Tech Report: High-Quality Sound On The Megadrive?

So much for not working on Christmas day. Here’s a small retro-themed piece I just put together a few minutes ago for today. Enjoy!

Sega’s Megadrive (Genesis for all you North American readers) usually gets a pretty bad rap when it comes to sound. It’s not uncommon to hear games with really poor, overly fuzzy voice samples and sound effects, backed up with admittedly solid music composition. But even then, some music on a wide range of titles still tends to sound tinny, like it has been compressed right down to nothing and put in a tin can.

However, it doesn’t have to be that way, and as we will show you today, the MD is actually capable of some really high-quality audio more than matching what the Super NES has to offer.



Take the examples from this video above. Clearly, the first few games showcase the MD’s impressive capabilities in processing good quality voice samples, with clarity and crispness not usually found in most games on the system. Many people tend to confuse the MD’s poor sound with the use of low-fi samples. However, most of the samples used in the video are only 4Hz, 8bit PCM, and as you can see, you can still get great, very clean sound using such low-fi samples.

Instead, it seems like the vast majority of problems stem from the developers capability in writing decent playback code which best represents the samples upon being output by the console. Better playback code will improve the accuracy of how the sample is output to the Audio/Video encoder at the end of the sound/visual output stream. The encoder is another matter for concern, but we’ll look at this later.

Of course, bad samples will sound bad regardless of how good the playback code is. For example, both the muffled voices of SF2:SCE and tinny, grainy FM music of SSF2 cannot really be made to sound any better than they already do. Better playback code may indeed clean them up a little, but the overall effects and music used aren't particularly well implemented to say the least. It also doesn’t help that in SSF2’s case, that the use of FM for music also makes matters slightly worse. The MD’s sound chip is far better suited to PCM playback, and PSG composition, than synthesised FM – although it can do a good job on that too - unlike the Super NES and to a lesser extent the PC Engine, which handle FM sounds in a smoother fashion.



The second demonstration is a little different, and comes from a game called Tempo. Another reason why many sight the MD has having – and wrongfully so - poor sound is down to the actual A/V encoder used in various revisions of the console itself. For example, the earlier systems – we’re talking launch and early model 1 units here – have a far better A/V encoders than later models. The diverse range – and indeed sound quality – from differing encoders varies greatly, with some responsible for outputting incredibly poor sound compared to what the internal sound chipset is actual producing.

Many later Model 1 units have poorer encoders, and the vast majority of Model 2’s suffer from really bad sound in comparison to those, lacking warmth on low level frequencies and delivering tinny higher level stuff in general. Music and sound effects can often sound harsher and fuzzier than they are originally meant to be. There is at least one Model 2 unit that has very good sound – not as good as the best, or a very good Model 1 MD – but one that produces the kind of sound which at least comes fairly close up to what the developers intended us to hear in the first place.

The above video shows just what happens when you run the soundtrack from a 32X game on a Model 1 MD. Tempo uses just the MD sound chip and non of the PWM capabilities of the 32X, so forms the basis for a very good comparison to test this observation. There is also a demonstration in general of the audio capabilities of the console, although the small nature of cart sizes back in the day would prevent such high quality content being available for use in-game as it were.

What we find here, is that like with sound being output via the Model 2 MD, quality is sorely lacking through the 32X’s A/V encoder. Instead, when played back through a stock MD1, the sound takes on a new lease of life, not only sounding cleaner, but also adding depth and scale to the proceedings as well. You can hear the various instrumentals much more clearly, with individual elements being directly discernable whist being tightly intergrated together as a whole.

So, from the videos it is evident that Sega’s Megadrive can indeed produce some great sound which compares directly to some of the best on the Super NES in terms of raw quality. In fact, when using the MD1’s superior output, we can see that the MD can actually handle certain samples with much greater clarity than the Super NES – as can both the NES and PCE, but that’s another avenue entirely.

Essentially, the Super NES distorts all sound produced by its internal hardware via the use of some often unwanted filtering. By contrast, the MD’s sound output is much clearer as a result of both this, and the Yamaha YM2612’s, plus the Texas Instruments SN76489 PSG’s capabilities in combination with the Model 1 MD A/V encoder. Unfiltered Super NES samples sound incredibly clean too, though that isn't possible on a stock console.

