Donkey Kong Country Returns is a 2010 platform game created by Retro Studios and made available by Nintendo for the Wii console. It was first released in North America in November 2010, and later in PAL regions and Japan the next month. The story follows a group of evil, Tiki-like creatures called the Tiki Tak Tribe, who are released onto Donkey Kong Island. These creatures hypnotize the island’s animals to steal Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong’s banana collection, which leads the two characters to travel across the island to recover their bananas.
This game was the first in the Donkey Kong Country series not to involve Rare, the original developer, and the first to be released after Rare was bought by Microsoft. The game was well received by critics and players, selling more than 6.53 million copies worldwide. It became one of the most successful games on the Wii and was praised for its graphics, level design, and gameplay. However, some players had mixed feelings about its motion controls and challenging difficulty.
A version of the game for the Nintendo 3DS, developed by Monster Games and titled Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, was released in North America and PAL regions on May 24, 2013, and in Australia the next day. It came out in Japan the following month. A sequel, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, was released for the Wii U in February 2014 and for the Nintendo Switch in May 2018. A high-definition version of Donkey Kong Country Returns, developed by Forever Entertainment and titled Donkey Kong Country Returns HD, was released for the Nintendo Switch on January 16, 2025.
Gameplay
Players control the main character, Donkey Kong, and his friend Diddy Kong in certain situations. The game includes classic elements from the Donkey Kong Country series, such as mine cart levels, swinging on vines to collect bananas, golden "KONG" letters, and puzzle pieces. New features include levels where characters and environments appear as silhouettes, introducing new gameplay mechanics. In single-player mode, players control only Donkey Kong, though Diddy Kong rides on his back. Donkey Kong can use Diddy’s jetpack to jump farther. In multiplayer mode, a second player controls Diddy Kong. If a character dies in two-player mode, the other player can revive them by hitting a "DK Barrel" that appears, similar to a mechanic in New Super Mario Bros. Wii. To balance skill differences, Diddy Kong can ride on Donkey Kong’s back to play a less active role, while his jetpack can help Donkey Kong jump more easily. Both characters can pound the ground to defeat enemies and find secret items.
The game offers two control methods: one uses the Wii Remote and Nunchuk together, while the other requires holding the Wii Remote sideways. Both methods use motion controls for the "Ground Pound" move. The game includes classic features like secrets and unlockables, as well as an optional time attack mode. Two animal helpers, Rambi and Squawks, appear to aid Donkey Kong during certain parts of the game. The game also uses the "Super Guide" feature from previous games. If a player loses eight lives in a level, they can let a white version of Donkey Kong, called Super Kong, complete the level. However, Super Kong does not collect items, does not show their location, and keeps any items he finds, so the player does not receive rewards for them.
After defeating Tiki Tong, a new stage called "The Golden Temple" unlocks. To play this stage, players must find hidden items called "Rare Orbs" in each world’s temple. Completing the Golden Temple unlocks a new mode called Mirror Mode. In this mode, stages are flipped, Donkey Kong has only one unit of health, cannot use items bought from Cranky Kong, and cannot receive help from Diddy Kong.
Plot
The game's story is about creatures called Tikis, which are new to the series. The Tikis act as the main opposing characters, taking the place of the Kremlings from Donkey Kong Country. Cranky Kong (voiced by Takashi Nagasako), who owns shops across the island, is the only other member of the Kong family that appears besides Donkey Kong (Nagasako) and Diddy Kong (Katsumi Suzuki). The story starts when the main characters are awakened by a volcanic eruption on Donkey Kong Island. This happens after a group of evil Tikis called the Tiki Tak Tribe arrives and plays music to trick the animals into stealing Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong's bananas. Since Donkey Kong is not affected by the Tikis' music, he teams up with Diddy Kong to get their bananas back. During the game, the two travel through nine different areas to recover their stolen bananas: the Golden Temple, the Volcano, the Factory, the Cliff, the Forest, the Cave, the Ruins, the Beach, and the Jungle. In each area, they must defeat a leader of the Tiki Tak Tribe: Kalimba, the Maraca Gang, Gong-Oh, Banjo Bottom, Wacky Pipes, Xylobone, Cordian (who tricks other island residents to fight the Kongs), and Tiki Tong, the ruler of the Tiki Tak Tribe. After defeating Tiki Tong, the Kongs are sent into space, where they hit the Moon, destroy Tiki Tong's base, and cause bananas to fly everywhere.
