Difficulty:

Hard

The Bottom Line:

"Instant classic"

After Rare was Bought by Microsoft, The DK series was in quite the predicament. DK had gone through allot of different series nowadays, The DK Bongos Debuted with his Musical sensation of 'Donkey Konga',its sequel, and a third released only in japan. The Bongos then became used as a a controller for the adventure game 'Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat', Which then only got a remake with the wii Controls(since the developers moved on to the legend we call Mario galaxy:D) 'King of Swing' and its sequel 'Jungle climber' provided a unique gameplay style and the adventure felt like DKC but fails to copy what it did. DK Pretty much went downhill with nothing that was close to what Rare did with the DKC series, however a new light of hope shined on the big ape when Retro Sudios(Developers of the Metroid Prime Series) Decided that they wanted to try something new, and coincedently Nintendo was looking for a new developer for DK, thus Retro Studios agreed. Can they save what was once the Phenominon in the SNES that was DKC?


Storywise, its the the usual story with a little change of plans,Retro wanted to try something new; this time around a Group of tiki's known as the Tiki Tak Tribe has Musically Hypnotised all the animals to steal our Furry Friend's endless hoard of bananas and its up to DK and his Little Buddy Diddy to get them back!I was a little Dissapointed when i heard that there will be no Kremlings and King K.Rool in the game:(, but Ive come to love the Tiki Tak Tribe in this game and let it all Slide because Retro Studios did a great job with them.The Main Tiki's are formed to look like musicla instruments and you hear their tune in the Hypnotising music (Which is Freakin Catchy by the way, its like your Hynotised to like it XD).

With the other DKC's the characters had been changing. the Original had DK and Diddy, DKC2 has Diddy and Dixie, and DKC3 has Dixie and Kiddy. DK's finally back in action after 2 nonplayable roles in the series and Diddy kong is there to help with his design-always-changing Jetpack. However Diddy isnt playable, when you get diddy from the barrel he will sit ontop of DK's back to give him access to use his jetpack to reach for distances a little bit(Trust me you'll use it ALLOT) and give him a Better, Infinite roll. Doing it with 2 players give's player 2 access to play as diddy, with the same moves as DK but has the jetpack while DK doesnt.Both have 2 hits to die, if your playing single player, you'll have 4 hearts and after 3 hits, you'll lose diddy, its a bit of a throw off from the original, 1hit kill,+Diddy 2, but your gonna need it. It sounds bad considering that DKC was about tagging in and out between characters but Times have changed and its mostly about playing simultaneously. Also put in mind that DK was absent for 2 games, Giving him the full role makes perfect sense to me :D.

Gameplaywise, Retro did an amazing job playing it out as how DKC had done. With the usual moving and jumping you can now cling onto walls and moving platforms that have grass or anything you can cling onto and keep moving from there, It makes you feel that your playing as a monkey.launcher Barrels have returned where they shoot you from place to place or to another barrel which also returns in the precise shooting onto other barrels while their moving. It adds allot of Difficulty and speaking of which and dreadfully unforgiving Mine Cart levels FINALLY Make a return after a long absence, It takes real precision to make the jumps this time around and Retro made it action packed alone. In the Later Levels Allot of things will be affecting how you go as you jump and duck and the performance is superb.There's a New gameplay element knows as the Barrel Rocket, once you jump in and continuously press A you'll launch your self sidecrollingly as you dodge everything in your way, the Controls are quite challenging because you must Press A to use the engine, you Hold it, you keep going Up and let go to go down. Its a Clever way to make it challenging and yet acceptable. Just as the Minecarts, expect allot of Things to happen, like Crystals falling and rising platforms.Rambi also Returns to the Fray with his amazing speed and thrusting everything he touches in front of him to oblivion, you'll be speeding through everything, but be notice that the game isnt dumb and will make sure you die if your not careful!

