This

Great game. 8/10. Beautiful levels, but it felt a little too short and I really disliked the bosses. Overall, I'd put it below the previous game.

This is my Donkey Kong Country list from the best to worst:
- 2
- Returns
- 1
- TropicalFreeze
- 3

It's an 8.5 out of 10 for me. I liked Rayman Legends a bit more.

On the one hand, it does lack the ambition that set Retro's prior games apart; it doesn't feel like they pushed as far as they could have, either technically or conceptually.

That aside, it's one of the best 2D platformers I have ever played. The controls are spot on, the level design is elegant and clever, the difficulty is challenging but fair, and the music is sublime.

9/10.

It's one of the best platformers ever but has the problem all but a few have, no story. Why can't Nintendo make something like Trine with an actual story and character development?

Because it doesn't need a story.

There is still a non-verbal progression in the game however.

In the first level of world 3 you're welcomed to the sunny savannah where there seems to be a celebration going on. There's a catchy song playing and even the trees are jamming to it. Then in the next level there is a storm brewing in the savannah, the music changes to match the level, lightning is striking right in front of you and finally you enter a hurricane. In the next level you see the devastating results from the storm: the savannah is on fire, the music once again fits the atmosphere perfectly. You're no longer traversing a cheerful, sunny place, but hell on earth.

The same can be said about the fifth island. The snowmads have captured it to make popsicles from the fruit. You can see the fruit being harvested, cut into pieces and turned into juice to later be frozen. This culminates in a humorous cutscene right before you fight the boss. Mr. Polar Bear was simply lazing about, minding his own business while he enjoyed his popsicle when Donkey barged in and knocked it in the juicy pond where it's being eaten by piranhas.

The sixth and final word is one big homage to Donkey Kong Country: Returns. Every level represents one of the main areas of the previous game, but in a twisted frozen way. You can spot many familiar faces and structures in the background, but it's up to the player to find out about all that. They're not forcing an average story upon you like 95% of the game industry does. They're not desperatly trying to turn their games into Hollywood movies. Retro Studios is better than that. It's up to the player to notice all these subtle non-verbal ways of story telling.

That said, I wouldn't have minded more cutscenes like in the beginning of the game, but keep them non-verbal and make them epic and/or humorous.

I'm not huge into platformers and I still loved it... Given what it was trying to achieve (be a damn quality platformer lol) I think it earned a 9/10

Beautifully put; Tropical Freeze's storytelling is in its animations, its world design, and its music, not in words.

It's my favorite 2D Platformer. Absolutely amazing game!