Planned to do this earlier but i got carried away and basically i’ve almost finished the game (most likely i’ve already did by the time this gets out), but i’m gonna chime in now, as there’s no planned full lenght review for this release of Donkey Kong Country Returns.. not a regular one, i’m preparing a full on Platformation Time Again piece but i would love to revisit at least the original SNES DKC trilogy before on that rubric (we can cover the Donkey Kong Land subseries later).
So here we go.
First, i’m glad we’re finally having a version of Donkey Kong Country Returns freed of the fuckin mandatory motion controls and not stuck on 3DS, as make no mistake, DKC Returns was and still is an amazing platformer and a worthy heir of DKC heritage/legacy, surpassed only by its sequel, Tropical Freeze, so damn good it almost make me ok with Retro not making a third one.
Also because, motion controls being optional this time around, the game is the same in terms of content (while incorporating the extra levels made for the 3DS port)…and the port mostly is ok.
As in, the HD coat of paint of decent enough, it’s definitely a notable improvement over the Wii original, but there some odd changes to the color palettes and some effects, which are strange but are mostly inconsequential and some are very nitpicky, even hard to notice even if you played the game on Wii or 3DS, and there are some inconsistencies as some models have been updated, but some not, like Cranky’s in his shack/shop hasn’t had the “fur update”.
Just odd details missing the quality upgrade or having it and oddly backfiring, which is odd (even odd as the big cutscenes have been updated and look better than before, almost as if remade from scratch), but frankly considered Forever Entertaiment worked on this port… we got lucky, as their work on the Panzer Dragoon and House of The Dead Remakes is far from perfect.
Looks aside, i haven’t noticed any of the framerate dips and chugs discussed and shown around, and i played it both in docked and handheld mode, so i dunno, but yep, the loading times that can be sometimes twice as long as they were on the Wii… come on, now.
One wonders why not task a team at Retro to do the same excellent job of porting Tropical Freeze to Switch, while Metroid Prime 4 lingered on officially just existing, or nitpick a bit more, but again, why, of all teams under Nintendo’s payroll, outsource it to Forever Entertaiment?
Especially as they somehow kept the borked co-op mode from the 3DS, which means the game doesn’t accomodate for enemies having to take hits from more than one player, fuckin up or rendering harder or nigh impossible co-op play in a game already designed a lot more for single player than co-op.
Not a big loss for me, but it’s no fuckin excuse, obviously.
That said, the co-op should/could be patched fairly easily (same for the loading times), the controls finally unshackled from the waggle & shaking, and having all the content in one package on the Switch so it can be experienced alongside Tropical Freeze make this still the best version you can get of the game as of now,
I say “would” because Nintendo is taking the piss by asking 60 clams for this, but on the other hand i’ve played the HD version of Luigi’s Mansion 2, and i mean, it’s a HD port, it’s what it says on the tin, you get what you’re sold, a HD port/rework, not a remaster.
Otherwise it would have been called “Remastered”, like they did with …. Metroid Prime Remastered.
Though Tropical Freeze did add Funky Kong and didn’t had to slap the “HD” at the end, but by the same logic it didn’t have to, especially since the character is basically there to act as an “Easy mode” for more unexperienced players, which will need the help indeed… but then again, they could have simply not added him at all.
STILL, if you’re asking 60 bucks for a HD port that should be 40 bucks….. some extra content or some stuff (or QoL, or extras) from TF would have been welcome, i dunno, having Cranky Kong playable as an extra unlock, behaving as he does in Tropical Freeze, he was also in Donkey Kong Country Returns, and maybe it would have broken the level design not built for his Duck Tales-style special cane jump, but it would have been a cute addition.
Sometime to justify selling the game for the third time (the second re-release) and having the balls to charge full price for a HD port that it’s viable but should have been way better.
So once again, unless you wanna have it on Switch or never played any of the previous versions (especially the 3DS one)… there’s no real reason/incentive to double dip, especially for a port that both surprises (consider how worse it could have been due to the developer working on it) and disappoints at the same time.
Wait for some eventual discounts/sales and hopefully patches to improve the loading times and – most importantly – fix the co-op play.
Wise Cafe (International) 