This is the fifth (or sixth, depending on how you count Donkey Kong 64) game in the fantastic Donkey Kong Country series. You might feel uncomfortable about getting into a series this far in, but I have to say that this game seems to be an especially good jumping in point because it features most of the main characters and many elements of the past, while also bringing the series forward in exciting ways.

The storyline is a fairly good one: Donkey Kong, Diddy, Dixie and Cranky are celebrating Donkey Kong’s birthday when all of a sudden the island is taken over by the villainous Snowmads and our four heroes are blown far away by strong winds. They find themselves on an island they’ve never visited before and have to make their way across it, and various other islands, in order to get back home to Donkey Kong Island. While the story isn’t a huge part of the game, you are shown it in a wonderful high-definition cut scene at the start which will really get you in the mood to play.

As you’d expect of a side-scroller game, every level has you travelling from a start point to an end point and avoiding hazards along the way. I’m sure some people will think that side-scrollers are quite an outdated type of game which don’t allow for much depth, but I certainly have to disagree in this case. This is the first game in the series to be made in high-definition and all of the levels are really beautiful, you see huge scenes of nature in the background and it’s all very much ‘alive’: you’ll see goats grazing on a mountain side or dodos wandering on a beach. None of those details add anything to the game other than to make the world feel very real so as to make the immersion much stronger.  Every level is also filled with lots of KONG letters, puzzle pieces and bonus rooms to find, and one or two even have secret exits which lead to new levels so you’ll want to explore every nook and cranny. There are also some levels that see you riding in mine carts or in rocket barrels which mix things up quite nicely. Sometimes, when you are riding in the vehicles the camera angle will change and essentially give you some 3D gameplay, which is an exciting new feature which I only wish had been used one or two more times.

One especially good thing about the game is its soundtrack. This time they brought back David Wise, who had created the music for the first two games in the series and this was a very, very good idea. The music perfectly sets the tone of every stage and provides the game with a strong atmosphere. Impressively, one track from this is the best I’ve ever heard from a video game (listen to it here) and I’m not fickle with my favourites either, for a long time a different track was my favourite, but after years it has finally been dethroned. Thanks to the soundtrack, if there’s a section you find especially difficult, repeating it over and over won’t feel very tedious because you’ll have such beautiful music to listen to.

For the first time ever in this series, instead of just taking control of two Kongs, you get the choice of pairing Donkey Kong with Diddy, Dixie or Cranky. Diddy keeps you afloat a little longer after a jump using his jet pack, Dixie helps you to jump higher than would otherwise be possible with her helicopter hair and essentially gives you a double jump, Cranky meanwhile can use his walking stick as a pogo stick, which means you can bounce over spikes and do extra damage when jumping on some enemies, Cranky can also attack with his stick when you are swimming underwater. I very much like the fact that there are more Kongs available, but I just ended up liking Dixie so much that I used her every time, I expect most people will just pick a favourite and use them too. One thing that is a bit of a shame is the fact that all the other characters only ever ride on Donkey Kong’s back and you don’t get much of a chance to be them independently (the wonderful co-op mode being the main exception.)

On the whole, this is a tremendous game. Long-time Donkey Kong Country fans will certainly not be disappointed; the previous game in the series, Donkey Kong Country Returns, was a very good game too, but it felt much more like a tribute to the first game in the series and nothing more. Tropical Freeze, meanwhile, seems to be a tribute to the entirety of the original trilogy while, at the same time, being a brand new instalment which brings things forward rather than spending too much time looking back. Things like Funky Kong and underwater levels, at long last, make their very welcome return, but there’re so many new things too. I liked Returns because it reminded me of the old Donkey Kong Country games. I like Tropical Freeze because it is a brand new Donkey Kong Country game. The only real downside is that I thought the main story was a bit short, but since there’s a lot to do afterward, it’s not too much of an issue.

Rating: 9.8/10

Buy it here.

(Don’t miss this week’s Finger Puppet Show!)

This is one of two Zelda games that were made for the Game Boy Colour. In this game Link finds himself in the land of Labrynna where time itself has been messed up by an evil force. As such, Link must go through various dungeons to collect magical artifacts which will help to restore things.

This may sound like it’s a rather run of the mill Zelda game, and it really is. It borrows a lot from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and is kind of like a rather inferior version of it; several characters from that game return and the idea of visiting the same areas in two different time zones is also reused. Having said that, I do enjoy the time travel features and I am pleased that it is played around with a little more than they had done before.

I think the biggest problem this game has is the fact that you often have to do things that are really tedious. At one point you have to spend ages making your way around the maze-like Goron city and you have to keep taking part in a particularly un-fun Gordon dancing game too. I was stuck at one point because the names of items are not made very clear. The puzzles in the dungeons are rather unimaginative too: there is one puzzle where you walk across tiles and have to change their colour without touching the same tile twice, it takes a long time, it’s quite hard and it appears so many times.

