This image help anyone? Arguably, I could've thrown DK Jr. in there too, but the point is the same.
Pessimism cannot ruin this game for me. I love the Kremlings, but I'm trusting Retro to know what they're doing.
In a way they seem to be trying to recreate the feeling of playing the first DKC back in 1994 (without the internet spoiling everything): You don't know which characters are in the game other than a few key players like Rambi, DK, and Diddy and they're intentionally keeping information hidden so you'll discover things to nostalgia-gasm over while playing the game instead of watching it through low-quality expo footage (probably why most of the levels we've seen look like they'd fit within the same world). The manual for the original DKC even kept the final boss's appearance a secret. Plus instead of gawking over ACM, they're sticking loads of stuff for you to watch in the background.
Admittedly the graphics aren't a 1:1 aesthetic match to DKC (Prime didn't look like an exact match to Super Metroid either), but we've had a lot of deviation from those days, and I know I'm settling for less here, but I'm kinda glad it even came close. It seems like an amalgamation of the visual styles of DKC, DK64, and PAON's games. You compare it to Sonic 4, but I see an inherent laziness in that game's visuals that I don't see here. Compare the sunset levels between the two, for instance.
The only things I feel I should speak out about are Diddy not being available for Solo play (unless there's a secret mode that we don't know about) and them not tracking down David Wise to do the soundtrack (he doesn't work at Rare anymore, he'd probably be available for a sequel). They aren't going to kill the game for me though.
Pessimism cannot ruin this game for me. I love the Kremlings, but I'm trusting Retro to know what they're doing.
In a way they seem to be trying to recreate the feeling of playing the first DKC back in 1994 (without the internet spoiling everything): You don't know which characters are in the game other than a few key players like Rambi, DK, and Diddy and they're intentionally keeping information hidden so you'll discover things to nostalgia-gasm over while playing the game instead of watching it through low-quality expo footage (probably why most of the levels we've seen look like they'd fit within the same world). The manual for the original DKC even kept the final boss's appearance a secret. Plus instead of gawking over ACM, they're sticking loads of stuff for you to watch in the background.
Admittedly the graphics aren't a 1:1 aesthetic match to DKC (Prime didn't look like an exact match to Super Metroid either), but we've had a lot of deviation from those days, and I know I'm settling for less here, but I'm kinda glad it even came close. It seems like an amalgamation of the visual styles of DKC, DK64, and PAON's games. You compare it to Sonic 4, but I see an inherent laziness in that game's visuals that I don't see here. Compare the sunset levels between the two, for instance.
The only things I feel I should speak out about are Diddy not being available for Solo play (unless there's a secret mode that we don't know about) and them not tracking down David Wise to do the soundtrack (he doesn't work at Rare anymore, he'd probably be available for a sequel). They aren't going to kill the game for me though.