All right! I cannot believe it! I am actually the first one to get to this game! I was surprised with the popularity of this game, that someone had not already reviewed it. Well, here goes. While I oftentimes feel that most Donkey Kong games wind up like a jungleized version of the Mario bros. I have to give retro studios credit for this game. Let's see why.

Graphics: If you play this using the Wii U game screen...as I have, you can get the best graphics ever! Well, at least better than my tv can provide. They are so sharp and simply stunning to me! I love their concepts for the worlds...especially the fruit jungle. Props to retro on that one! The cutscenes are fully awesome. Everything is extremely detailed and amazingly modern-looking. This is especially impressive for a 2.5 dimensional game like this. Everything just seems to pop out at me. The character design was incredible. It is nice to see that they came up with other enemies besides tiki-gods (which I am not happy about.) and the King K. Rool krew. (intentional misspelling!) I loved the way that you could see Donkey Kongs hair as it waves in the wind, and how all of his movements in the cutscenes affect it. This was an absolute treat for me in the graphics department! I wholeheartedly give it a 10.

Sound: This was another awesome department! I just absolutely loved the music in all the boss levels. It just made me all the more determined to beat the boss. It made me feel like "that's right, I'm Donkey Kong! Bring it on you overgrown stuffed animal!" The echoes in the sometimes barren areas throughout the worlds was an awesome work. And the music in general was very pleasing. There were no sound effects that stuck out to me as bad or anything like that. And there were a few good sounds like when you bounce on the jelly in the juicy jungle. Also when you jump on enemies, it sounds like you hit a block or something, which I find to be a neat sound.

Story: The story is actually much more developed than previous Donkey Kong games that I have played. I like having the cutscenes at all the bosses. A few of them were actually funny! Like the one when the owls smashed the banana, and Donkey Kong got mad and smashed the table in return! Overall, the cutscenes and story developed the game much more than the norm for Donkey Kong (and even Mario!) So I have give the Story what I feel to be a very fair 9.

Depth: Wow! There is so much to do here! I beat the game to find that there are seven relics to find that unlock some sort of secret in the game. So far, I have found two of them. There are a lot of levels that are tricky to access. That is because the worlds have secret exits! There are some levels that have two exits, and it's up to you to find them to unlock the extra levels. There are also 4 kong letters to find in every level--except boss levels, that will unlock the level with the relic. There are also several puzzle pieces in every level to find. You can buy the parrot from Funky Kong's Fly'n'Buy to help you find those, if you want. There are also all kinds of other items that are helpful. But I shall have to let you play it on your own to find that out. Oh, and there is one more thing! There are time trials to do for every level. You can shoot for the gold, silver or bronze medal. And if you are into having your gaming console connected to the net, then you can send replays and brag about your time. (I myself am not very much into that.) So this game has a ton of stuff to do and find, and I give it a 10.

Difficulty: Once again, I give the difficulty a 9 because I believe that a 10 would be the impossible game! Obviously, since I finished it, it is not impossible. However, it was extremely difficult for me to finish especially the last boss! You have to jump on him nine times. But he will keep jumping to this platform in the distance to avoid that. From the safety of his platform, he uses his trumpet to shoot enemies and ice dragons that freeze the platforms. I like to use Dixie Kong so that, when you max the teamwork bar you can transform your enemies into golden hearts. That was quite helpful in beating this boss. While it took me hours of being on the same level and hundreds of deaths, this is actually the first boss that I managed to win without losing my partner character. I was very impressed with the difficulty of this game, and I will be going back to it soon.


Addictiveness: I will definitely give this game a 10 for addictiveness. There is so much to do that a once through will not suffice! I must play it again! There are still a lot of things for me to master. And all of the elements make this game such that I will keep coming back to it for a long time to come. Even for a guy that thought it very similar to mario bros. I was very pleased with this game and still have a lot left to do. The fact that you can get an extra character makes it more fun. My favorite character is Dixie Kong (stop! I know what you're thinking. I do not like her for being the cute girl monkey, but because she has the most useful hover jump and golden heart transformation!) There are also Diddy Kong and Cranky Kong. Cranky Kong is my second choice because with some good timing, you can jump on the spiky enemies. Diddy Kong has the useful ability to change enemies into extra lives. So mix and match, jump and bash your way through this game.

With its awesome graphics, gameplay and sound, this game truly deserves the 9.8 that I gave it

Very nice work on this review. You were just glowing about the awesomeness here, and it didn't just feel like partiality, but like this truly was a great game, which makes me feel extremely compelled to play it myself when I get a Wii U (hopefully not too long from now). Very good.