You're right, it's really sad that people passed over this game so much. It's a perfect step up from the last one, which I feel was a similar epitome of excellent level design, and it's shocking that they were so original in every level of two whole games.
This level seems great. I only recently played through DKC2, and while it was brutally hard, it was a great game, with very well designed and varied levels. I'll be sure to play this at some point.
This guy has very, VERY similar thoughts as I do about this games level design, its nice to know that I'm not the only one who noticed how intricate and well designed the levels these new gimmicks were placed in.
I agree 100%.:) Honestly, DKC Tropical Freeze is one of my favorite games of this generation. I love it honestly and it's such a well crafted experience from beginning to end that frankly it's bad sales makes me kinda sad it didn't do well. I know people wanted a Metroid Prime 4 and while I respect the hell out of the Metroid Prime games DKC Tropical Freeze to me is far from disappointing. In fact, like you said it shows how talented Retro Studios as a developer truly is. Anyways, great job Turbo with the video and keep up the great work man.:)
So, I was discussing this video with my roommate, and he asked *"How is it any different than Rayman Origins/Legends?"* I thought this myself, and I still can't answer the question...
Bit disappointed you overlooked how the levels are designed for time attack, with each enemy default position being in a perfect spot for a well placed bounce to maintain momentum. It gets to the point where you're practically playing to a rhythm. Bopopolis is also the best stage in the entire game and was the point where a good game became an all time great game.
To me it's either bop opolis or the aeroplane level in the secret world (can't remember name) for the best level in the game. Easily the two most fun levels in the game.
Busted Bayou, Beehive Brawl, and Seashore war have some pretty cool shortcuts you can do over large pits. Also the game feels like it was designed for super speed tricks like in Frantic Fields or Forest Folly. It's hard to get the shiny gold medals in each stage, but after a few hours of practicing, you should be able to blaze through the stage.
Amazed that you managed to make a video on a single 2 minute level and have the video be 10 minutes in length. and none of it feels like filler. Great video.
You can imagine how painstaking it can be to create a single 2 minute level for a 3D-modeled Sonic the Hedgehog game, considering how fast Sonic moves. I don't think any Sonic game has level design as good as in Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, which I'm sure can be partly attributed to how much stuff needs to be put in just to make the levels long enough.
Came here from Mark Brown, this is worth a subscribe as well. I'm an indie dev and it's great to see this sort of content these days. It helps form one's own mental notes of good game design in an otherwise anarchistic medium. I mean I haven't even played Tropical Freeze and I got a lot of inspiration out of this video. (Plus the Game Maker's Toolkit on the subject which is a more broad look at Tropical Freeze's design)
Man I loved DKC Returns, but I never got a WiiU so I never played Tropical Freeze. Everything I hear about says it's even better than Returns so I really hope it at least gets a port to the Switch since backwards compatibility is gone.
Tropical Freeze is the best Donkey Kong game since DKC 2: Diddy's Kong Quest. The series as a whole is super underrated. I think Tropical Freeze's piss poor sales were in part thanks to the piss poor sales of the Wii U itself, and competition with other Sidescrollers like Mario and Rayman, but Retro proved they could make something faithful to a classic franchise while surpassing even the godfather of the genre. I fear that because of Tropical Freezes' poor sales, Nintendo might not make another DK game for a while.
Another factor is that Returns did not resonate well with people in general. It was extremely underwhelming and the controls also pushed many people away. So it makes sense that people wouldn't bother with a sequel to something they already weren't satisfited with, on the Wii U of all consoles.
I also thought it sold poorly but then I checked and even on the Wii U it almost sold 2 millions, that’s not half bad, however since it’s a bit more difficult than your average Mario I guess a lot of people didn’t give it a fair shot after the first few levels
Great video. What I really loved about these levels is how they are build purposefully for speedrunning, but you can also take your time at the same point. The best paths don't look obvious and with the perfectly tuned controls that allow these fast precision jumps it feels like an absolute joy to blast through to the end.
I think there's a tendency to focus on one or two exceptional moments of level design in a level (e.g. the way MMX teaches wall jumping from Sequelitis) but rarely do you see such a thorough breakdown of just how many creative concepts an entire level can contain. When you can talk about a 2-minute level for 10 minutes, bringing up a new concept every 45 seconds, and then remember there are like 48 levels, it really puts into perspective what a tight balancing act it must be between time and creativity. Devs have gotta be doing new things constantly, but they've also gotta be coming up with those new things fast - they can't spend weeks refining ten points of interest in a single level, but every single one of those points of interest still needs to be well-thought-out and something they can be proud of. TF is my favorite 2D platformer of the last (current? I've lost track) generation next to Rayman Legends, and I should really revisit it sometime soon. Fantastic stuff TB, really enjoying how varied and unpredictable your video topics are. Always psyched to see what's next.
