Review by Adam Stephen Kelly
UK Certification 3+ | UK RRP £44.99 | Region PAL | Publisher Nintendo
The original Donkey Kong Country, Rare's platformer from 1994 for the SNES, was an unforgettable adventure in pre-rendered 3D that pitted Donkey and the debutant Diddy Kong in a quest to retrieve bananas for Kong's Hoard, after they were stolen by a band of cartoonish villains. A truly excellent game that was later ported to the Game Boy after monumental critical and financial success, you'd have been hard-pressed to believe that Retro Studios could make a sequel sixteen years later that could top it. But they have.
If you're a Kong veteran, the second you return to the island it'll all come flooding back to you. It thankfully doesn't take our pixelated heroes and drop them in a bizarre, alien situation ala Super Mario Sunshine and Luigi's Mansion on the GameCube, but remains faithful to the original. As you grab bananas on your journey, it's also your mission to collect puzzle pieces and K-O-N-G letters that are scattered around the levels. Also making a comeback are the mine carts that make for tremendously entertaining rollercoaster rides across the island, explosive barrels that blast you high into the air and to-and-fro from the back and foreground, and, by no means least, Squawks the parrot, who will help you hunt for puzzle pieces, Rambi the rhino, and Cranky Kong, who operates shops in the island's various 'worlds' where you can use the gold banana coins that you have obtained to purchase new lives, keys to unlock extra levels and other tools to aid you on your adventure.
Where Donkey Kong Country had graphics the quality of which had really never been seen before, the sharp, fresh and colourful look of Returns pushes the Wii into top gear and so stomping on the heads of enemies as a great big gorilla has never looked better. Nor been so much fun. Returns takes everything memorable from its predecessor to create fluid, fast and furious gameplay. The later stages especially are incredibly intense with their wild, imaginative level design, not to mention extremely hard. The difficulty of this game as you progress is punishing, but it makes for so much more sweeter victory celebrations once you've finally conquered a particularly gruelling level. Checkpoints come in the form of pigs rather than star barrels, which is a little strange, but who cares, they're only checkpoints, right? And if these little piggies will give your fingers a short respite as well as guaranteeing that you won't go right back to the start of the level if you meet your apey demise (providing you don't run out of lives), it's all good.
Players can choose to quest on their own as Donkey Kong or partner up to tag team it with Diddy, although regardless if you're playing with a friend or not, Diddy can still be utilised by hopping onto Donkey's back and using his jetpack to assist with jumps, which, as you get deeper into the game, is very, very helpful.
This may be an unlikely candidate for game of the year, but it's that good. With its excellent reinvention of classic gameplay elements, retro soundtrack sweetened by its modern twist, Wii Remote functionality and endless replayability, it's an instant classic. I just hope it's not another sixteen years until we return to the island once more.