iconic. But also, we didn't really see the. cape after that either, right? No. Which is bullshit.

Mario doesn't really fly anymore. Right? Yeah, he does. Galaxy. I mean, a 2D Mario. Like, I guess you're right,

but Galaxy kind of does. He has like the bumblebee thing. Yeah, but he doesn't like fly as freely. I guess Mario 64 he got the, they're doing it. They're redoing it every fucking game. All I'm saying is bring back to raccoon suit.

Okay, everybody. I've ever told you I want that tattooed. And I appreciate that. Yeah. Specifically, like, I want the raccoon just, um, ears and tail tattooed.

I love that. Just represent Mario. That's really good. Yeah, one day. Soon hopefully. Soon, everybody. All right, bless. Yep. Enough about Mario. This isn't his day. He gets so many days. This is the day of the Kongs, okay? Four of them in particular. One of them, perhaps, if you weren't good enough to play the game. Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze.

Did you play the original Donkey Kong Country games? Did you play Country Returns on the Wii? Have you ever played this? I want your history before you get into your score. So Donkey Kong is a very fascinating franchise for me. Because I've been in and out of like so many of the games. But it's rare that I actually play all the way through a Donkey Kong game. So at the beginning, right, the original Donkey Kong.

I played a fun of the original Donkey Kong. Funny enough, like the arcade classic Donkey Kong played the fuck out of that game. Don Kong Country was that series that Addison had. I didn't have a Super Nintendo growing up, right? My sisters had an NES that we play all the time. And that's why I played so much Mario 3. And then I had a Super or Nintendo 64, which is why I played a fuck ton of Don Kong 64.

But the Don Kong country games, the Super Nintendo ones, were the ones that I would go to Addison's house and we would hop in and I'll, you know, play a bit of the, which one, Diddy's Conquest? I'll play like some of Ditties Conquest, play some of the classic, play some of three.

But then one day I got a Game Boy Color. And on that Game Boy Color, I forget what they titled it, but they had a whole port of Donuts. It was just talking about country. Straight up. I had Donkey Kong Country on the Game Boy Color. The music was abysmal.

I played so much of that game on the Game Boy Color. And so like weird history, but I have hopped into like these various games. Donkey Kong Country returns. I started and actually fell off of because I wasn't having a good time. Yeah. I don't know why. Like there's something about that game that just did not stick for me. So are you talking about recently on the Switch or you're talking about back in the day?

Back in the day. So the biggest problem is that was during the Wii era, which was Nintendo had to force motion controls into every goddamn thing. So Donkey Kong Country Returns. not free from that evil evil curse because you would have to like shake it to do the role just the oh just the role you're right you would have to shake the the the we moat yeah then you'd like blow into the mic to like have him blow the little flowers and stuff like the switch version fixes all that stuff but yeah i understand you kind of being like i'm falling off so i play that fell off barely difficult game all things considered well here's the thing playing tropical freeze is that

don kong country i think typically very difficult game right It can be. I feel like each of the games has a different thing that makes it difficult. Donkey Kong Country 1, it's the, uh, how sparse and spread out the save points are. Where like, no individual challenge is that difficult, but you're not getting lives left and right. So if you're, if you don't kind of pace out your lives correctly, you can get into a, uh, sticky situation.

Uh, Duggan Country 2, like bramble blast and things like that, actually, Siggini's symphony's level, those are difficult. And there, there's, there is a lot of. the, all the mind cart things are kind of like annoying sometimes and like, dude, I remember struggling on the game boy. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. And yeah, you can kind of like continue that on where there's always something that's like a huge difficulty spike. Yeah. And so yeah, like fell off of returns. And then of course tropical freeze came out, but it came out on the Wii you and only 13 13 million people owned a Wii. I did not own a Wii.

And so I never came around to playing tropical freeze until this last week because I finally had a reason, right? And it's, for me, it was less so even that, like, I remember when they first re-release Chalkal Freeze on the Switch, I didn't have the inclination to get it just because I was like, I don't think people had expressed as much to me how good that game is until... That was all that it was. Honestly. Because obviously, I'm so fucking annoying about this game.

But, I mean, real talk, like, you bring this up, but 13 million people with the Switch, like, this, or with the Wii. The Wii was such a joke. And, like, nobody wanted it to be a success. Like, there was a hardcore Nintendo for. fans that were just like, hey man, I got this thing. Like, we're getting games, but like, just like, let us enjoy our goddamn games. Yeah.

And it was so hard. I remember being at IGN and, like, telling people, guys, this game is freaking good, man. And it's like, people laugh, literally laugh at it. And they're like, oh, the fucking, you got the funky mode. And it's because at game awards, they didn't do themselves any service. Like, they came out and like, their big Nintendo announcement is now funky mode is here. And it's just like, what are we doing? What are we doing?

Cranky Cong's playable. It just felt like very tone deaf decisions from Nintendo. So the people that played, they knew, but everyone else was like, it's just another Donkey Kong country game that's not featuring the Kremlins and King K. Rule that we remember from before. We got to have a conversation about it. We do. Because there's definitely a conversation to be had there. But another thing to it, too, is Tropical Freeze, I believe came out before I started working at kind of funny. And I realized this because a couple weeks ago, when I mentioned like, okay, I think I'm going to play this game.

