I can't decide between giving this 3 or 4 stars.
So, I love the Donkey Kong Country games - DKC 1 and 2 are among my top 5 favorite games of all time - but I really didn't like Donkey Kong Country Returns, despite the fact that I was pretty excited to play it, so I've put off trying Tropical Freeze for a long time. Having played it now (all the way through, all the Kong letters, all the puzzle pieces, all the Kong levels, just haven't beaten every level on Hard yet), I would say it still doesn't live up to the DKC games for me, but it was really fun (I said when I started it that I would only go back and collect all the puzzle pieces if it was fun enough to merit it, and it was! Not sure yet if Hard Mode is fun enough to merit finishing, though; it's mostly just tedious so far.)
Pros: It has a very DKC-esque feel to a lot of the platforming in the game - picky but not pixel-perfect, difficult but not cheap (if you messed up, it's because you messed up, not because the game suddenly decided to throw something at you that you had no chance of anticipating) and with fairly constant forward motion (not a lot of planning jumps, just keep moving) which is part of what I like so much about the original DKC games. The platforming was really fun, especially in some of the levels (Bopopolis, Wing Ding, and Cliffside Slide are some of my favorites, along with all the minecart levels.)
The platforming was pretty consistently fun, and the game had a difficulty curve that felt very natural. When the difficulty ramped up, I was ready for it, and it was enough to stay challenging but not be frustrating. I never had to go back and replay earlier levels in order to be ready for the next levels the game was offering, but when I got to the end of the game, I could go back and play levels that used to be hard for me with relative ease (which was perfect because I was going back and collecting puzzle pieces.) I did leave all the Kong levels until after I had finished the main game (except the final boss, because he was tedious.)
The levels were themed enough to feel consistent but the theme changed from world to world so they felt interesting. The themes did not feel gimmicky.
The water levels control well enough that I don't hate playing them.
Some of the levels and some of the music were/was really beautiful.
Cons: The freaking bosses. If you've ever played DKC2, you remember how King K-Rool had like a MILLION stages and they had long animations between them and you had to wait like a year dodging all of his attacks before you could FINALLY hit him? And if you died in any one of them, you had to go ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE BEGINNING? Well, that's EVERY BOSS in DKC: Tropical Freeze. I think it's okay for the very final boss of the game to be long like that, but it being every boss was soooooooooooooooooooooo tedious for me. I beat most of the bosses by buying items and using them, like an extra heart and buddy barrels. The bosses are a big reason why I'm not sure I'll finish Hard Mode, because they were tedious enough when I could take hits.
The music in a lot of the levels was just way too much. It was distracting instead of engaging. Same for the graphics. (Also I'm not a fan of 2.5D graphics - I think they just look campy, like app games.)
I HATE ROCKET BARRELS. I just don't find it fun to jam the B or A button continually to keep from falling. It's especially offensive to me because rocket barrel levels replaced a bunch of mine cart levels, and I love mine cart levels. But maybe some people think rocket barrel levels are really fun? I don't know.
Donkey Kong now makes grunting sounds every time he does an action, which is really annoying. Why do all games do this now? Are there people who find that engaging (if there are, that's fine, I just don't know anyone who doesn't find it annoying)? Did people write in to Nintendo and say "you know, the DKC series is almost perfect, but it could be perfect if only DK would just make a loud grunting noise every time he jumps, picks something up, or does any action?" I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND.
So, overall, I would say - worth playing! but sadly not up to DKC standards.
