Topic: Donkey Kong Country Wii

[broodwars]

I may try homebrew, just hope it isn't too complicated to put on the system. Any good how to instructions for it?

I'd like to know as well.  Looking the patch/homebrew channel up on the internet, there really isn't a good set of instructions for installing it.

[MegaByte]

Try http://gwht.wikidot.com/

[Mop it up]

I wish I came across that site when I was trying to figure it out, it looks to have pretty good instructions. Installing the Homebrew Channel is fairly easy, provided you have clear instructions on what it is you have to do, which I didn't seem to be able to find, for some reason. If you're going to be using homebrew programs though, I highly recommend you create a backup of your system memory, as the instructions in the link also suggest.

Myself, I patched this game with Riivolution. I like it better than GeckOS, it's easier to use and it seems to run better. Both use the same code files, you just need to take an extra step and create one XML file per game, which is worth it for faster program loading time and less chance of freezing up.

As for the original controls, I didn't think they were terrible. I have only one Classic Controller, so my sister had to use the Wiimote on its side since the Nunchuk doesn't work with the hack. We got through the main levels just fine, but we didn't play the bonus levels and didn't care that much about puzzles pieces/Kong letters. They probably would have been pretty tough with them.

[NintendoDad]

I really enjoyed this game and would put it just below Super Mario Galaxy 2. It was hard but not impossible hard. I constantly had 999 coins which meant I could have 99 lives whenever I wanted. And yeah, there were a couple levels I probably died 30-40 times before completing. After beating the game I went back to each level to find all the KONG letters and puzzle pieces. Around world 4, I came across some levels I just couldn't find all the puzzle pieces, even after playing through the level 4 or 5 times looking in holes and everyplace else I could think of. I hate using FAQS so I ended up abandoning the quest for all the puzzle pieces and just focused on the KONG letters. I finally got them all, and completed the levels you get for completing them, along with the level you get for completing those as well. I ended up with 100%, but again, I was probably missing 10% of the puzzle pieces. My favorite levels were the roller coaster and rocket stages, probably the levels most people hated. I didn't even try the speed runs because I hate doing that. This surpassed DKC 1, 2, and 3 for me.


Oh yeah, I used wii remote on it's side the first couple worlds, then tried the remote with nunchuck. After that I never went back to the remote on it's side. I didn't like having to shake the remote to roll and using the nunchuck meant I only had to shake one hand, much easier when playing while laying on your side, which I usually did.

[Caterkiller]

Ian you might be happy to know that Retro approached Nintendo to make DK before they were assigned the game.

From IGN
http://wii.ign.com/articles/115/1153582p1.html

One unlikely game Retro Studios studied while planning Donkey Kong Country Returns was Wario Land for the Virtual Boy -- specifically the separated platforming planes which allowed Wario to switch between background and foreground.

After working on dark sci-fi environments for nearly a decade, the design team would occasionally create something that looked too Metroid, but Donkey Kong Country had to be "fun and whimsical," a mantra much repeated during development, so many initial designs were tossed out.

With production finished on Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Retro first brought up the idea of working on a Donkey Kong game but were told to make Metroid Prime 3 instead. Kensuke Tanabe said, "We wanted to depend on Retro to make games we couldn't [in Japan]."

The wave level, in which tidal waves rise from the background to smash into the screen, took a long time to program. Estimates from the panel of Retro developers ranged from "months" to (hopefully jokingly) "years."

Shigeru Miyamoto the creator of Donkey Kong, who Retro refers to fondly as "Master Yoda," told the US developers, "Donkey Kong is my baby and you better get it right!"

The Super Guide feature which helps lackluster players complete levels was also used to test and record bugs.

Many bugs came from players running back to the left instead of constantly running to the right; Michael Kelbaugh joked, "We were going to make an addition to the manual that said 'Don't go left.'"

Satoru Iwata, president and CEO of Nintendo, told the Retro team "I am looking forward to playing this product with my family and having fun." They checked in with him after the game's release and he confirmed that his wish came true.

After simply running back and forth for ten minutes and watching the animations of Donkey Kong turning around, Shigeru Miyamoto told Retro that it seemed like Donkey Kong was "blowing" when he created dust clouds. The "blow" mechanic used in Donkey Kong Country Returns was born from this off-handed remark.

After showing a few levels at E3 in the summer of 2010, the team still had to make about 70 more before the game's release in November.

I left this one out and it's the most interesting.
 

Retro (facetiously) claimed that a classic Nintendo game they would like to revive next would be Doki Doki Panic (which was Kensuke Tanabe's first game, and eventually became Super Mario Bros. 2). Members of the panel also joked that they would like to make "Pokemon Prime" and/or work with (infamous Legend of Zelda character) Tingle.

Things like this always start out jokingly at first until Retro gages Nintendo's reaction. When they see that they arent pissed and somewhat open to the idea they move from there. We all know how that little game works.
 
I know we all really want Retro to make something new with thier talents, and chances are they will be doing Donkey Kong CR 2, but I say in every little Nintendo Survey we do we throw in "Get Retro to make the next Star Fox!" Doesn't matter what game. They seem to want to revive franchises, Star Fox is due for an awesome revival! I wish every Nintendo message board would light up with that kind of talk.

