Well, my dad rented this game yesterday, and I've been playing it almost nonstop ever since. Gameplay-wise, Donkey Kong Country Returns is great. It was lots of fun, but at the same time, pretty challenging. It started off pretty easy, and got much harder in the later worlds. I didn't bother to use the Super Guide, though, because in my mind, it's "for weaklings" (no offense to anybody who used it; that's just my philosophy). I decided to complete these stages the old fashioned way, dying many times in the process.
Okay, now that I got the positive part out of the way, I'm going to go ahead and talk about the negative, and that is, of course, the lack of Kremlings, other Kong Family members, other Animal Buddies besides Rambi and Squawks, etc. Also, I've been browsing around the Donkey Kong Universe forum, and I just found someone who's completed the game and unlocked the Golden Temple. According to him, K. Rool is nowhere to be found in the game at all, period. So, all the theories I had about him being the true mastermind behind everything have just flown out the window. I am not even the least bit happy about this.
As a matter of fact, I'm going to go ahead and say it. I don't like the Tikis. At all. Not even a little bit. I didn't mind them too much at first. I tried to stay as positive as I possibly could, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized how much of a complete slap in the face and/or kick in the nuts they are to the Kremling fanbase. Why Retro Studios decided to replace them with such bland, generic characters like the Tikis is beyond me. Honestly, what were they thinking? Why would they cast the Kremlings aside in a game that's supposed to have been the Donkey Kong Country series' triumphant comeback (after it had already happened once before in Jungle Beat)? The thing is, they KNEW how much people wanted the Kremlings to be there, and they just chose to blatantly disregard them. What's worse, is that one of the Retro Studios employees, in an interview, made some stupid comment along the lines of "Does K. Rool NEED to come back?" I tried not to take it seriously, but the more I thought about it, the more I just wanted to blow a fuse.
It's one thing for K. Rool to be left out of Brawl, but this, in my opinion, was completely inexcusable. Also, you just can't tell me that they couldn't have at least squeezed Candy and Funky in the game somewhere, even if the former were to just run a Challenge Shack, like in Donkey Kong Country (GBC), Jungle Climber, and Barrel Blast. I still can't figure out why they'd do something like this. What, were they trying to appeal to all those DKC-hating fanboys (such as the ones from IGN) who outright bashed the Kremlings and Kong Family members, just because they weren't made by Nintendo? If that's the case, then I guess these people apparently mattered more than the actual fanbase. I swear, it's like 2008 all over again, when Mega Man 9 was released. Donkey Kong Country Returns has shaped up to be almost as big of a disappointment as that game was.