Like your level design videos Jon, makes a nice difference from other youtubers who'll just give their opinion on something with backhanded compliments.
Great Video! Tropical Freeze is one of my favorite platformers of all time! I´m always astounded when people put it below Rayman Legends, that game had so much less to offer.
What are the chances?! I literally just beat the game yesterday. I'm not even exaggerating, it was literally yesterday. Thank you, man. I love watching in-depth videos like these on games that I love.
Tropical Freeze was by far my favorite game in the last five years, and I've wholeheartedly given it a 10 on multiple occasions. Love how you were able to focus on all of the amazing design found within it. Great video!
Awesome vid. DK:TF is just soooo good. Honestly considering it to be the best 2D platformer ever. Super Mario World is amazing, but I know a lot of that is nostalgia, too.
Excellent video, for years I've wanted to do a video on the level design of DKC:Returns, so I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees how brilliant and multifaceted the level design in these games is. They're criminally underrated!
Great video! I made many of the same observations about Tropical Freeze when playing itas you did in this video. It's one of the best platformers of this generation and a great reason to own a Wii U.
It's not even just the fact that your script is great but the effort you go to in order to get your points across e.g. the annotated diorama of the entirety of the level that you showed, or like the top down layouts you made in your F.E.A.R video to show how a level works. Great video, keep up the good work.
Tropical Freeze is the pinnacle of game design for me. I have it since 2016 and always come back to it because no other game comes near to it's perfection.
What I remember from Tropical Freeze are the sudden difficulty spikes in almost any level and game designers that play mind games with the player by creating counter-intuitive mechanics. That part at 4:43 is a good example. How the hell are you supposed to avoid that unless you study it moving over four or five times? Another example is the end of Irate Eight where you are led to the falling rocks when you follow the ideal path marked by the bananas. It really breaks the flow of the game unfortunately. Tropical Freeze is such a gorgeous game with really creative level design but the plethora of these moments take the fun away.
Excellent design...but the reason i wasn't having a lot of fun in Tropical Freeze is I don't really enjoy the obstacles at hand, difficult and well designed they may be I just don't find the fun in interacting with them.
I've played this game two times in under a year but watching this video makes me want to play it again Damn this is a good game Also I NEED a sequel for this
Man, DKC TR is so good. I was able to get it for free back at the end of Club Nintendo in the US, and I really wish I'd actually paid for it. It's a shame that, for as good as the levels design and aesthetics of this game are, the bosses are a massive pain. Not necessarily because they're especially difficult, but because they all last for way longer than they need to.
I really hope they at least port this to the Switch; it was criminally overlooked and it is one hell of a challenging game. Dark Souls has nothing on this.
Did you make that panorama of the entire level yourself or did you find it online? I would be very interested in looking at some of the levels and long mapped out image
TheMalibuLizard I made it myself. Basically I scrubbed through footage of the level, put a bunch of screenshot into photoshop and stitched them together. It's a little inaccurate due to the parallax as its a 3D space but I did what I could.
Can't wait to pick this up on the Switch later in the week! I hope it finds some commercial success as it really deserves it and then hopefully we can get a swansong to a new trilogy from Retro!
Grassland Groove was the most memorable level from any video game I had ever played. I still think about how intense the music and the artistic beauty of it was.
I was with you until you said platformers are an "over-saturated" genre. Are you serious? Nobody makes platformers anymore lmao... And people were disappointed because Tropical Freeze wasn't Metroid Prime 4, not because it's a "baby kids game". Compare Tropical Freeze's announcement with Returns' and see how many people were complaining about another "baby kids game". anyway, great video. I really enjoyed it.
The announcement of Retro making another DKC game instead of another Metroid Prime game was probably what Turbo was alluding to when he said "baby kids game". Players were expecting Metroid Prime, which is more mature than DKC.
You're right, it's really sad that people passed over this game so much. It's a perfect step up from the last one, which I feel was a similar epitome of excellent level design, and it's shocking that they were so original in every level of two whole games.
This level seems great. I only recently played through DKC2, and while it was brutally hard, it was a great game, with very well designed and varied levels. I'll be sure to play this at some point.
I definitely recommend it as it's my 2nd favorite DKC game 1st being DKC 2. Man, That is such a great game and a really great sequel in general.
gilgamesh310 What did you think about the rest?
