Review #022 – Donkey Kong Country Returns HD

Despite being annoyingly punishing at times Donkey Kong Country Returns is one of my favourite platformers on the Wii. Like with Metroid Prime, Retro Studios did an extraordinary job faithfully reviving a classic Nintendo franchise and absolutely nailing it from top to bottom. 

This new HD version is a welcome addition to the Switch’s library but it’s a disappointingly subpar port. You’re ostensibly getting the Wii game, in HD, with the bonus content from the 3DS version. The visual “upgrade” is almost-indistinguishably basic, not to mention the load times that feel like something out of the early, disk-based era.

It’s an extremely fun game — especially with a co-op buddy — but don’t expect anything like the visual upgrade of The Wind Waker HD, or the breadth of content of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. It’s really just Donkey Kong Country Returns — but now on Switch!