Maybe we could do a review on it. I went to pick up my switch. and I was like, oh, I don't own this game. And so I went to Greg and I was like, yo, is there any chance we could try to get a review code? And like, just knowing that it wasn't going to work out because why would Nintendo have a review code for a game that came out years and years and years ago?

Funny enough, they got back at Greg and we're like, here's a review code. Amazing. For Tropical Freeze. I love that. Shout out to Nintendo for getting us review code. That's very cool. The chat is correcting me on some things,

and I think it even illustrates my point more. Yeah. The funky mode was not for the Wii. that was when they added it to the Switch. That was the new big fun thing, which is like, that even was a weird marketing thing for the Switch era.

It was just Cranky Kong is going to be playable, like the four playable characters that they announced which was even more bizarre. And that was at a time that people wanted retro to be making Metro at Prime 4. So when they announced another Donkey Kong platformer on the Wii U, it was like, what the fuck are we thinking right now?

Yeah. So I'm very excited for you now. Yeah. I've now beaten Tropical Freeze, which is like, it feels like a long time in the making, a long time coming. And I'll say, I love this video game. I'm,

I think was surprised. I was surprised by a few things. One, how old this game feels in some ways, not necessarily like a bad way, but more so like I pick this game up, start playing. And I'm like,

oh yeah, this is a Wii U game from 2013, 2014, like somewhere, at least a decade old. I think 14. And so as I'm hopping into it, like, it's almost like being,

sent back in time a little bit where I'm like, oh yeah, like there's like the cutscenes look a little bit old, like the pre-rendered stuff looks a little bit older. And like, you know, I think early 2014, February 13th. Okay, there you go. And I think since then, obviously, like there have been so many indie platformers that have come out and all the stuff where I'm like, oh man, I'm so used to playing Celeste.

I'm so used to playing like Meat Boy, which I think was earlier than this, but like even still, right? Like, platformers have come such a long way since Tropical Freeze, which I would say is a compliment to Tropical Freeze that I can play it and still be like, damn, this is a banger. Like, I am very impressed with Nintendo's ability here to, and maybe even more so retro's, right? Like, this feels like such a pure Nintendo platformer

in all the great ways in the fact that isn't retro doing this working with Nintendo with these characters, and it feels so polished, it feels so creative. But also, at the same time, it feels, this game is very challenging. I was taken aback by how much I was dying and how fucking hard this game is. I am now a funky mode apologist. I didn't use it, but I understand why it's there.

I love it. I love this for you so much. By the time I got to like world four or five, I was like, oh, no wonder. Was it the boss fights? One of the boss fights. A couple of the boss fights. A couple of others have one too many phases

where you're like, oh, yeah. You expect you need to keep going. Okay. Oh my God, don't get me started. I'm like, why won't you die? Just fucking die. I'm like, why are we still fighting? It's that.

element of it. It's the like there's one boss where you're swimming the entire time and you have to like like charge into things to then hit the boss or like charge into the boss where I think things like that sometimes feel dated and artificially hard as opposed to like naturally like difficult and like a great way. So I do have some qualms with that. But overall I think the moment to moment gameplay here is fun. It has that good combination of feeling like it's fresh original one of the things I hear talked about

all the time with this game but it's really cool seeing it in action is how every platform and function of the levels is a natural element of the level there's a platform it's because there's a tree sticking out or it's because there's like something that created that platform like everything is part of the world design which I think makes

this game age beautifully I think that part of the level design is so fucking well done and then also like I like the upgrades even though I think Diddy Kong and Diddy Kong and Dixie Kong kind of feel similar as like all right cool they just let me float longer right diddy Kong has his jetpack Dixie her hair spins or whatever and she might have like a little bit of levitation to it but like cranky Kong felt truly unique as far as like how he functioned as an upgrade where I'm like bouncing off

of things and I never really had that strong of a preference when I see one of those upgrade barrels it's like switching around to their different logos or I'm like, all right, cool, I think I'm going to go cranky Kong here. Actually, I'm going to go Dixie Kong here, right? There's a good balance of that. And I think that is something that's so special about tropical freeze when we're talking about comparing the Donkey Kong country games. Because

I love all of them to different degrees. Three is still the one that I owe it to people in the chat. I forget who exactly, but I owe it to them to, maybe it was Mara, I think, that I need to play through that game one day fully because I never really gave it its due. But two in Tropical Freeze are my favorites

and I love one a lot There's so much about one that like elements That are my favorite but the thing I like least of one Is I always prefer to be playing as Dixie than Donkey Kong And one? Yes, Diddy? Yeah, I always prefer to be Diddy Yeah, yeah