In the end, we can see that the MD’s bad rap with regards to sound is perhaps a little more than undeserved – on a sheer technical level at least. On the other hand, it can be argued that Sega should have taken much greater care with its hardware revisions in general using higher quality components which accurately present the capabilities of the underlying hardware. That said, it is possible to perform various audio mods to every revision of the MD, thus getting the same high-quality audio output on any system as you would on and original ‘high-definition graphics’ branded Model 1 console. And that’s just to hear the true output of the internal sound chip, not to improve on it in any way.

Thanks go out to both TmEE and Joe Redifier, who performed the tests and created the videos used as reference in our report.

Christmas Updates At IQGamer

Well, it’s that time of year again and Christmas is finally upon us, for better or worse. Here at IQGamer however, we won’t intentionally be taking time off (at least except for the big day itself) instead working on our upcoming tech analysis of the PS3 Mass Effect demo – which I might add, the game is looking like an incredibly good port. Sadly, there may be a few delays as my proper job demands that I work more hours over the Christmas and New Year period, so you can expect the ME2 piece in the next couple of days.

In addition, if all goes to plan I’ve also got a cool retro tech analysis of sorts planned for late next week. To give you a clue, it’s one of the first home console 3D racing games, which premiered in arcades in 1993, and was ported over onto two different – but directly linked – formats in 1994. No prizes for guess which game, but it should hopefully make for an interesting read. Should have both screens and video, plus maybe an arcade comparison if I can get that version to work.

So, for now at least from everyone here at IQGamer, we wish you all a Very Happy Christmas! I hope you’ve enjoyed the site over the past year, and that you’ll continue to join us along for the ride throughout 2011.

All the best…

Tech Analysis: Uncharted 3: Gameplay Demo

Just as we were finishing up on our tech analysis of the Uncharted 3 teaser trailer, Naughty Dog unveiled the first live gameplay demo on the Jimmy Fallon show, thus revealing more juicy technical insights into the engine upgrade contained within, along with direct-feed gameplay footage of the title

We lightly touched upon some of the things contained in the gameplay trailer in our last report – the possible use of MLAA, composition of the fire effects, character modelling, and rendering resolution – but due to the compressed nature of the initial teaser trailer, and the late arrival of the gameplay footage, were unable to take a detailed look.

Now, rather than expand our original report, we’ve instead taken the time to asses in greater detail the direct-feed gameplay trailer, looking at more of the game’s in-engine enhancements and referencing it with the original teaser footage from before. Here, you’ll hopefully find a nice companion piece to our previous analysis.

Let’s get on with it then.



In terms of framebuffer resolution, Uncharted 3 appears to be rendering once again in full 720p (1280x720) just like the last two games in the series. However, unlike both of those titles, this time around Naughty Dog seems to have used a different anti-aliasing solution for UC3.

Previously we saw the use of standard 2xMSAA (multi-sampling anti-aliasing) in order to mitigate jagged edges and shimmering artefacts, which actually worked very well all things considering – increased use of shaders, particle/alpha effects etc. But from the gameplay footage shown of Uncharted 3, we can see what looks like evidence of Sony’s custom MLAA solution replacing the more limiting MSAA.

Originally, we thought that those rather smooth looking 720p framebuffer grabs were simply supersampled promo shots, lacking any edge artefacts and appearing all too clean to be in-game. And while we’re still not convinced that they aren’t downsampled bullshots, the direct-feed gameplay footage itself not only shows off a similar smoothing effect, but also shows clear evidence of edge shimmering in areas where supersampling would have effectively dealt with that particular issue. Shader aliasing is also present, another thing which MLAA isn't capable of dealing with in its current implementation.



Take a look at the screenshots above of the window frame and the dislodged wooden beam to the right of it. Ignore for a second the compressed, blurry nature of screenshot and focus on those edges. Clearly, there is a reduced amount of edge smoothing going on here. We can easily see some sub-pixel edge artefacts that would have blended away via supersampling – like in the desert scene from the teaser trailer – but are obviously visible for all to see despite the lack of clarity.

