Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze

[Kosheh]

welp, that'll show me to post on VGR before 7AM

but
did you just

write an essay over a single line of my post? O_O

maybe i should have said "gimmicks where they change things up way too much to the point that it gets actually irritating"

DKC2 actually had a nice way of introducing gimmicks into each level, but each level's design eased you into each gimmick and it didn't feel weird. the one exception is the racing levels (but the racetrack light countdown is kind of an obvious indicator you're about to enter a race) and some gimmicks (like the seal) pop up in later levels to bring in interesting uses of said prior gimmick.

but then DKC3 had these completely absurd gimmicks in an attempt to keep each level fresh...which they weren't. like there's one level where you're using Ellie's vacuum nose mechanic to pull barrels, and then you never use it again. There's another level that just out of nowhere LIGHTNING STRIKES, and not until you're actually struck by it is there any indicator to keep moving. And then it never happens again. And then there's the level where the controls are reversed (literally the most irritating thing you can do, how anyone thinks this is a healthy mechanic in game design is beyond me) and finally, an entire level dedicated to jumping into a rocket and grabbing fuel. To be fair, these are mechanics you see late into the game - but I feel like there's a huge shortcoming in level design there.

Now, if there were three levels using the rocket fuel mechanic increasing in difficulty, or some transition in an earlier level that you jump into the wrong colored water and oops! your controls are reversed! - I wouldn't have even mentioned said gimmicks and said "oh, cool gimmicks, i love how you were eased into them" - nope, just one level where you have to deal with this bizarre gimmick and you never see it again.

Going off of assumptions here as I've only played a demo, but I'm pretty sure SM3DW uses similar things in their level design, but then you see parts of those gimmick levels spread out and rehashed in other levels (i.e. a wall-climbing level to be done in the catsuit power-up, and then wall-climbing segments throughout the game)