Super Gamer61499 I replayed the games recently and I found the first to be the best of the originals. Haven't played TP yet, but returns was great.
Have you played the game since you made this comment? I've seen you in other comment sections and I'm interested in what you think.
@@ahumanbeingfromtheearth1502 Not yet, unfortunately. I don't play many Nintendo games and kind of forgot about it for a while.
This guy has very, VERY similar thoughts as I do about this games level design, its nice to know that I'm not the only one who noticed how intricate and well designed the levels these new gimmicks were placed in.
I’m addicted to this game. I’ve beaten it 6 times in only 5 months.
I agree 100%.:) Honestly, DKC Tropical Freeze is one of my favorite games of this generation. I love it honestly and it's such a well crafted experience from beginning to end that frankly it's bad sales makes me kinda sad it didn't do well. I know people wanted a Metroid Prime 4 and while I respect the hell out of the Metroid Prime games DKC Tropical Freeze to me is far from disappointing. In fact, like you said it shows how talented Retro Studios as a developer truly is. Anyways, great job Turbo with the video and keep up the great work man.:)
thanks for the video! never thought a platformer could contain so much fun and so much variety of it
I'm so glad this game will be seeing a second chance on the Switch! Now I really have almost no reason to get a Wii U!
Super Mario Maker is a pretty big “almost” ;-)
@ Super Mario maker got a sequel on the switch
BUT WHERE IS THE DAMN 3D WORLD
@@perttutunkkari3275 Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury: Hello there!
Now, where is Xenoblade Chronicles X?
A lot of people complain that Nintendo should get Rare back, but they don't need to because they have Retro.
the best DKC game by a mile... it is genius through and through
the donkey konk country franchise is the simpsons of game mechanics
Tropical Sneeze
thx
So, I was discussing this video with my roommate, and he asked *"How is it any different than Rayman Origins/Legends?"*
I thought this myself, and I still can't answer the question...
Difficult. Tropical Freeze is harder
hey man didnt you used to have a bayonetta 2 video?
Plsplsplsplspls port this game to the switch
Daniel Stuart done :D
Retro is smart but DKCTF just didn't feel that good as Returns
Wrong
I think its better though not by much. Both are great games for sure.
may you explain becuase I feel tropical freeze is like if returns suddenly wanted to become more bombastic and varried, that's why I like it more
Bit disappointed you overlooked how the levels are designed for time attack, with each enemy default position being in a perfect spot for a well placed bounce to maintain momentum. It gets to the point where you're practically playing to a rhythm. Bopopolis is also the best stage in the entire game and was the point where a good game became an all time great game.
To me it's either bop opolis or the aeroplane level in the secret world (can't remember name) for the best level in the game. Easily the two most fun levels in the game.
Huh, never heard of someone calling one of the K temple stages as their favorite, but that’s cool
Busted Bayou, Beehive Brawl, and Seashore war have some pretty cool shortcuts you can do over large pits. Also the game feels like it was designed for super speed tricks like in Frantic Fields or Forest Folly. It's hard to get the shiny gold medals in each stage, but after a few hours of practicing, you should be able to blaze through the stage.
yo tropical freeze, instant thumbs up
Amazed that you managed to make a video on a single 2 minute level and have the video be 10 minutes in length. and none of it feels like filler. Great video.
You can imagine how painstaking it can be to create a single 2 minute level for a 3D-modeled Sonic the Hedgehog game, considering how fast Sonic moves.
I don't think any Sonic game has level design as good as in Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, which I'm sure can be partly attributed to how much stuff needs to be put in just to make the levels long enough.
Easily my favorite platformer. This game is masterpiece.
DK'S BACK, BABY! THIS MASTERPIECE RE-RELEASED ON THE SWITCH - FINALLY IT WILL GET THE ATTENTION IT DESERVES!
Came here from Mark Brown, this is worth a subscribe as well. I'm an indie dev and it's great to see this sort of content these days. It helps form one's own mental notes of good game design in an otherwise anarchistic medium.
I mean I haven't even played Tropical Freeze and I got a lot of inspiration out of this video. (Plus the Game Maker's Toolkit on the subject which is a more broad look at Tropical Freeze's design)
This was by far my favorite Wii U game. It's quite underrated.
If it makes you feel better, it's coming to the Switch this spring.
BOTW mam
@@jakedematteo2172 overrated yes
@@toooydoeur cap
@@jakedematteo2172 no
Man I loved DKC Returns, but I never got a WiiU so I never played Tropical Freeze. Everything I hear about says it's even better than Returns so I really hope it at least gets a port to the Switch since backwards compatibility is gone.
