Funky is a lot more athletic than Donkey: he can double jump, he can hover in the air (by spinning his surfboard with his feet, naturally), he can take an impressive five hits before he dies, and he can breathe underwater indefinitely. If you want to go one further, you can play as the surfboard-wielding, sunglasses-wearing Funky Kong. For people interested in collectibles, Funky Mode also lets you keep any K O N G letters you pick up if you die, and you no longer need to collect them all in one run through a level like you do in Original Mode. If you die too many times in a level, you get the option to skip it and jump ahead to the next one. When playing in Funky Mode, you get an extra pint of health, and partner characters-who augment Donkey Kong’s own platforming abilitues-can similarly take an extra hit before they disappear.

It’s still the same game, with the same brutal platforming challenges, but Funky Mode gives you a few layers of safety nets that smooth out the more unforgiving corners of the original game. For anyone masochistic enough to enjoy that, the Switch version of Tropical Freeze offers the very same experience in its “Original Mode”.įor everyone else, the new “Funky Mode” makes the game much more approachable.

It’s a very good game, but so frustratingly difficult that I doubt my controller would have survived the experience. I’m really glad that I didn’t play Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze on Wii U.

Donkey kong tropical freeze full game