There are also some polygon edges directly situated next to the low res fire effects that suffer from the same problems, though not all. Most likely, this is due to the low resolution alpha buffers interfering with the higher res geometry, and the MLAA being unable to smooth over the affected area. Again, such issues wouldn’t be present to such a degree in a downsampled image and would almost certainly be noticeably worse with 2xMSAA. You can see this below.


The rest of the scene however, benefits from large levels of decent edge smoothing. It's incredibly hard to tell by the compressed nature of the video creating additional artefacts, but we can see many areas getting what appears to be as much as 8xMSAA - some surfaces 16xMSAA, with others having around 4x, which comes as standard when using the technique.

Another benefit of MLAA comes in the form of excellent high contrast edge anti-aliasing, whereby distinct edges - usually too distinct for MSAA to generate good enough samples for - are handled with reletive ease. Although the trailer doesn’t demonstrate this, due to being set in a dark, low contrast environment, I can’t imagine UC3 being any different.

In order to accurately see just how well MLAA is implemented in Uncharted 3, I suggest you download a high bitrate HD 720p video instead of watching the awfully compressed YouTube one we have here. It suffers from shimmering and other artefacting not present in the actual game.


Moving on, and the fire effects have also been expanded over what was present in Uncharted 2. Here we see multiple layers of blended 2D sprites rendered in 1/4 the frambuffer resolution. Obvious artefacts such as pixelation aren’t visible due to the effect being smoothed over via both blending and filtering techniques. However, we can see evidence of jittering and some shimmering, much like with what is happening with shadows in the game. This is most noticeable at the base of the flames.

Whilst being technically quite simple in comparison to various fire effects we’ve seen in the past, the look is still very convincing with the various layers present on screen creating an impressive show via the use of sheer amounts, rather than advanced technical trickery. Also, the increased use of 2D sprite layers allows for a more organic look to be created. The fire in Uncharted 3 is both more animated and has a greater level of depth than in the second game. This is also helped by the scope the effect finds itself in – fire is everywhere, with varying layers spread all across the environment.

Granted Uncharted 3’s use of fire isn’t technically that impressive when compared to the multi-particle, and multi-layered smoke and fire present in the likes of Lost Planet. Although, Naughty Dog’s solution instead fits in with the PS3’s tight bandwidth requirements and the overall engine make-up far more comfortably than Capcom’s alpha-hevy solution ever would. Like in Killzone 2 and 3, the low res nature of alpha is carefully reduced via good use of filtering and layer blending.


In terms of character modelling, details, and shader effects, we can see that the renderings use for gameplay come remarkably close to matching the pre-rendered desert scene footage we covered here, in our first tech analysis of the game. Drake himself, geometry wise looks to be very close with only slightly paired back use of shaders and texturing. His facial features and animations look almost the same, lacking just a little precision in comparison.

Compared to Uncharted 2, and Drake looks to have gained slightly more in the way of detail. Facial details in particular look better – improved texturing and shaders – and his overall facial design has been artistically changed somewhat. He appears to be a bit chubbier this time around, looking older, more rugged. No doubt as a result of his haphazard worldly adventures, and from the development team adapting his polygonal mesh structure.


As to be expected, when up against the desert scene in the original trailer footage skin shaders have also been mildly reduced, as have small texture details and texture resolution. We can also see the usual shadow and self-shadow artefacts on Drake – jittering, some shimmering etc – that was present throughout Uncharted 2 but absent from the pre-rendered parts of the teaser trailer. This can be found on both characters and the environment. The grasses on the floor in particular are noticeably affected.

Whilst there are obvious differences between the teaser trailer’s pre-rendered in-engine footage and the actual real-time gameplay video, there is nothing that drastically separates them as a whole. Sure, the desert scene exposes a polish not possible in a real-time rendered envronment on the PS3 – with better use of shaders, perfect shadowing and polygon clipping. Although, most effects have at least been translated over to the in-game engine instead of being cut.


Performance wise, the short gameplay clip shows off Uncharted 3's solid state at this point. The demo doesn't appear to drop below 30fps - despite plenty of performance sapping alpha effects - and there is no sign of any screen tearing. It's likely that UC3, as with its predecessor is triple buffered: rendering three frames for every one displayed, simply discarding each torn frame until a clean one is found. Tearing should only occur when all three frames are being torn, a scenario only likely to happen in the most heavy load situations.

