Donkey Kong has finally returned…again! Come to think of it, he's returned a few times hasn't he? While Donkey Kong hasn't exactly had a new mainline game in quite some time, it's nice that Nintendo is doing their best to make sure that some of his best games are available on current generation hardware. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze was one of the first games from the series that was brought over to the Nintendo Switch and now we finally have that game's predecessor on the same system. Donkey Kong Country Returns HD is an HD port of the original game from the Wii with updated controls and some small additions. But let's first start with those small additions because trust me, we're not gonna be spending a lot of time with them…

As an HD remaster of a Wii game, this port does the bare minimum to differentiate itself from the original from a content perspective. You have three save slots when you start the game. Starting a new game lets you choose between original and modern mode. The former is closer to the game's original difficulty where you have two hit points and similar available items from the Wii version. The latter is a slightly retooled easier mode, where you have an additional hit point and you're able to purchase more items from Cranky's shop using the coins that you collect throughout the levels to make future levels easier. As far as I can tell, that is it as far as content differences go. At least Tropical Freeze had Funky Mode, which offered a completely different way to tackle stages! Personally, I'm not a big fan of Nintendo cleaning up an older game, adding a few drops of additional content and then patting themselves on the back.

Even on the original Wii, the game looked gorgeous, but now on the Switch, we are able to appreciate a lot more of the finer details. Everything looks smooth, the game runs at a very stable 60 FPS and the controls feel very responsive. Speaking of controls, I think it's safe to say that is where we can find the major differences between this port and the original. For those who don't know, Donkey Kong Country Returns was tailor made specifically for the Wii's control scheme. It didn't matter if you played with the Wii remote solo or with the nunchuck, but there were a lot of elements in the game that utilized motion controls in order to perform tasks. For example, you would shake the Wii remote and nunchuck in order to punch enemies, slam the floor, bow things etc.

This HD port maps all of those abilities to dedicated buttons on the Switch. This makes things much more responsive and theoretically leads to a much better play session since you don't have to constantly physically interact with the game in order to perform very basic commands. Granted, this isn't perfect. It does feel as if something was lost a little bit in translation. Some actions like slamming the ground makes sense dedicating to specific buttons, but other actions like rapid fire punching bosses felt more satisfying in the original.

I'll also say that it doesn't really matter if some of Donkey Kong's actions are now mapped to buttons, because some of those actions don't fully match the style and flow of the game. Returns is a traditional 2D platformer and I would argue one of the best that Nintendo has put out in the past decade. It is very easy to understand and the difficulty scaling feels just right. Once you get used to Donkey Kong's weight and are able to utilize Diddy Kong as a power up, you could theoretically breeze through these levels in a way that feels fast-paced and satisfying. This game definitely falls into the camp of “simple to understand but difficult to master,” yet it feels very rewarding when you do. You can chain enemy collisions, role into enemies for momentum and reach incredible heights if you know where to look.

That being said, Donkey Kong's history with collectibles doesn't always mesh well with the amazing platforming. There are a lot of items to collect throughout each level, from bananas to coins to puzzle pieces to letters that spell out the word KONG in each level. Some are necessary in order to unlock secrets and bonus levels. Some of them are located in places that will make you think outside the box like a hidden breakable wall, or maybe they're floating just outside of the frame. But others are located in things like flowers that need to be either stomped on or blown in order to reveal the item and this kills the pacing of the game. I'm very glad this is a mechanic that was dropped in the sequel, but it does not always mesh well with what feels like a pretty face paced platform. Just because that action is now mapped to a button doesn't change the fact that I literally need to stop in place after getting into the zone to run around and find these collectibles.

But if I am going to stop in place, at least that gives me time to appreciate the gorgeous soundtrack for this game, which combines some new tracks with some updated rescores of classic Donkey Kong music from his previous outings. We have the classic DK theme that I'm sure most of us are familiar with and we have some fun bombastic tunes. But we also have some surprisingly eerie foreboding melodies that make you think something is going to attack you right out of the darkness. The variety of music matches the variety of the different stage themes that utilize different gimmicks in order to help the game feel fresh. We have platforming, minecarts and even rockets! But once again, don't let the relaxing music fool you, as things will get difficult as you get to the later worlds.

Despite those hiccups, this is a very faithful remaster and arguably one of the best ways to play one of Donkey Kong's best games in the series. It looks good, it sounds good, and while some gimmicks have not aged the best, the gameplay is incredibly exhilarating. Honestly, the biggest knock against this game is that it is unfortunately a rather bare bones remaster of a game that came out in 2010. While the updated control scheme is nice, I don't necessarily think that warrants the full price tag I see it going for online. I'm not a big fan of Nintendo reselling a lot of their older games for full price with the minimum effort, and this is definitely one of the most egregious examples that we have seen in a while. Wait for one of the rare moments where the game goes on sale and snatch this up while you can.