Than Donkey and it's just because of how different they play And I feel the mobility that you have as Diddy Is like so much better The levels are better designed for that type of gameplay they solved that for me in two because you Diddy and Dixie they play so similar so I love that this game I think does the best job of no matter who you're playing as it feels right it feels like the levels are designed for them and to your point it's fun to play as the different characters just to kind of switch it up a little bit even if it is cranky who I would say is probably the least

interesting of all of them yeah yeah like I think the bounce move it like for specific scenarios it can be very useful but then even when you're not in those like I'm gonna bounce off this thing kind of thing. I think he can still be someone useful, especially when he's swimming underwater. That was one of the things that I learned, like, probably way further into the game than I should have, where if you're underwater with cranky and you press the, like, a button, he'll, like, swing with his beard. And that shit got me through many a jam once I learned that. And so shout out to that. I think that stuff is awesome. And then one thing I love about this game. And this is like, like, maybe the one compliment I'll give to it, especially over like the new Super Mario other stuff,

until wonder where this game has such good set piece moments. I think about, was it new Super Mario Brothers for Wii U that had the Starry Night level? Where it was like, oh, damn, this is special right here. This game has like a handful of really cool set piece levels where you had like multiple sort of silhouette levels that you're playing through where you can see the color of Dekase tie and then like maybe the hair of Dixie or whoever. And then everything else is kind of silhouetted and that shit presents so well. It looks really cool.

and then like those levels also they're not the most like at least for me right they weren't super demanding as far as difficulty and so like getting through them kind of felt like a moment right like that like the difficulty didn't distract from like actually playing those levels and enjoying them and getting through them um and so stuff like that i fucking loved i really like the um like kind of like the challenging sort of levels where you had the barrel yeah like the bonus well the bonus rooms so then like the levels where it would be i'm flying on a barrel and essentially have to get from beginning to end the rock The rocket barrel levels, dude. The rocket barrel levels. In a different universe, I fucking hate those levels. Oh, yeah. But in this game, I really like them. Do you know why? Why is that?

Because you beat them. They're in your past. You don't, you know what I mean? That is the difference. You either fucking hate those things and you're like, I'm putting the controller down and never played this game again. Yeah. Or you push through and you're like, you know what? I kind of fuck with them.

Like that's me. I was like, I fucked with that. I fucked with the mind card levels. And usually like I hate them. I remember his kid hating the mind card levels. So I like, I like those as well. The music is really good. Here's the thing.

He's the thing. Did he score this game? Or like, they just were, because I heard Aquatic Ambience and obviously I heard reprises of his music that he did for the the classic Donkong Country games. But like, I love that whenever you're swimming underwater, you get that hint of aquatic champions. They knew what the assignment

was. Here we go. So yeah, Kevin tried to bring in some sound there so you can hear it a little bit. But like, I think the music's great. I like that they reprise a lot of that stuff. Honestly, if I'm being real about it, though, like I think the music that's memorable for me are the parts where they reprised, like the original stuff, I can't really recall on my head

automatically. But hey, when you got a sign track that's so good from your classic entries, bring it back, make that shit pop. Like, I'm looking forward to sticker brush, sticker Bush symphony, um, in, uh, Benazza as well, right? Like, that's the stuff that I want. Yeah. Um, yeah, I had an overall great time. So great, dude, we're going through like the whole woodchipper thing in the mind cart. Like, there's just so much creativity in, in the places you go. And originally, that was like a big concern with the game because Donkey Kong returns the first one on weed that you could now play on Switch as well. Yeah. So maybe if you're may it might be

a little too much back to back but like when you have another lull it'd be a fun one to go to. I do think tropical freeze is vastly superior but still a good game has some special unique things about it too. But one of the big issues was the the like tiki bad guys were kind of forgettable. It was definitely not. They're more similar to the the rabbit family in Mario Odyssey and like the Cooper Kids or something. You're like, all right,

we love these things, even if they're overdone at this point. But not having the Kremlin's or K-Rul or anything, even at the time was definitely a letdown. And then when we get to Tropical Freeze, it was like, all right, cool. Now there's these like penguin Vikings.

And like the theme of the game is ice. And ice levels are usually people's not favorite levels. Yeah. So there was a lot going against it. Like, oh, man, are you telling me half the theme of this game is going to be something I'm not going to love?

and man, I was wrong. Like, they really find creative ways to make the tropical freeze motif work in so many different ways that you would not just expect. Yeah, I thought there would have been more progression to it. But I think at the end of the day, I like how it netted out. I guess I won't spoil Dog Khan Tropical Freeze, right? But, like, you get some ice levels. But I like the fact that a lot of that stuff is saved toward the end. But you do get these environmental changes as you're,

working way through the different worlds they have here. And like getting to, I think it was like world two or three where you had like a fiery Savannah situation. I was like, oh, this is like, I kind of like there being like a climate change sort of like ethos to this. And again, it lends the creativity of the level is on here. Like for me, as far as like the recent like the modern like news two from my brothers games, if I'm comparing this to that, I think this game kind of like topples those as far as level

design up until maybe wonder. I think Wonder with the Wonderflower stuff or Wonder Seed, wherever it was called, right? Like, that does a lot to bring Mario 2D Mario back on that creative level for me. But Tropical Freeze, what they're doing with this game in early 2014, as far as level design and keeping it creative and interesting and having every level kind of have its own gimmick to it. Like, Bravo. Like, they really, really killed it on that front. Yeah, I mean, you know, we're talking about retro, right? So coming off of Metroid Prime trilogy at that point, like they, Metroid Prime is, you know, in a lot of ways, pinnacle of level design.

