Everything in Tropical Freeze was made with extreme care and attention. From the landscapes and enemies to the music and level design. Each island has its own ecosystem so filled with details and different things to do that, as soon as one level is over, the question of what will Retro do next always looms around, and the developer always surprises.

Just like the previous game, I yelled alternating cries of agony and relief working through particularly challenging areas. Almost everything is fair and doable with enough focus and patience; the bonus stages are a little ridiculous, but that's to be expected. [March 2014, p.89]

Another "job well done" by the masters at Retro Studios.

Tropical Freeze is a marvel. Though it doesn’t deviate from expectations in the slightest, it’s an exceptional, and exceptionally tough platformer that just about every masochistic Wii U owner should play.

Tropical Freeze is exactly what we expected from the sequel of one of the best platform games of the last generation. There might not be many surprises, but this is still an extremely polished (and great) game.

You know what you are going to get when you buy a Donkey Kong Country game. Fortunately, that's a good thing and this is no exception.

If the regular levels were as inventive as the boss battles, then Tropical Freeze would be a surefire hit, or at least a game that demands more of your attention. No matter how much I was looking forward to seeing DK in HD, it's difficult to maintain that enthusiasm when the end product plays it so safe: even the visuals fail to make an impact. They're nice enough, but like the level design, the environments are mostly bland.