Donkey Kong Country Returns HD - Switch Review

Bruno César Monteiro Cordeiro Silva -

I didn’t get the chance to play any Donkey Kong games when I was a kid, but I’ve definitely seen how many people love the series over the years, so I’ve kept an eye out for when my chance would appear. And everything pointed to Donkey Kong Country Returns being everything the first game was but better, so when the HD remaster came to the switch, I knew it was time to get bananas. Do you know what this means? It means that this review is my very first trip to Kong Island, ever! Let me tell you how good a destination it is in Donkey Kong Country Returns HD.

The Good

Donkey Kong Country Returns is in itself over 10 years old, but it doesn’t look a day over a year old with the new coat of paint it got in this game. The HD in the title is definitely deserved, as the game both looks and sounds amazing, with the traditional expressive and fun Nintendo way of doing things bringing it in line with how most current gen games look. The music is crisp, and given all the love it was given when the game first came out as well, the soundtrack is full of catchy, classic tunes you can listen to separately with a new soundbox option.

And beneath the style there’s plenty of substance: the gameplay is a platforming dream. Kong himself is one of the simplest characters to control among Nintendo’s All-Star roster: jump, roll, smash and blow are the only things he does and the only things you’ll need to get through the stages.

And said stages are designed just as well as everything else. The game can get surprisingly challenging and demand tight timing, but almost all stages are built to be simple and straightforward to make good use of Kong’s abilities. It’s fun to play through for newbies and challenge runners alike.

In a few words, Donkey Kong Country Returns HD is a preserved slice of classic platforming excellence. It’s high-quality, classic-level design, control, visuals and sound wrapped up in a modern package.

TL;DR

  • Graphics and soundtrack beautifully translated to HD
  • Tight, simple and responsive controls
  • Excellent level design in both challenge and approachability

The Bad

There’s no denying that Donkey Kong Country Returns HD is a beautiful remaster and that the game itself is challenging and fun…But throughout it all, I couldn’t help but also feel like the gameplay was very bland.

It does the very basics in an incredible way, but doesn’t really stray from the basics either. Kong’s controls are simple to the point that they are too simple. We can ground smash and blow out fires and dandelions, but both of those require you to stop, and their uses are pretty simple and telegraphed. They kill the momentum of the game, and with stomping being the only real way to deal with enemies other than occasionally rolling into them, it feels like something is missing.

Drawing a comparison to Mario, the plumber has multiple different power-ups and small athletic gimmicks he can employ in his games, while Kong spends this game with very little variation in his abilities and ways to interact with the world. I don’t recommend the game if you like variation in how you can tackle a game.

Other than the limited control options, the game world also feels small. There are 9 areas of Kong Island to explore, each with their own stages, but these areas are mostly covered in less than a screen, and the shops sprinkled throughout have only a very small handful of items. There are very few unlockable levels, and the way to unlock them is just to buy the very conspicuous keys sold at the shops for fairly moderate prices.

What Donkey King Country Returns HD does is great; the problem is that it doesn’t really do much at all.

TL;DR

  • Controls are simple to the point of being bland
  • No variation on how to tackle stages
  • Presentation of the world is too small

Final Score: 7/10

Am I too used to modern games? While I was playing Donkey Kong Country Returns HD, I truly felt like the game didn’t do anything wrong and was actually caught off-guard by some challenging sections that required platforming and timing, but I also felt myself losing focus often. If I’m playing a big gorilla, how come I can’t just slap the tikis away? Why are my rolls so short? I just felt like I needed to be able to do more.

As someone that doesn’t have a lot of nostalgia for the Donkey Kong games, I feel like I may be able to ignore minor issues if I had great past experiences to look back on, but as it is, I’d say Donkey Kong Country Returns HD feels like a great entry game for people that are not used to platformers or games as a whole. It’s fun, potentially challenging, and undoubtedly good, but it’s nothing special.

Thank you for checking out our Donkey Kong Country Returns HD Switch review, thank you to Nintendo AU/NZ for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support: