DK And A Barrel Of Movement

 DK And A Barrel Of Movement

Today, in continuation of some of what I discussed last time, I have a good game to introduce called Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. So, to give a little background, a lot of people recognize Mario from a lot of Nintendo games. Mario has been around for a very long time. Donkey Kong was actually the first video game that introduced Mario. The games are very similar, but today we will look at Donkey Kong because it is a good stepping stone from Nidhogg. Let’s talk about this Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. The basic plot of the game is that Donkey Kong’s family is celebrating his birthday when all of the sudden the island gets invaded by a fleet of ships (similar to viking ships).  Everyone gets flung around and you get to pick Donkey Kong or Funky Kong as your character to play. (This can also be a two player game but for the purpose of this I  played by myself.). I chose Funky Kong, who is a member of the Donkey Kong family who loves surfing and has a surfboard, which will be very relevant to movement. The basic idea of the game is to go through levels and boss levels to beat it. You have to reach the end of the level to beat it. Like I said, it is very similar to Mario.  It has a little relation to Nidhogg in that sense, but Nidhogg only has the same four levels whereas Donkey Kong has the same campaign but different levels that you play through and no repeats. 

For equipment we have a new piece of technology for this blog. We have the Nintendo Switch. The switch itself has a screen. Two controllers may be used, or as the picture will show, one big controller. There is also some other equipment such as a dock that allows the switch to be plugged into a tv. There is also a device that lets you turn the mini controllers into a standard Nintendo controller. I think I mentioned in my first post that the Nintendo Switch provides a lot in one device. 

This is my configuration I have used to play the game. The blue and red controllers attached to the screen, forming a device similar to a ds or gameboy, and, in fact, their successor. 

Let’s talk about movement.

These are both loading screens. 

This screen is for choosing a mode.

One thing I didn’t mention above is that there are two modes. One is classic Donkey Kong and the other is Funky Mode, which allows you to play as Funky Kong and gives you more hints and help. I chose Funky Mode so I could show off this game. 

Start.

Let’s start with the opening scene. The player (in this case me) is the monkey who looks dressed up like he is in a biker gang. Really it’s a surfing outfit. You may notice, like Nidhogg, this is another game where you move left and right. Basic movement is the same. You can walk forward and backward by moving the left thumbstick left and right. You can crouch by moving down on the thumbstick and jump by pressing B or a button (both jump). You do not have a sword, so no lunging or sword fighting or throwing a sword. There is no attack button, but there are many many kinds of enemies. Let’s leave movement at that for now and see what the next screenshot holds.

I’m guessing a failed attempt to capture jumping. 

Okay, that’s a successful attempt to capture jumping and caught a little extra.  Let’s stop and talk about this. Obviously, in the picture, I caught myself jumping. If you look at the bottom of the monkey’s feet, you may notice the surfboard. This is Funky Kong’s signature or identifier. This is not just a surfboard, as there is a reason he is standing on it. 

Behold your first enemy: A bird.

This is just a bird. It will attack you by running at you, but in general, it is programmed to move back and forth patrolling. Remember- there is no attack button. That is mostly true. Let’s talk about fight or flight. You can jump over the bird and keep going. When you accidentally land on the bird, you defeat the bird.  Congrats, you have discovered how to fight. You can jump on enemies to defeat them. You can also hit X or Y  buttons and move in a direction to roll into enemies and beat them that way. Birds are defeatable in one hit. 

A map picture.

Like Nidhogg, you can jump on things. Unlike Nidhogg, you can jump through some things to get on top of them, allowing for a little more freedom in terms of movement. 

Another basic map picture.

Actually, it’s  not  just a map picture. You can’t jump through metal. Also, on the metal platform is a half circle ring. Fun fact: you can grab this and pull this by hitting the triggers and holding for a second to activate levers, reveal loot, etc. .

Yeah this time it’s a map picture. 

New enemy: the mighty turtle or tortoise?

The turtle swims around at the top of water or walks back and forth on dry land. Turtles can use their shells: on land they go into their shell and are not defeated, but the game allows you to pick them up by pressing and holding the triggers. When you release, you throw the shell. 

Barrels

More Barrels

A lot of barrels. This will be explained.

Before I go any further, there is another form of movement in the game. You can jump into a barrel and get launched out. Sometimes it lets you press a button (I think you can hit any button) which allows you to choose your direction. In older versions of Donkey Kong this would even allow you to take out enemies by literally choosing to fire yourself out of a barrel at them. 

The monkey and the barrel

The barrel in this picture is a projectile weapon. You can pick it up and carry it and then throw it again with the triggers by hitting them and holding them. When it breaks, not only could it damage an enemy, but it will restore any life you’ve lost in the upper corner. 

Penguins

More Penguins

Penguins are a new enemy. They waddle at you and patrol.

Breakable objects

Breakable objects are in the game. You can press a button to slam the ground and destroy crates and other things. 

New Villain. The Seal.

As it turns out not every enemy will be defeated by one hit. The seal is the first enemy that has a lot of life.  Defeating an enemy with a lot of life requires multiple hits.

This is me jumping again and discovering how to surf.

Quite literally, you can surf your jump if you jump and continue to hold the jump button (A or B). You basically go into a glide. In the game, he rotates the surfboard with his feet as fast as a helicopter. This causes him to be able to hover and glide. 

