Donkey Kong Country Returns
Encyclopedia
Donkey Kong Country Returns, known as in Japan, is a side-scrolling 2.5D platform game
developed by Retro Studios
and released by Nintendo
for the Wii
console
on November 21, 2010, in North America, December 3, 2010, in Europe, and on December 9, 2010, in Japan. It is the series's first traditional home console installment since Donkey Kong Jungle Beat
, and also the first Donkey Kong Country
entry not to involve Rare during the development.
The game is about a group of evil tiki
s known as the Tiki Tak Tribe that arrive on Donkey Kong Island, and hypnotize the animals on the island to steal Donkey Kong's bananas. This forces him to retrieve the hoard with the help of Diddy Kong
. The game received very positive reviews, receiving an average score of 88% on GameRankings and Metacritic
, and sold 4.96 million copies worldwide by the end of March 2011.
and Diddy Kong
, with many traditional elements of the Donkey Kong Country series returning, including mine cart levels, swinging from vine to vine, collecting bananas, and the golden "KONG" letters. There are also levels with the characters and foreground environments appearing as silhouette
s, spawning several new gameplay mechanics. In single player, players can only play as Donkey Kong, although Diddy Kong rides on Donkey Kong's back, and Donkey Kong can use Diddy's jetpack to extend his jumps. Multiplayer mode enables a second player to simultaneously control Diddy Kong. If one player dies in two player mode, he can be brought back by hitting a DK Barrel that floats into view, similar to New Super Mario Bros. Wii
. To avoid problems arising from differences in player skills, Diddy can hop on Donkey's back to take on a more passive role, while his jetpack can be used to make some of his partner's jumps easier. Donkey can pound the ground to defeat enemies and unveil secret items, as can Diddy. The game has two control schemes, with the standard system using the Wii Remote
in conjunction with the Nunchuk, as well as a more classical approach employing the Wii Remote held sideways, both of which use motion controls for the ground pound move. In addition to common series elements like secrets and unlockables, there is also a time attack mode. Two animal buddies, Rambi and Squawks, appear in the game. The game also utilises the Super Guide feature that has appeared in New Super Mario Bros. Wii
and Super Mario Galaxy 2
. If the player loses 8 lives in a single level, they will be given the option to allow a white Donkey Kong recolor named Super Kong to take over and complete the level for them. However, Super Kong will not go looking for collectibles, nor will he show the player where they are, and he keeps anything he does happen to collect, so the player doesn't get them.
s known as the Tiki Tak Tribe arrive on Donkey Kong Island, and hypnotize the animals on the island to steal Donkey Kong's bananas. This forces him to retrieve the hoard with the help of Diddy Kong
. The different types of tikis fill the role of the antagonists this time, replacing the Kremlings, which do not appear in the game. Cranky Kong, who owns shops throughout the island, is the only Kong family member that appears in addition to Donkey and Diddy.
had left the company. At that time, Shigeru Miyamoto
wanted to create a new Donkey Kong game and, at his request, producer Kensuke Tanabe
recommended Michael Kelbaugh, the CEO of Retro Studios, who had previously worked on the Donkey Kong Country series while he was employed at Nintendo of America. Satoru Iwata frequently referred to this turn of events as "fate" in his meetings with Retro Studios, which is why Kelbaugh suggested the homophonous project codename F8.
Similar to New Super Mario Bros.
