Nintendo responds to Donkey Kong credits furore, says it values “contributions that all staff make”

Nintendo said it believes “in giving proper credit” to those who work on its games, after recently omitting the original development team at Retro Studios from Donkey Kong Country Returns HD‘s credits.

Donkey Kong Country Returns HD is a remaster of 2010’s Wii release, which was originally developed by Retro and published by Nintendo. This year’s remaster, however, has been helmed by Forever Entertainment, which is front and centre of the new release’s credits. Meanwhile, Nintendo has omitted the original developers from the ending, simply stating the HD remaster was “based on the work” of the Donkey Kong Country Returns team.

Now, in a statement to Eurogamer regarding its crediting policy, Nintendo said: “We believe in giving proper credit for anyone involved in making or contributing to a game’s creation, and value the contributions that all staff make during the development process.”

Nintendo did not state why then it had still omitted the original Donkey Kong Country Returns team from the HD remaster’s credits. We have asked for further clarification on this, and will update if we hear more.

Nintendo has previously been called out for missing those who worked on a game from its credits.

In 2023, former Retro Studios engineer Zoid Kirsch said he was “let down” by the lack of individual credits in Metroid Prime Remastered. Meanwhile, last year, translators contracted from firms outside of Nintendo voiced their disappointment at not being credited for work on high-profile games.

We recently awarded Donkey Kong Country Returns HD three out of five stars.

“A straightforward remaster that struggles to outshine the Switch port of Tropical Freeze, but Returns HD is still a challenging and satisfying platformer that stands the test of time,” our Katharine wrote in Eurogamer’s Donkey Kong Country Returns HD review.