Development
The idea for Donkey Kong Country Returns began at Retro Studios after they finished Metroid Prime 2: Echoes in 2004. Retro’s president, Michael Kelbaugh, told Nintendo’s producer, Kensuke Tanabe, that Retro wanted to make a Donkey Kong game. Kelbaugh had tested Donkey Kong Country games for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), which had not been active since 1996. The original games were made by Rare, a British studio that was bought by Microsoft, a company that competes with Nintendo, in 2002. Instead of working on Donkey Kong, Retro was asked to create Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (2007). Tanabe explained that Nintendo relied on Retro to make games that could not be developed in Japan.
After finishing Corruption, Retro tried new ideas for projects. However, in April 2008, three key staff members—game director Mark Pacini, art director Todd Keller, and principal technology engineer Jack Matthews—left to start Armature Studio. Their experiments had to be abandoned. Tanabe was unsure what Retro’s next project would be until Donkey Kong’s creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, said he wanted to bring back Donkey Kong Country. Miyamoto mentioned that Nintendo had received requests from North American fans for a new Donkey Kong Country game. Tanabe suggested Retro could be the right studio for the project.
Retro staff traveled to Nintendo’s headquarters in Kyoto to meet with Miyamoto and Nintendo president Satoru Iwata. They discussed the direction of Returns. Miyamoto told Retro, “Donkey Kong is my baby and you better get it right!” Iwata believed Retro could make the game well because many staff members were big fans of the original Donkey Kong Country. He felt they proved it was possible for a studio other than Rare to continue the series. Iwata called the situation that led to Retro taking on Returns “goen,” meaning “fate.” Retro named the project “F8” as its codename. Retro was excited to work on a game different from Metroid; senior designer Mike Wikan noted that Donkey Kong’s light tone was a contrast to Metroid’s serious one. Iwata said their passion for Donkey Kong Country “generated an energy that was poured into [Returns].”
Returns was designed for Donkey Kong Country fans. The team spent the first week of development playing the SNES games to get inspiration. Retro wanted to keep memorable elements like side-scrolling gameplay, barrel cannons, and minecart sequences but improved them to create a new experience. They aimed to keep the series’ broad appeal and accessibility. The team felt responsible because they did not want to disappoint fans. Assistant producer Risa Tabata had never played Donkey Kong Country, so she thought of new ideas.
Similar to his role during the development of Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (2004), Miyamoto supervised Retro and reviewed Returns’ content throughout development. He wanted Retro to keep Donkey Kong Country’s unique visuals and feel and emphasized elements from earlier games that should stay. He also decided which characters could return. The staff worked with Miyamoto for hours to perfect Donkey Kong’s movement and called him “Yoda” for his advice. Miyamoto suggested the blowing mechanic after seeing a prototype and noticing that one of Diddy Kong’s animations looked like blowing. The team was confused at first but found the idea added fun and playfulness.
Miyamoto wanted players to move like Donkey Kong when he slaps the terrain, so Retro designed Returns for the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. After New Super Mario Bros. Wii was released, Retro added the option to play without the Nunchuk, allowing players to hold the Wii Remote horizontally like a Nintendo Entertainment System controller. Unlike Rare’s games, which let players switch between Donkey and Diddy Kong freely, Retro made them a combined character. They introduced surface-clinging to expand gameplay to walls and ceilings and avoided underwater levels because they did not fit the game’s pace. Team members shared ideas, and coworkers tried to surprise each other. Retro felt they could include more ideas than in the Metroid Prime series.
