Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Nintendo Wii U)

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is the fifth game in the Donkey Kong Country series and was released exclusively for Nintendo Wii U and later ported to the Nintendo Switch.

While celebrating Donkey Kong’s birthday the Kong family witnesses how an invasion fleet of arctic creatures (Snowmad) arrives. The island is frozen over and their flagship takes position on top of the island. This can’t go unpunished so the Kong family is off to take back the island.

Like the others in the series is a side-scrolling platform game in 2D view where, as usual, you can control Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong as well as Dixie Kong and now also the grumpy old man Cranky Kong. All are playable, each with their own special abilities that give you an advantage in a specific type of terrain. Along the way the classic K-O-N-G letters as well as puzzle pieces can be collected to offer an extra challenge. While you platform you way through the various regions of the island, you have to overcome various enemies and bosses. Balloons serve as lives, with every hundred bananas collected awarding you one extra balloon.

The Switch version includes the new Funky Mode, starring the surfing simian Funky Kong, which unlocks a range of gameplay updates and an alternative way to play the game by using his unique abilities. Funky’s health is superior to the player characters that were available in the Wii U version only.