Donkey Kong Country Returns HD evaluation – a formidable platformer that still holds up today

A simple remaster that battles to beat the Switch port of Tropical Freeze, yet Returns HD is still a tough and gratifying platformer that stands the test of time.

It feels odd to be seeing out the twilight months of the Switch with an HD remaster of a Wii video game from 15 years ago, but such is the position we discover ourselves in with the launch of Donkey Kong Nation Returns HD. Initially made by the people at Retro Studios and now remastered by respected Switch publisher and porting residence Permanently Amusement, this difficult 2D platformer is itself an attempt to recapture DKsplendor days from the SNES, making this something of a dual dip in the rose-tinted swimming pools of nostalgia.

Donkey Kong Country Returns HD evaluation

• Author: Nintendo
• Designer: Forever Entertainment
• Platform: Played on Nintendo Change
• Accessibility: Out on 16th January on Nintendo Switch over.

Yet having played Returns at the time, and once again when it involved the 3DS in 2013, it is still somewhat heartening to realise that, yes, this wasnt just a wonderful platformer in its very own right a decade and a fifty percent ago – it stays a splitting platformer already, standing the test of time with its requiring athleticism, pitch-perfect timing and warrens of unscrupulous tricks.follow the link donkey kong returns wii rom At our site Seen in isolation, this is as worth playing today as it ever was, and a stark tip of simply what a wonderful Donkey Kong Nation game can be.

Nevertheless, itso unusual we can watch points alone these days, and it really feels doubly unusual to be returning to this when its remarkable sequel, Exotic Freeze, was ported to the Switch over back in 2018 (and still costs a significant £extra pound; 50 like Returns HD does). At that time, we were simply over a year right into the Switchlife expectancy, yet to bookend the console with its streamlined and slightly drabber-looking predecessor? You cant help yet feel both video games need to have shown up the various other means round, and if I needed to choose one DKC video game to bet £pound; 50 at the end of a console generation, it would certainly be Exotic Freeze, no questions asked.

Still, letnot get ahead of ourselves unnecessarily. As I claimed, thereplenty to recommend Returns HD on its own values, particularly considering that it incorporates several of the 3DS variationadded extras, such as its more forgiving problem mode where gamers have additional wellness and items, and extra besides. And right from the off, Returns HD draws no strikes when it concerns putting gamers via their rates, calling for a dextrous understanding of Donkey Kong and Diddyrespective abilities and restrictions to tackle extensive run-and-jump gauntlets that surprise and indulge in equal action.

Donkey Kong commercials off-air.

In some aspects, the 3DS still seems like the more natural home for Returns. Specifically early, DK will routinely barrel over to ransack bits of background landscapes for collectible KONG letters and concealed problem items (the latter of which will slowly swell the rankings of the gamemassive audio and picture collections if all of them obtain rooted out in a single level). That views will certainly also regularly cascade into the foreground too, as columns of stone domino down a cliff face to bridge impending gorges prior to you, while sea serpent tentacles snake via slim sea caves to block your path and pesky moles chuck fatal bombs from rival minecart tracks in crystal-encrusted passages.

Ita wonderful crash of the senses, your fingers flying by the seat of your Joy-Con buttons to keep up with the sights and noises of being tossed at you from front and behind. A dynamic video camera structures the action with a nimble and elastic lens, drawing in close for stressful and frenetic precision work, prior to zooming out to capture every last crumb of its ornately attracted spectacle. And itprepared to the overblown tunes of David Wiseinitial soundtrack, reworked here by Aleksander Jastrzebski. This remarkable to-ing and fro-ing is a feeling thatnever dulled on the Switch over, however when the majority of my time was spent playing in portable mode, it took me right back to cranking up the 3DSstereoscopic slider to consume everything in.

Favourite Gallery video game?

After initial group at Retro Studios omitted from HD remaster.

I was additionally advised simply how much it leaves you to find the finer nuances of its platforming, also. While helpful guide pigs will sometimes pop up to inform you some fundamental controls – how to order onto a vine, claim, or slam DKfists right into the ground to break fractured scene furniture – lessons on how to apply a few of its more advanced platforming techniques are never rather as upcoming. Ill confess, I had 15 years of muscle memory to assist me out right here, therefore I currently understood that pushing dive again on opponent heads Mario & Luigi-style would certainly let me get added height, while rolling would certainly assist me accelerate to rise throughout bigger spaces.

Several of this youll inevitably learn by happy accident, as luckily this is a world positively including little minutes of magic such as this. Slamming a suspicious platform and having it flip to reveal a covert barrel to one of its many secret rooms, for instance, or bending to blow a puff of air, just for it to introduce a tiny, barely recognizable propeller seed right into the air with a lot of bananas or problem piece in tow. Small, subordinate activities like these make every single level really feel alive with wide-eyed possibility, and the manner in which knowledge after that ripples bent on the method you come close to later degrees on Kong Island stays among Returns HDgreatest staminas.

The most likely scenario, nevertheless, is that youll discover the bulk of these methods the hard way – with grit and splits and by dying repeatedly to a few of its most challenging platforming segments where accurate application of these skills is your only course to success. Minecart degrees – once the emphasize of DKC video games – are particularly poor for this, though curious banana and collectible positionings do at the very least assistance to push you toward some type of discovery, however discouraging. Still, when one foot wrong is usually all that separates you and a hasty restart, there are times when Returns HD can feel exasperatingly abstruse – something you might have wished would certainly have been straightened out for this remaster – and no quantity of additional health in its lower difficulty mode will certainly assist to soften the blow here.

Purists will certainly state this is par for program with Returns. It was, besides, infamously hard at launch, and remains so now, also for a triple-dipper such as myself. It is visibly tougher than most other platformers around right from the get-go, though not impossible by any type of stretch – simply collecting bananas and coins to spend at Cranky Kongshop to buy additional lives are greater than plentiful enough to ensure you never ever actually see a true video game over screen. Similarly, after several fatalities straight, those tutorial pigs will at some point supply to release the returning Super Guide function to miss you throughout too (albeit at the price of any kind of collectibles youve collected, and any kind of staying pride you have).

Donkey Kong Nation Returns HD availability choices

Two difficulty choices. Different sliders for music and audio FX volume. Option of two control schemes. Optional motion controls. On/off toggle for HD Rumble, and sensitivity slider.

Continue through these pains and pains, nonetheless, and therestill an eminently enjoyable platformer to be discovered beneath – one where mastery is often rewarded, and discovering its better information elicits the most effective kind of radiant satisfaction. It stays an excellent computer game, even if it will certainly feel like something of a step in reverse for those that have currently played and liked Tropical Freeze, whose handsomer visuals and more enthusiastic set pieces conveniently surpass this rather straightforward, no-frills remaster. If you missed it back in the day or merely cant stand up to the attraction of nostalgia, therestill a good time to be had with Returns HD. But truly, if youve yet to play either of RetroDKC games at this phase in the Switch overlifecycle, you must most likely just miss straight to Tropical Freeze. Thata Donkey Kong video game at the peak of its powers, while Returns HD continues to be even more of a warm-up act.