A HD remaster that still holds up this day

Alongside the likes of Super Mario and Sonic, Donkey Kong was one of the earliest memories of gaming when I was a child. Hearing that Nintendo were re-releasing Donkey Kong Country Returns as a HD remaster was something that I could not ignore, that game to this day still is up there with some of the platforming greats. I’ll treat this review as HD remaster which it is what it is….

I’ll talk about the visuals at first. It’s a mixed bag of emotions. I understand we’re coming to the end of the Nintendo Switch lifespan but I feel that this game deserved much more than just a gloss of HD paint smothered on it. It looks okay, but nothing really spectacular. If you look at the recent Tropical Freeze release, that played out visually much better and it was what I was hoping for with this release. Saying that, animations flow well, there is nothing that holds the game back performance wise. If this is your first time playing the game, you’ll probably think oh it looks like an average switch game, but for me who played out the original, I guess I expected a little more. An acceptable attempt, but may we have a full remake next please, Nintendo?

This game pulls a lot of similarities from when it was released on the 3DS over 10 years ago. It has the savage difficulty mode included. I tried, failed and never went back! The game is as hard as I remember it was, Nintendo surely didn’t hold back with this. There are a handful of tutorials but you’ll often find yourself learning once again how to handle Donkey and Diddy Kong’s respective abilities. Gliding through the air in barrels is as good as it ever was and then there is the levels with the mini-kart!

Those who have not played the game before, it’s a good starting entry, where Donkey Kong’s horde of bananas being stolen by those evil masks. It’s a simple narrative, one you’ll easily follow. Donkey Kong was never about its strong story. The original soundtrack also returns, well it seems modernly remixed from the original and sounds great.

Donkey Kong Country Returns HD is a game I feel should have come before Tropical Freeze, it would have made much more sense. It plays well, looks okay but again, I’ll just judge it as a remaster, nothing more, and that has a little disappointment attached to it

A big thank you to Nintendo UK for the Nintendo Switch review code.