and world design atmosphere and all of that. They really took that and applied it to a Donkey Kong country game. And on paper, that doesn't make sense. But then seeing this compared to the Super Nintendo games, it makes all the sense. Like this, it really is kind of like, oh, sometimes, you know, A plus B equals C in the most obvious ways. And that's what I think Tropical Freeze is from a gameplay

and kind of art design perspective. Yeah. Now, to talk about the villains, the characters, all that stuff, right? I'm in a weird place with Donkey Kong overall where obviously we have the nostalgia for the classic things, right? And like I played

like, you know, various forms of the classic country games and then also a lot of DK 64. So when I think of DK, I think of Kremlin's. I think of King K rule. And I feel like that has kind of solidified in my brain as like the prototypical,

iconic, like these are the DK enemies. And so like, I didn't know. no. Actually, I think I did know that coming into this game, we're going to get like a different sort of like cast of villains or whatever. They didn't really stick out to me. Like they didn't really do much for me as far as like, oh damn. Like these are the guys. You know, for me it just felt like, okay, here's a bunch of bad animals. Like these animals are coming in and like they're icing the place up and they're, you know, messing with DK and like you got to take them out. Like I was kind of let down on that, on that front. Tim, for you like, do you remember that being

a thing that like was a point of conversation? Oh yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. It was a point of conversation to this day, I still agree with it. I don't think that they're bad by any means, but it's a difficult conversation to have because we are old men at this point talking about these like worlds and characters that were made and designed for children. And we're talking about games that some of them are 30 plus years old and some of them are 10 years old and everything in between where are we really just going to do the same thing over and over. Is it really always going to be these like army fatigued crocodiles coming? at you and all of that or are we going to switch

it up you look at the Mario side and it was a long time since we'd seen the Cooper kids they were in Mario 3 they were in World and then we didn't see him for a long time they came back in New Submar Brothers We I think it was and then it was just kind of nonstop right like that they're always there yeah and it just

gets a little bit like okay Ben there done that in terms of boss fight design which is what they're there for at the end of the day otherwise like who really what personality they have little tiny things but it's not like a major focus of any of the Mario games is the lore and story of the Cooper kids, you know?

Yeah. But that's a little different with the Donkey Kong games. I feel like the Kremlin's and King King King Rule in particular, had more character to him, had a theme that was associated with him, had the whole pirate vibe going on, specifically in Dunkin Country, too. So I feel like it's been way too long

since we've seen those villains, and there's still more to give there, where I would have been really hyped in the same way that you, You get I'd hear in the old David Wise music in this game, kind of like modernized. Getting the K-Rule themes and all that stuff, it felt like a fleshed out bad guy character because it had that 90s melody-based video game music to it, like boss fight music that had layers to the phases and stuff.

These new guys, it just felt like you're fighting bad animals with bad guy boss themes. It didn't feel like I associate any of the like boss themes with the characters. And I do think that goes a long way for these type of games. Yeah, and I think I don't know if I have a better solution aside from like, you know, I don't know, put more personality or whatever. Or maybe it's just that I'm an adult, right? Like, I'm an adult playing this. And so it's like, I don't know if you're going to make a villain in a kid's game that's going to like stand out and be memorable and be something where I'm like, oh, that's fucking cool. But like, you know, I feel like I've had this problem a lot with recent platformers that it could be more of a me thing.

When I look at Astrobots villains and I'm like, I don't know, that doesn't do much for me. but yeah for me it's the same thing here where I'm like you know I think mechanically finding these villains I like a lot of what they have going on even though they're fucking tough a lot of the time like I I think you know

they really went above and beyond of really thinking out these boss fights and making them be a thing of you have to master this game like we're making you master the mechanics of this game to really take them out I think on that level they did a great job but yeah that's like

that was like one of the things where I was like man I would love to see this step up yeah Another thing I want to shout out are the collectibles Because of course, we're talking about DK, we got to talk about collectibles You got to It's funny how in so many platformers, right? Mario, you got the coins

I guess Ratchet, you got the fucking bolts or whatever, right? Like everything has his own collectible to it And the bananas don't get old to me in DK Like there's something about like Even the sound of picking up a banana Or picking up a bundle of bananas and like, you know, It's musical. Yeah, like there's a feel to it, there's a feeling to it

And like, I don't know. I like that. The coin stuff, cool, like collecting currency so I can buy balloons and shit. All right, dope. Puzzle pieces for challenges. You know, you collect the bundles of banana sometimes and, like, that will appear. Or the K, or the Kong letters will appear. I like the wealth of collectibles in a game like this.

And I want a wealth of collectibles. And I think, I think, you know what? I have thoughts on that. But I want to save till after a word from our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by Shady Ray's. Get ready for the season ahead with quality shades built to last. Our friends at Shady Rays have you covered with premium polarized shades that won't break the bank. Shady Rays is an independent sunglasses company offering a world-class product rated five stars by over 300,000 people.

