@DrFinkelstein

Amen, brother. I can't imagine how much greater it would have been had I not spoiled parts of it before hand.

@kriswright

Bummer to hear man. I hadn't any recollection of it if I had seen it. I just had it happen to me and it was glorious.

Well, world 5 ruled. It was probably the most consistently entertaining world since 2. Eager to see what's next now!

Tropical Freeze: best set of levels in a 2D platformer ever? What do you guys think?

@Hero_Of_Hyrule

Phew, good to hear!

Anyways, how good is 6-6 Cliffside Slide? Best level in the game so far, that was absolutely awesome!

I'm closing in on the end of world 5 I think.

I still don't get the beef with the loading time. I mean it's longer than the first game, yeah, but it's like...what is the difference, between 5 and 10 seconds? The levels are so long, I don't see what the big deal is. And stuttering during a loading menu? Like...who cares? You're not even playing the game while it's loading. The game is doing so much more on a visual level than the original game, so I don't see why we should be surprised that it takes a little longer to load.

I think complaints on the load times are a little overblown, especially compared to games that really do have bad load times. When levels take me 10-15 minutes to get through, I can hardly complain about a load time that's a few seconds longer than the original game.

Also...World 5 is getting pretty tough. I appreciate how hard this game is, especially after 3D World, which really didn't get difficult until maybe the last world. This is a game definitely designed for people who've done this before.

@PogueSquadron

Yeah, load times to get into and out of levels isn't so bad. What bothers me is the initial load time to get to the title screen, and then the load time to get to the overworld screen. Why does it take so long to load a simple title screen? No other Wii U games I own take this long to start the game.

@canonj Maybe it's something that can be patched down the line. Whatever the reason, I play the game for an hour at a time usually, so it's really not a big deal in the long run. Certainly not a big enough deal that I'd really dock the game for it.

@PogueSquadron

They're not too bad but what bothers me is that they could do more to make them less of an issue. I brought it up a few pages back but with time trials, switching to another character means backing out of the level and load, then repick the level, change characters, then load the level again. An option to switch character within the level itself would be great. That's the only place that it's bothered me much.

Just beat 2-K. A few parts were stupid but hard. Then I was right near the end but had a hard time figuring out the fat walrus jump timing.

I was losing lives faster than earning them, going down about 20, but by the end of it I was back close to 99. Phew! So happy I nabbed all the puzzle pieces first. And so glad you can get one, die in the level, and still have it when you return.

I maxed out my Banana Coins now though. Gonna have to get more Squawk things so I can find missing pieces elsewhere.

Just completed all levels and got all puzzle pieces.

Such a great game. The cherry on top of Retro's brilliant designs is that everything is rationalized. Every moving object is moving for a reason, every spinning platform is spinning for a reason. The amount of attention put into that is remarkable.

Controls take some getting used to and some of the decisions they made makes the game unnecessarily more challenging (such as needing to hold RT to grab onto ropes), but the challenge is welcome.

That said, between this and DKC Returns, I've had enough DKC. Unless the next one is one with full 3D gameplay. Some of those level intros where they fly through the environment in 3D really made me wish they would attempt to make one.

@Griptor

Sure wouldn't mind seeing Retro make a 3D platformer... but yeah, I agree. As much as I love these games, I'm good for now. They are highly replayable if I need a DKC fix and I really want to see what else this studio is capable of beyond Metroid and DKC.

It would be really nice, of course, if they are expanded and can work on more than one project at a time. Miyamoto made those comments last year about Retro being ready for that.

I haven't played this on a TV since I first booted it up...and I'm on world 5. Off-TV continues to validate the gamepad in my eyes. I ain't even mad that it's just a blank screen when playing on the TV.

The game is really good, but I'm not blown away or anything. I think DKCR had a much bigger impact on me. The level design in DKCTF is just as good, and the stages are longer, and more "alive", which I really like. The music is a lot more memorable here, too.

@anon_mastermind

At the point you are now I felt like you do. It took me beating all the levels and going back to re-play them for missing pieces to truly appreciate it.

They follow Nintendo's philosophy in games like Mario 3D World: they never re-use the same elements in levels. Each level presents something new and is different. It's so varied. Even art wise. I unlocked one "secret exit" level in particular that made me go..."what the hell? This is beautiful! And this theme isn't used anywhere else in the game!" And it's on the optional extra path so a lot of people might miss it. A lot of love is put into the game.

But, DKCR will always have the bigger impact in the end, totally. This is just more of the same. Not a bad thing, but still not new. I felt the same way about 3D World compared to 3D Land. Great game but 3D Land will always have that edge over it.

Just finished up World 4.

Fuck that boss.

That is all.

Hey Guys, It's been ages since I came here!

Does anyone else think there is a lot of loading in the games, especially when you boot it up?

@Cube191

People complained about Lego City Undercover, which I found to be a ridiculous claim because after the single lengthy load, there was the whole game world without issue (sans missions). But here, just backing out to restart a level for any reason is a long chore. Levels and world maps take longer than comfortably tolerable. It's a shame because it's the one main issue I have with the game so far, well issue of real worth.

@missypissy

Great.... I'm almost there. Now I have something to.. look.. forward?.. to..?

I'm enjoying the swimming levels but I also am hating the loosey-goosey-ness of the swimming, even with Diddy or Dixie in a team up. Considering the speed and accuracy you need at times, it's just not ideal.

@DrFinkelstein

Enjoy that fight then! My problem with swimming was that moving forward took a lot more effort than stopping on a dime and going backwards. So whenever I needed to adjust myself, I would stop and go backwards into some danger instead of just stopping. There were certain sections in some of the levels of that world that irked me. Then that boss fight came around and really got me. Ended up having to use Dixie's tag-team-power special to allow more than 4 hits. =/

Granted, I also had major issues with the World 2 boss. I might just suck.

I don't like it.


More thoughts to follow.