# 18 - Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze - Nintendo Wii U

Retro Studios + David Wise + Kenji Yamamoto = Best Donkey Kong

It was kinda wild getting Super Mario 3D World on the Wii U, and not too long after I get Tropical Freeze, a couple of the finest platforming games ever made back to back.

Yall know the deal, every level is pretty unique, well designed, with their own gimmicks explored just the right amount, their own personality, from vibrant to melancholic to incredibly atmospheric, excellent music, a set of fantastic boss fights, you probably have watched a handful of videos of why this game and its level design is so good already, so I won't attempt to embarrass myself trying to explain.

Excellent game, and the second finest game Retro Studios made.

Unguessed

After having been absolutely obsessed with 'SimTower' (#35) and 'SimCity 2000', the next logical step was to move on to 'SimCity 3000'. Before release our Macintosh PowerPC was a couple years old by now and technological advancements back then went at light-speed which meant that basically nothing was ever compatible and so we needed a new computer. Windows was all the rage, so we got a PC. A Compaq Presario 4122 to be precise. A humongous beast of a PC, with Windows 95 initially on it and no less than 4 Gigabytes of hard disc space. This was huge, and people would say what are you ever going to do with that much space?! Well, put SimCity 3000 on it.

My aunt had a short stint of playing a couple city builders, and I saw what SimCity 3000 was all about. And I liked what I saw. The cities looked more realistic than ever before with super detailed buildings, cars driving on the road, a huge map and it all looked incredible on the boxy monitor with its big ears (attached speakers) that came with the computer. This started a period away from the Macintosh ecosystem for quite some time, and we got a succession of more and more powerful PC's during the next few years, and my cities could grow larger and larger with them.

Apparently I made this set of hints quite tricky, as both #19 and #18 went unguessed. Let's see if it can get a little easier with the next hints.

#17: The Mac OS version of this game (at least) featured an interesting anti-piracy measure where you had to look up letters in the manual.

Hint 2: Once you find the correct letter, you can drink the correct bottle and the door to the next level opens. Drink the wrong one, and die.

Hint 3: This actually mirrors the rest of the game, most bottles are for health, while some take health. You see this by the color of its plume. Obviously though there is no plume in the lettered bottles because that would be too easy to guess.

Hint 4: The levels start down in a grey-coloured dungeon, presumably the place where you were imprisoned, until the switch to the more elaborately decorated red and golden floors of the palace.

#16: Breaking a mirror brings bad luck. Maybe the bad guy in this game shouldn't have broken the mirror.

Hint 2: The bad guy also should've known that the mirror would break in only four pieces, and that they would conveniently end up at the end of as many sinister places.

Hint 3: The first is in a desert, the second on a snowy peak, the third in a lost woods and the fourth in the sky. Guessed by Link_Nines.XBC - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

#15: This game was named something else where I live due to trademark issues.

Hint 2: Just like this game's predecessor. However that one was called differently. After this game, new games took the real name of the franchise. Guessed by TruckOSaurus - Lylat Wars/Star Fox 64

#14: Beach balls can roll on all sides. Guessed by drbunnig - Kula World (Rollaway)

#16 is Twilight Princess?

15: Star Fox 64 (named Lylat Wars in Europe)?

Correct!

And also correct!

So that's two down. Also, forgot to add #14, added now.

Assumed it was joke about the cutscene right after the final boss, but now reading it again I see you want that actual line, so never mind.

Always a problem with these threads, no guesses for my top games. But lots of guesses at the start of the thread for my lower games. Oh well, at least I can reveal them for some recognition. New hint for 22.

27 is Medieval Total War

26 is Rome Total War

25 is Infamous 2

23 is Dynasty Warriors 7

22. - A man drifts onto an island and finds the place infested with demons.

#23 This game was originally going to release with an entire province the player could explore but was cut and instead took place on an island within the province.

Hint #2 The setting is very unique compared to most games in the same genre.

#21 In this game you can fly around space and land on various moons.

Hint #2 In this game you have a special pair of boots that make traversal easier.

Cing was for a time supplier of great adventure games for the DS: Hotel Dusk, Last Window and Another Code. This was just before adventure games got big again with Telltale games. Cing used the DS stylus for a comeback of classic point-and-click interface and had some clever puzzles and ideas in their games. But the most important thing was story-telling. This was great.

Now after some success with Hotel Dusk and Another Code, Nintendo of Japan asked for sequels of both. Last Window, the sequel to Hotel Dusk, was another DS game. But with Another Code R Cing brought the franchise to the other hot console from Nintendo: the Wii.

As with the DS stylus, they utilized the pointer function of the Wiimote to implement point-and-click mechanics. The story of Ashley Mizuki Robins is continued, more mysteries of her past about her mother and her research into memories are uncovered. This time is also her father around, and as it fits a teenager she is pissed at him. Rightfully so though, as even though they reconnected through the events of the past game, he is again unavailable, deeply buried into research.

Another Code R is among the visually most impressive Wii games, the excellent art style works even today, even with the limited resolution of the Wii. Gameplay works very well, the puzzles are clever designed. And the story-telling is great. The characters are really relatable and their emotions are well expressed in this art style.

But there is a sad part to the story of the game. Cing filed for bankruptcy later on. This might well have been the case, because Nintendo of America didn't release an already localized game, as it was translated for the european release. And the first game sold most in America, so Cing probably calculated with that in mind. NoA fucked this up. An excellent company is gone and sadly this probably also means will never see a port or remaster of their games. The only way for you to play it is to hunt down a physical copy. And this for a game that released only in japan and europe. Good luck. I know I keep my copy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zEtzLtEarU&ab_channel=HikikomoriMedia