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Try for yourself the shades rated five stars by over 300,000 people. Again, go to ShadyRase.com, use code funny to get 35% off. polarized sunglasses. A couple good chats I want to bring up real quick. 11 hymn says, I'd say World Five, the fruit lollipop production line counters these complaints about enemies. If it's perfectly with the enemies and the world matches them to make a story, I think that's when the game's at its best is when there are like levels of storytelling

throughout the level design. Yeah. And with the bad guys and with the music and that all comes together to create these like memorable, you called them set pieces earlier, but it is kind of these like special moments within the game. I don't think we get enough of them And I don't think that we get Enough that feels like

It is leading into the next world It kind of just feels like its own little One and Done thing Which is great But I feel like for some of the big boss fights and stuff I don't think that it has that additive level of If we never see these villains again in a Donkey Kong game I'm gonna be totally okay

Dude if you ask me right now to like name the villains Or name like the bosses But even seeing them visually Yeah I'd remember like, oh yeah, it's you. You know what I mean? But I don't know that I'd get excited about that. But I agree that there are definitely good examples.

Also, I know we're about to talk about collectibles, but Kevin brought up a level that I again, like this is another one of those barrel flight levels, right? But like one of the things I love that the game does is at random points will turn 3D, like sometimes it'll be with you'll hop into a barrel and it'll shoot you into a four round and then the level continues. And that's a small thing, but also like I'm sure design-wise takes a lot of time, but also adds a lot to the experience. as far as being immersed in these levels

going from foreground to background, background to foreground, that stuff is awesome. But then even the camera switching, and it's still being a 2D platformer, but like you get this brief sequence of being in a 3D plane and like having that different feel to it. That makes that shit feel like an adventure. That makes that shit feel dynamic and I love that shit.

Yeah, I mean, if you love that, bless, you should play Crash Bandicoot Fort. It's about time. Probably right. And then also after that, Nico de Rico, the magical world that blends this game in Crash 4. There's a lot of good stuff out there. if you like this. There's not that much.

Yeah. Because like there's a very specific feel to these games. I should play Crash 4. I'm like I've grown up a Crash Hater. Yeah. Crash 4 is different. I'm ready to write my wrongs. Not it's not perfect, but like it is different.

And I think that you, I think you'd really, really, really vibe with it. I want to talk about collectibles. Talk about it. We got a little sidetracked there. I think that the sign of a incredibly well-designed platformer is well-placed collectibles. because they are the difference between you play through the game and difficulty levels that

you don't need to just set and forget. It's part of your dynamic experience playing the games. You can just get from point A to point B, beat the level, and be done. Or you can get all the puzzle pieces and the Kong letters and everything. And when you get K-O-and-G and you're like, where is that end?

You have the choice when you beat the level. Do I go to the next level? Or am I going back to find that thing? And whenever you're incentivized to do that, incentivize to check out every nook and cranny of the level and really get behind how well designed these things are. And I think that is where they go from, okay, 2D platformers to, oh my God, these games are special. And there's always been something about Donkey Kong, uh, country specifically, whether it's the rare games or the retro games. They care about their collectible

placement so much. I think about the Mario, um, the new Super Mario Brothers games. They have the coins. The, yeah, the, the challenge. right like the uh there's like the three in each level or whatever oh yeah those be the things where it's like you know in your first play through i always try to get a book i like that stuff um and they'd always kind of put them like out of reach or like somewhere that like you wouldn't necessarily go and that's cool and that's fine there's something about you know how many times have you heard video games they they're well designed when they teach you what you need to do the first screen of super maro brothers one that teaches you go left to right and all that like you know what i'm talking about right

Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Country 2 in particular, the way they use their bananas, the way they have ranked systems of collectibles, where bananas lowest tier, right? They're just everywhere. But they're not just, okay, they're all there. They can get you the lives and all that. That's a function of them gameplay-wise. More often than not, the bananas are there to guide you, whether it's guiding you to completing the level, or you see a hole that every time you would jump down a hole like that, you die.

But you see a row of bananas pointing down. That means there's probably a barrel down there for you to get into. They teach you how to explore these levels so that you can find the collectibles in a different way. And I'll never forget playing Donkey Kong Country one and starting a level. And at the very beginning, there was like a bunch of bananas, not even making an arrow, just kind of like to the left. And I'm like, oh. So now anytime I pull up.

play a level in Donkey Kong country. I go left first every single time. Same. That's shit special, man. Oh yeah. And Donkey Kong country Tropical Freeze, I think, is one of the best examples of the layers of collectibles and how each one kind of fits into the

next of teaching you to fully explore the levels that they have designed for you. Yeah. I think they do a great job of having it be a language. Like you talk about the the tiers of collectibles, right? We have the singular bananas, you have the bundles of bananas, you have the Kong letters, you have, the of the puzzle pieces, right?

