New Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze gameplay shown at VGX; Cranky Kong playable

Cranky Kong is playable in Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze. He has his cane, using it to jump around and perform a 'cane bounce,' which gives him extra height and lets him bounce on spikes without taking damage.

One of the levels shown was Bramble Scramble, where the level feels and comes alive as new pieces of environment — vines, thorns, etc. — keep popping up. And the graphics look gorgeous — very close to what is seen in Super Mario 3D World but, ya know, not 3D. It's a sidescrolling platformer. There are four playable characters — a fifth was not revealed despite the VGX hosts' greatest efforts.

And then Joel McHale asked Reggie what he thought of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Reggie actually handled it well.

Also revealed was the US release date of February 21, 2014.

You can follow Senior Editor Lance Liebl on Twitter @Lance_GZ. He likes talking sports, video games, movies, and the stupidity of celebrities. Email at LLiebl@GameZone.com