Author Topic: Donkey Kong Country Returns Review  (Read 12414 times)

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Offline Jonnyboy117

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Re: Donkey Kong Country Returns Review
« Reply #25 on: December 06, 2010, 12:15:00 AM »
I am not feeling DKCR at all. I just spent about an hour getting angry at various levels in the second and third areas -- it gets absurdly difficult very quickly, and it's hard to believe that curve will continue to increase. Some of the jumps would be less frustrating if I could roll with confidence and precise timing, but others are just nasty with enemy placement, degrading platforms, etc. There is a fine line between challenge and annoyance, and DKCR is already crossing that line routinely. I want to keep playing and experience more of the level designs, but this is really not much fun.
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Offline MegaByte

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Re: Donkey Kong Country Returns Review
« Reply #26 on: December 06, 2010, 03:25:40 AM »
"Super Meat Boy is the hardest game I've ever played. DKCR will be a jolly stroll after this" - Jonathan Metts

;)

Except for a few cases, I don't think the game is cheap in its design, especially when compared to most NES-era games. It is really frustrating that they chose not to make a proper control scheme available, especially for such a game (I was actually considering hacking up a controller to play this properly, but the Gecko patch will do).  The thing with DKCR that is a bit different than most platformers is that it actively forces you to keep moving in a high percentage of levels; you don't get much downtime.  This is particularly true in later levels, but I think the ingenuity actually increases later in the game.  There are certainly problem areas (such as those amazingly inventive world names, the blow mechanic, etc.), but I thought they hit the right level of challenge -- refreshing, really, and the attention to environmental integration is nearly unmatched.  I really started having fun in World 4 (I love minecart levels).
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Offline Jonnyboy117

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Re: Donkey Kong Country Returns Review
« Reply #27 on: December 06, 2010, 01:12:44 PM »
I am looking forward to more minecart, rocket, and Rambi levels. My breaking point of frustration came towards the end of World 2, when you have to move across that series of crumbling platforms with the sun enemies hovering left and right. It would be a fair challenge to time your jumps and avoid those enemies, except that you can't wait for the right moment because your platform is falling away. The pace of this section seems designed for a character that moves much faster than DK (you can't really use the roll here because of the enemies).
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Offline Jonnyboy117

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Re: Donkey Kong Country Returns Review
« Reply #28 on: December 06, 2010, 01:13:59 PM »
"Super Meat Boy is the hardest game I've ever played. DKCR will be a jolly stroll after this" - Jonathan Metts

I was assuming that DKCR would be just as tightly designed and have super-tight controls like SMB. Technical aspects being equal, DKCR would indeed be a lot easier than SMB.
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Offline Ian Sane

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Re: Donkey Kong Country Returns Review
« Reply #29 on: December 06, 2010, 01:14:52 PM »
I only got this a few days ago for my birthday.  Been busy so I've only gotten through the first world thus far.  I like it but it is quite hard.  I don't think I did any levels in the first try and this is only the first world.  In the original DKC I didn't start having a tough time until the second world at least.  When you're busting out minecart levels in world 1, you're not fooling around.

So far the game has been fun and it's gorgeous.  I'm impressed with a Wii game's graphics.  This pretty much never happens.  It seems very much like Nintendo of Japan no longer even tries to make their games look nice, they're content with the bare minimum.  But Retro has some pride in those visuals and this game looks great!  Good Feel also makes pretty games.  And I've also noticed that Donkey Kong Country converts to 2.5D graphics a lot better than Mario does.  The old rendered graphics had a 3D look anyway so this looks like a natural progression of that.

The big con however is the controls.  Why am I ALWAYS right about that?  It's like every time Nintendo shows off some game at E3 with stupid waggle controls and I'm all "I don't know about this" and I am right every single time.  IT ALWAYS HURTS THE GAME!  STOP DOING THIS STUPID BROKEN CONTROLS BULLSHIT!  The rubes who are impressed by stupid motion controls suck too much to succeed at this game anyway!  They wouldn't get past the first barrel shooter level.  I don't even attempt to roll.  Early on I saw a group of enemies in a row, figured it would be an ideal time to roll through them, and died because it didn't recognize my shake so I stupidly walked right into them.  Ever do that with normal controls?  Ever play a game where you try to jump on an enemy, you push the button, and the guy just stands there while the enemy hits him?  Back in the days before waggle that was a sign of a horrible junk ass game.  You NEVER saw that kind of sloppy bullshit in a Nintendo game.  Nintendo games were tight.  And the most annoying thing is that in DKC the grab, run, roll and ground pound were all performed with the same button.  There was no reason to introduce a third button and thus be "forced" to use waggle in the first place.

I associate Nintendo with **** controls these days.  Every time it's like there is some good game hidden away behind a frustrating broken control scheme.  Can I even consider these to be good games?  I would never cut any slack for **** controls with any other developer.  Normally **** controls = **** game.  You can live with poor graphics, poor sound and poor story but controls are too important to gameplay.  A game with irresponsive controls is pretty much the same thing as a game full of bugs.