Even the items you collect in this game are weird. In other games in the series, you get useful and interesting pieces of equipment which are fun to use and that make it possible to reach new areas of the map. In this games you get things such as the Cane of Somaria which magically makes blocks appear and does nothing else, Then there’s the Switch Hook, an item which, if you fire it at a diamond shaped block, it will make you switch places with it. You also get a Mermaid Suit, which Link puts on so that he can swim underwater, it gives him a mermaid tail and makes everyone think he is a mermaid (not a merman). While weird, I did find this last item quite funny though.

On the upside, this game was released at the same time as The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and the two games can be linked together in order to unlock new items in both of them and also to add a nice extra part onto the end of the story. This is done through a password system where you’ll find a character in one game who will then give you a code to enter in the other game which will then bring you to a secret area or give you a secret item and I found this to be a very welcome and rewarding feature

But sadly, this has been the weakest in the Zelda series yet, though it still has its charms.

Rating: 7.9/10

This is one of two Zelda games that were made for the Game Boy Colour. In this game Link finds himself in the land of Holodrum where the seasons have been thrown into disarray by an evil force and the local oracle has been kidnapped. He then must travel through various dungeons in order to collect magical items which will restore order, as is often the case with the Zelda series.

While it may sound like a run of the mill instalment in the series, there’s actually a lot to this game which makes it both unique and very enjoyable. The changing seasons mean that you can be in one area and it’ll be a hot summer’s day and then walk to another and find the place covered in snow and eventually you get an item called the Rod of Seasons which allows you to change the seasons by yourself. Every time the seasons change, the map changes quite a bit too, which essentially means that there are four different versions of the world map!

By this point it had been established that Link sometimes rides a horse named Epona to make travelling around hazardous areas easier. While Epona does make an appearance in the opening sequence, in the actual game, you get to ride three rather more unique creatures: Ricky the Kangaroo (who wears a pair of boxing gloves, perfect for fighting enemies), Dimitri the Dodongo (who can swim and, rather humorously, eat enemies) and finally Moosh the Flying Bear. They do give the game a more childish feel, which might bother some people, but for me they’re very welcome additions.

Another big appeal of this game, for me, was the fact that Holodrum was a very interesting world full of memorable characters. There’s a village on a river, a lava-filled underground world inhabited with mysterious Subrosian people, an ancient abandoned castle (with amazing background music) and a huge desert, to name just a few of the interesting locations. In these wonderful places, you’ll meet the likes of a crew of skeleton pirates, the bumbling king of the Moblins and many other quirky individuals.

Furthermore, this game was released at the same time as The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and the two games can be linked together in order to unlock new items in both of them and also to add a nice extra part onto the end of the story. This is done through a password system where you’ll find a character in one game who will then give you a code to enter in the other game which will then bring you to a secret area or give you a secret item and I found this to be a very welcome and rewarding feature.

On the whole, this is a charming and unique addition to the Zelda series. Rating: 9.1/10

Nintendo’s latest console, the Wii U has not been doing terribly well, sales-wise. I think this is quite a shame, because it seems to be awfully good to me, so I’ve decided to write a blog post explaining the upsides of the Wii U and why I think you should buy one.

While a lot of people complain that it’s overpriced, it is still about two hundred pounds cheaper than its competition (the Xbox One and the Playstation 4). Furthermore, while the improvements to the Playstation 4 and Xbox One over the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 seem to be rather minimal, the Wii U makes a lot of big changes and improvements from its predecessor (namely, the HD graphics, Miiverse integration and gamepad controller).

The gamepad in particular is a feature I am very fond of. I’ve read complains that very few games make any real use of it (even though Nintendo Land makes excellent use of it) but I think those complaints are missing the point of it. I don’t think the gamepad was designed with the idea of bringing an innovative new way of playing in the world of video games, but rather as an object of convenience. Often I’ll come downstairs, hoping to play a game, only to find that the television is already in use, meaning I will have to do something else instead. But with the Wii U, that does’t matter because you can just play the games on the gamepad without needing to see it on the television screen. Since I’ve gotten it, whenever I want to play one of my Xbox 360 games and the television is not free, I find myself wishing it had the gamepad, because it is just so incredibly useful.

And other than that, the console has quite an excellent selection of games. I can only personally vouch for Nintendo Land and New Super Luigi U (the two games I have so far) but there are an awful lot of games I am very keen to try: ZombiU, Rayman Legends, The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD, Super Mario 3D World,  Pikmin 3, Sonic Lost Worlds, Lego City Undercover and Scribblenauts: Unlimited, to name a few. Plus, there’re so many good games on the way too, Mario Kart 8, Smash Bros. for Wii U, a Shin Megami Tensei and Fire Emblem crossover, a Zelda and Dynasty Warriors crossover and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (I’ve preordered this and am very excited for it to arrive!). So I have to say, from my point of view, the Wii U is the most appealing of the current generation of home consoles.

Buy a Wii U right away!

(Don’t miss today’s Finger Puppet Show!)