What parents need to know
Donkey Kong Country Returns HD is a remaster of the game that was released for Wii in 2010, and was re-released for the 3DS in 2013. It is also the prequel to the game Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, available on Nintendo Switch and released in 2018. It is a side-scrolling platformer in which players control Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong as they try to stop the evil Tiki. Players traverse whimsical platforms, using jumping moves and barrel attacks to defeat cartoonish enemies (e.g., frogs, birds, Tiki-masked creatures).
There are about ten levels per environment, and players roam forests, beaches, mines, ruins, volcanoes, cliffs in 2D.
It is possible to play with 2 players. Characters can jump, hit the ground, blow, roll, grab objects and throw them.
Like the original games, Donkey Kong Country Returns HD is very challenging.
Playing with 2 players is another challenge, as it involves synchronizing to overcome obstacles in often very limited time.
This game was offered to us for review purposes, but that doesn’t influence our opinion.
Details
Level of experience required
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Evaluation
No problem. It’s equivalent to a children’s cartoon. Donkey Kong punches masks at the end of boss fights. Otherwise, it rolls to knock down enemies and hits the ground.
none
Very few, a few instructions to start the game and to buy the items in the shop.
Encourages 2-player co-op.
The game requires a lot of dexterity, trial and error to overcome the obstacles. There are also counterintuitive manipulations to be performed to unlock secrets (roll into the void + aerial jump).
No problem. The entire game is included in the cartridge or in the file you download the first time.
Our opinion
I love Donkey Kong, Diddy and Dixie, it’s a franchise I grew up with. This remaster is very similar to the original game.
It’s a pleasure to find the whole gang of monkeys in this game.
However, after the first levels of this title, the game becomes very difficult. We go over obstacle after obstacle constantly, without any respite. You’re relieved when you finish a level, but you don’t want to do it again to collect all the puzzle pieces and letters K-O-N-G scattered around. There are secrets all the time everywhere. Once you understand that you have to constantly try to go left at the beginning of a level, constantly try to cross the big precipices with a long jump, constantly clap your hands on a certain type of surface, you get a lot of the bonuses back.
The bonus levels, hidden in the levels, are very repetitive. There are about 5 of them, and their only variation as you progress is on the movement speed of platforms and barrels. Otherwise, you will do them again, about ten times each. You can do without them, but they often contain bananas, coins, extra lives and especially puzzle pieces needed to unlock images in the gallery.
The auto-scrolling levels are the most frustrating of the lot, because you have to react to obstacles that come your way. And if you have the misfortune of not having made the required jump exactly, there is another obstacle or enemy ready to pick you up on landing.
This game is intended for the most persevering, the most relentless people who will see it as an opportunity to perform the best in each of the environments. The best time, the best run, the best course without taking damage, the game is optimized for them. There’s even a Time Attack mode that unlocks after each level.
This HD version nevertheless brings a Modern mode selectable at the beginning of the game, for the rest of the game. It allows you to have 3 life cores per character, instead of 2, and to have more items available for purchase in the store in order to obtain temporary aid for progression.
Super Kong is also a novelty and can activate after losing a certain number of times in a row. You can then press +, and this white Donkey Kong will do the level in its entirety for you. You will then be able to move on to the next level but will not get any rewards. It’s similar to the help available in the New Super Mario Bros since the Wii. This is the first time I’ve used an aid of this kind in a video game. 😀
Also, I have years of experience with the Donkey Kong Country SNES and the controls are a bit of a problem for me. On SNES, you roll over, you catch the rolls with the same touch. On Switch, it’s a button (X or Y) for rolling, tapping on the ground and blowing and with the other button (any trigger), you grab the barrels and hold on to the vines. It completely confuses me.
The only alternative configuration is to alternate the positions of the two controls.
You can also reactivate the motion controls, like on Wii, but that doesn’t change the basis of the problem.
The roll also takes many frames and a large distance to activate. I don’t remember if it was like that in the original game, but you have to constantly plan these jumps in advance instead of being able to react with this one. Sometimes we want to roll, jump, and Donkey Kong starts hitting the ground.
Donkey Kong Country Returns was in 2010 the first attempt of the development studio Retro Studios (also behind the Metroid Prime) to recover the franchise. It is therefore a conservative opus that takes up the codes, the soundtrack of the original trilogy in its majority in order to win back fans. The sequel Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze is nevertheless better (and also difficult), and I also recommend Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair which was designed by former developers of the DKC SNES.
Whether in this game or in the 2 others mentioned above, these are universes and environments that I never tire of going through.
Information for experts
The game was developed by Forever Entertainment, already responsible for the remakes of Panzer Dragoon and House of the Dead. If you’re wondering why PD2 and HOTD 2 haven’t gotten their remake yet, it’s because Forever was busy redoing all of DKC Returns HD on Unity.
The game runs at 60 fps with some very minimal framerate drops. And some textures, and elements of scenery in some levels have strangely not been transcribed since the Wii version.
