DKC Tropical Freeze hard mode high playthrough log

I'm loving the atmosphere and music of this game even more than the SNES ones. Also, once you start completely ignoring the puzzle pieces, and think of the K-O-N-G letters as optional but nice to have, the game plays a lot better. it basically feels like playing DKC1 except generally harder all around.

The difficulty on hard mode is just right... On normal it was too easy, there were checkpoints and heart refills all over the place. On hard, there are no checkpoints and you only have one kong and one hit through the whole level, you really gotta carefully navigate all the obstacles.

Worlds 1-3

World 4 - Seabreeze Cove
- Shoal Atoll is actually really fun once you learn where to go
- High Ride Tide is the best mine cart level ever. I love how seemlessly transitions between 2d and 3d sections
- Amiss Abyss... a dark water level... certain fish are friendly and can light up nearby... what an epic level
- Irate Eight... the giant octopus level... it's like practically a boss in itself... couldn't beat it while high. made it to the G though
- Sea Stack Attack... mix of land and water, tried with Diddy, got right to the end barrel before dying
- Current Capers... and yet, a water level with WIND I managed to beat with Dixie

World 5 - Juicy Jungle
- Harvest Hazards... oh man... oh man.. this first world 5 stage took SO long to beat on hard... even after switching to dixie
- Reckless Ride... the worst rocket barrel level... glad I did this one earlier
- Fruity Factory - almost made it! what an awesome level though... I'm liking world 5 a lot more than I remembered
- Beehive Brawl... Dixie seems practically required... but no, if you want to get the secrets you need to get through with Cranky
- Panicky Paddles... really fun ground/water level
- Jammin' Jams... now this is starting to feel end-gamey... beat it with Diddy though
- Frosty Fruits... hints of world 6 appearing now... got to the N with Cranky at least... what I don't like about this kind of levels is having to wait for spikes all the time.. going fast through it isn't optional most of the time
- Jelly Jamboree... a relaxing breather level compared to the last few

World 6 - DK Island
- Homecoming Hijinx... I just had to stand here and listen the music for a bit. It's too amazing... A bunch of the scenery from DKC Returns world 1 is in the background here, but all frozen and covered in snow and collapsed...
- Seashore War... The beach world from DKCR... the music here is even better than in Homecoming Hijinx... Holy shit DK Dixie pulls up a ship that she's standing on out of the frozen water...
- Aquaduct Assault... This is the ruins world from DKCR... now the ruins are collapsing and everything's falling apart.
- Blurry Flurry... This is the cave world from DKCR that was mostly rocket barrel and minecart levels... you can see that cartoon bat from DKCR frozen in an iceberg in the background... This wasn't too hard. I've managed to get the KONG letters on every level in this world so far...
- Forest Folly... DKCR's forest world... the frozen vines everywhere look really pretty... the springy and climbable platforms still work when its all frozen... frozen grass isn't slippery, but the collapsing plantlife in the background sure is slipping... missed the G letter... this was pretty tough.
- Cliffside Slide... Silhouette level in DKCR's collapsing cliffs world... tried it with Diddy first... nope, too hard, gotta use Dixie through this whole world I guess. That last part with the spiral grass circle that unravels, kinda tricky to figure out what to do there...
- Frozen Frenzy... Factory world from DKCR. Electrified platforms... the electric enemies stay still, or move when a lot of them are together and can electrify platforms/vines... this is such great game design. lol died at the last possible moment before the end barrel.
- Meltdown Mayhem... Frozen version of DKCR's volcano world? This atmosphere is so good... the BGM doesn't get started until you use the DK slam pad to summon the level hazards... then you get on rambi and it's a "you stop moving you die" level...
- Dynamite Dash... a barrel blast level with exploding platforms... holy cow this atmosphere... I think you can tell which danger barrels are auto-shoot and which ones are manual-shoot.
- Icicle Arsenal - an ice cave level with tough penguins... frozen drawbridges...
- Boss - Lord Frederick... this game isn't messing around now... this boss takes a while, but if you know what to expect it's not that hard.

All of the K levels are like, fun-hard... They seems stupidly hard at first, but you get a bit farther each time you die, and it's really fun beating them... The 3 extra stages are really nice looking, pretty decent challenge too.