, the game was developed with the intention to invoke nostalgic feelings in players with its art style and sound, while trying to provide them with new gameplay experiences. Retro tried to make the game "accesible to all players", but with a "kind of difficulty that made players want to try it again". The game employs fully polygonal 3D graphics with levels containing three times the amount of textures
and polygons
that Retro's Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
offered in a single room. Though Miyamoto initially opposed the idea, simultaneous two-player gameplay was implemented, contrary to the tag-team system of the original series. Tanabe said a partial inspiration for the feature was to make Returns "stand out" compared to the New Play Control!
rerelease of Donkey Kong Jungle Beat
. Over the course of six months, two thirds of the game's tools and engine had to be rewritten by the programmers, the animation
and collision
systems being subject to the most changes, and while experiments were conducted with underwater levels, they were ultimately omitted as they felt too slow and unfitting to the overall gameplay. Two levels in the game, "Tidal Terror" and "Mangoruby Run," proved to be the most difficult levels to design and program, each requiring several months of development time. Retro tried to use in Return the same camera engine used for the Morph Ball in Metroid Prime
, but found it unable to handle the quick and complex movements of the characters, particularly after implementation of two-player simultaneous gameplay.
Development accelerated at the outset of 2010, and the project was just "beginning to cohere as a game" around the time of E3. Donkey Kong Country Returns was officially announced at Nintendo's press conference held on June 15, with four playable levels available on the show-floor. Although the game was set for release in autumn that year, the team still had 70 levels to create or refine. Around the end of development, Tanabe had lower back pain and needed to take a week off. During that time, assistant producer Risa Tabata took over his duties, and Tanabe decided to keep her in charge for the rest of production. The music, which was inspired by David Wise's score for the Super NES games, was written by Kenji Yamamoto, who had worked in the Prime trilogy. Yamamoto wrote songs to fit the mood of certain levels, and some songs were rewritten if their matching levels went under heavy redesign. Takashi Nagasako
voiced
both Donkey Kong and Cranky Kong, while Katsumi Suzuki
voiced Diddy Kong.
. IGN
's Craig Harris awarded the game a score of 9.0/10 and an Editor's Choice award, stating, "This is an incredibly challenging, old-school throwback that might not set the genre afire with innovation, but in my book, it's better than the awesome game that inspired it," continuing to state, "Rare should be proud that its design is in the right hands. Or just insanely jealous." Aussie-Gamer gave the game 4.5/5 stating that "The king of swing is back, and reminds us once again why Retro Studios is one of Nintendo’s best developers." Game Informer
awarded the game a score of 9.5/10 (as well as naming it Game of the Month for the December 2010 issue), with the reviewer hailing it as "one of the best platformers [they'd] ever played." GameInformer later picked it as the "Best Platformer" and "Best Wii Exclusive" of 2010. Giant Bomb
gave the game 4 out of 5 stars claiming, "Retro recaptures most of Donkey Kong's venerated platforming roots in this fine Wii sequel." GameXplain awarded the game 5 out of 5 stars for both single player and co-op calling it "one of the best platformers in the last 10 years."
GameTrailers
gave the game a score of 9.0, praising its gameplay and diversity of the levels. Video game talk show Good Game
s two presenters gave the game a 9 and 8.5 out of 10, praising how true the music kept to the style of the original tracks, and that it managed to keep from becoming too complex while still avoiding being over-simplified, saying "If you're a fan of the old Donkeys, or your just want a great platforming experience, this is worth at least as much as Kong's golden banana hoard." X-Play gave the game a 4/5, praising the similarity to previous games, its replay value, and the graphics but criticizing the motion controls "that force you to react quickly at bad times, a button press would suffice" and the co-op game play, saying "if your partner has a penchant for dying, look forward to some short games as he or she will most likely drain the number of lives you both share".
GamesRadar
gave the game 8/10, praising the title for its standout levels and fan service while criticising it for levels that are "frustrating, unclear and often misleading way that is unlike any prior Donkey Kong adventure", and motion controls that make them "question the controls in a platformer".