I typically never buy remakes of games I already own but I would gladly rebuy numerious first party Wii games if they supported the Classic Controller.  MegaByte, what is this Gecko patch you speak of?  Is it some sort of hack?  Map shake to a button and you fix like 90% of Nintendo's Wii titles.

Offline NWR_insanolord

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Re: Donkey Kong Country Returns Review
« Reply #30 on: December 06, 2010, 02:41:13 PM »
The Gecko patch is something that you apply when loading the game through Gecko OS via the Homebrew Channel. It hacks the game to let you play the game with the Classic Controller, with the waggle mapped to a button. Nick DiMola posted more in-depth info about it in the DKCR thread in Console Discussion.
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Offline MegaByte

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Re: Donkey Kong Country Returns Review
« Reply #31 on: December 06, 2010, 02:51:11 PM »
I was assuming that DKCR would be just as tightly designed and have super-tight controls like SMB. Technical aspects being equal, DKCR would indeed be a lot easier than SMB.
Yeah, I just remember laughing at the image of "jolly stroll."  For better or worse, I think they were trying to emulate the original's controls, which were slippery... I always figured it was intentionally so to try to give the feeling of controlling a lumbering ape (I always preferred playing with Diddy, which isn't possible in this game's single player).
« Last Edit: December 06, 2010, 02:56:26 PM by MegaByte »
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Offline NWR_insanolord

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Re: Donkey Kong Country Returns Review
« Reply #32 on: December 06, 2010, 03:14:03 PM »
(I always preferred playing with Diddy, which isn't possible in this game's single player).

Actually, I think there's a Gecko code that lets you do that as well. I remember seeing something about it while trying to figure out the CC code.
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Offline Shorty McNostril

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Re: Donkey Kong Country Returns Review
« Reply #33 on: December 08, 2010, 06:29:26 AM »
I don't know if anyone has mentioned this, but something I have found is that you can't chain your rolls together. In the originals you would keep rolling if you took out bad guys along the way. I try to do that in this game and I end up getting through the first 2 in a line and walk straight into the 3rd one. Or am I doing it wrong?

Offline broodwars

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Re: Donkey Kong Country Returns Review
« Reply #34 on: December 08, 2010, 09:13:43 AM »
I don't know if anyone has mentioned this, but something I have found is that you can't chain your rolls together. In the originals you would keep rolling if you took out bad guys along the way. I try to do that in this game and I end up getting through the first 2 in a line and walk straight into the 3rd one. Or am I doing it wrong?

If you have Diddy, you can continuously roll.
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Offline NWR_Neal

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Re: Donkey Kong Country Returns Review
« Reply #35 on: December 08, 2010, 08:16:06 PM »
I played some of the first world in Nintendo World Store last week and my interest in this game went from "must have" to "maybe I'll just borrow it from someone..."

The motion controls, more than any other motion controls I've been privy to, feel like crap. Mapping DK's roll to a motion didn't make much sense to me in the beginning, and now makes even less sense as I'm trying to be precise and collect items. I feel the only way I could enjoy this game is just by ignoring all of the collectibles. I also dislike the looseness of the characters.

Maybe I'm just generally predisposed to not like Donkey Kong Country games. I replayed DKC earlier this year and thought it was pretty awful in terms of just about everything.
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Offline broodwars

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Re: Donkey Kong Country Returns Review
« Reply #36 on: December 08, 2010, 08:22:52 PM »
I wonder how many people that are having problems with the motion control are trying to shake the remote horizontally instead of vertically.  I also found the motion controls to be abysmal early on, but found them manageable once I figured out that shaking vertically up-to-down worked 99.9% of the time.
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Offline MegaByte

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Re: Donkey Kong Country Returns Review
« Reply #37 on: December 08, 2010, 08:30:35 PM »
I think one of the big problems is the relation of running and rolling motions.  You have to run for a split second before rolling, and that's not very intuitive, especially if you're used to the old games, and is exacerbated by the delay time (however slight) it takes for a motion to trigger action.  Basically, the game forces the player to compensate for it, and that is a big no-no.
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Re: Donkey Kong Country Returns Review
« Reply #38 on: December 08, 2010, 10:49:56 PM »
The delay time was my problem. The roll would always happen when I shook the remote, but it would be about half a second later than I wanted it to be, which kept getting me killed.
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Offline NinGurl69 *huggles

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Re: Donkey Kong Country Returns Review
« Reply #39 on: January 05, 2011, 04:47:52 PM »
I wonder how many "experienced" gamers here figured out in the first 30 SECONDS OF PLAY that the roll was triggered by a single, fair, downward tug.  DOWN.

Not a desperate "up and down" like a good Thursday night.  I just can't believe some of (most of) these comments.
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