Review – Donkey Kong Country Returns HD

Developer: Retro Studios | Publisher: Nintendo

Donkey Kong Country Returns HD arrived in January 2025 as part of Nintendo’s celebration of our favourite Kong in line with the recent opening of Donkey Kong Country at Universal Japan. It’s the latest in a line of much needed ports and remakes, bringing Nintendo’s back catalogue into the modern age on the Nintendo Switch. This version of Donkey Kong Country Returns is a combination of the 3DS and Wii version, but is it worth your hard earned bananas?

On the face of it, Donkey Kong looks like a typical side-scrolling platformer, a Mario clone with a gorilla mascot. But it’s much more than that, and in some ways it could be argued that its leaps and bounds beyond Mario in terms of creativity and design.

With hanging vines to swing from, grassy rocks to climb and barrels that shoot you into the background, foreground and just about anywhere convenient, Donkey Kong Country Returns HD offers exciting and fun platforming for the most part. Where the game falters a lot, in my opinion, is the trial and error aspect of a lot of the stages. More often that I would like are unpredictable off-screen drops or precision jumps that don’t feel fair to the player, or boss fights with precise hit boxes.

Donkey Kong by default has two hearts, with one disappearing when damage is taken. Diddy Kong can be found in barrels across stages and with him as your companion, you are granted an additional two hearts and better movement, with the ability to hover and rollout for longer periods to cover more ground, defeat enemies easier and generally have a smoother ride when traversing the levels. If Diddy Kong loses his hearts, he will retreat until you find another “DK” barrel. As you traverse each level, enemies attack with no mercy and good platforming skills are key. You should expect to fail time, and time again from this aspect. New lives are represented by red balloons, and these are easy to obtain and come across, so most people shouldn’t struggle with losing all of their progress through each stage until nearing the end game.

Although there are checkpoints placed in each level, the game can sometimes feel unfair when you are suddenly faced with an obstacle, or forced into an instant death scenario as you fall off the screen. There are too many drops without the ability to recover, and most of World 4 (Cave) requires somewhat perfect reactions to jump while in the constantly running mine cart. When you finally master the split-second jump required, it can be frustrating when another appears just a few seconds after and you fail once again, needing to recover your perfect run.

Boss fights sometimes felt a bit too difficult for my liking. The game is starting to show its age in some aspects, with some boss fights having less than obvious goals and requiring you to try a number of strategies before finally realising how to actually beat them. Some of them do drag on a bit and waste more time than I’d like, while others are intuitive and offer a lot of fun. It’s certainly one of the biggest weak spots of the game and can be incredibly frustrating at times.

Donkey Kong Country Returns HD offers a “Modern Mode”, giving Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong three hearts each, and placing more Diddy Kong barrels in each level, offering up a more accessible and slightly easier experience for those looking for less of a challenge. It also gives players more chances when it comes to falling off stages, with one save per level, plus additional purchasable items in Cranky Kong’s shop, offering survival when crashing a mine cart. It certainly alleviates some of the issues of the main game, but doesn’t fundamentally fix some of the questionable design choices. Unfortunately, it’s also impossible to switch to this if the classic mode begins to feel too hard later on. You’d have to begin a brand new file to enjoy the easier side of life.

Graphically, Donkey Kong Country Returns HD looks marvellous. The HD elements look incredible, with blades of grass and the colourful world of Donkey Kong Island looking visually stunning, for the most part. In an unfortunate twist, the frame rates stutter and dip from time to time. It’s not too frequent, but it can be irritating when noticeable on some stages. For a 3DS and Wii port, a stable framerate should not be too much to ask.

Overall, Donkey Kong Country Returns HD a traditional platformer in all the best ways. It offers a challenge that, despite feeling unfair at times, also provides a sense of pride for defeating the difficult boss or overcoming the frustrating jumps that took numerous attempts to master. If you’re a fan of classic Nintendo titles, don’t give this a miss. If you’re easily frustrated or impatient, perhaps consider sitting this one out.

7.5 out of 10

Review code provided by publisher | Tested on Nintendo Switch