That said, the demo dosen't feature any extraordinarily large set-pieces like the train crash and helicopter battle from UC2, which would be a real performance indicator. Instead, what we have here is a somewhat more pedestrain scene designed to show off some of the game's additional graphical polish, along with a few new moves for Drake.


All in all, from what we can see Uncharted 3 boats improvements in lighting, texturing, and shaders over Uncharted 2, with more detail being present, smoother animations, and even better use of anti-aliasing. Some of these improvements are mere subtlties, while others are far more noticeable (like the inclusion of MLAA - UC3’s big leap forward, like with SSAO in UC2). And, with just under a year to go Naughty Dog have plenty of time for optimisations, to get those little details that make all the difference down to a fine art.

The first part of our Uncharted 3 trailer analysis can be found here, which focuses on the teaser trailer and also forms a complete look at the tech behind the game so far.

Tech Analysis: Uncharted 3: Teaser Trailer

So, Uncharted 3 has finally been unveiled. And for those who didn’t think this generation of consoles had much more to offer graphically… well, Naughty Dog’s latest – still just under a year a way from completion – definitely looks to silence the critics. Arguably, given the quality of the real-time and in-engine rendering on offer in Uncharted 3, there’s no need to hurry along to meet that five-year hardware lifecycle.

At the recent VGA awards Naughty Dog finally blew the lid off the next title in the globe-hopping, bandit-shooting Uncharted series, with Drake once again looking rather worse for ware, but this time stranded in the desolate Arabian desert.

The trailer showcases a variety of engine improvements, from shadows and lighting, to texturing and skins shaders. All have seen a noticeable upgrade. Some of these look to be suspiciously from in-engine - but not in-game - footage, whereas others look to have taken the actual in-game tech another leap forward (just look at those water effects). Either way, Uncharted 3 at this early stage looks absolutely incredible.



The trailer can be divided up into three distinct parts; the desert scene in which we see Drake walking slowly across some sand dunes, stranded after being involved in a plane crash; a scene in which him and sully are in a darkened room in what looks like a flashback of sorts; and the ending post title footage, which clearly shows off a few short seconds of actual ganeplay.

All three can be seen below for comparison purposes, and it’s here that we can see exactly which parts of the trailer are being rendered in-engine, in real-time, and actual gameplay.




Starting off with the desert scene, and we can see most obviously some of the changes Naughty Dog have implemented in their engine for Uncharted 3. Drake himself has been remodelled, his facial features adjusted to represent an older, rustier, heavily warn adventurer. He looks almost slightly chubby in appearance. But look at his arms and legs through his clothes, and we can see that it’s just his underlying bone structure that has been updated.

Texture detail has been noticeably upped. Even from the highly compressed video footage we can see additional subtleties in the form of wrinkles, stubble, and pores on the skin. Skin shaders too have also seen similar increases in quality, with all those little facial features reacting far more realistically with the game’s environmental lighting.

You could say that it looks almost too good to be in-game… and indeed it is. This second opening scene looks like it has been created using in-engine assets, though not rendered in real time. A few things other than the shaders hint at this. Most notable the composition of lighting and shadowing in the scene as a whole… they’re largely flawless in their execution.


The shadowing model in particular is completely artefact free whilst maintaining an incredibly level of precision and accuracy. Notice how both the environment and Drake’s own self-shadows lack any kind of jittering or mostly any edge shimmering, both of which are present in later parts of the trailer and in Uncharted 2. All shadows, both up close and far away, are perfectly cast without error, carefully adding a great deal of depth to the final image.

The lighting also complements this, with dynamic shadows reacting and changing according to the environment conditions. Shadows are cast where expected, and the shader model delivers reflections and subtle changes usually too computationally heavy to be replicated with such precision either in-game, or in real-time in-engine cut-scenes.


Although saying that, the art assets used in the trailer are all ones that will be used during gameplay according to Naughty Dog; they’ve simply upgraded some of the effects to complement the offline nature of rendering the scene for the trailer. It’s purely an artistic style choice, great for PR screenshots and posters, but not all that far off from what is present in game as it were.