Kelbaugh decided Returns needed to be challenging to please Donkey Kong Country fans but still fair for new players. Pearson and Wikan wanted the game to encourage players to learn from mistakes and keep trying. They added Diddy’s jetpack and pop gun to help new players and make him different from earlier games. Retro knew the difficulty might be hard for some players, so they included the Super Guide system from New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Since the Metroid Prime and Donkey Kong Country series were popular among speedrunners and hardcore gamers, Retro added a time trial mode late in development.
When development began, Tanabe and Tabata discussed how to make Returns different from the previous Donkey Kong game, Jungle Beat. Tanabe thought simultaneous multiplayer was one way to do this, as earlier games only let players take turns. Miyamoto advised Tanabe to focus on single-player gameplay first, but Tanabe still told Retro to include multiplayer early. To make Returns’ multiplayer different from New Super Mario Bros. Wii and allow skilled players to move quickly, Retro removed the collision detection between Donkey and Diddy. Retro kept the difficulty high for multiplayer but discussed making it easier to get lives and allowed Diddy to ride Donkey’s back if one player struggled.
Retro wanted Returns to look “fun and whimsical” and rejected many early designs that were too similar to Metroid’s darker style. Strong visuals were important because the original Donkey Kong Country was famous for its graphics. Kelbaugh and director Bryan Walker said creating silhouette levels taught them not to rely too much on graphics. Retro kept the art style of earlier Donkey Kong Country games but used polygons instead of the pre-rendering technique Rare used for the SNES trilogy. Tanabe noted that unlike SNES games, which had static backgrounds due to technical limits, Retro could add real-time animation to Returns, letting characters and backgrounds interact. Retro got inspiration from Virtual Boy Wario Land (1995), which lets players jump between the background and foreground.
Unlike most Western game developers, Retro spent a lot of time making prototypes. For Metroid Prime, Retro used design documents, but Tanabe taught them it was better to create prototypes first and write design documents after gameplay was polished
Release
After Microsoft bought Rare, the Donkey Kong franchise became less popular. Without a studio to create major Donkey Kong platform games, the series focused on smaller games like Donkey Konga and Mario vs. Donkey Kong, as well as appearances in other Nintendo games. Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (2004), the only major Donkey Kong game after Rare’s Donkey Kong 64 (1999), did not sell well even though critics praised it. Hardcore Gaming 101 noted that players who enjoyed older Donkey Kong games felt the series needed to return to its roots.
Donkey Kong Country Returns was kept secret during its development. In August 2009, IGN reported that Retro Studios was working on a new Wii game but took steps to hide its identity, such as limiting access to parts of its office. When IGN reporter Matt Casamassina visited Retro to discuss Metroid Prime: Trilogy (2009), he had to sign a non-disclosure agreement that prevented him from sharing details about the new project. Rumors that the game was related to Donkey Kong appeared just before Nintendo’s E3 conference in June 2010.
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé announced Donkey Kong Country Returns during his E3 keynote in June 2010, showing a trailer with gameplay footage. Journalists praised Nintendo’s presentation and called the game one of the most important announcements of the year. They were surprised because many believed a new Donkey Kong Country game was unlikely after Microsoft’s acquisition of Rare. GameSpot noted that the trailer caused excitement among the audience, and Hardcore Gaming 101 said the use of the Donkey Kong Country brand promised a return to the franchise’s earlier success.
Nintendo promoted Returns alongside Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Metroid: Other M, and Wii Party to boost Wii sales, which were competing with PlayStation 3 sales. The game was advertised with trailers that showed challenging gameplay. One ad featured British comedians Ant & Dec searching for bananas in the jungle. Nintendo of America partnered with Chiquita, a banana company, to label bananas with Donkey Kong stickers and host a contest where customers could submit photos of themselves dancing. Winners could receive prizes like a Wii, a copy of Returns, or a trip to Cancún. Customers who preordered the game through GameStop got a banana-shaped Wii Remote pouch.
