Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze (Wii-U)

[Blitz 'n Burst]

They've turned the other Kongs from main characters to glorified power-ups

[Blue Blood]

Booooooo!

 

Honestly, I really don't get why they do this. The others have full move sets, so why not let me just play as them?

 

Call me petty, but I find this to be such a massive turn off. It bothered me enough already in Returns, but I was hoping it would change for this. Not a good move, Retro.

[JaidynReiman]

Yah its dumb. I loved Returns, but not being able to play as Diddy solo was ridiculous. What's the point of adding new allies in this game if you can't play as them?

[Marcello]

Surely it's because they saw the reaction to Sonic's friends

 

Jokes aside, are there any animal buddies you'd like to see return. The one I want to see most is one I expect to see and that's Enguarde. He's always been my favorite, just because sword fish are cool and he has a cool name. Plus he's helpful.

 

I'd like to see a bunch of them actually. Returns measly two was disappointing.

 

By the way, did anyone have this as a kid?

 

I got it in one of those book orders/fair things you got in school. I remember looking through it on the bus home while everyone else was talking about how high the water was getting (It was like half covering the bus wheels)

[JaidynReiman]

Returns had two? I only recall Rambi. (Unless you mean Diddy, although technically the partners aren't really anything like animal buddies.)

 

Enguarde will mostlikely return as underwater levels are back now.

[Marcello]

I meant Squawks.

[Milo]

Call me petty, but I find this to be such a massive turn off. It bothered me enough already in Returns, but I was hoping it would change for this. Not a good move, Retro.

 

I certainly wouldn't call you petty, the very first DKC game allowed you to switch between Donkey and Diddy in-game with a press of a button.

 

Considering how frequent this (as well as online multiplayer) seems to be in typical in Nintendo's recent 2D platformers (NSMBW, the aforementioned Returns, Kirby RTD/Adventure Wii), I have a hunch that this decision had to do more with Nintendo than Retro though.

[Conando]

I don't mind it myself, but I don't blame anyone for being turned off by DK only again.

[Nintendoga]

Donkey Kong Country 2 & 3: "Why are we playing as Diddy or Dixie? I want to play as Donkey Kong again!"

Donkey Kong Country Returns 1 &2: "Why are we playing as Donkey Kong? I want to play as Diddy or Dixie again!"

Will we ever get a Donkey Kong game that allows both?

inb4 DK64

[Shiny Gems]

 

I got it in one of those book orders/fair things you got in school. I remember looking through it on the bus home while everyone else was talking about how high the water was getting (It was like half covering the bus wheels)

 

Ah, I remember that. I wasn't that good of a drawer, but I enjoyed trying to draw the characters from the book. Good times.

[Chili Dawg]

I actually liked playing as Donkey Kong with Diddy being an enhancement... kinda reminded me of playing as Banjo and Kazooie. That said, I have no idea why they don't want to let people play as the other Kongs solo... like they're all playable in co-op so why they don't want to give 'em to us like that in 1P mode I have no idea.

[G-Force]

I think it's just because of the nature of the piggyback/team-up mechanic.  Out of the four characters, Donkey Kong's the only one who can sensibly carry any of the others on his back and gain abilities from them without any drawbacks, so it's fairly reasonable for him to be the required Player 1 character.

[Blue Blood]

I hate when people try to reason things with that kind of logic, because there's no reason that things like this can't be worked around.

[Soniman]

Booooooo!

 

Honestly, I really don't get why they do this. The others have full move sets, so why not let me just play as them?

 

Wow really? 4 fucking characters available and on the fucking cover of the game and you can still only play as one of them. Now I remember why I'm not all that hyped for this game anymore.

[Kuzu]

Goddamnit Nintendo

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Wraith]

.....Don't you literally get everything you'd get from playing as them when they're on DK'S back anyway?

[MegasonicZX]

From the videos, I don't think so, I think you get their jumping ability and kongpow (man that sounds silly) but I think that's it.

[Kuzu]

.....Don't you literally get everything you'd get from playing as them when they're on DK'S back anyway?

 

Nope. You're basically playing as DK with an extra ability and two more hearts.

[#EndyGate]

The only ability that I can think of that isn't transferred over when another kong is on DK's back are little projectiles likes Diddy's Peanut Popper. Other than that, DK can still do anything they can do as long as he has that specific kong on his back, which makes him a lot more versatile than the others since he's not exclusively limited to just one ability no matter what.

I mean, I'd love to play as just Diddy or Dixie, but playing as them alone wouldn't be much different from just playing as DK with them on his back.

[VO.SUPER]

I honestly feel like the move set was more diverse in the original trilogy; or at least more emphasis was placed on the differing move sets. In DKCR there really was little point to having Diddy as anything but a safeguard from pits, and an extension of your health bar.

And this emphasis of just having characters on DK's back is just going to inspire more design like that.

It's not that it's bad, just kind of boring. thankfully DKCR levels were good enough to not seem too much like that.

[Willsy]

[Sean]

What is up with this recent trend of not allowing us to play as other characters in single player? Can't play as Tails in Sonic 4, can't play as Dedede/Meta Knight/Waddle Dee in Kirby Returns to Dream Land, can't play as Diddy in Donkey Kong Country Returns, can't play as Oswald in Epic Mickey 2

[Your Vest Friend]

Possibly to add an extra incentive to play co-op?

 

Never works, but still. 

[LimeTH]

What is up with this recent trend of not allowing us to play as other characters in single player? Can't play as Tails in Sonic 4, can't play as Dedede/Meta Knight/Waddle Dee in Kirby Returns to Dream Land, can't play as Diddy in Donkey Kong Country Returns, can't play as Oswald in Epic Mickey 2

 

Can't play as Luigi or the Toads in any of the console NSMB games, either.

[Milo]

Can't play as Luigi or the Toads in any of the console NSMB games, either.

 

NSMBU allowed people to play as someone other than Mario for once IIRC. Not that it matters much since NSMBU usually tends to be ignored thanks to NSMB saturation and the gameplay differences between the Toads compared to Mario and/or Luigi are likely nowhere near as significant as they were in SMB2 or 3D World.

 

Even if you ignore all of that, it's still pretty damn late on the bandwagon of having other characters playable in single player though.

 

What is up with this recent trend of not allowing us to play as other characters in single player? Can't play as Tails in Sonic 4, can't play as Dedede/Meta Knight/Waddle Dee in Kirby Returns to Dream Land, can't play as Diddy in Donkey Kong Country Returns, can't play as Oswald in Epic Mickey 2

 

Especially when in the Diddy and Tails's case, older games in the series made 20+ years ago were able to do it just fine. Press a button in the original DKC, and you can have Diddy switch positions with DK so he can lead. Why can't I do that in Tropical Freeze and Returns?