Action-wise Retro really made this platformer spark with allot of Events happening, they put the emphasis on "Crazy" and every level offers something you'll never forget. Wallpaper as a background isnt an option with Retro, the Background is well design to fit the level your in and they really put allot of effort to mimic and enhance how we felt playing DKC in the SNES days. Everything is intact and the background is sometimes used as part of the level. This games also like to Zoom in and out to make you feel what your doing, its usually when you oncover background events or if your in the background but need to get back to the front.Cartoon Artstyle are probably Nintendo's Best and suprisingly after coming from the Realistic Artstyle Retro studios did an Amazing job with the games cartoon style. Eveything is bright and colorful on sunny stages while murky and damp on dark stages. They really did an amazing job especially with the expressions with characters and their movements. The animation is beutifull and more loosly then on the Hardened Realistic Types.

Difficulty is a key factor in this game. Retro arnt gonna pull any strings, rather let go of them and watch you on your own. This game is REALLY challenging and you should expect to Die allot, the game made a super guide if you died allot of times like New super Mario bros. Wii and Mario Galaxy 2 however whatever the super guide collects wont be excepted and encourages you to do it. But take in mind that when you buy this, dont expect it to be an easy ride, this game gets really hard, even from the first world. Dk's Father/Grandfather Cranky Returns by Owning a Shack that you can buy items with,He's still the same old cranky we know him as with the quotes like:

"What happen, wast all your money on Video games?"
"Get those Banana's back and give those Tiki's what for! Yes, thats right I said 'What for' Im old, get over it" XD

The items you can purchase are More Baloons/Extralives, an extra heart container for 1 level only each,an invincible potion for a limited hits until you turn back to normal, and another animal friend returning squaks the parrot, who will help you find puzzle pieces in each level. There are Items your gonna collect in this game, the KONG letters return and will unlock things if you can collect them all in each level of each world, along with that there are also an amount of Puzzle pieces in each level and collecting them unlock things in the extra's section like Art,Music and Dioramas. you also can go for a trial run to beat the level at the fastest time, you can get awarded medals for making it just in time to what the game wants you to, It keeps replayability intact and every level will get its fare shares of returns to.

The Boss Battles are Very Creative as all the bosses give you a different way of beating them, Like i said earlier the main tiki's resemble Musical intruments and you get cutscenes of them appearing to Mind Control the Bosses to fight you. Each boss have a different way of fighting and the creative way it is shines out.
Music is also a key factor. While this game has its own Epic soundtrack like:

Tidal Terror:[link]
Smokey Peak:[link]

It also has Remixes of Classic DKC music, the way they remixed these to sound just as the original really brings out allot of Nostalgia and Memories. We got returning music like:

Forest Frenzy/Vultrue culture:[link]
Fear Factory:[link]
and one of my favortes :D
Life in the mines:[link]
There are many more to enjoy that will give you the Nostalgic feel.

In Conclusion, Retro studios did a suprisingly amazing job at recreating the masterpeice that Rare did, Let me remind you again, Retro Studios worked on Metroid Prime so a change to DKC was really suprising to see they pulled it off Perfectly. If you have a wii, you need to buy this game, this 2D platformer is full of nostalgai from the past, its full of Crazy courses, and its one of the most difficult games your gonna play. If your a fan of the original your gonna love this, it gives the feel of classic mixed with this new style. This game was important to me because DKC was my very first game. Im speaking out of how I felt as a fan. Get this game, you wont be dissapointed, old and new, this is one of the must have games next to Mario galaxy 2.

You'll Love:
-The new gameplay mechanics is just how it feels as the original with new things making it better
-Returning Soundtracks will bring your nostalgia levels high
-Beautiful visual design along with animation

You'll Hate:
-It Starts getting hard right from the beginning
-Rambi and Squaks are the only animal Buddys
-No Kremlings


My Score for Donkey kong Country returns is a 9.5
It brings back the experience we loved and improves on it very well, its a great remake from Retro and hope to see more games being recreated like this.