3DS: Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D - Review

Hello again, the other day I just finished my second 3DS game and thought it would make a good opportunity for a review.

Wow, what a great game. Coming from Yoshi's New Island, Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D is a great experience. Right from the get go, the games presents us with good quality humour and truly fun gameplay. From jumping precariously from platform to platform, swinging vines, flying barrels, tricky mine cart rides and dodging all sorts of objects that want to crush me this game presents a great variety of gameplay and levels so fun I want to do them all over again. This is something that Yoshi's New Island doesn't do.

Gameplay

You play as Donkey Kong and have a number of moves at your disposal. You can roll, roll jump, bash the ground to make things fall or disorientate your enemies, jump and jet pack jump with Diddy on your back. There's also a couple of reoccurring theme levels throughout each 'world' in which you can find yourself clinging to a barrel that's rocket propelled through tiny gaps or in a mine cart going dangerously fast. I found the game to give enough variety that it rarely felt tiresome. I must say though that this game presents a challenge. Something I wasn't expecting. A couple of levels made me lose 50 of my lives each! This really puts Cat Mario to shame.

Each 'world' has Cranky's shop in which you spend coins that you collect in the levels on extra lives, a bird that helps you find the hidden puzzle pieces, keys which unlock extra levels, a green balloon which will save you once from falling in a level, an extra heart to Donkey Kong's health, a potion which makes you temporarily invincible and a DK barrel so you can start with Diddy at the beginning of a level if didn't manage to finish the previous level with him. I found I mainly bought lives and only purchased the other stuff to help me complete the 'final' level as I had plenty of coins left over. Make sure you save your coins as there will be some expensive end game items that you'll want to buy.

In each level, you can collect the letters to make KONG and there's also puzzle pieces which are hidden throughout the level. Collect all the puzzle pieces in a level and you can unlock part of the games soundtrack or a new 3D picture.

Sound

Sound effects are well suited to the game and the music is quite entertaining with some fun beats.

Multiplayer

The game provides a multiplayer mode however, sadly, it's only 2 player and both people have to have their own copies which is a big downer as far as DS multiplayer goes. I have yet to play this mode yet.

Conclusion

This game gave me a fantastic time. It's the first time I've truly looked at a '3D' game (or movie) and thought the 3D effect was actually an improvement. I didn't end up collecting all those puzzle pieces and KONG letters but I can see myself going back to some levels for the sheer fun of it. This is the kind of game Yoshi's New Island should have been (although, Donkey Kong can keep it's difficulty to itself as Yoshi is more of a casual title). I'm going to give this a...

9/10