Every DKC game has been ported to a handheld, so there is a chance, and the game doesn't use the gamepad at all, so it wouldn't be that hard to port.
I forgot that the Switch isn't compatible with Wii U games. That really sucks, considering barely anyone bought that thing despite good games.
you're in luck!
We need more Donkey Kong Country titles
Sjono yep we sure do DKC Is amazing
"lazy game design 6/10- GameSpot"
What an insane review, Tropical Freeze is a platforming masterpiece! I love it, I enjoyed the video
Tropical Freeze is the best Donkey Kong game since DKC 2: Diddy's Kong Quest. The series as a whole is super underrated. I think Tropical Freeze's piss poor sales were in part thanks to the piss poor sales of the Wii U itself, and competition with other Sidescrollers like Mario and Rayman, but Retro proved they could make something faithful to a classic franchise while surpassing even the godfather of the genre. I fear that because of Tropical Freezes' poor sales, Nintendo might not make another DK game for a while.
Jared RB Garrison I actually find them better than the 2d Mario games. Only Super Mario World comes close.
And the fact that many people wanted a Metroid game instead after the failure that was Other M
It's on Switch now, so who knows?
Another factor is that Returns did not resonate well with people in general. It was extremely underwhelming and the controls also pushed many people away. So it makes sense that people wouldn't bother with a sequel to something they already weren't satisfited with, on the Wii U of all consoles.
I also thought it sold poorly but then I checked and even on the Wii U it almost sold 2 millions, that’s not half bad, however since it’s a bit more difficult than your average Mario I guess a lot of people didn’t give it a fair shot after the first few levels
Great video. What I really loved about these levels is how they are build purposefully for speedrunning, but you can also take your time at the same point. The best paths don't look obvious and with the perfectly tuned controls that allow these fast precision jumps it feels like an absolute joy to blast through to the end.
I think there's a tendency to focus on one or two exceptional moments of level design in a level (e.g. the way MMX teaches wall jumping from Sequelitis) but rarely do you see such a thorough breakdown of just how many creative concepts an entire level can contain.
When you can talk about a 2-minute level for 10 minutes, bringing up a new concept every 45 seconds, and then remember there are like 48 levels, it really puts into perspective what a tight balancing act it must be between time and creativity. Devs have gotta be doing new things constantly, but they've also gotta be coming up with those new things fast - they can't spend weeks refining ten points of interest in a single level, but every single one of those points of interest still needs to be well-thought-out and something they can be proud of.
TF is my favorite 2D platformer of the last (current? I've lost track) generation next to Rayman Legends, and I should really revisit it sometime soon. Fantastic stuff TB, really enjoying how varied and unpredictable your video topics are. Always psyched to see what's next.
There's actually 57 levels in the game.
Like your level design videos Jon, makes a nice difference from other youtubers who'll just give their opinion on something with backhanded compliments.
Great Video! Tropical Freeze is one of my favorite platformers of all time! I´m always astounded when people put it below Rayman Legends, that game had so much less to offer.
Rayman Legends isn't a bad game but I have to agree this is one of the best games ever
What are the chances?! I literally just beat the game yesterday. I'm not even exaggerating, it was literally yesterday. Thank you, man. I love watching in-depth videos like these on games that I love.
Tropical Freeze was by far my favorite game in the last five years, and I've wholeheartedly given it a 10 on multiple occasions. Love how you were able to focus on all of the amazing design found within it. Great video!
Awesome vid. DK:TF is just soooo good. Honestly considering it to be the best 2D platformer ever. Super Mario World is amazing, but I know a lot of that is nostalgia, too.
ThunderRazor I really think it is the best 2D platformer ever made. As far as level design and creativity goes, DK:TF is second to none.
you must think you're pretty cool using that Sonic CD ost and expecting no one to catch you in the act
Excellent video, for years I've wanted to do a video on the level design of DKC:Returns, so I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees how brilliant and multifaceted the level design in these games is. They're criminally underrated!
I thought DKC was always considered Nintendos hard 2D platformer... plus, DKC Tropical Freeze was under appreciated due to it being on the Wii U.
Just 100%d this game. I appreciate it a much more now than i did nearly a year ago.
Great video!
I made many of the same observations about Tropical Freeze when playing itas you did in this video. It's one of the best platformers of this generation and a great reason to own a Wii U.
Man this game looks fun. I am surprised I held it off for so long.
It's not even just the fact that your script is great but the effort you go to in order to get your points across e.g. the annotated diorama of the entirety of the level that you showed, or like the top down layouts you made in your F.E.A.R video to show how a level works.
