Review: Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)

After 3 years of being off the gaming scene, Donkey Kong finally returns to show us why we fell in love with him in the first place.

Developer: Retro Studios
Publisher: Nintendo
Release Date: November 21, 2010
ESRB Rating: E
[starreview]

Retro Studios is the development team behind this project and after enormous success with the Metroid Prime series, you knew this team would handle it well. This game takes the original formula of the Donkey Kong Country series and remakes it into a fresh and exciting game to play.

This time around, tiki creatures have hypnotized the island’s inhabitants and stole DK’s bananas. After an unsuccessful attempt at hypnotizing our furry protagonist, DK and Diddy set off to retrieve they’re beloved hoard.

DKCR is a side-scrolling platformer where you take control of Donkey Kong and his sidekick, Diddy Kong. It is a pseudo 3D side-scrolling game as you can change from being in the foreground and background numerous times in the game. While in single player, you don’t play as Diddy Kong but he helps out by jumping on your back and give you the ability to hover with the use of his jet pack. The controls for this game are very tight and smooth. The motion controls will have you shaking the controller to either stomp on the ground, blow air, or roll. This motion isn’t annoying to repeatedly and works well for the game. My only complaint on the controls was after years of using a button to roll, learning to shake the controller to roll took some will power to learn.

DKCR’s environments and music reminiscent of the first Donkey Kong Country. All of the environments are beautiful, rich, and highly detailed. From the jungle tree tops to the hectic industrial levels, each level has its own flavor to it that makes it unique and one of a kind. I was very happy that there were no more swimming levels; instead the beach world has you running on top of pirate ships, avoiding crashing waves, and outrunning a whale. Although, I was sad to see that the ice levels did not make a return in this game, which I really enjoyed much to many others chagrin. One of my favorite things about this series is the game’s jazzy music which is kept in this game and definitely evokes a strong sense of nostalgia as I play through the levels.

This game pays homage to the original by using some of the same level types and giving them a modern twist. Mine cart and barrel cannon levels were given many new changes and made use of the Wii’s engine to make them more exciting and epic. Also to this list were the rocket barrel levels where you rode in a rocket and pressed a button to go up and let go of the button to go down. This was a nice addition and definitely allowed for the game to change up from the usual formula. My only problem with the levels were the bonus stages. I really disliked the fact that most of the bonus stages were basically the same 4-5 stages reused with different backgrounds. It got apparent within the entering the second world and remained the same throughout the game.

My biggest problem with this game is the difficulty curve. It starts off fairly easy in the beginning and ramps up very quickly. The game gets very, very hard towards the end and if you are a perfectionist like me, then getting the K-O-N-G tokens and beating the time trials will drive you insane. Some of the mine cart and rocket levels will require such precise timing that will make throw your controller across the room in frustration. Also, when playing 2-player, if both of you die, you lose 2 lives which can take from your total very quickly. Luckily, obtaining more lives can be bought so its not a horrible problem.

Overall, this game is amazing. Even if you never played a Donkey Kong game in your life, this game is just too hard to pass up. While it may be too hard for kids, it is still a fun game and a wonderful addition to anyone’s Wii library.