It’s not unfair to say that the gaming landscape was somewhat different when Donkey Kong Country Returns first fell into our laps in 2010; 2D platformers were a rare breed, and ol’ DK himself hadn’t arguably had a mainline entry in his series since 2004’s Jungle Beat. Back then, the title said it all: not only was Donkey Kong back, but Donkey Kong Country had indeed returned. That’s not quite the world we’re living in 15 years later.
Having said that, just like the original, Donkey Kong Country Returns HD explains everything you need to know about it in the title: it’s Donkey Kong Country Returns in HD, and unfortunately, it’s not much more than that. This is that same great game from the Wii era tarted up a bit here and there.
The Tiki Tak Tribe – a set of manipulative, sentient instruments, naturally – have stolen DK’s beloved banana horde for their own purposes, and have hypnotised the local fauna into turning on our simian superhero. Either that or the wildlife has always bemoaned DK’s sense of self-importance, the game doesn’t specify one way or another. Armed with his sidekick of debated relation in Diddy Kong, you’re going to need to make the titular ape run, roll, jump, slam, and (sadly) blow his way through a swathe of environs that are worryingly close to one another given their extreme weather differences.
Let’s nip the moveset in the bud quickly: for 99% of your playtime DK handles brilliantly. His physics and momentum are a little strange compared to a typical platformer, but once you get it down, you can see why it is the way it is, and for the most part it fits well with the level design. Gone is the need to waggle the Wii Remote and/or Nunchuk to roll, instead everything is controlled with buttons and sticks, just like Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D on the 3DS. If you’re hankering for some tethered shaking action you can enable motion controls in the options menu, which we wouldn’t recommend in a month of Sundays, but it’s nice that it’s included regardless. Options are good.
But there’s one mechanic that lets things down, and that’s blowing. By holding down on the D-Pad or left stick and hitting the action button, DK will crouch and gently blow something he could probably slam with his palms. You can use this to blow out fire, interact with background objects and a few other things, and it’s a bloody nuisance, frankly. It kills the pace whenever you’re required to use it, is direction-sensitive, and is tellingly not present in the sequel, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. We would never expect a remaster to remove a mechanic like this (although it’s nice to wish), but forcing the blow on us after all these years reminded us why we were so happy to give it up.
Luckily, it’s rarely required if you’re not aiming for 100% completion, although the number of times we’ve killed our speed to blow on a suspicious-looking reed only for it to frustratingly wither away and yield nothing in return is higher than we’d like. It was about four times, but that’s four times too many.
But enough about hangups. The game as a whole is great, a real testament to Retro Studio’s strides to bring something new to an all-but-dormant genre. In truth, some things have aged more than others: boss fights continue to be an exercise in tedium, for example, while nowadays, we’re spoiled with platformers that are standing on DK’s shoulders. Fortunately, there’s still plenty of examples of great level design, expressive animation, and surprises for new players and those without concerningly accurate memories of video games.
Not all levels are created equal, however. Some started and seemed to end in the blink of an eye, and others have difficulty spikes that will likely put off more casual players. Thankfully, Cranky Kong’s Shop sells a variety of different useful items that can help you reach the goal in those trickier segments, and this is even expanded in the new ‘Modern’ difficulty that is very reminiscent of the ‘New’ mode from Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D. DK and Diddy both get an extra hit point as well, which should ease the frustration for levels that don’t rely on insta-death for their challenge.
But in terms of what’s actually new in this HD remaster? Well, as we suggested above, it’s a slim list. The additional levels from the 3DS version are present, and some of the visuals have had a bit of a bump. DK and Diddy have new, higher-poly models, and they even boast a bit of the ol’ ‘Conker Fur’, which probably has a less Rare-focused name by now. Truth be told, you’ll probably only notice this at the end of levels and during in-engine cutscenes, but it’s something. The timing window for bouncing on the heads of enemies also appears to be a bit more generous to our feel.
But in all honesty, that’s about it. There’s nothing standout about this HD version that sets it apart from the other two besides its resolution. All the new inclusions are piecemeal, and even worse there are some new (extremely minor) blemishes that weren’t previously present.
Firstly, the sound mixing is a bit… all over the place. Certain cutscenes are whisper-quiet, but the loading screen music is far too loud in our opinion; it’s more reminiscent of the 3DS version but louder still to our ear.
Donkey Kong rises with his balloon strangely quickly when you lose a life, and the animation that plays just before is oddly stretched, as though the original hadn’t been intended for widescreen displays, which it actually was. Don’t get us wrong, these are all incredibly insignificant complaints, but they’re all symptoms of what feels like a lacklustre remastering of a beloved game.
The real clincher, however, is performance. For an overwhelming majority of the time, the game runs at a solid 60fps, but there are instances where dropped frames occur, even in small sections of entire levels when the game appears to be struggling, such as the Beach world’s boss fight. It’s infrequent enough that it doesn’t spoil the fun, but this is a Wii game at its heart, the Switch should have absolutely zero issues running it flawlessly, and given the full retail price tag, we’d expect that from a first-party release.
The broad feeling around the game is one of missed opportunity, this was a chance to create the definitive version of Donkey Kong’s fabulous 2010 return; instead, Forever Entertainment has delivered a product that is good enough rather than what Retro Studio’s classic revival deserves. It’s still the same great game at its core, but it’s lacking the love that the original had poured into it, a fact which is capped off by the original developers’ names being entirely absent from the credits beyond a cursory ‘Based on the work of the original development staff’.
Conclusion
Donkey Kong Country Returns HD is a fine way to play the 2010 original, but it’s also lacking any real reason for fans to double-dip beyond waggle-free controls. It’s less of a remaster and more of a port, to be honest, which would be all well and good if it wasn’t being sold at such a premium. There’s plenty of fun to be had, but we can’t help but walk away from it with a slightly sour taste in our mouths. Our advice? Grab the superior Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze instead.
