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Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)

The Wii was definitely the choice for the platform gamer in 2010, with the system boasting some of the biggest and best platformers this year. Examples include Epic Mickey, Sonic Colours, Kirby’s Epic Yarn and of course, Nintendo golden boy Mario’s outing in Super Mario Galaxy 2. It seems fitting, then, that Nintendo’s Xmas present to their fans would come in the shape of a platformer, Donkey Kong Country Returns. Donkey Kong is starring in his own title for the first time in quite a while, and Nintendo have pulled out all the stops for his return, such as having it developed by Retro Studios, the developers of the fantastic Metroid Prime titles. The title has also had promoting through expensive TV advertising campaigns and very limited offers where fans could purchase a copy of the game for a bunch of bananas, if they were quick enough.

Clearly, Nintendo want this game to do well, and the evidence of this comes in the game itself, which, despite my lack of a Donkey Kong game history, has proved to be one of the most addictive and enjoyable games I’ve played this year, despite the large number of complaints that are about to follow. The concept is simple enough; clear the obstacles through means of jumping, swinging and using barrels fitted with DK launching cannons to get to the end of the levels while picking up coins and collectables that are used later on. DK can call on his abilities to jump, roll, bash the ground repeatedly, grab vines to swing, blow things out of the way, and summon his pal Diddy Kong to give him a temporary hover ability and extra health.

And yet, despite his relatively diverse range of attacks, and the fact that DK is a pretty burly gorilla, it is abominably easy for him to die, as he takes a paltry two hits (if you do not have Diddy Kong or you collect no life-restoration hearts before the second hit) before dying. This serves the game in a positive and negative way; the fact that DK dies quite easily (and believe me, when a tiny little crab thing about one third your size can take you out simply by you walking into it, it’s definitely easy to die) means that the game can get very frustrating. But at the same time, the fact that it is so easy to die means that the player will be more motivated to finish the game, just for their own ego to be restored.