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
developed by Retro Studios
Retro Studios
Retro Studios is an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas. The company was founded in October 1998 by the video game veteran Jeff Spangenberg after leaving Acclaim Entertainment, as an independent studio making games exclusively for Nintendo Company, Ltd.On May 2, 2002, Nintendo...
and released by Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
for the Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
console
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
on November 21, 2010, in North America, December 3, 2010, in Europe, and on December 9, 2010, in Japan. It is the series's first traditional home console installment since Donkey Kong Jungle Beat
Donkey Kong Jungle Beat
is a Nintendo GameCube video game featuring the ape Donkey Kong and played with the DK Bongos. It was released in Japan on December 16, 2002, in Europe on February 4, 2003, in North America on March 14, 2005, and in Australia on March 17, 2003. In 2008 and 2009, the game was re-released in the New...
, and also the first Donkey Kong Country
Donkey Kong Country
Donkey Kong Country is a side-scrolling platformer video game developed by Rare, featuring the character Donkey Kong. It was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1994. Following an intense marketing campaign, the original SNES version sold over 8 million copies worldwide, making...
entry not to involve Rare during the development.
The game is about a group of evil tiki
Tiki
Tiki refers to large wood and stone carvings of humanoid forms in Central Eastern Polynesian cultures of the Pacific Ocean. The term is also used in Māori mythology where Tiki is the first man, created by either Tūmatauenga or Tāne. He found the first woman, Marikoriko, in a pond – she seduced him...
s known as the Tiki Tak Tribe that arrive on Donkey Kong Island, and hypnotize the animals on the island to steal Donkey Kong's bananas. This forces him to retrieve the hoard with the help of Diddy Kong
Diddy Kong
, originally known as Donkey Diddy, is a fictional character in the Donkey Kong series of video games, first appearing in the 1994 game Donkey Kong Country. He lives on Donkey Kong Island in the Kongo Jungle, and is identified by his red hat, which has a Nintendo logo on it, and shirt...
. The game received very positive reviews, receiving an average score of 88% on GameRankings and Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, and sold 4.96 million copies worldwide by the end of March 2011.
Gameplay
Players take control of Donkey KongDonkey Kong
is a fictional gorilla in the Donkey Kong and Mario series. He is roughly twice the size of a normal gorilla, weighing approximately 800 pounds. Donkey Kong first appeared in Nintendo's popular 1981 video game of the same name. Since then he has appeared in over 20 games in his own series, as well...
and Diddy Kong
Diddy Kong
, originally known as Donkey Diddy, is a fictional character in the Donkey Kong series of video games, first appearing in the 1994 game Donkey Kong Country. He lives on Donkey Kong Island in the Kongo Jungle, and is identified by his red hat, which has a Nintendo logo on it, and shirt...
, with many traditional elements of the Donkey Kong Country series returning, including mine cart levels, swinging from vine to vine, collecting bananas, and the golden "KONG" letters. There are also levels with the characters and foreground environments appearing as silhouette
Silhouette
A silhouette is the image of a person, an object or scene consisting of the outline and a basically featureless interior, with the silhouetted object usually being black. Although the art form has been popular since the mid-18th century, the term “silhouette” was seldom used until the early decades...
s, spawning several new gameplay mechanics. In single player, players can only play as Donkey Kong, although Diddy Kong rides on Donkey Kong's back, and Donkey Kong can use Diddy's jetpack to extend his jumps. Multiplayer mode enables a second player to simultaneously control Diddy Kong. If one player dies in two player mode, he can be brought back by hitting a DK Barrel that floats into view, similar to New Super Mario Bros. Wii
New Super Mario Bros. Wii
is a 2009 side-scrolling platform video game published and developed by Nintendo for the Wii video game console. The game was released on November 12, 2009 in Australia, November 15, 2009 in North America, November 20, 2009 in Europe and December 3, 2009 in Japan...