There are other things that also point to this fact, the detailed nature of Drake’s attire for example. Everything from his belt, the bullets situated upon it, his shirt, and his scarf are beautifully rendered. In particular, Drake’s scarf seems to have a soft-cloth simulation of sorts integrated into its animation system, with no polygon clipping or edge and shadow artefacts. It’s like a CGI rendering but using in-engine artwork.



In terms of the actual trailer resolution, it appears that different scenes are rendered in varying original framebuffer sizes before being either upscaled or downscaled to form the final 720p image. Take the opening desert scene for example. Here we have what looks like a 1980x1080 original FB which has been downsampled in a process known as supersampling to deliver large amounts of full-scene anti-aliasing, resulting in very little in the way of jagged lines.

In fact, the aliasing that is present in this scene – shadows and subtle edge aliasing from certain angles, along with texture aliasing – is perhaps more down to shader aliasing and in particular, the lightsoures being used in combination with the resolution of the shadowmaps themselves. Also, there is barely any evidence of subpixel aliasing issues - we can see that thin lines and small pieces of geometry are highly smoothed over – a key component of using supersampling. But there is nothing more than a few edges with ‘soft jaggies’ standing out from the rest of the scene.

On the whole, this centrepiece scene from the trailer comfortably represents the kind of graphical upgrades to be expected throughout the actual game on a baseline level, although shader effects and texturing has obviously been increases slightly beyond levels possible in-game in real-time no less, with additional precision along with more detailed character modelling.


Moving on to the second key scene, and we can see similar engine upgrades taking place, but without the same level of perfection as in the desert portion we’ve discussed above. Both Drake and Sully feature improvements in texturing, normal mapping and shaders, but not to the extent as seen in the ‘in-engine, pre-rendered’ part of the trailer. This scene appears to be rendered not only with in-game assets but also being done in real-time without any of the ultra precise shadowing and lighting.

Obviously like for like comparisons aren’t completely possible – different lighting conditions and the fact that Drake himself looks to be younger, slimmer than in the earlier part of the trailer – although we can still see evidence of visual tweaks and changes while also spotting a few rendering artefacts that reveal the scene’s real-time presence.


Take a close look at the shadowing on Drake for example. Some of the self-shadows evident around his neck clearly show evidence of jittering and some edge shimmering – something larger absent from the desert part of the trailer. In addition Drake’s character model is slightly less detailed, with reduced shader effects and subtle texture details.

Like with the earlier scene, this part of the trailer also appears to be rendered in 1920x1080 before being supersampled down to 720p, which would explain the lack of any noticeable edge shimmering on the geometry. Although, in dark low contrast environments such things rarely manifest themselves.


Onto the actual gameplay portion of the trailer, and this is where things get difficult. The short and chopped up, cropped, and constantly resizing nature of the clips, along with compression induced motion artefacts make it difficult to assertain how close the game holds up to the graphical quality of the cut-scenes in any meaningful way.

However, we can at least see that the quality looks about on par, or close to the scenes in question. Much like in Uncharted 2, the cut scenes do appear to be higher quality renderings, though using in-game assets and running in real-time (assuming the same system from Uncharted 2 is in place, whereby all cut-scenes are real-time and not video recordings of the renderings). I imagine that gameplay will look basically the same to the untrained eye, featuring similar rendering bugs, but with a touch more detail and precision.

This part of the trailer also looks to be rendered in native 720p (1280x720) like with previous Uncharted titles, while anti-aliasing is yet to be determined. Some have said that MLAA looks to have been implemented, though with compression artefacts masking any potential aliasing issues and the clips so short/poor in quality, this may just be wishful thinking at this point. However, we shall be taking a look at the more recently released direct-feed gameplay video to investigate this further.


One thing that does stand out with the gameplay footage, is the noticeable upgrade in the engine’s ability to render water and fire effects. The water in particular looks incredible. It almost looks like a simulation if you don’t pay attention to how it flows and changes in motion.

The main body of the water appears to be more volume-based than particle-based - modelled with large mesh of animated geometry and normal maps - thus avoiding the PS3’s limited available memory bandwidth for alpha effects, although this is indeed backed up with some particles at the front as the water expands and spreads across the environment.

The fire effects also feature more animation than those found in uncharted 2. From the brief few seconds of footage, we can see an increse in the layers of 2D sprites used to form this effect, with greater levels of blending. Although, again… it’s pretty hard to tell, given the quality and duration of the footage.