And that shit ranks up as far as, you know, what their purpose is and then also like the difficulty of getting them. I do also like that. Like, even at that lowest tier, the bananas, the regular bananas have multiple functions. Like you mentioned, you get the lives, but then also sometimes bananas will appear and then you have to collect all the bananas in a certain amount of time so that you can get a puzzle piece. Yes. Right?

And like, you learn this as you play the game. And then as you do that, right, the language of the game changes and the ways that I'm thinking about exploring all these levels changes. And I forgot to even mention the question. to you, right? Like, you have, they have such a strong economy of collectibles in this game to where in late game, there are times where I'm like, God, I'm just praying for a balloon. I'm, just give me an extra life right now. Like, I can, I can use it. Man, I'm praying for a coin so I can afford like some kind of shield for the next thing or an extra heart or whatever, right? Oh, man,

I just need a heart because I am, I'm one hit. I need a heart right now. Like, at any given moment, there is some collectible that I am kind of in need of, like I'm desperately asking for. And it creates such a great tension while playing this game. And also, like, ups the difficulty, right? Like, this is such a, I think, you know, having this game or this series kind of be the balance out of, hey, Mario, it's easy. Mario, it's, like, more of a casual experience. Like, you can play it at a higher level or whatever. But at the end of the day, Mario was meant for everybody.

DK is that upper difficulty. Hey, like, for me, me playing, I gave up pretty quickly on collecting everything. because I was like, yo, I... They're asking a lot of me. They're asking a lot of me. I'm going to throw out controller. On regular, like, playing regularly, just trying to, like, complete the game, period.

Just trying to get to the end of it. There are times where I'm, like, putting down my controller and, like, you know, fucking clenching up my fist and being like, God damn it. You know, I can't believe I'd fucking died in that way. Or I got chopped or, like, this level right here. Fuck this level. Like, you know, like, there's so much bullshit in this game. But I appreciate the bullshit.

I appreciate how hard this goes. Because, like, it has the presentation. of like what you want out of a Nintendo game, right? But like you can interact with this game on such a deep level through those levels of collectibles levels of difficulty that they add to it that I appreciate. Because I could have played this game for probably like three times as much length as I played it for for this review.

I mean, if that's the case plus like real talk, you have Donkey Kong country returns. Like it's just awesome that like if you want more, it is there for you. Oh, yeah. They, again, not too much more. But, um, Kev, can you bring up Nico de Rico the magical world? It's N-I-K-O.

This man will always bring up Nico de Rico. I have to. Somebody has to. Yeah. And I, I want to be clear. It's like, you know, this game is a, from a very small team, um, that may or may not exist. It's kind of a weird, uh, like something.

You may not exist. I mean, I remember trying to figure out who made this game and it was just like, it was very, it seems shadier than it probably is, but like, I don't know. But then there was a video. they announced the director's cut of real people that were like working on the game. So I'm like, I love the idea of like this being a Nintendo ghost kitchen where it's like just a secret team. It kind of has that vibe to it.

But oh, this is just an ad. So yeah, a lot of problems with the game in terms of just like, yeah, the characters look fucking weird. And if you had problems with the Nintendo style of cutscenes in that guy, that's all that this is. Oh, great. Don't worry about that stuff. But it's just a 4K donkey con. country tropical freeze. I love that. Like it's,

you'd have a blast with this game. The big Nico letters at the top earlier killing me. I mean, dude, I don't know if there's any part of this that I actually beat a level, but it ends the same way of you jump into the thing and beat up the. Oh, that's great. It is the most copy and paste of a game ever, but I mean, I'm not complaining when it's a game I love. And then, yeah, all these sequences that are more Crash 4 inspired. Hell yeah, dude. I got this downloaded. Like, it's on my switch too. I'm gonna, I'm gonna boot it up one day. I gotta get Crash 4 on there as well.

I think like I'm gonna add that to my, I'm a backlog guy now. I used to be anti-backlog, but this year I'm starting my backlog. Man, backlog poppy. I'm here for it. And I had tropical, Tropical Freeze was one of the games on my backlog, so I've knocked that out now and I'm going back to Mass Effect too.

I'm gonna add Crash 4 to the backlog. Dude, I'm so happy. Crash 4 is getting played. But yeah, overall, like if I'm giving a score to Tropical Freeze, I'm gonna say nine out of 10. I'm going to give it a nine out of ten. I'm so happy to hear that plus. I'm also happy to hear that you want to play Crash 4.

And maybe we get a group of us together and do a multi-man replay, re-review. That would be fun. That would be fun. I love this. Nine out of ten, obviously amazing on the kind of funny scale. I think that that is incredibly important to point out this is a 10-year-old plus game. Yes. Right?

And sure, it's coming out on Switch. But still, you are giving it a nine because it holds up that well. And I've heard you over the last week talking about this and talking about how some of the difficulty surprised you and stuff. Yeah. And I was thinking you might go a little lower. I was thinking, oh, you might be like, hey, it's great. I get it, but 7.5 or 8.