. To avoid problems arising from differences in player skills, Diddy can hop on Donkey's back to take on a more passive role, while his jetpack can be used to make some of his partner's jumps easier. Donkey can pound the ground to defeat enemies and unveil secret items, as can Diddy. The game has two control schemes, with the standard system using the Wii Remote
Wii Remote
The , also known as the Wiimote, is the primary controller for Nintendo's Wii console. A main feature of the Wii Remote is its motion sensing capability, which allows the user to interact with and manipulate items on screen via gesture recognition and pointing through the use of accelerometer and...
in conjunction with the Nunchuk, as well as a more classical approach employing the Wii Remote held sideways, both of which use motion controls for the ground pound move. In addition to common series elements like secrets and unlockables, there is also a time attack mode. Two animal buddies, Rambi and Squawks, appear in the game. The game also utilises the Super Guide feature that has appeared in New Super Mario Bros. Wii
New Super Mario Bros. Wii
is a 2009 side-scrolling platform video game published and developed by Nintendo for the Wii video game console. The game was released on November 12, 2009 in Australia, November 15, 2009 in North America, November 20, 2009 in Europe and December 3, 2009 in Japan...
and Super Mario Galaxy 2
Super Mario Galaxy 2
is a platforming video game developed by Nintendo EAD and published by Nintendo for the Wii. It was first announced at E3 2009 and is the sequel to Super Mario Galaxy. It was released in North America on May 23, 2010, in Japan on May 27, 2010, in Europe on June 11, 2010, and in Australia on July 1,...
. If the player loses 8 lives in a single level, they will be given the option to allow a white Donkey Kong recolor named Super Kong to take over and complete the level for them. However, Super Kong will not go looking for collectibles, nor will he show the player where they are, and he keeps anything he does happen to collect, so the player doesn't get them.
Plot
A group of evil tikiTiki
Tiki refers to large wood and stone carvings of humanoid forms in Central Eastern Polynesian cultures of the Pacific Ocean. The term is also used in Māori mythology where Tiki is the first man, created by either Tūmatauenga or Tāne. He found the first woman, Marikoriko, in a pond – she seduced him...
s known as the Tiki Tak Tribe arrive on Donkey Kong Island, and hypnotize the animals on the island to steal Donkey Kong's bananas. This forces him to retrieve the hoard with the help of Diddy Kong
Diddy Kong
, originally known as Donkey Diddy, is a fictional character in the Donkey Kong series of video games, first appearing in the 1994 game Donkey Kong Country. He lives on Donkey Kong Island in the Kongo Jungle, and is identified by his red hat, which has a Nintendo logo on it, and shirt...
. The different types of tikis fill the role of the antagonists this time, replacing the Kremlings, which do not appear in the game. Cranky Kong, who owns shops throughout the island, is the only Kong family member that appears in addition to Donkey and Diddy.
Development
Development on Donkey Kong Country Returns started in April 2008, just after some of the key personnel of Retro StudiosRetro Studios
Retro Studios is an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas. The company was founded in October 1998 by the video game veteran Jeff Spangenberg after leaving Acclaim Entertainment, as an independent studio making games exclusively for Nintendo Company, Ltd.On May 2, 2002, Nintendo...
had left the company. At that time, Shigeru Miyamoto
Shigeru Miyamoto
is a Japanese video game designer and producer. Miyamoto was born and raised in Kyoto Prefecture; the natural surroundings of Kyoto inspired much of Miyamoto's later work....
wanted to create a new Donkey Kong game and, at his request, producer Kensuke Tanabe
Kensuke Tanabe
is a Japanese video game designer and producer working for Nintendo. After he had graduated from the Visual Concept Planning Department of Osaka University of Arts, he decided to enter the video game industry, and joined Nintendo in April 1986. At first, Tanabe was part of the Entertainment...
recommended Michael Kelbaugh, the CEO of Retro Studios, who had previously worked on the Donkey Kong Country series while he was employed at Nintendo of America. Satoru Iwata frequently referred to this turn of events as "fate" in his meetings with Retro Studios, which is why Kelbaugh suggested the homophonous project codename F8.
Similar to New Super Mario Bros.
New Super Mario Bros.
is a side-scrolling platform video game published and developed by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld game console. The game was released in North America and Japan in May 2006 and in Australia and Europe in June 2006...
