When comparing Mario Kart 8 vs Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, the Slant community recommends Mario Kart 8 for most people. In the question“What are the best Wii U first party games?” Mario Kart 8 is ranked 2nd while Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is ranked 4th. The most important reason people chose Mario Kart 8 is:
The game has multiple game modes, various vehicles, bunch of usable items, an array of tracks, lots of customization options and fun gameplay mechanics, including anti-gravity, gliding and underwater driving among many other features to keep the game fun.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Fun, varied gameplay
The game has multiple game modes, various vehicles, bunch of usable items, an array of tracks, lots of customization options and fun gameplay mechanics, including anti-gravity, gliding and underwater driving among many other features to keep the game fun.
Pro Up to 4 player split-screen
You can play all game modes locally with up to 4 players.
Pro Multiple game modes
There are 4 game modes in Mario Kart 8. There's Grand Prix, the main game mode where you compete in 12-player races using various items found in the level, Time Trial, where you fight against the clock, VS Race, where you can set up your own rules, and Battle, a variant on a typical race with 3 balloons added to each player, allowing you to pop your opponents balloons for points.
Pro Quick games
Races don't take too long (a typical race takes about 5 minutes) so you can play on your lunch break.
Pro Helps new players
While this makes it a worse competitive game, it makes it more accessible in the office for everyone to be able to play. A game where a few players can just dominate everyone else won't be fun for everyone, and will discourage people from playing in the first place.
Pro Supports up to 12 players online
In online mode you can compete with up to 11 other players.
Pro Glorious 60fps gameplay
The game runs at stable 60 fps with the exception of 4-player split screen, where the framerate is halved.
Pro Creative level design
A lot of thought and effort went into the level design in Tropical Freeze. The massive side-scrolling forests, jungles, mines, underwater zones, and many other locations are filled with spectacles that naturally fit into the gameplay. There are gigantic sea monsters following your every move with platforming obstacles, intriguing animal-like creatures who float around as possible pillars and ledges for you to grab onto, and parts of the environment that come crashing down unexpectedly that you have to react to in time. Each of the platforms you encounter are way more than simple, random blocks sticking in the field, helping you feel like you're traversing actual living, breathing locations.
Pro Challenging platformer gameplay
Platforming is a challenge without feeling cheap. The game will push you sometimes, especially with all the moving parts in each levels where you have to quickly adapt to new obstacles. As you run up to a gap of some kind or a wall you have to scale, you might see the solution as you approach, only for the environment to suddenly change on-the-fly. That ledge you thought you could reach is now too high, or the stones you're standing on start to move, or the camera might even shift to cut off your usual side view of the level. The difficulty is fair since it encourages you to think on your feet, meaning you naturally get better as you keep trying to get the timings down just right.
Pro Modernized feel to age old classic platformer action
The look and feel of Tropical Freeze is very reminiscent of the original Donkey Kong Country game for the SNES, offering plenty of nostalgia. The 2D view and traditional platformer play is in-tact, with modern updates like polished graphics, cinematic camera angles, and tight, responsive controls. Everything feels familiar while still improving on the old school ideas. Anyone who loves retro gaming will probably enjoy Tropical Freeze.
Cons
Con Optional bonus rooms are boring
The optional areas in the game are pointless and boring. They're pretty much a single room with a bunch of floating platforms with bananas on them. All you have to do is reach all of the bananas to "complete" the bonus area. Compared to the huge, creative levels in the rest of the game, these are way too flat and repetitive in design. Thankfully, unless you're going for 100% completion, you can avoid these rooms altogether.
Con Can't use the Wii U touchpad as a second screen
There's no way to use the touchpad as a second screen while playing Tropical Freeze. When playing on your TV, the touchpad goes blank. You have to specifically play with the Wii U gamepad instead of the TV in order to see the screen at all. Since plenty of other games utilize the second screen in some way, it would have been nice to see some Wii U touchpad interactions built into the game.