So to hear you say nine, I'm like, goddamn, dude. No, it's like, it's just too well. It's too polished. It's too, like, I think even for the difficulty stuff, it's difficult in a way that I like, because it brings me back. Like, there's such a strong nostalgia I have in struggling hard in a 2D platformer that I kind of fuck with. Like, it reminds me of playing classic,

Kikon games and dying on the cart level. Oh yeah. And like trying it over and over again and just praying for to see an extra life. You know what I mean? And like I think there is something about that experience that I miss out of Nintendo games, especially at a Mario. I've never, in the last

like decade and a half of Mario games, maybe even longer than that, right? Like there's not been once where I'm like, damn, I wish I could get an extra life right now. Like not once. But there's something that I think is special about that experience. And I think games have often leaned off of that in favor of like making stuff more player friendly, which I understand.

And like, I think in a lot of times is necessary. But like... There's a funky mode. There is a fucking mode to make this game more player friendly. And also, you can spend coins to buy more lives, which I ended up doing in the last world finally, where I was like, yo, I'm shelling out. It can be 30 balloons.

Fuck it. And then I died like 20 times on the final boss. Yeah, oh, that final boss, dude. Yeah, but I appreciate how much this game asks of you. I, again, love the, like, level design of it. I think that makes it age so well. And yeah, like, I don't know. I have like small qualms, small complaints,

but nothing that really like takes away from the game that much. I think this, I understand why people would say this is one of the best 2D platformers ever made. And earlier when we were talking about the bananas, I brought up that there's like a musical quality to collecting the bananas, where you just, even the sound effects, it's satisfying to collect them where, you know, I mean, it's satisfying to get rings and Sonic or coins in Mario.

Yeah. But it's different than this game. There's always been kind of a music theme to Donkey Kong. First off, the music is sublime. Yeah. Right. Like, oh, yeah. We're just talking about some of the best music just listen to, period, video game or otherwise.

And then you think about the bongos. You think about just like the moves that Donkey Kong has. And there's a lot of like musical type levels in this or even just like bouncing down. Like we just had the bureau a second ago of like him jumping on the different enemies to get over obstacles. Yeah. And you get a rhythm to it, but then you also, like, feel the music of it as you're playing through. Like, like, I mean, literally, they're bouncing on like timpony drums and stuff. And it's like the sound design, I think, goes so far in this game to kind of like make it all the cohesive experience.

And that's to be really excited looking at everything they're showing from Benanza of having Pauline be in the game and having singing be such a big part of the game. Like seems so bizarre. But then you're like, all right, cool, the Mario Odyssey level with Pauline, uh, with her. singing and stuff like cool they're just tying that back in but it really goes back to like the core of donkey kong's identity to have like these musical based worlds and powers like let's talk about donkey con van dance oh yeah we are 10 days away let's say what are your hype levels i'm super hype for it i mean obviously i'm me and barrett are the dk 64 sickos right like i i i think back to that game all the time whenever i think about like games that define my childhood and how much i

I love that game being the only 3D Donkey Kong game, right? Like, the fact that we're getting another 3D Donkey Kong game, it's fucking insane to me that we're here. But then also, I think one of the things that I remember feeling leading into the last direct that we had for D.K. Bonanza, and I think one of the things that makes it special that I'm playing this game now being the previous DK game before Bonanza is that like Nintendo was trying to usher in a new era of Donkey Kong, right? like Dong Kong doesn't look like this anymore.

Like Donkey Kong now looks like D.K. But Nance is Donkey Kong, which kind of harkens back to the classic Donkey Kong, right? And like, you know, when you think about what Rare did with DK and what retro did with DK, so many other people handle DK. Nintendo in-house doesn't often, like, you don't have the EPD team make Donkey Kong games, right? Like, this is kind of a new thing. It's a new emphasis.

It's a new, like, era that Nintendo's trying to step into with, uh, with this character that I'm so fascinated about because I think for me, like you talk about the music, you talk about like what DK means. For me, I also will throw out there the fact of like, you know, shout out to the iconic things that Rare brought to the franchise,

like the barrels and like, you know, I even looking at that world map, I was like, man. But think about it. They didn't. Right? What did Donkey Kong throw at Mario?

Oh, I didn't even think about that. Like, I guess shooting out the barrels is what I'm thinking of. But that's a good point. But that's a good point. But that's a good thing is like it all comes from somewhere. Yeah. It's a really good point.

To your point though, like Donkey Kong. just has such amazing legacy that so many talented teams have worked with, but there's a through line. They always bring so much with it. Like, I almost wanted to say there's like a culture to Donkey Kong, which like, there is. Like, as far as like, I guess in ethos,

there is a design language to Donkey Kong. And it's very thick and very, it's like very, it's a very strong, you know, design world that they have within DK that I don't think I think about too often, right? Like, it's funny because when I say culture, I almost think like Sonic fans out of there's a culture there. But like, you know, DK has so much going on.

in it and there's so much to pull from and so i'm excited to see nintendo play in the donkey con world which is funny to say but like they don't often do it and there's so much that you can do there and so i'm excited for that i mean i'm excited for it mechanically right it being from the odyssey team we finally got that confirmed it having this destructible environment stuff i'm fascinated about um i think that has a lot of potential to be uh really cool adding pauline to the mix i understand like why you want to do that to give like you know this to give a character to it to give like somebody who can speak words and then also like yeah the musical element to it as well and then also having a redesign for dk that can be more expressive and can be more animated like they're making

a lot of decisions here that feel intentional um and like i'm i'm very excited about it like i i i think it's one of those ones that's not going to hit me fully until i have the controller in my hands and i'm just exploring the world i'm like man this is what it's about but for you where do you stand with it? Yeah, I'm very similar to you. I can't wait till I'm three hours into this game. Because I feel like there's going to be that initial kind of like warm up period of learning all the different mechanics and stuff.