This is just showing that I picked up something and threw it at a target.

This shows the map again and that you can carry barrels.

Pounding the ground.

Winning mission screen.

Vines. 

Save point.

Vines.

More vines.

Let me pause to talk about hanging and climbing. You can also hang and climb vines as shown above by hitting and holding the triggers. A new enemy is the mighty flying insect. These tough little bugs have set straight paths they fly. They can fly back and forth, up and down, and quite literally, any combination. They can fly in a box shape (left, up, right, down, left, up, right, down). They can fly in a three intersection shape (Let’s say they start on the left, go right to the middle, go up, go down, go right all the way right, then go left to middle, go up, go down, go left to where they started). The point is  that they can fly in very complicated paths. The other image above is a win screen for when you finally beat a level after a lot of work. 

Shark

Sharks will jump up out of the water to try and eat you. They are programmed to be very up and down creatures. They jump up and do a flip and go down. They will try to wait until you are above them to jump up. 

Spring platform

When I say spring platform, think of it kind of like a trampoline. The unfortunate thing is that these are giant springs and do not respond to jumping. You have to pound the ground with all your might and it launches you upward. 

Swimming

Swimming

Another fact of game movement is that when you fall into water you do not simply drown like most other games. You can swim. You go underwater and swim. You can dive. You can do an underwater attack where you press the a button and boost into a swim punch. In water, beware of fish.  They swim around and act like predators looking for the player. They have more unique movement as their patrol is less of a patrol and more or less, they  just swim and move unpredictably. 

The store

There is a store where you can buy more lives or objects to use during missions. This can include barrels. 

The world map. Well level selection.

As shown, this is a map that lets you choose your next level. You can choose different ways of completing missions, usually for some reward. The case above the plan you see is a shop where you can buy things such as barrels, life, or other boosts. 

Inventory.

Here is the interesting part: you do have an inventory of five items. These can be barrels or boosts as shown above. The confusing part about this is that I still haven’t found out how you store items but I know it is possible to. You have all the movement in the world and putting something in storage might be the hardest piece of movement to find. 

Vines

Vines

These look more like hanging vines. You can climb these and sometimes you can swing from them by holding the triggers.  

Mini game

This is basically a bonus mission I fell into quite literally. I fell down a hole. The purpose of the game is to collect as many bananas as you can before time in the upper right runs out. If you fall down one of the two holes, you get whatever you had. I know this because I fell down one.  

Archers

Penguin archers stand completely still and fire fish at you with their bows. The fish are straight projectile objects and just keep going. 

Factory

Factory

These are images of a factory. It is just a bunch of gears moving. Something I haven’t talked about is spikes. Spikes exist as a regular thing. There are ditches full of vines with spikes, sharp branches, or in this case, moving spikes. Moving spikes come up and go down making the ground safe for only a swift moment. Let’s go back to the surfboard. A unique thing with the surfboard is that if you are riding it, you are safe from spikes. This occurs as a result of hitting A or B to jump. It is a last chance to save yourself. This affects movement because it means if you play as Funky Kong, you do not have to worry about spikes. You can jump off of them because you are protected by your surfboard. 

This is an example of crouching.

Crouching is sometimes very useful (It is done by moving down on the left thumbstick). There are things that come and will hit you if you don’t crouch. 

Snails

Snails like the one on the branch directly above me will keep wrapping around platforms. The one above will go right, down, left (even ending up completely upside down), and go up and continue to do that forever, guarding that platform. 

Vines again.

This is a plain, simple example of swinging from a vine. 

Minecart and monkeys in a barrel. See left for monkey sticking out of barrel.

Minecart

Minecart.

Minecart.

Let me explain what is going on above. I shot out of the barrel and landed in a minecart. Minecarts are another form of transportation in Donkey Kong. In the older games, this was only a temporary thing for as long as you could keep the minecart alive. Oh how this game series has changed! Now it’s basically your own mini-game. I landed in the minecart and then had to jump over and duck (using the same controls as you would for normal jumping and crouching: A or B to jump and move down on the left thumbstick to crouch.)  to dodge quite a bit of obstacles. Honestly, I fell off the track and lost a life multiple times. It is a whole new scale of movement as there is no break on  this rollercoaster. You can’t go faster, but you don’t need to, or want to, because gravity does that for you. 

Boss Level

Boss level showing the star

Meet Mr Seal

Boss Level

Finally Beat Boss level.

Like Mario, this game has bosses at the end of each section of levels. Unlike Nidhogg, Donkey Kong has sections of levels. I have only beaten a portion of the game to write this post, specifically the first portion. Like Nidhogg though, as you progress through the levels, you know it is building up to the bosses. The boss level is shown to have a star as the level marker. Our first boss was a giant Seal or sea lion. The arena was cramped like a regular style arena in most games like this. That is a difference from Nidhogg where it is a whole map as the playing field for boss battles. It took awhile to beat the boss. 

Final conclusion here: while this game bears the same basic movement of Nidhogg, it has a lot more movement to offer and more enemy movement, where every type of enemy has its own personal movement scheme. Donkey Kong seemed like a good stepping stone. I hope you’re enjoying reading my blog. I tried to have a lot of pictures and less words. If you have suggestions, please give feedback in the comments. I did get the Witcher 3 game which I will more than likely use in a future blog post. I will have to play it and see where it fits in.