Donkey Kong Country Returns HD Review

I owe Donkey Kong Country Returns HD an apology. I laughed in disbelief at its initial announcement because it’s not only the third time Nintendo has sold us a version of this 2010 Wii platformer, it’s also the third Switch re-release Donkey Kong has seen despite not getting a completely new adventure in the last decade. This remaster’s reveal felt like the wrong game at the wrong time, but it only took a few minutes of running across a decently spruced up Donkey Kong Island to realize Returns is still one of the best 2D platformers Nintendo has made this century. It has all the things I want from this genre: satisfying movement that demands skill and precision, a large lineup of replayable challenges stuffed with secrets to find, and a practically unparalleled attention to detail in its superb level design that’s pretty much only rivaled by its sequel, Tropical Freeze. Even though the remaster itself feels barebones and a few elements could have used a slightly more modern touch, this is definitely the best way to play Returns and one of the top bananas in the Switch’s impressive platformer lineup.

As I barreled through 80 levels set in jungles, caves, and more, it struck me just how few games like this are made anymore. In an era where modern platformers like Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Astro Bot mostly focus on wowing you with spectacle and joyously ushering you through their handcrafted digital theme parks, Returns stands out as it doubles down on the platforming itself. It’s full of tough levels and nail-biting moments that require you to master its central jumping, rolling, and swinging mechanics to overcome its biggest challenges. No shade to the two games I just mentioned – I adore them both – but revisiting Nintendo’s version of this classic platformer style is refreshing, and I love how it isn’t afraid to test you.

Difficulty-wise, this is several steps above Mario and Kirby, and that’s another great differentiating factor from the other platformers in Nintendo’s stable. The level design is incredibly impressive: Every stage introduces a new idea and explores it to the fullest as it ramps up the challenge without ever making it unclear what is expected of you. To reclaim Donkey Kong’s home, you’ll have to outrun hordes of ape-eating spiders, avoid enormous lethal waves, and make perfect jumps across crumbling platforms, and it’s always exciting to see what obstacle will be thrown at you next.

The difficulty stays fun rather than frustrating thanks to Donkey Kong’s perfect controls and immensely satisfying abilities. There’s a distinct weight to the movement in Retro Studios’ pair of Donkey Kong games, as if you can really get a sense for the heft of this big ape as you move, resulting in a platformer more focused on momentum where you’ll often have to plan your moves ahead of time and gear up for that next huge leap. The advanced rolling-jump mechanic in particular – where Donkey Kong gets a free jump in midair after rolling off a ledge – leads to some of the most rewarding platforming out there when you pull off a crazy move to save yourself or snag a hard-to-reach collectible. Your options open up even more when you break Diddy Kong out of a barrel. He both doubles your max health and adds an extremely helpful hover ability that’s a game changer in tougher sections.

If testing your mettle isn’t for you, the optional Modern Mode – which is slightly altered from the 3DS port’s New Mode – adds extra hearts to DK and Diddy’s health, expands the inventory at Cranky Kong’s shop with more useful aids (like a Green Balloon that saves you after falling into a pit), and lets you take more consumable recovery items into each level. Plus, if there’s a stage you just can’t clear, Super Kong will eventually show up and offer to automatically beat it for you. I love challenging platformers, so I stuck to Classic Mode and never looked back, but these are at least great options for people who don’t like to get stuck.

The one place Returns occasionally gets a little bit too mean is its on-rails minecart and rocket barrel levels. These areas can suffer from a lot of trial-and-error, where I frequently died to sudden enemies or obstacles I had no way of reasonably avoiding on my first attempt. This is worsened if you’re going for the hidden collectibles in each stage, where you’re almost guaranteed to miss at least some of them the first time through until you know the level’s patterns. It’s especially frustrating because everything in these sections is a one-hit kill; a problem Tropical Freeze later solved by introducing vehicle-specific health bars. To be fair, it’s not a huge issue – Modern Mode adds an item in Cranky’s shop that can make these sections less of a pain, and I still really enjoy them for how they break up the pace of the standard stages – but I can’t help but feel they could have used a bit of freshening up. Similarly, the boss fights are largely fantastic, but they still suffer from a complete lack of checkpoints, and being forced back to the beginning after dying in the final phase feels more like a waste of time than a meaningful challenge.

The absence of any updates to these stumbling points highlights just how barebones Returns HD is as a remaster. This really is just a combination of the Wii and 3DS versions of Returns with a new coat of paint, and nothing more. It’s a competent update, but it’s nowhere near the level of something like Metroid Prime Remastered – the other Retro Studios game that got a shiny updated release on Switch. It certainly doesn’t look bad, and it almost always runs at a smooth 60 frames per second, but even Tropical Freeze’s 2018 Switch port looks noticeably nicer. That’s most apparent when comparing Donkey Kong’s character model across the two games: DK’s fur looks amazing in Tropical Freeze, but just a little bit off in Returns. This is very clearly still a Wii game in HD everywhere from the levels to the cutscenes, which is completely fine, but I would’ve liked to see the graphics get a bit more love when the movement otherwise aged so well. Still, this is undoubtedly the best way to play Returns, as the Wii version had mandatory waggling motion controls that have been mercifully made entirely optional, and the extra 3DS levels have been rescued from that version’s downgraded graphics and co-op that required two systems and copies. That makes Returns HD the first time you can play this adventure on your TV with traditional button controls and all of its content intact, and that’s great to see.

Speaking of multiplayer, Returns HD is fully playable in two-player co-op where a second player takes control of Diddy Kong, but it’s not necessarily how I would want to play through the entire campaign. It’s different from its contemporary New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which was made with multiplayer in mind from the beginning, in that it feels more like a neat bonus feature tacked onto a single-player game. The camera is so zoomed in that it’s easy for someone to fall behind, and these levels are clearly designed around just one player given their abundance of falling platforms and fast-moving obstacles. There’s still fun to be found in multiplayer, and it’s by no means a bad experience – but unless you have a great co-op partner willing to deal with some slight annoyances (or a young child/sibling that’s just content to be along for the ride), your best bet is either flying solo or passing the controller back and forth, as was also the case back on Wii.

That said, it’s a testament to the original that almost nothing was changed for this remaster and the final product is still so great. The attention to detail in its level design is remarkable. Unlike Mario, there are no unexplained floating platforms or blocks – every single platform DK runs across is seamlessly built into the landscape, often through its masterful interplay between the foreground and background, and it all culminates in one of the most impressive, cohesive worlds in any platformer. The biggest highlight of this is the factory world, which wonderfully implements conveyor belts, gears, and other machinery as the main methods of getting around. The soundtrack and settings play it a little safe (especially when compared to its sequel), but it’s important to remember that the original Donkey Kong Country Returns was tasked with bringing the franchise back after years away, so Retro Studios naturally chose to revisit some of the staples.

Each level is stuffed with secrets to find, too, with the classic KONG letters and plenty of puzzle pieces tucked away in seemingly every corner. Sometimes exploration slows down the otherwise furious pace more than I’d like – blowing air onto all the dandelions, flowers, and candles you pass feels clunky and is an outdated mechanic that Tropical Freeze rightfully removed – but I still had a blast spending roughly 15 hours tracking down every letter and bringing my save file to 100% completion while also tackling tons of worthwhile content that appears after the credits roll.