[Caterkiller]

From N-Europe
 
http://www.n-europe.com/news.php?nid=15097
 

Kensuke Tanabe has stated that there are no plans to make a sequel to Donkey Kong Country Returns at present.
 
At this week's Game Developers Conference in America Nintendo producer Kensuke Tanabe claimed that there are currently no plans
to make a sequel to last year's Donkey Kong Country Returns.
 
Game Informer report that a new title is not currently being planned. It took a lot of effort, and numerous years, for Nintendo to get Retro Studios to work on Donkey Kong Country Returns and the company are not looking to quickly cash-in on its success.
 
However, Mr. Tanabe does note that he has been caught off guard in the past. “I wasn’t even thinking about doing a sequel for
 
Metroid Prime until Retro showed me the last scene in the game, which was near the end of development. I wouldn’t say we won’t do a sequel, but we don’t have anything planned at this time.”
 
It is unlikely that we will never see another game in the series, given the franchise's popularity and the success of Donkey Kong Country Returns, but it would seem that we'll have to wait some time for it to appear.

This and that last post are full of good stuff! Don't you guys have fun theories to talk about? It gives us some insite on what Retro might want to do, plus it is nice to know that we can probably wait until the next home console before we see another major DK game which is nice.

 

[Razorkid]

I loved this game! The music was remixed fantastically (The Forest theme is my favorite), the animations for the characters and enemies was charming, and the gameplay was challenging but never felt cheap to me.  I absolutely wished they allowed the roll to be assigned to a button press instead of a shake, but outside of that I had no complaints about the game.


It was FAR harder than any of the other previous DKCs.  My wife and I tried to play the game co-op, but she just couldn't hang because of the difficulty (we ended up playing the original on VC which she incidentally is a master at, revealing all types of hidden bannas, bonus barrels and generally surprised the crap outta me  ).


I, too, found this one to be my most favorite out of the series (barring the shake to roll mechanic) and my favorite world by far was the mine cart themed one.

[TrueNerd]

I'm late to the party on this one, but I borrowed this game from a friend last week and have been playing it non stop since.

I friggin love it.

I enjoy the SNES DKC games, but I never thought they were anything special. DKCR doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it's so well executed. This is the best level design the series has seen. There is so much variety level to level, so many delightful set pieces and it's all satisfying. I'm halfway through world 7 and I think the difficulty is perfectly tuned. It's hard, but it's not cheap. I have yet to be frustrated to the point where I've given up or shut the system off in anger. It always feels doable. More importantly, I always want to do it. I've heard the music in this game apes (lolz) the music from previous games in the series, but I've had the volume off for the duration so I can't speak to that. Like I'm sure everyone else, the only problem I have with the game is waggling to roll. It should have been a button. I've died more than once due to accidental rolling. The waggle is serviceable, but there's no reason for it. NONE. To recap, way better than New Super Mario Bros and previous DKC games, almost as good as Jungle Beat.

Also, I'm once again thoroughly impressed with Retro. It would seem to me as an outsider that the things that made the Prime trilogy so wonderful wouldn't make for a good DKC game. They've got some skills down there in Austin. And I'm sure I'm not the first to suggest this, but Retro needs to make a 2D Metroid game.

[Ymeegod]

Man, it's crazy hard, nearly Battletoads level of nuts--I'm talking about those freaking mine cart mission.  Bet I spent nearly 50+ lives trying to get all the letters.

I was laughing my arse off when I realized my 6 year old nephew said he beaten the game?  Was totally shocked until I took a look at the saved file--he used the guide for all levels past 1-3. :0 

Still missing a couple of letters in later levels but I think I'm going put it down while I still have hair on my head.

Can't wait to see Retro's next project?  I'm guessing they are going try to get something for the Cafe's launch?

[Mop it up]

That seems excessive for the mine cart stages. They aren't very lengthy and are mostly about memorization, so they should be difficult only the first time you come to each part. I actually found them to be some of the easiest stages to complete the second time around since I knew what was coming and how to avoid it.

[Ymeegod]

It wasn't because I couldn't recall the level--no.  It was the *low* jump.  No matter how fast I tapped the button I kept on doing an high jump.  Others had issues as well so I'm not the only one. 

I finially switched over to remote only and it seemed to work a tad better but still had trouble getting the timing down --was going for the letters and there's a couple that you had to bounce off others to get extra height.

[Mop it up]

Ah, that makes sense. Tapping for the low jump does seem to require a bit too much quickness. It's a shame that this game doesn't have very good controls, because it's otherwise excellent.

[Caterkiller]

I just about beat the game a second time with all puzzle pieces and Kong letters. Only this time I went through the game with my brother. I know guys like BlackNM had a tough time with 2 people due to the difficulty but man when you have someone with equal or greater skill than you it is a blast to coordinate through the stages. We had so many laughs and epic moments I had the feeling of Turtles in Time or Battle Toads. Super hard and super satisfying.

Now just give me Dixie for the sequel and Winky the frog pulling you around speedily underwater and I will be happy.

[EasyCure]

I've just started putting some serious time in this today; the difficulty really ramps up right off the bat. It wasn't anything terrible but then I got to world 3 and lost the abundance of lives I had on two stages. WTF? I hadn't bled lives like that since 4-player Wold 8 levels in NSMBW or "the perfect run" in SMG2.

Fuckin' love it!