But I want to know how just straight up hooked I'm going to be wanting to explore everything. Because you're taking the Mario Odyssey team, at least some of it, and you're applying the logic of Donkey Kong, everything we just spent 45 minutes talking about of all the collectibles and how there's like levels to the collectibles and how it teaches you to explore the levels. Apply that to a 3D open space that the Odyssey team is known for. This could be an all-timer. Yeah.

Again, I had my trepidations. I didn't love it when I was playing it. I didn't love the, you can destroy anything. It kind of just felt a little haphazard and empty to me. Seeing the direct makes me think, okay, cool, there's a lot more here than just breaking everything.

Like, having the different upgrades with the animals to allow you to traverse differently. like I definitely and from day one I've been holding out being like I'm just talking about the experience I've had with this game but I obviously am hopeful

for them talking about the team talking about the IP talking about this being the first major post launch game for the Nintendo Switch 2 like yeah the expectations are this is a game of the year contender right?

So yeah very very excited I think the place where I sit with it is I already have the expectations that this is going to be a great great, great game. I'm curious slash excited to see if this can be a great, great Donkey Kong game. I think coming off of Tropical Freeze and us having this conversation, right? Like, there is such a legacy here. My highs, man. In the direct we got so, they talked about a lot of that stuff, right? Like,

hey, here's music. Hey, like, you know, here's the character, here's Ditty Kong. Here's these characters that we've seen before, right? But it is still, you're still doing something new. I think you're doing something risky here as Nintendo about like, you know, really trying to refresh what this is. But also I want to see big swings. I want to see DK be in that big, that Nintendo big three

that Nintendo Big Five that we talk about. Yeah. I mean, I love it. And again, like we're talking about incredibly high quality games. It is funny because I'm not even joking at all,

but it's like Donkey Kong 64, I do think is going to be a lot of people's touch point to like thinking when they see this game, they'll think about that game. And that's not doing it any favors, right? Like Donkey Kong 64 was, again for a lot of reasons I'm not even talking to necessarily

about the actual quality of that game I'm talking about the fact of when it came out and it was not Banjo Cazooie Yeah yeah yeah yeah you know what I mean It's like at that point it was the what 4th rare 3D collectathon on the N64 And also it required the expansion pass Like we're very similar conversations

To the way you exactly the same with Tropical Freeze Where it's just like when it came out it was like Well people wanted Metroid People didn't want a another Donkey Kong country platformer. It was the Wii U. Like there was a lot of factors against it. There are only factors for it now.

Oh, yeah. Right? Like Benaz's teed up to be the most mainstream, wide appeal donkey Kong game we've ever had. So I hope they pull it off. Yeah. I mean,

I don't know more than like the original Donkey Kong. Do you think so? Yeah. I feel like the original Donkey Kong is so like iconic. I mean, iconic, sure. But I'm talking about like actual people. wanting to play the game. Sure,

okay. There are more gamers now than there used to be. That's fair. You know what I mean? It's just like, yeah, sure maybe you played the arcade Donkey Kong,

but like no one's fucking rocking for that. Not no one, very few people. And I'm saying this is somebody that, how dare you? I rock for Donkey Kong 94 on the Game Boy? No. It's on NSO.

If you love that game, there's a full game of it. Give me the original. Give me the original. Um, all right, everybody. This has been our Donkey Kong country

tropical freeze review with 2025. I love my job. So God. I'm glad we got to do this. That's insane. A great conversation, too. Let me tell you. I almost didn't make it. I almost didn't beat that game. Because I was trying to save over the weekend, obviously, birthday, July 4th. I wasn't trying to like, point and quote work. I know I'm playing a game, right? But I was trying to focus on just relaxing and chilling. So I was like, all right,

I'm going to mark out some time yesterday, Monday, right, to like beat the game because I was in the last world. And when I tell you, those last couple of levels, oh, man, They're whooping my ass. I was like, dude, I want to beat this game for the review. But man, this boss, this boss fight is whooping me. We made it. We made it, everybody. Let us know in the comments below.

Actually, we got an interjet stream super chat. My wife's never played Donkey Gone Tropical Freeze. You both convinced me. It's time to co-op it with her this weekend in Prepar Benanza. You both rock. Hell yeah. Have the best time. I hope that that's great.

I've never actually played it in co-op. So I don't know how that's going to function. I don't think I knew those are co-op mode. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So good luck. Hope you'll love it. and until next time. I love you all.

Goodbye.