I got the new Donkey Kong game for Christmas. It's hard. I blew through Super Mario Wii and only died 3 or 4 times the entire game. I've already continued twice on Donkey Kong and I'm on the last level of the 2nd world (Beach). I read reviews before I asked for it, and they said it was hard, but they said that about Mario as well (bah). Anyone else try this game?

I really like how diverse the levels are. The Tidal Terror level is my favorite so far. Huge waves come crashing from the background into the foreground and you have to find stuff to hide behind so they don't wash you out. The graphics are pretty good on this game as well, I almost forget I'm playing a wii (until I have the shake the stupid controller for some reason).

The only real problem I had with the game was needing to shake and press forward to roll. The ground pound makes sense, and the breath-blowing makes enough sense and works well enough for the controls, but rolling I find problematic because I need more the precision of a button and shaking to roll doesn't make sense.

I do have a gripe though, minor though it is. I feel that, for once, the graphics should have been more "realistic." The graphics are good, but what I love so much about the first game I feel was lost in the slightly more cartoon feel of the Wii game.

I noticed that about the graphics, too. I don't think the old ones were more realistic, but they had an interesting movie-esque feel to them. Things were shiny and more "solid" looking somehow. Did you finish the game? Does it get harder and harder or does the difficulty stay pretty constant? I'm asking because as I play through, I realize it's not really more difficult, it's just that I have to figure out how to work on the controls on all the various different things they put in there. Barrel canons, mine carts, flying jet barrels, waves coming at you, etc.

Would you guys recommend this one? I love DKC, and I hear that it is frustratingly hard at some parts, but I think with a game like DKC that can be good.

Games back on the SNES were SUPPOSED to be mindnumbingly hard. This is just a callback to those days!

So far I like it, but I'm only through world 2.

I've only played up to the 4th world so far. I'm told the final boss is especially difficult, but as for the rest, I'm not sure.

My girlfriend just got a Wii for Xmas, and I was super excited. I went out and bought a Nintendo Points card and downloaded Super Mario 64 and Donkey Kong Country. Little did I know we have to go spend 45 dollars on a 'classic controller' just to play them. ****ing money grab.

I prefer the gamecube controller myself, helps that I have half a dozen from the gamecube days though

GC controller is my favorite ever, but ours all wore out. I finally passed that stupid Tidal Terror level.

I rather not have "realistic" graphics for the Wii in a game. Whenever a Wii game tries to do realism to a degree, it just ends up reminding me how limited the Wii hardware is. I prefer an art style that is engaging and vibrant that masks the limitations of the system.

I got the game, and I've been playing with my younger brother. It's been alot better than the Wii Mario game, but the co-op feature needs more tweaking (it's too easy for one of the two players to fall behind off screen.) DKC exhibits more thought and details in the level design than the COPY-AND-PASTE nature of the Mario title.

I'm not too happy with the coop feature either. I do like the feature where I can pick up the other player and carry him across the hard parts.

1) I whole-heartedly agree on the philosophy in general: games should be built on the strengths and weaknesses of the medium (in this case, Wii hardware).

2) FFS, the Wii is not some @#$!-ing retarded system. It can at least do Gamecube graphics, and yet so many companies treat it as if it can only make do with early N64 graphics. And I'm comparing to a Super Nintendo game here. The capabilities for an updated DKC as far as their graphics was possible on the Gamecube, they didn't need to make it more cartoony. That was a deliberate design choice not based on the system limitations.

No classic controller, no wavebird, lame-ass waggle controls... no buy. I absolutely loved the old DKC games, especially DKC2 (so it's really cool hearing that it's a hard game,) but the way they shoehorned the Wii Remote into it just breaks my heart.

ahaha. yeah, it can at least do Gamecube graphics... if the slightly faster CPU isn't being ground down by filtering out the numerical diarrhea the Wii Remotes firehose across Bluetooth.

The waggling is really annoying. On the beach levels in particular you have to jump on a crab which will cause it to put its claws up (so you can't jump on it again). You're supposed to land next to it and waggle to pound the ground and make the crab flip over. You have to be really careful not to waggle while pressing sideways (will make you roll right into the crab) and more importantly, you have to be really careful not to waggle twice. If you pound once, he will flip over so you can jump on him, delivering the killing blow. If you accidentally waggle twice, it pound again making him flip back right side up and he will kill you. It's so hard not to waggle twice because my tendency is to waggle until I see him pounding. Definitely not precise enough.

Number of times the word "waggle" has been used unironically in this thread: Too many.

Is there a better word for it?

And anybody with a clue uses it disparagingly.

waggle

I waggled your mom!

Anyway, I hear complaints of games being hard. How many has played Battletoads?

Okay, I've played enough now to understand why this game is "hard." The problem is that you learn by dying. There are tons of places where you absolutely cannot figure out how to live through something without it killing you first. The nice thing about Mario games is that they simply don't do this. They give you enough time to figure out the obstacle before you die. For example, in this new Donkey Kong game, there's a place where you get in a barrel and it launches you to a platform. As soon as you land, the thing falls over. You have to immediately jump to the next and the next and the next in order to live. In Mario when things like this happen, the platform shakes a bit to let you know it's going to fall. It gives you enough time for your brain to process it before it kills you. In Donkey Kong you just have to die to figure it out.

My opinion of this game is becoming gradually worse because it happens over and over. There aren't many consequences for death anyway (you can always continue and lose at most one checkpoint) but it still feels wrong.