Great video, keep up the good work.
Who are you and how do you know all my favourite video game sound tracks :)
This game is a masterpiece
Gamespot should review there 6 for this game
They have re-reviewed it for Switch and given it a 9... I guess the original review was upside down?
Tropical Freeze is the pinnacle of game design for me. I have it since 2016 and always come back to it because no other game comes near to it's perfection.
What I remember from Tropical Freeze are the sudden difficulty spikes in almost any level and game designers that play mind games with the player by creating counter-intuitive mechanics. That part at 4:43 is a good example. How the hell are you supposed to avoid that unless you study it moving over four or five times? Another example is the end of Irate Eight where you are led to the falling rocks when you follow the ideal path marked by the bananas. It really breaks the flow of the game unfortunately. Tropical Freeze is such a gorgeous game with really creative level design but the plethora of these moments take the fun away.
Excellent design...but the reason i wasn't having a lot of fun in Tropical Freeze is I don't really enjoy the obstacles at hand, difficult and well designed they may be I just don't find the fun in interacting with them.
Under 100 views club - You go, fam! 😎
I've played this game two times in under a year but watching this video makes me want to play it again
Damn this is a good game
Also I NEED a sequel for this
Would you ever do a video on any of the timesplitters games? classic classic FPS with great design
Do a video on No Man's Sky
I guess "Samb Zockt" from Germany stole your idea a little bit?
Weird, I was thinking of Sonic CD for some reaason before the credits.
lmfao I love you literally. calm before the storm and the biggie and the smalls
thank you.i love tropical freeze but i don't see many people talking about it. great video.
This is my favorite platformer game ever. A lot of fun in level design and the characters tell a story within their designs.
Donkey Kong country deserted island should be the next game
Ya boy Joseph Anderson sent me here and I am in no way disappointed.. Great video!
You press my Turbo Button ;)
more people need to play this game, it's such a youtube.
Man, DKC TR is so good. I was able to get it for free back at the end of Club Nintendo in the US, and I really wish I'd actually paid for it. It's a shame that, for as good as the levels design and aesthetics of this game are, the bosses are a massive pain. Not necessarily because they're especially difficult, but because they all last for way longer than they need to.
I hate starting from the beginning when I die after getting a boss through to the 3rd phase.
Did they do another silhouette level in this game?
Biggie and Smalls huh?...
Clever....
it's nintendo exclusive right?
I really hope they at least port this to the Switch; it was criminally overlooked and it is one hell of a challenging game. Dark Souls has nothing on this.
SensibleGaming why are you even comparing dark souls to this?
wow. there are way too many mechanics in this?
Did you make that panorama of the entire level yourself or did you find it online? I would be very interested in looking at some of the levels and long mapped out image
TheMalibuLizard I made it myself. Basically I scrubbed through footage of the level, put a bunch of screenshot into photoshop and stitched them together. It's a little inaccurate due to the parallax as its a 3D space but I did what I could.
drove pickle cheese?
Well said
retro studios is superlative
I just found your channel, because of the shout out by Mark brown and so far I'm pretty impressed.
Can't wait to pick this up on the Switch later in the week! I hope it finds some commercial success as it really deserves it and then hopefully we can get a swansong to a new trilogy from Retro!
Grassland Groove was the most memorable level from any video game I had ever played. I still think about how intense the music and the artistic beauty of it was.
Great video!
Great video, absolutely adore Tropical Freeze!
science
First
SUBZ
I'm so glad Joseph Anderson recommended you on his channel. I love your videos!
Everything Retro does is incredible. They are the new Rare
This video is a masterpiece. Brilliant use of the medium to illustrate points.
I was with you until you said platformers are an "over-saturated" genre. Are you serious? Nobody makes platformers anymore lmao...
And people were disappointed because Tropical Freeze wasn't Metroid Prime 4, not because it's a "baby kids game". Compare Tropical Freeze's announcement with Returns' and see how many people were complaining about another "baby kids game".
anyway, great video. I really enjoyed it.
The announcement of Retro making another DKC game instead of another Metroid Prime game was probably what Turbo was alluding to when he said "baby kids game". Players were expecting Metroid Prime, which is more mature than DKC.
Indie market is overflowing with platformers.
Caleb Jaaniste honestly, I think Tropical Freeze is less suitable for kids than Metroid purely because of how difficult it is.
9:23: "In an age of nostalgia-grabbing and paint-by-numbers design..."
*Cough* Dark Souls 3 *Cough*
If you ever get past the loading screen, I guess this game is ok
cixmix come on, the loading screens are not THAT long