The difference with Battletoads was that you had a very finite number of lives, and once you were out it’s game over, and there were no substantial number of continues. And when that happened, your NES controller typically went through a wall, foot through the console, and you didn’t have to worry about giving the speedbike levels another shot, and you could move on.
And if it was anything like Battletoads/Double Dragon, the game itself was aware of when you used cheat codes, and penalized you at the end of the game subsequently.
The point is, Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze was pretty much the most frustrating game I’ve played in ages. If I were a kid completely devoid of discipline and Prozac, the WiiU control would have been destroyed at least 72 times by the time I finally beat the game, but it was my girlfriend’s (I know, right) system, and she would have ditched me at the curb if I did such. Needless to say, it made me feel boiling levels of game rage that I didn’t know I even still had anymore.
Completing the analogy to Battletoads, Donkey Kong does have a finite number of lives, but it’s so excruciatingly easy to accumulate extra lives in the game, that it’s like you’ll typically have over 50 lives by the time you get to a part where it’s so difficult that it takes you 27 tries to overcome it, and then it’s a perpetual cycle of accumulating lives again before you get to the next part that makes you want to put your fist through a wall.
Playing the game is a lot like being in an abusive relationship, because no matter how much frustration, anguish and knowing you might need to walk away, you just don’t. Victory is always the next try.
I mean, it’s well known how difficult the game is, but I refuse to believe that there’s any game that can break my resolve, if I sit down and really try at it. This was no exception to that rule, but by the time I finally beat the last boss after like 22 tries, I was so fried and exasperated, that it really didn’t feel good, and more like winning out of spite.
Ultimately, it’s a beautiful game that has its moments of fun, and I think it’s overall pretty decent. The sheer difficulty of the game is that it’s essentially a barrage of pattern memorization, and that with enough attempts at any tricky part, players will ultimately figure out the timing and patterns, but there are also circumstances where good reflexes and solid mechanics are still defeated by things like water stages or icy sliding surfaces. The unfortunate thing is that there’s so many of these in later stages, that it becomes more of a nuisance to figure things out than there are stages that can simply be enjoyed.
The point is, now that I’ve beaten the game, I almost don’t want to go through the hell of it again. Sure, a few new stages were unlocked post-final boss, and I may give those a shot, but beyond that, there’s little reason or desire to want to go back to this abusive relationship again.
Especially the fugu fish boss (above). It may as well be called the fuk-u fish, because that’s really what it feels like the game is saying to you when you play its stage.