, the game was developed with the intention to invoke nostalgic feelings in players with its art style and sound, while trying to provide them with new gameplay experiences. Retro tried to make the game "accesible to all players", but with a "kind of difficulty that made players want to try it again". The game employs fully polygonal 3D graphics with levels containing three times the amount of textures
Texture mapping
Texture mapping is a method for adding detail, surface texture , or color to a computer-generated graphic or 3D model. Its application to 3D graphics was pioneered by Dr Edwin Catmull in his Ph.D. thesis of 1974.-Texture mapping:...
and polygons
Polygon (computer graphics)
Polygons are used in computer graphics to compose images that are three-dimensional in appearance. Usually triangular, polygons arise when an object's surface is modeled, vertices are selected, and the object is rendered in a wire frame model. This is quicker to display than a shaded model; thus...
that Retro's Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is a first-person action-adventure game developed by Retro Studios and published by Nintendo for the Wii video game console. It is the tenth game in the Metroid series, and the final entry in the Metroid Prime trilogy—excluding two spin-off titles. It was released in...
offered in a single room. Though Miyamoto initially opposed the idea, simultaneous two-player gameplay was implemented, contrary to the tag-team system of the original series. Tanabe said a partial inspiration for the feature was to make Returns "stand out" compared to the New Play Control!
New Play Control!
The New Play Control! series, known in Japan as is a program by Nintendo to upgrade several GameCube games for release on the Wii. These re-releases incorporate graphical improvements, which include 16:9 widescreen support. They also feature reconfigured controls to fit the Wii Remote...
rerelease of Donkey Kong Jungle Beat
Donkey Kong Jungle Beat
is a Nintendo GameCube video game featuring the ape Donkey Kong and played with the DK Bongos. It was released in Japan on December 16, 2002, in Europe on February 4, 2003, in North America on March 14, 2005, and in Australia on March 17, 2003. In 2008 and 2009, the game was re-released in the New...
. Over the course of six months, two thirds of the game's tools and engine had to be rewritten by the programmers, the animation
Computer animation
Computer animation is the process used for generating animated images by using computer graphics. The more general term computer generated imagery encompasses both static scenes and dynamic images, while computer animation only refers to moving images....
and collision
Collision detection
Collision detection typically refers to the computational problem of detecting the intersection of two or more objects. While the topic is most often associated with its use in video games and other physical simulations, it also has applications in robotics...
systems being subject to the most changes, and while experiments were conducted with underwater levels, they were ultimately omitted as they felt too slow and unfitting to the overall gameplay. Two levels in the game, "Tidal Terror" and "Mangoruby Run," proved to be the most difficult levels to design and program, each requiring several months of development time. Retro tried to use in Return the same camera engine used for the Morph Ball in Metroid Prime
Metroid Prime
Metroid Prime is a video game developed by Retro Studios and Nintendo for the Nintendo GameCube, released in North America on November 17, 2002...
, but found it unable to handle the quick and complex movements of the characters, particularly after implementation of two-player simultaneous gameplay.
Development accelerated at the outset of 2010, and the project was just "beginning to cohere as a game" around the time of E3. Donkey Kong Country Returns was officially announced at Nintendo's press conference held on June 15, with four playable levels available on the show-floor. Although the game was set for release in autumn that year, the team still had 70 levels to create or refine. Around the end of development, Tanabe had lower back pain and needed to take a week off. During that time, assistant producer Risa Tabata took over his duties, and Tanabe decided to keep her in charge for the rest of production. The music, which was inspired by David Wise's score for the Super NES games, was written by Kenji Yamamoto, who had worked in the Prime trilogy. Yamamoto wrote songs to fit the mood of certain levels, and some songs were rewritten if their matching levels went under heavy redesign. Takashi Nagasako
Takashi Nagasako
is a Japanese voice actor from Wakayama Prefecture who works at Arts Vision.- Anime :* Mobile Suit Gundam: The Movie Trilogy , Mayer* Fencer of Minerva , Teo* New Cutey Honey , Caeser , Leader...
