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Donkey Kong Country Returns is a 2.5D platforming game for the Wii. The game is based on the original 2-D Donkey Kong Country games for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and it is the fourth Donkey Kong Country series installment overall. The game was developed by Retro Studios, unlike with earlier Donkey Kong Country installments, and published by Nintendo. The game was originally released in 2010, and it would receive a remake for the Nintendo 3DS in 2013, titled Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D.

A remaster, Donkey Kong Country Returns HD, was announced in June 18, 2024 for the Nintendo Switch, and it is scheduled to release on January 16, 2025.

Plot[]

Summary[]

The game features Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong teaming up like in the previous games of the sequel. However, the only additional Kong is Cranky Kong, and that there are no Kremlings. The story is simple, An evil group of "African" Tikis named the Tiki Tak Tribe steal Donkey Kong's Banana Hoard and they later hypnotize the animals of the jungle. Therefore, Donkey Kong looks forward to retrieve his hoard and save the animals.

Story[]

Opening[]

On one peaceful day, the volcano of Donkey Kong Island erupts and reawakens the Tiki Tak Tribe from their slumber, various Tikis are seen emerging from the meteorites spawned from the Volcano including Tiki Goons, Tiki Tanks, Tiki Buzzes, and several Tiki Ghosts, later, the Tiki Tong Tower also emerges from the volcano as all the Tikis then descend down to the island. For mysterious purposes, the Tiki Ghosts hypnotize the local wildlife ranging from elephants, giraffes, zebras and squirrels by using their music to bring them every banana in sight. The animals the proceed to steal every banana on the island, even the Kongs' Banana Hoard. Diddy Kong witnesses the theft and proceeds to chase after the Tikis. Donkey Kong also sees the animals stealing the Bananas and just before he can pursue them, the Kalimba Tiki emerges from nowhere and shoves Donkey Kong back into his house attempting to hypnotize him but DK is immune to the effects of the hypnosis (possibly either due to him being to smart or too dumb). The Kalimba Tiki makes two attempts to hypnotize DK to no avail, Donkey Kong then proceeds to beat up the Kalimba Tiki and punch him out of his home.

Jungle[]

Donkey Kong then begins his adventure making his way through the jungle whilst battling enemies such as Awk, Frogoons, and Chomps. Donkey Kong later notices a ginormous sack of Bananas being carried away on a Tiki Airship controlled by the Tiki Pilot. As DK continues, he later reunites with his nephew Diddy Kong and the two of them press on. After progressing through the Jungle, climbing across the trees, progressing through the sunset, using Barrel Cannons to progress through the canopies as well as scaling the Jungle Caves via a Mine Cart, the Kongs eventually reach a large Colosseum where they meet Mugly. The Kongs initially think that Mugly is harmful but Mugly is normally a peaceful creature, happy to eat his bananas however, the Kalimba Tiki arrives and is angry for how Donkey Kong beat him up earlier, he proceeds to hypnotize Mugly and possess him turning him into a major threat. Mugly proceeds to grow spikes along his head and back and also acquires a hunger for gorillas instead. Mugly attempts to charge at the Kongs but the Kongs dodge his attacks and manage to get several blows on his back when it's vulnerable. After scoring 9 hits on Mugly, he is KO'd and the Kalimba Tiki emerges, DK then proceeds to beat up the Kalimba Tiki before him and Diddy move on to the next area of Donkey Kong Island.

Beach[]

Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong later arrived on the beach, while a typical beach would be pleasant and relaxing, the beach on Donkey Kong Island is far from that, in fact, it's very dangerous. The primary enemies the Kongs faced here include Snippys, Squidlies, Nibbles, and Jellybobs. The Kongs make it through several wooden planks across the beach waters, across the sands of the beach, across the ocean via a Rocket Barrel whilst narrowly escaping a close encounter with a Pirate Ship, evading a bombard of cannonballs, making it amidst the stormy shores and escaping a colossal Octopus named Squiddicus, hitching a ride across the sea on a Whale, as well as surviving a guantlet of intense tidal waves. The Kongs then reached the end of the beach where they saw Captain Greenbeard and the pirates enjoying some bananas however the Maraca Tikis have something else in mind, they reveal themselves and hypnotize and possess the pirates in order to destroy the Kongs. DK and Diddy engage the Pirates in battle first dealing with each Pirate individually. Upon damaging each Pirate, the three Pirates stacked on top of eachother, the Kongs then destacked the Pirates and attacked them, they repeated the process a second time and KO'd the Pirates. After the Pirates were KO'd, the Maraca Tikis emerged and Donkey Kong proceeded to beat them up, after this, the Kongs moved on to the next area.