Instead, a far better example of how Uncharted 3’s gameplay will hold up against both the in-engine pre-rendered parts of the trailer, and with the real-time in-engine cut-scenes can be found here, in the first direct-feed gameplay trailer.

As you can see, there is a noticeable difference between both the character and environment modelling, shader effects, shadows and lighting compared with the trailer. Against the standard cut-scenes too, we can see a slight downgrading - small, but perhaps greater than the differences in Uncharted 2.


Pre-rendered


In-game

We’ll be taking a look at the gameplay trailer in the next day or two at IQGamer in a shorter tech analysis, mainly focusing on the upgraded fire effects and comparison details between pre-rendered in-engine footage and gameplay. Interestingly, these gameplay shots feature very little in the way of aliasing, shimmering edges etc, which could lead to either an MLAA solution being implemented, or perhaps more supersampling - used in creating print and promotional quality bullshots. But we shall see.

In the meantime we can at least see that regardless of how the footage – and indeed the screens – have been enhanced, modified, or created from an offline render, that Uncharted 3 is already delivering a tangible improvement in rendering quality over and above Uncharted 2 and in some respects Killzone 3, while the game still has just under a year to go before it goes gold.

We also haven’t even mentioned that 3D support is also in the pipeline for day one. How this will be implemented – what method: side by line, top to bottom, half res, full res, etc hasn’t been confirmed – but Naughty Dog have stated that the engine is constantly in a state of flux, with new tech and changes being implemented right up until a month before the final crunch to completion. With that said, we won’t likely find out anything concrete for at least a few months. Although details on the 2D rendering engine will certainly surface long before that.


So… Uncharted 3 then, from what little we’ve seen of it, is looking mightily impressive at this point. It’s very early days in the game yet, with many questions still going unanswered, and a few in which the answers are obviously identifiable. The leap between the second and third Uncharted titles doesn’t appear to be as gigantic as the jump from UC1 to UC2 (SSAO was by far the most noticeable upgrade), although there’s plenty of subtle elements that provide additional flair to the engine, along with increased levels of realism to help engross the player further into Drake’s world.

As we’ve already mentioned, a direct-feed gameplay trailer has since been released to complement the highly directed teaser trailer, showing off two minutes of continuous gameplay in which to present the various in-game engine improvements. You can expect another analysis, albeit much shorter based on this in the next few days.

Thanks go out to Nebula for the framebuffer analysis/pixel counting.

LA Noire: Facial Animation Tech Shown On Video

We took a look at the basics behind LA Noire's advanced facial animation system in a fairly in-depth tech report, sighting a combination of motion capturing and 3D scanning as the process behind the incredibly accurate facial reproduction seen in the game. However, we now bring you a video demonstrating the baseline process of how the initial character facial animation model is created.

The video doesn’t cover the additional work required in preparing these highly detailed and impressively animated models for rendering on the current-gen consoles now massively outdated GPU’s, but instead shows the work done before things like downgrading the art assets and creating the normal maps take place.



As you can see the combination of traditional motion capture and advanced 360 degree 3D motion scanning yields incredible results. The technology on display here could easily be used in digitally re-creating actors for completely CGI-based movies, with obviously far more grunt being available to produce even more detailed and accurate character modelling, especially since all rendering is done off-line rather than in real-time.

To see such tech being used effectively, and indeed highly impressively in a videogame – even with the obvious compromises made in getting the tech to work to a high standard – represents not only some serious investment from Rockstar, but also their commitment in attempting to creating a thoroughly believable, and entirely engrossing experience.

Review: Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)

Donkey Kong Country Returns marks the first proper instalment in Rare’s much-loved and critically applauded series of platform games in eleven years, fourteen if you go right back to DKC3 on the Super NES. The game is a modern day homage to a tried and tested gaming classic, blending in brand new 3D visuals on a 2.5D plane with plenty of barrel blasting, vine-swinging, and baddie bashing action. It’s been a long time coming, but Retro Studios have crafted a rather excellent, if not ever so slightly flawed entry to a series that has been absent for far too long.

