Donkey Kong Country Returns

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Donkey Kong Country Returns

System	Wii
Release Date	^NA November 21, 2010^[1] ^AU December 2, 2010^[2] ^EU December 3, 2010 ^JP December 9, 2010^[3]
Publisher	Nintendo
Genre	Sidescrolling platformer
Rating	^ESRB: E (Everyone)
Players	1-2
Controller Pak
Rumble	Supported
Expansion Pak
Link Cable
Xbox Live
Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection

Donkey Kong Country Returns is a 2D sidescrolling platform game developed by Retro Studios for the Wii. It is a game in the Donkey Kong series, and the first one not developed by Rare to feature the Country title. The game was released on November 21, 2010 in North America,^[1] and is set to be released December 3, 2010 in Europe,^[2] and December 9, 2010 in Japan.^[3]

Story

An evil group of tiki creatures, part of the Tiki Tak Tribe, invade Donkey Kong Island and take over the minds of most of its inhabitants, causing them to become hostile to the Kongs and steal their banana hoard. While looking out of his door, Donkey Kong sees the animals taking away his hoard. However, before he can stop them, he is forced back into his home by one of the Tikis, who attempts to hypnotize him. This fails, however, and DK gives the Tiki a severe beating. He then bursts out of his tree house and sets off with his pal Diddy Kong to defeat the Tikis and restore his prized hoard.^[4]^[5]

Gameplay

A gameplay screenshot, showing a Tiki escaping on an air ship with Donkey Kong's bananas.

The gameplay keeps within the style presented in the original Donkey Kong Country games. A sidescrolling platformer in which the player(s) control the Kongs together, using their abilities to get past various enemies and obstacles, collecting bananas and finding Bonus Rooms along the way. Some changes have been made, however. For one, the Kongs are now able to take more than one hit each: they have a lifebar, featuring two hearts for each Kong on-screen. If a Kong loses both of his hearts, he will fall off screen and must be restored using a DK Barrel. The game supports simultaneous two-player co-operative play. The tag-team aspect also seems to be removed: in single-player mode, Diddy latches onto DK's back, and he and DK's lifebars are combined, as are their abilities. The second player can also do this in co-op mode to take a break from the action.

The Kong's abilities are a mix of old and new. Both can jump, roll, Hand Slap, and blow their breath at background objects to cause various effects. Diddy also has two new abilities carried over from Donkey Kong 64: a jetpack which allows him to hover in mid-air for a short period of time and the Peanut Popguns, which serve as a long-range attack. Animal Buddies have also been confirmed, with the first revealed being the returning Rambi, who can charge into enemies and obstacles to destroy them with his horn.

In addition to the bananas, some other classic DKC items and objects also appear in this game; including Banana Coins, KONG Letters, Extra Life Balloons, and various types of barrels. A new collectable object also appears in the form of golden puzzle pieces, which are earned from the game's Bonus Rooms and hidden in other places in the levels. There are a certain number in each stage, which seem to form a coin bearing the symbol of a fruit when all in a stage are collected. Cranky Kong has been confirmed to appear in the game, running a shop where players can buy extra lives and health upgrades with their collected Banana Coins.^[6]

Minecart stages, similar to those in the original game, have also been confirmed. However, it also seems that, in some levels, a minecart segment will be integrated into a regular platforming stage, presumably for variety. A new type of vehicle stage, involving a large rocket barrel, has also been confirmed. The player can move the rocket barrel up and down to avoid obstacles as it flies forward on its own.^[5] However, underwater stages, present since the original DKC, do not appear in the game, due to Retro's designers feeling they slowed the game's pace by too much.^[7]

So far, it has been confirmed that the game can be played with the Wii Remote/Nunchuck combination, and with the Wii Remote "NES-style," tilted sideways. Other control methods, such as the GameCube controller and the Wii Classic Controller, are not available for use, due to the game's focus on motion controls for certain moves.^[8]

The game also includes a "Super Guide" feature similar to that New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Super Mario Galaxy 2.^[8] This feature allows players who die eight times on a level to optionally choose to watch a video of a white-furred Donkey Kong (named "Super Kong") finishing the level. The downside to this is that none of the items collected by Super Kong will count towards the player's total.^[9]

Characters

Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong as they appear in the game.

The characters confirmed for the game so far include:

Worlds/Levels

This section is incomplete and under construction. Please excuse for the informal appearance as it is being worked on. You can help the RWP Wiki by adding to it.

The game features eight worlds, with many levels in each.

Jungle

The Jungle world includes the following levels:

Beach

The Beach world includes the following levels:

Ruins

The Ruins world includes the following levels:

Other

Development

Official discussion between Nintendo and Retro Studios for making a new Donkey Kong game began in April 2008, and development started soon after. While the game was in early development stages, it was known by the codename "F8". Shigeru Miyamoto was adamant that the project must be "a better DKC."^[7] In order to prepare for the game's development, the staff at Retro played "every DK game," to best get a feel for the series.^[11] Retro Studios has confirmed that the long-running Kremling villains will not be in the game.^[12] Metroid series composer Kenji Yamamoto is composing the game's music, and is making sure it matches David Wise's soundtrack for the original game as closely as possible.^[13] The game uses realtime 3D graphics from a 2D perspective, achieving a similar effect to the prerendered sprites of the original game, however, many extra visual effects are also in use, many of which also affect the gameplay. Retro compared the graphical detail of Donkey Kong Country Returns to that of Metroid Prime 3, saying that the average DKCR level has about three times as many polygons and textures as an average room in Prime 3.

Promotion

A preorder bonus for the game has been announced: players who preorder the game at GameStop stores will recieve a banana-shaped Wii Remote holding pouch branded with the Donkey Kong Country Returns logo upon release.^[14]

Gallery

Logos and covers

Logo	US box art

Artwork

Donkey Kong.	Diddy Kong.	Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong.	Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong teaming up.
Cranky Kong.	Rambi.	A Tiki.	Box art scene (clear version).
A Banana.	A Banana Bunch.	A Banana Coin.	An Extra Life Balloon.
A Barrel.	A DK Barrel.	A Puzzle Piece.	A mine cart.