Ruins[]

Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong then made it to the ruins, these ruins contained extremely ancient statues and temples which the Kongs traversed, the Kongs battled many enemies such as Stilts, Humzees, and Toothberries whilst making their way through the Jungle Ruins, an ancient temple filled with Barrel Cannons, a beach with several Pirate Ships aiming at them, a temple connected to the ocean where several Nibbles reside, another Temple filled with Toothberries as well as a large temple with spikes and stone structures. The Kongs then reached the end of the ruins where they came across a large egg. The Gong Tiki appeared and controlled the two statues to bash the giant gong behind him which causes the floor to collapse sending DK, Diddy, and the egg plummeting down. The egg lands inside a bomb-filled cauldron and the Gong Tiki moves to hypnotize the egg and possess it causing it to emerge as a giant red bird named Stu. Stu attacks the Kongs by throwing Bombs at them. The Kongs are smart to grab the pelted Bombs and throw them back at Stu. Stu used various different attacks against the Kongs but they evaded all of them. After scorcing six hits on Stu, the Kongs broke open the cauldron he was flying in revealing his featherless body resulting in Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong comically placing their hands on their eyes to avoid looking at his body, yet peeking anyways. After this, the Gong Tiki emerges and the Kongs proceed to beat him up before progressing to the next area.

Cave[]

The Kongs then exit the Ruins and enter a large cave, the cave itself was rather mossy and filled with crystals, it also seems to have some kind of civilization as there are several houses seen in the caves. To traverse the caves, the Kongs made use of many Mine Carts and Rocket Barrels whilst battling many enemies such as Mole Guards and Squeeklies. Upon reaching a deep sector of the cave, the Kong's saw several Mole Miners filling their train with Bananas. Banjo Tiki saw the Kongs and sounded the train alarm causing the Mole Miners to board the train. The Banjo Tiki then proceeded to hypnotize and possess the leader of the moles Mole Mine Max. The Kongs then got on the train to try and stop them from taking away the Bananas, as the Kongs chased the Mole Miners on their own mine cart, they dodged the Moles' Pickaxes and then reached their train beating down the Mole Miners that emerged, eventually, after a long chase, the Kongs finally squared off against Mole Miner Max. After pouncing him four times, he was KO'd, the Mole Train was stopped and the Banjo Tiki emerged and the Kongs went into beat him up before advancing onward.

Forest[]

Upon exiting the Cave, the Kongs ended up in a Forest. The forest itself had many treehouses as well as Tiki Statues. There were also several monsters lurking around such as Sklitters, Cling Cobras, and Bopapodamuses. The Kongs made their way through the high canopies of the Forest, swinging across Vines, climbing the trees, hiting rides across platforms controlled by Tiki Buzzes and Tiki Torks, making their way across Tiki Totem platforms, blasting through the forest with the help of some Barrel Cannons, bouncing across mushrooms, climbing across some Wigglevines, and escaping a swarm of Munchers, the Kongs then reached a small house with several wheels. Below the wheel the Kongs were standing on a plant-like creature called Mangoruby could be seen napping. As it woke, the Panflute Tiki appeared and hypnotized and possessed Mangoruby to destroy the Kongs. The Kongs had to avoid the electrified Mangoruby and light up the room to unelectrify his body. While his body was vulnerable, the Kongs had a clear chance to strike, with every strike the Kongs removed two of Mangoruby's segments, after three hits, the Mangoruby was defeated and the Panflute Tiki emerged. The Kongs then beat up the Panflute Tiki before advancing upward.