Like before, DKCR begins with the great ape having his prized banana horde stolen from right under his tree house. Only this time it’s not those pesky Kremlings and King K Rool that is to blame, but a race of floating masks going by the name of the Tiki Tak tribe. The Tiki’s have hypnotised all of the DK Island’s animal inhabitance and turned then into vicious banana stealing, Kong killing adversaries. And naturally it’s your job as the Island’s head-honcho DK, along with your simian pal Diddy to stop them.

Donkey Kong Country Returns shares much of its blueprint with those three Super NES originals, along with borrowing elements from Donkey Kong Jungle Beat and adding plenty of fresh new material. You’ve got the return of the series main hub and individual world maps, with some six or so levels, plus one boss in each, a lively jazzed up version of the original DKC soundtrack, along with sound and gameplay elements from the later games as well. Both DK and Diddy return for the first time together since the original DKC, aiding each other with their own individual trademark moves.


Unlike in past DKC games however, only Donkey Kong is directly playable in the single-player mode, with Diddy simply riding on DK’s back giving the titular ape two more extra hits before dying, and a very usefull jetpack ability used to extend jumps and clear longer distances. The change in design gets rid of the need to have one particular character to reach certain areas, instead opting for Diddy’s jetpack ability to help lead you to secret areas and unreachable items. It’s a compromise that works well, and the use of additions to your life is welcome given the game’s often harsh difficulty level.

Yep, Donkey Kong Country Returns is hard… very, very hard. It’s by far the toughest of the four DKC games created, getting players sweating very early on – sometimes boardering on being a little too difficult for its own good, with stages getting notoriously annoying to complete just before the halfway point. However, for me much of the earlier challenge didn’t come in having to avoid the game’s various pitfalls, enemies, or deviously placed traps. These I can deal with, mostly, considering they aren’t always all that much harder than the worst DKC2 or even 3 had to offer – almost on par in fact - quickly going to back to those games to check.

Instead, the main culprit behind DKCR’s sometimes absurd difficulty (early on, but certainly not later) – and yes, I did have to use that Super Guide at times – is the unnecessary use of waggle with the Wii Remote in order to perform specific moves. It just makes this harder by not being as responsive as a button press on the controller.


You can use both the Wii remote on its own, or a Wii Remote + Nunchuck combo in DKCR, but it is the former that I find works the best. Jumping and running is handled with the 1 and 2 buttons when the game is played this way, with the D-Pad being used for movement. Shaking the Wii Remote while stationary performs a ground pound, while shaking when running delivers a barrel roll.

Now this set-up largely isn’t a problem, though waggling the remote has a noticeable delay in between performing the motion and having DK executes his moves. This means that last minute barrel rolls off the edges of platforms in order to gain higher, further jumps is no longer anywhere near as intuitive as on the Super NES games, often leading to either: late attacks which fail to have the desired effect, or simply nothing at all in a worse case. Classic Controller support then is sorely missed, as it would have eased up the difficulty level somewhat along with giving you a more comfortable method of control.


While Donkey Kong Jungle Beat showed off how much imagination and excitement the series still had after years of being left untouched in the canopy for the best part of half a decade, DKCR goes even further having some of the most intoxicatingly inspired platform level design I’ve seen in any game in years, let alone DKC. Sure enough, the game sees you barrel blasting through the jungle, riding mine carts through uncharted territory, and bopping off a string of enemies before swinging off to that next platform.

However, the scenery this time is far more interactive. Platforms raise and lower as you ground pound on certain areas, structures collapse in the background as you try to perilously shoot yourself across bottomless pits of jungle, and barrels can be ridden as an unwieldy rockets providing yet more excitement. The old-school perfect path elements of the previous three Super NES games return: bopping off a few enemies, jumping off a vine and into a barrel in order to progress in a clean and fluid manner not always apparent on your first playthrough of any of the game’s levels, is something that is as polished as it was all those years ago.


There’s also lots of hidden areas to find in each stage, KONG letters to collect, and a variety of other such bonuses, all of which deliver added depth familiar to all those who’ve spent their times playing the original DKC’s all those years ago.

Other than the perfect path aspect of the game, this is by far the biggest draw. I’ve always loved going through the first three DKC games one-hundred percenting them numerous times before, unlocking the lost world in the last two games and sending K Rool packing for the second time. And while the challenge in DKCR may well be too great to do quite the same, I really like the amount of effort that has been put in to giving completists exactly what they want.

