Donkey Kong Country Returns HD review for Nintendo Switch

System: Switch
Release date: January 16, 2025
Developer: Forever Entertainment / Retro Studios
Publisher: Nintendo

With all the buzz around the new Nintendo Switch 2, it’s easy to forget that Donkey Kong Country Returns HD released on the same day of the big reveal. The original game released on Wii way back in 2010 and was praised for bringing the series back into the limelight for the first time in over ten years. Three years later, the game was ported to Nintendo 3DS where it received additional content in the form of brand new post-game levels. Now it’s 2025, and Donkey Kong has returned for a third time – and at full price to boot. Is Donkey Kong Country Returns HD a worthy Nintendo Switch remaster, and how does it stack up to its original release and 3DS port? And perhaps more importantly, how does it hold up against its sequel, which is also available on the console?

To make things simple: if you haven’t played a Donkey Kong game or are a huge fan of the series, Donkey Kong Country Returns HD is probably the best way to play the title. Even in the modern day, its gameplay and physics are snappy and satisfying. Donkey Kong’s physics are generally much heavier and more momentum-based than Mario’s. This creates very satisfying scenarios where you can steamroll your way through levels – but that’s not to say the experience is easy. There are plenty of careful platforming segments as well as rocket barrel and minecart levels that really test your reflexes. Just like its sequel, Donkey Kong Country Returns HD’s gameplay is fair and balanced. When you make a mistake and die, it often does feel like your fault – and thankfully, the game is generous enough with its extra lives. Especially in later levels, you might need to use up multiple lives to make it through some of the tougher challenges.

Although Donkey Kong Country Returns HD isn’t overly long, there’s still a good bit of replay value. Each level has plenty of collectibles strewn throughout for you to find and some of them are particularly tricky to track down and collect. After clearing a stage, you can also access its Time Attack mode. We don’t expect that many players are interested in speedrunning the levels as quickly as humanly possible, but it’s still an option for those looking to clear all of the game’s content. Overall, Donkey Kong Country Returns HD should take you somewhere around ten hours to clear – and several hours more if you’re looking to find all the collectibles and especially if you want shiny gold medals on all of the game’s Time Attack challenges.

The point is, Donkey Kong Country Returns is still great fun in 2025. That was never a question – the question on many players’ minds is how good the actual port is. For the most part, it’s not bad – in terms of new content, however, there are essentially no additions to the base game. The easier difficulty introduced in Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D is here as well as all of the new post-game levels it introduced. And although the game is now rendered in full HD, the graphics are not a huge upgrade over the original Wii release otherwise (except for Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong, whose fur texture does make them look much better than in previous releases). Thankfully, the motion controls present in the original Wii release have been completely removed, which makes the game a much more even and consistent experience overall. And considering that the Nintendo 3DS version of the game (which also lacks motion controls) runs at 30 frames per second compared to Donkey Kong Country Returns HD’s 60, this remains the superior version of the game – but not by too much.

Understandably, the main point of contention here among fans is Donkey Kong Country Returns HD’s high price point of $60 USD – the same price as other Nintendo Switch titans like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey. Considering the original Donkey Kong Country Returns and its 3DS port were both priced at $40 (and eventually for even less as part of the Nintendo Selects program), this is a rather egregious price hike that is exacerbated by the game’s complete lack of additional content compared to its previous releases. If you’ve seen trailers and such for Donkey Kong Country Returns HD, you may have seen fans criticizing tiny graphical errors present throughout the game; examples being the sun not rendering in the third level and some amateur-looking fire effects from cannonballs. Normally, these small graphical errors would fly under the radar – but when you price a nearly 15 year-old game at $60, fans understandably look at everything with additional scrutiny.

This is where Donkey Kong Country Returns HD does wind up faltering a little a bit – there are several very minor drawbacks present throughout the game that you might notice if you keep an eye out for them. For one, loading times are actually longer than the original Wii version – only by a few seconds, but it’s still quite bizarre given how much more capable Nintendo Switch is than the Wii. The game’s cutscenes are also exactly the same as the ones on Wii, except seemingly upscaled to a higher resolution. This means Donkey Kong’s fur texture is nonexistent in cutscenes but very noticeable in-game, which does create a minor discrepancy when you compare the two. For the asking price, it would’ve been nice to see re-rendered cutscenes.

If you compare Donkey Kong Country Returns HD to its sequel, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, you’ll find that the latter generally exceeds it in almost every way. Tropical Freeze has stronger level designs, much more memorable music, and a higher spectacle than Returns. It’s undoubtedly the better game, and a better use of the $60 this port is asking. In a sense, Donkey Kong Country Returns is kind of the New Super Mario Bros. of the Donkey Kong franchise. That’s not to say that Donkey Kong Country is stale in the slightest – just that Returns is sort of seen as the baseline of modern Donkey Kong, so its story and scenario aren’t quite as interesting compared to Tropical Freeze.

The Verdict

Donkey Kong Country Returns is still great fun in the modern day. It’s timeless and offers classic platforming action, even with the HD port’s spread of minor graphical and performance issues. We absolutely recommend the game itself – particularly if you can play it for cheaper on another platform. It’s nowhere near as breathtaking or refined as its sequel, but that doesn’t at all mean it’s not worth your time. The asking price is absolutely too high for what’s on offer here – $30 on sale would be perfect – but if that somehow isn’t a problem for you, then Donkey Kong Country Returns HD is a decent port of a great game. If you’ve already played Donkey Kong Country Returns and are still on the fence about this port, it might be a good idea to hold off for now. There isn’t anything here that you haven’t already seen. If you’ve never played a Donkey Kong game and want to try one, we wholeheartedly recommend Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze – it’s one of the best 2D platformers of all time.