Review: DONKEY KONG COUNTRY RETURNS HD Fresh Paint and Frustrating Experience

Diddy Kong on Donkey Kong’s back as they run through the jungle. A rhino is off to the side and a cartoon sentient tiki mask is behind the Kongs looking menacingly.

Last month, Nintendo released Donkey Kong Country Returns HD from developer Forever Entertainment. This is an HD remaster of Donkey Kong Country Returns from 2010 by Retro Studios for the Wii (and ported to the Nintendo 3DS as Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D by Monster Games in 2013).

Nintendo was kind enough to provide me with a digital review copy of the game but all thoughts below are my own. If you want a copy of the game, you can get it from your favorite stores including Humble (affiliate link) with an MSRP of $59.99.

Jump, roll, and stomp through Donkey Kong Island in 2D platforming action

Help Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong recover their precious banana hoard from the villainous Tiki Tak Tribe! Stomp enemies, blast through barrels, and ride rockets and mine carts (and even Rambi the rhino) in 80 levels across nine worlds.

Play the game as it was first designed for the Wii system, or reduce the difficulty for extra hearts and other goodies to make your journey a little easier. This barrel-blasting adventure is visually enhanced in HD for the Nintendo Switch system and includes the extra levels from the Nintendo 3DS version!

Before I get too far into it, I feel we need to lay some groundwork. I have not played the Wii nor 3DS versions of Donkey Kong Country Returns. I have enjoyed, but never completed, the first three Donkey Kong Country games for the SNES. We also need to be sure we understand that this is an HD remaster, not a remake. Now let’s dive in.

I’ll be blunt. I haven’t really enjoyed my time with Donkey Kong Country Returns HD. I will say that the graphics are an improvement. Everything looks better in many ways.

However, once again let’s remember that this is a remaster of a Wii game and, to me, it immediately looked like a Wii game that had received some touch ups. Not the end of the world, but definitely noticeable.

Unfortunately, the actual gameplay of Donkey Kong Country Returns HD has really got me down. For starters, movement feels very slippery which I do not like. I don’t mind a little inertia, but I personally felt like Donkey Kong had lubed up his feet before each level.

Combine that with what in my opinion are some poor controls and I kept getting frustrated. Of course, you have your standard movement and jump buttons. You can also press X or Y to roll. Once again, not a big deal.

There’s also this little mechanic where you can stop, crouch, and press X or Y to blow on flowers in the background to get bananas or even KONG letters if you’re lucky. I hate this. My first problem is that you have to be completely still and pressing down which already feels bad because you just want to keep moving in a game like this.

However, if you accidentally tilt the joystick a little forward or back, you’ll roll instead of blow on the flower. The Switch controllers have FOUR BUTTONS! WE CAN HAVE ROLL AND BLOW ASSIGNED TO TWO DIFFERENT ONES!

Another aspect that bothers me about Donkey Kong Country Returns HD is that when you go to start a New Game it asks if you want to play Modern or Classic but then gives very vague descriptions of what those mean.

I had to use the internet to learn that Modern mode gives you one extra heart (that part was obvious after I started a second game on Classic), it allows you to have more items per level (9 vs 3), and there are a few extra items you can buy from Cranky’s Shop.

Why was it too difficult for them to explain this in-game? It also doesn’t help that after you buy items from Cranky’s Shop they never explain how to use them.

On a more neutral note, the game difficulty does seem to ramp up very quickly. Of course, whether you like this or not will depend on you as a gamer. I am fairly indifferent although there was one section that had me fuming on the first mine cart level.

I do want to end on a bit of a high note though. Something I will give Donkey Kong Country Returns HD is that they do have good variety across levels. I was surprised when I loaded into a level where everything is silhouetted.

It was a pleasant surprise and I think it was done very well. I know there’s a level where you fight an octopus and that sounds awesome. You also have your classic mine cart levels mixed in with general platforming levels to break things up here and there.

At the end of the day, there are good ideas and a decent game in Donkey Kong Country Returns HD. I just don’t like the feel of the controls nor the layout for key actions which greatly diminishes my enjoyment of the game.

The lack of explanation regarding the two game modes which you cannot change once you start and a lack of explanation about using items also really hurt my experience as someone new to the game.

I think my recommendation would be to wait for a big sale and even then only if you REALLY like Donkey Kong.