The game’s remixed soundtrack also verges on being thoroughly excellent at times to a little bland in general. The music doesn't quite generate the same level of atmosphere as the tunes found in Rare's first two DKC games, although to its credit always fits the mood of the stages and their surroundings.

Another qualm comes with regards to the game's general sound design, especially concerning the sound affects. Again they aren’t quite as good as expected. Both DK and Diddy’s voice work (if you can call it that) is cheesier than ever, sometimes sounding more comic than needed, and the contact hits and smacks when jumping on enemies and blasting out of barrels isn’t anywhere near as distinctive. Thankfully, collecting the KONG pieces and Puzzle token yield some lovely old-school jingles.


Moving on, and Retro’s attention to detail in other areas is simply outstanding. Visually the stages in DKCR literally come alive. Trees move and sway in the wind, tides rise and then receed as you play, and whole parts of the environments radically change before your every eyes.

Nothing like this remotely happened in the old 16bit titles, and this is precisely why, even though on first impressions I didn’t like the move to polygonal 3D, the change in visual style was exactly the right choice. DK’s world coming alive, feeling organic as well as graphically accomplished gives the game a personality that would otherwise fail to shine through in quite the way it does.

The same can be said of the animation on both the Kong’s and the enemies, which is both smooth and incredibly fluid. It looks very organic. The enemies themselves, although generic in design feel like they belong in a DK title, making up for the lack of Gwanty’s, Neeks, and Necky’s. The Tiki’s on the other hand, are pretty poor in general, lacking the distinctive impact of the Kremlings and their ruthlessly scaly nature.

But on the whole both the characters and worlds of DKCR are full of personality, even if they aren’t always that interesting. Retro have also (thankfully to some extent) cut out the fat by removing most of the supporting cast of Kong’s. Cranky makes a return – you can’t really not include the ‘original’ DK now can you – as does our Rhinoceros animal friend Rambi, but without some of the more pointless additions (Wrinkly Kong, Swanky Kong, and that stupid elephant from DKC3 I can’t remember the name of). It’s the right choice, and allows the developers to expand the level design ideas around almost solely playing as Donkey Kong, to much success.


While its quite easy to dislike DKCR for things it does wrong, it would also be at an utmost disservice to avoid the title considering the things it get so very right. Fans of the Super NES originals may indeed dislike some of the direction this latest homage title has taken – myself included - although that doesn’t take away from the blindingly awesome level designs, the hidden secrets dotted around everywhere, and the fact that even Rare themselves have failed to match their own genius since the last DKC (damn you DK64). I didn’t always enjoy my time with DKCR, but I did appreciate just what Retro have achieved, which is always something worth considering.

Donkey Kong Country Returns, dare I say it, is a mostly triumphant return to the series glory days, although isn’t quite a perfectly formed comeback. The incredibly high difficulty level, the lack of any truly iconic enemies to face throughout (certain bosses aside), and the removal of Donkey and Diddy as fully fledged, separate playable characters in single-player mode definitely hurts the experience. As does the lack of Classic Controller support, which would have gone along way in making the gameplay seem a little more fluid; being able to jump around, blasting your way through stages almost like second nature, instead of fighting the slightly laggy waggle mechanics.

However, against all odds Retro Studios have crafted some of the most imaginative and inspired level designs ever seen in any platform game to date, not only outclassing those in the original DKC, but also all of the ones in Nintendo’s own New Super Mario Bros re-envisioning.

Certainly, much care and attention has been lavished on the experience as a whole even if it doesn’t quite, in my opinion, match the sheer brilliance and beauty – in terms of having a complete mix of graphics, sound, and gameplay design interwoven together – as the first two DKC games. Though it does both hold its own and often exceed Rare’s less impressive, but still solidly excellent, third instalment in the series.


For those looking for some old-school, really hardcore platforming action, then Donkey Kong Country Returns is well worth picking up. But be warned though; it’s tough, often frustrating, and unbelievably unforgiving. That said, it’s also incredibly good at the same time, balancing a fine line between sequel and self-indulgent homage, and exemplarily hard but always fair ride into the Kingdom of Kong.

VERDICT: 8/10