voiced
Voice acting
Voice acting is the art of providing voices for animated characters and radio and audio dramas and comedy, as well as doing voice-overs in radio and television commercials, audio dramas, dubbed foreign language films, video games, puppet shows, and amusement rides.Performers are called...
both Donkey Kong and Cranky Kong, while Katsumi Suzuki
Katsumi Suzuki
is a Japanese voice actor. He is best known as the voice of Kagome's grandfather in InuYasha after Ginzo Matsuo's death. He currently works at Arts Vision.-Television animation:*Kagome's grandfather in InuYasha*Ben Robbins in Kaleido Star...
voiced Diddy Kong.
Critical Response
Donkey Kong Country Returns received very positive reviews. It currently has an average score of 87% on GameRankings and MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
. IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
's Craig Harris awarded the game a score of 9.0/10 and an Editor's Choice award, stating, "This is an incredibly challenging, old-school throwback that might not set the genre afire with innovation, but in my book, it's better than the awesome game that inspired it," continuing to state, "Rare should be proud that its design is in the right hands. Or just insanely jealous." Aussie-Gamer gave the game 4.5/5 stating that "The king of swing is back, and reminds us once again why Retro Studios is one of Nintendo’s best developers." Game Informer
Game Informer
Game Informer is an American-based monthly magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of popular video games and associated consoles. It was formed in August 1991, when FuncoLand started publishing a six-page magazine, free in all its retail locations...
awarded the game a score of 9.5/10 (as well as naming it Game of the Month for the December 2010 issue), with the reviewer hailing it as "one of the best platformers [they'd] ever played." GameInformer later picked it as the "Best Platformer" and "Best Wii Exclusive" of 2010. Giant Bomb
Giant Bomb
Giant Bomb is an American video game website and wiki that includes gaming news, reviews, commentary, and video, created by former GameSpot editors Jeff Gerstmann and Ryan Davis in collaboration with Whiskey Media...
gave the game 4 out of 5 stars claiming, "Retro recaptures most of Donkey Kong's venerated platforming roots in this fine Wii sequel." GameXplain awarded the game 5 out of 5 stars for both single player and co-op calling it "one of the best platformers in the last 10 years."
GameTrailers
GameTrailers
GameTrailers is a media website that specializes in video game related content. It provides free access to original programming , game trailers and recorded game play. Along with standard definition , many of the video clips are offered in a higher resolution .Users can upload videos, create...
gave the game a score of 9.0, praising its gameplay and diversity of the levels. Video game talk show Good Game
Good Game
Good Game is an Australian video gaming talk show television programme created by Janet Carr and Jeremy Ray currently on ABC2. It premiered on ABC on 19 September 2006...
s two presenters gave the game a 9 and 8.5 out of 10, praising how true the music kept to the style of the original tracks, and that it managed to keep from becoming too complex while still avoiding being over-simplified, saying "If you're a fan of the old Donkeys, or your just want a great platforming experience, this is worth at least as much as Kong's golden banana hoard." X-Play gave the game a 4/5, praising the similarity to previous games, its replay value, and the graphics but criticizing the motion controls "that force you to react quickly at bad times, a button press would suffice" and the co-op game play, saying "if your partner has a penchant for dying, look forward to some short games as he or she will most likely drain the number of lives you both share".
GamesRadar
GamesRadar
GamesRadar is a multi-format video game website featuring regular news, previews, reviews, videos, and guides. It is owned and operated simultaneously in the UK and US by worldwide publisher Future Publishing...
gave the game 8/10, praising the title for its standout levels and fan service while criticising it for levels that are "frustrating, unclear and often misleading way that is unlike any prior Donkey Kong adventure", and motion controls that make them "question the controls in a platformer".