The Return of the Nintendo Hand Boss!

 10 hours and 32 minutes later and I finish off the invading Tikis in Donkey Kong Country Returns. I lost so many life ballons in the process that I wish the game kept count so I would know how reckless I was. It's surprising how short the levels in Donkey Kong Country Returns are but that's only because so much time spent is spent dying and respawning back at the checkpoint. Also there is the fact that most of the levels have Donkey Kong moving quite quickly. So quickly that it can be hard to pick up on cues that help a player avoid obstacles. Sometimes it can feel that you have to grind some lives in order to successfully pass a level. That can be offputting for some players. Another offputting thing are the boss encounters at the end of each area. The fights are too drawn out and become uninteresting. All of the bosses follow distinct patterns where they reveal a weakpoint to hit a number of times to go to the next phase of patterns. Combat is a weak point of most platformers and I would've rather had tougher and flashier platforming levels than boss fights.


I will put Donkey Kong Country Returns aside for now. I don't know if I will every unlock everything in the game because some of the extra levels are pretty tricky and the collectables are hidden well.