Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze - Mario's Level Design, Evolved

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is platforming level design at its best. By taking Nintendo’s level design philosophy to the next level, Retro Studios made a handful of incredible stages that all modern platformers should be judged against.

Further Viewing

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze - Level Design | Turbo Button

Games shown in this episode (in order of appearance)

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Retro Studios, 2014)
New Super Mario Bros. U (Nintendo, 2012)
Donkey Kong Country (Rare, 1994)
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest (Rare, 1995)
Donkey Kong Country Returns (Retro Studios, 2010)
New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo, 2006)
New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Nintendo, 2009)
New Super Mario Bros. 2 (Nintendo, 2012)
Super Mario 3D World (Nintendo, 2013)
Rayman Legends (Ubisoft Montpellier, 2013)
Super Meat Boy (Team Meat, 2010)
N++ (Metanet Software, 2015)
Sonic Generations (Sonic Team, 2011)
Shovel Knight (Yacht Club Games, 2014)

Music used in this episode

Mangrove Cove (Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze)
Athletic Theme (New Super Mario Bros. U)
Ground Theme (New Super Mario Bros. U)
DK Island Swing (Donkey Kong Country)
Horn Top Hop (Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze)
Cannon Canyon ( (Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze)
Dynamite Dash (Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze)
Scorch ’n’ Torch (Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze)
Juicy Groove (Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze)
Windmill Hills (Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze)
Alpine Incline (Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze)
Sparkling Waters (New Super Mario Bros. U)
Title Screen (Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze)
Bramble Scramble (Donkey Kong Country 2)

[Birthnote]

"It feels like the level designers are in a constant arms-race to outdo one another."

They ARE! In an Iwata Asks for DKCR, Retro said they made their levels by competing amongst themselves and ranking their creations. They used their own internal critiques to refine each level, and I'm sure they did the same with this game.

[TurboButton]

Cheers for the shout-out you absolute legend. More people need to play this super overlooked platformer.

[JJUUJJOO]

It's a shame a lot of people think that Retro degraded itself because of the Donkey Kong Country games, because it's just the opposite.

[ClockedIt]

What's that, another criminally underated game on the Wii-U? DK Tropical Freeze is arguably one of the best platform games ever made and with a soundtrack that in my opinion is David Wise best output. Absolutely sensational game highlighted by an amazing video. Great stuff as always Mark.

[Daftotron]

"Mario, my sweet, beautiful boy."

_-Mark Brown, 2017_

[linkthegreen]

Something that might be fun to explore is the idea of "flow" in a 2d platformer. The idea that a level encourages you to move forward at all times, and rewards you for being on the edge the whole time. Donkey Kong and Dust Force do that well, but I think the best example is Rayman Legends, I can't count how many times I felt like a speedrunner in that game through natural gameplay.

[Geneolgia]

It's very weird to see a DK game going relatively unnoticed, even more after the success that DKC Returns was, maybe it was the console it was launched on, or because people expected a Metroid game from Retro Studios. Tropical Freeze is arguably the best DK game, and i hope the Switch gets a new title as good too.

[fernando]

Can we all just agree this game is amazing. Every stage is fun, epic... And my Lord that World 6. If you played Returns, World 6 means a lot more, it's basically a remake of highlights from that entire game in just one world with ice physics, and these ice physics are actually good. David Wise's music=TOP.

[christopherwagle]

Wow, what you said about the fruity juice island from Tropical Freeze just blew me away... :O I already knew that the stages were amazing and filled with unique gimmicks, but I had never thought they'd go to the extent of making the entire world progress in such a logical way. :D

[doublehelix]

Tropical freeze blew me away. The levels always looked and felt fresh and the high difficulty while frustrating at times keept me encouraged. It really is a shame so few people picked it up.

[endiciez]

Tropical Freeze is one of my favourite games of all time and is one of the most sorely overlooked Nintendo games ever. Everybody needs to play this game!

[benkarol]

Now it’s coming to the Switch! I’m so excited since i was never able to pick it up on the Wii U and now i can.

[irwegwert]

One of my favorite platforming levels is actually from Tropical Freeze. Busted Bayou is one of the first secret levels you unlock, and it's incredible. I love the theme of wrecked planes in the forest that really comes to a head here, it's a silhouette level, and it has some of the best music in the game.

[Evenmoresteven]

Yes! This, 100%. This is hands down my favorite 2d platformer ever.

[almogz]

Game makers toolkit :explains why dk tropical freeze has a phenomenal level design
Gamespot:UNiMagINaTivE lEveL DeSIGn

[ElvisHenriqueSC]

Ever since I played it, I knew it was one of my favorite games, and that it was probably my favorite DKC game. But after watching this video, I realized why. I hadn't noticed all the cool things it does with its levels, but at the same time, I could feel while playing it that it had an awesome level design, especially combined with the music. Great video!

[kevjedi]

One of my favorite games of all time. I can't believe how underrated / overlooked this game seems to be. I was a huge fan of the original SNES DKC trilogy and while I enjoyed Returns, this game was DKC perfection.

[antenna_prolly]

"Mario Evolved"
reject mushroomity, return to Donke

[persenn]

Remember when gamespot gave this game a 6 for being "bland, uninspired levels and poor backgrounds"

[MrNiceguy]

DKCTF is my favorite 2D platformer of all time so it's supper awesome to see you do a video on it.