Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze | Controls Walkthrough Video

Show Transcript

Donkey Kong Country tropical freeze is a side-scrolling platform game, available on Nintendo switch. The aim of the game is to make your way through each level by solving puzzles and avoiding enemies and their traps. In this video, we will look at the game and the controls required to play it and any accessibility features that are available. In this video we’ll be using the Nintendo Switch Joy Cons to play the game. However, with the help of adaptors, such as the Titan Two, you can use a range of different controllers including the Xbox Adaptive Controller. When you first turn on the game you are asked to select which mode you want to play. The options are ‘Funky Mode’ and ‘Original Mode.’ This is where you decide how accessible you want the game to be. Original Mode plays the same as the original Wii U version of this game. Funky Mode is the more accessible of the two modes and might be helpful for some players. Items cost less in Funky’s shop and some items are more effective. You can take up to 5 items into a level and set your items in the middle of a level. Any Kong letters you collect are saved when you finish a level, even if you don’t collect them all. Once you have selected your mode, you cannot change this later on in the game. We will look at Funky Mode in a bit more detail later on in this video. You are then asked what control mode you want to play and whether you want to play single or two-player. The control layout options are either default or alternate. In both options, most of the controls are mapped to multiple inputs. The default controls needed to play this game are left stick or d-pad to move and to swim the A or the B button to jump. Pressing Y or X does corkscrew while you’re swimming. Y and X also do ground-pound and your roll attack. ZL or ZR do your pluck. They also do grab throw combined and dismount. Pressing L and R at the same time activates your Kong Pow. This turns enemies that you’re near to into items. The Kong that you have as your companion will determine what the enemy turns into. Pressing + or – pauses the game. The alternate controls are pretty much the same except that the ZR and ZL functions have been swapped with the Y and X functions. If you want to change your controller layout mid game you can press the plus or the minus button. Select options by pressing A. Go down to controls and select the controller you’re using. You can then go back into your game with your new controller layout. At times during gameplay you will need to be able to double tap buttons, such as A or B. You also need to be able to hold buttons. Such as ZL or ZR. There are some situations in the game where you need to be able to hold down ZL or ZR and then press A or B. An example of this would be when you’re jumping between vines. You need to hold ZL or ZR, cling on to them and then press A or B to jump between them. In the world map you don’t need as many controls. You use the left stick or d pad to run around and then press A when you’re on the level that you want to enter. So, once you’ve pressed A to select a level, you want you have an option to either play level or go into your inventory. In your inventory this is where you select items that you want to take into the level with you. If these items are available it might make the level a little bit easier. You press A on the item you want to take in and then you press Y once you’re done. You can either play this game solo or in two-player co-op mode. In two-player mode player one always plays as Donkey Kong, however, player two can play as Diddy Kong, Dixie Kong or Cranky Kong. These characters have all of Donkey Kong’s basic abilities, but they have some of their own extra abilities as well. In single-player, you can only play as the other Kong’s in hard mode. To unlock hard mode, you need to collect every Kong letter in every level of the game. If you select original mode you can only play as Donkey Kong. Other characters can be found in barrels which you can break and they become your companion. This gives you two extra hearts, giving you a total of four. You can also use a character’s special abilities. If you choose to play this game in Funky Mode, you get a choice between playing as Funky Kong or Donkey Kong. If you choose to place Donkey Kong in Funky Mode you’ll start off with an additional heart, so you’ll have a total of three. If you then find a companion in a barrel, you’ll get an additional three, giving you a total of six. You’ll also able to use the companions special ability. The heart in the top left-hand corner of the screen are your lives. The smaller hearts are your companions lives. If your companion loses all his lives it will disappear. Donkey Kong takes the same amount of damage and controls the same as he does in original mode. In Funky Mode you have the option to play as funky Kong. This could be the most accessible way to pay the game. So when you play as Funky Kong, he starts off with five hearts. Funky Kong is able to breathe underwater. Funky Kong can constantly roll and corkscrew. If you play as Funky Kong you will not have access to the other characters in barrels. You also cannot use the Kong Pow move. Funky Kong has got five hearts and will not take damage when you land on most spikes. However, enemies will still hurt you. Funky Kong can jump twice in mid-air, which means that you can jump higher. If you hold down the A or B button you can also slow his fall. These options do make the game easier. However, there are some elements that might still be tricky. You need to have good timing of your button presses you need to be able to double tap the a or the B button to make Funky double jump. You also need to hold the A or B button to make him fall slowly. You need to be able to hold downs ZL or ZR to climb up or along vines, keep hold of barrels before throwing them and also pluck out objects from the ground. Thank you for watching this video. If you have any questions about accessible gaming, please contact SpecialEffect.

Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze is a side scrolling platform game available on the Nintendo Switch. The objective is to make your way through each level solving puzzles while avoiding enemies and their traps.

Controls:

The default controls you need to pay this game are:

Left joystick/D-pad – move/swim

A or B – Jump/swim boost

Y or X – Ground pound, roll attack, corkscrew

ZL or ZR – Grab, throw, pluck, combine, dismount

L + R – Kong POW – This turns enemies into items. The Kong you have as your companion will determine what the enemy turns into.

+ or – Pause

The alternate controls are pretty much the same but the ZL/ZR functions have been swapped with the Y/X functions.

Mode options:

The original mode plays the same as the original Wii U version of the game and does not have any adjustable accessibility features built in.

Funky mode as Funky Kong:

This could be the most accessible way to play the game.

Funky Kong has 5 hearts and does not take damage when you land on most spikes, however enemies will still hurt you.

You can jump twice in mid-air which means you can jump higher and slow down your fall by holding the jump button. You can also roll and corkscrew as much as you want and breathe underwater.

This does make the game easier however there are still some elements that might be tricky.

You still need to have good timing with your button presses.

You also need to be able to hold the A/B button down to make Funky fall slowly and tap A/B twice to double jump. You need to be able to hold down ZR or ZL to climb up ropes, pluck objects out of the ground and keep hold of barrels before throwing them.

Video by Cara Jessop

Music:

Funshine, by Kevin MacLeod from freepd.com

Music from https://filmmusic.io
“Still Pickin” by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Developer Resource:

SpecialEffect DevKit logo

For more video examples of how developers have improved the motor accessibility of their games, please visit https://specialeffectdevkit.info/