Donkey Kong Country Returns

Donkey Kong Country Returns OR How to waste an entire day playing Wii games.....

Several years ago we played Donkey Kong on Nintendo until our fingers were ready to fall off.  It was my favorite Nintendo game!  So last year for Christmas I bought Donkey Kong Country Returns for our Wii.

Somehow the game got misplaced and last week when I was cleaning up the front room in anticipation of this weeks upcoming Christmas decorating, I found the game jammed down behind an end table.  I know, I know, that doesn't say much about my housekeeping in general, but that's an entirely different story and not really one that I care to explore.  Anyway......

We opened the game on Friday morning and decided to play the first board while we were drinking our coffee and eating toast.  Both of the kids wandered into the front room and plopped down to laugh hysterically at our pathetic attempts to get through the first board!  Let's just say that Louie and I are not very good at some Wii games.   Chablis and Tony each took turns playing the game and managed to get through more boards in one hour than Louie or I would have in 3 hours.  I got disgusted with my quality of play, so Tony and I left to go to the gym.  Chablis and Louie stayed home to explore the game further and were still intently at it when we returned home 1 1/2 hours later.

I took a shower and joined Louie on the sofa to attempt another board when Chablis left to go to work.  Tony strolled in and out of the room, usually long enough to snort at us, take the controls and breeze through another board.  He would return to the kitchen to study while Louie and I jumped Donkey Kong through barrels, along roller coasters and up vines and made very little progress in general.  Tony left for work at 5:00 while we sweated and swore our way through more boards.  I promise, we were enjoying this!

At 6 pm Chablis came home from work and gave me the long puss because dinner wasn't ready.  "Hello!!!  I have been extremely busy playing Donkey Kong all day and I do not have time to be cooking meals."  Louie solved the dilemma by ordering a pizza and we cheerfully watched Chablis work on another board while eating dinner in front of the game.

Fast forward to 11 pm when Tony got home from work.   He took one look at the 3 of us sitting bleary eyed in front of the game and shook his head.   Run, roll, jump, pound, fall, get killed - it was a never ending, obsessive cycle.  The 4 of us sat up until midnight passing the controller around like a hot potato.

At the end of the day we had completed 4 worlds.  Donkey Kong for Wii is by far one of the best games I've ever played.  The graphics are amazing and the challenges are fun and really clever.  Most kids these days would probably plow through the game in no time at all, but for Wii challenged folks like Louie and I, it's providing hours of entertainment.  Plus, we have the added bonus of roping in both of our kids for a couple of fun family hours.  It may have been a wasted day as far as accomplishing anything, but any day spent laughing  with my kids is a day well spent!