On December 2, Nintendo Australia placed 10,000 bananas (about 2 tons) at Circular Quay in Sydney. Visitors could play Returns on an inflatable screen and take bananas; leftover bananas were donated to a food charity. In the UK, Nintendo worked with GAME to let customers exchange bananas for free copies of Returns. Nintendo also hosted competitive eater Takeru Kobayashi, who ate 16 bananas in one minute.
Donkey Kong Country Returns was released in North America on November 21, 2010, the 16th anniversary of the original Donkey Kong Country. It launched in Europe on December 3 and Japan on December 9. The game sold well: in Japan, it sold 163,310 copies in its first week, 56.63% of its initial shipment. By December 2012, it sold over 970,000 copies. In North America, it debuted in sixth place on sales charts with 430,470 copies sold. Worldwide sales reached 4.21 million copies in less than a month.
A Nintendo 3DS version, titled Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, was released on May 24, 2013. Monster Games developed the port, which used 3D graphics. The 3DS version included two modes: "Original Mode," which matched the Wii version, and "New Mode," which added easier gameplay features like extra health. It also included eight new levels not in the original game.
The Wii version of Donkey Kong Country Returns was later available for download on the Wii U via Nintendo eShop. It was released on the eShop in Japan on January 21, 2015, and in Europe and Australia on January 22 and 23, respectively. From March 31 to June 30, 2016, the game was offered as a My Nintendo reward for North American Wii U users. It became available for purchase on the North American eShop on September 22, 2016.
Donkey Kong Country Returns was released on Nvidia Shield in China on July 4, 2019. This version used HD graphics, unlike the Wii and 3DS versions.
A Nintendo Switch remaster, titled Donkey Kong Country Returns HD, was announced in June 2024 during a Nintendo Direct presentation. Developed by Forever Entertainment, it was released on January 16, 2025, and included content from the 3D version. An update on January 21, 2026, added Dixie Kong as a playable character, a new Turbo Attack mode, and improvements for gameplay on the Nintendo Switch 2.
Reception
Donkey Kong Country Returns received mostly positive reviews. In 2010, IGN gave the game awards for "Best Retro Design" and "Most Challenging" and ranked it as the 5th best game on the console. Game Informer named it Game of the Month for December 2010. Reviewer Dan Ryckert called it "one of the best platformers [they'd] ever played." The publication later named it the "Best Platformer" and "Best Wii Exclusive" of 2010.
Critics praised the game's graphics, level design, and fast-paced gameplay, which they said brought back the quality of earlier Donkey Kong Country games. However, opinions varied about the motion controls and difficulty. IGN's Craig Harris gave the game an Editor's Choice award, calling it a challenging return to the style of the original Country games. Australian show Good Game gave it scores of 9 and 8.5 out of 10, noting the music stayed true to the original style and the game avoided being too simple or too complex. X-Play praised the game's similarity to earlier titles, its replay value, and its graphics but criticized the motion controls and co-op gameplay. GamesRadar praised the game's standout levels and fan service but said it was "hard … in a frustrating, unclear, and often misleading way" and had poor motion controls. GameTrailers praised the gameplay and level variety, while Giant Bomb said Retro "recaptures most of Donkey Kong's venerated platforming roots" in this game.
When it first came out, the game was third on the Japanese video game charts, with 163,310 units sold. By January 2011, it had sold 638,305 copies in Japan. In North America, it debuted sixth on the charts, with 430,470 units sold. By March 2011, the game had sold 4.98 million copies worldwide.
As of September 2013, the 3DS version had sold 268,000 units in the United States. By March 2014, Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D had sold 1.52 million copies worldwide.
Both versions of the game, along with its sequel, were added to the Nintendo Selects label in March 2016 in North America.