Cliff[]

The Kongs then made it to the high canyons of the Cliff. The area was rather prehistoric containing many dinosaur skeletons and tar pits. The enemies too were prehistoric mainly consiting of Skellirexes and Bonehead Jeds. The Kongs managed to make their way through several obstacles such as many tar pits, a Mine Cart race with many prehistoric eggs, several wooden weight platforms, several spiked boulders to avoid, a platform-filled plateau, and a section where the cliffs crumble. The Kongs also had a close encounter with a Tiki Boulder, they almost made it to the Cliff's top but the path to the end crumbled away forcing the Kongs to take a detour south, they eventually reached a section filled with wrecked ships and cannons. They then began the climb back up the cliff and finally reached the house at the top. Inside the house, they found Thugly, the older brother of Mugly (who the Kongs met back in the Jungle). Like Mugly, Thugly also had an appetite for Bananas and while he wouldn't normally be a problem, a Tiki Airship arrived with Xylophone Tiki who proceeded to hypnotize and possess Thugly. The Kongs then battled Thugly, Thugly was much stronger and faster than his brother, not only did he have the same moves as Mugly but he could also breathe fire and possessed armor on his back which glowed hot whenever he ran. The Kongs dodged Thugly's attacks and jumped on his back whenever his armor retracted, everytime, the Kongs hit Thugly three times, he would destroy the ground taking the battle to a lower sector, after nine hits, Thugly was KO'd and the Xylophone Tiki emerged. The Kongs the proceeded to beat him up before traversing even higher up the Island.

Factory[]

When the Kongs arrived at the Factory, they saw that it was surrounded by foggy smog. The Kongs progressed through the area and found a switch which activated the fans removing all the cloudy smog. Inside the Factorym they came face to face with several robotic foes such as Pogobots, Pyrobots, Electroids, and Buckbots. The Kongs made their way across several conveyors while avoiding compactors, getting a hand from some robotic hand platforms, as well as using a Rocket Barrel to traverse the spinning cogs. The Kongs then reached the central part of the factory. Here, they had to traverse several cogs, several red-blue platforms which were controlled by switches, and several music like appliances but in these areas, there were three Power Switches which the Kongs had to find. Upon finding and activating all three, this revealed a hidden Rocket within the Factory, the Kongs entered the Rocket and flew into the sky whilst avoiding several Tiki Airships. They then reached the Factory's Tower, here they saw a large conveyor belt with several Tiki Masks on it, whenever mashed Bananas were juiced in the Tiki Masks, the Mask would transform into a Tiki, the mashed bananas were being juiced from a large cauldron and being stomped on by a machine called the Stompybot 3000 controlled by a chicken named Colonel Pluck. It was then where the Kongs realized why the Tikis had stolen their Bananas as well as the Bananas across the Island, so they could create more of themselves to take over the island, Colonel Pluck was under the control of the Accordion Tiki but at that moment, the effects were wearing off so the Accordion Tiki hynotized and possessed him again this time to destroy the Kongs, the Kongs then engaged Colonel Pluck in battle, they managed to avoid all the dangerous attacks of the Stompybot 300 and destroy it, at that point Colonel Pluck flew around in the remains of his machine to bombard the Kongs, the Kongs dodged these blows and smashed Colonel Pluck thus revealing the Accordion Tiki. The Kongs beat him up and then exited the Factory heading to the highest point of the island.

Volcano[]

The Kongs finally reached the Volcano, here they were faced with some of their toughest challenges yet, lava rivers, lava lakes, lava seas. The enemies were also threatening as well, consisting of Char-Chars, Ultra Char-Chars, and many Tikis. The Kongs traversed the stone platforms across the lava, used a Rocket Barrel and then a Mine Cart to fly across the lava sea, crossed a smokey peak, made their way across the lava platforms while avoiding rocky fireballs, made their way acorss moving platforms, as well as escaping rising lava. After the trek, the Kongs finally reached the colossal Tiki Tong Tower. The Kongs used a Rocket Barrel to reach the top while avoiding many hazards along the way, upon finally entering the mouth of the Tower, the Kongs finally saw their Bananas but at that moment, all the Tiki Ghosts the Kongs beat up in the previous worlds (Kalimba, Maracas, Gong, Banjo, Panflute, Xylophone, and Accordion) all emerged from hiding and they were pure angry but the Kongs were ready to take them on. The king of the Tikis Tiki Tong then arrived and let out a violet roar. The Kongs were ready for battle but at that moment, Tiki Tong opened his head and the other Tiki Ghosts started filling him with the Bananas. After this, Tiki Tong proceeded to spin around at a rapid speed and open his mouth spewing banana juice all over the nine Tiki Ghosts sacrificing them and then transforming them into hands that he can attack the Kongs with. The Kongs battled Tiki Tong, they avoided his attacks and trounced his hands, after two hits with each hand, the hand would break thus releasing a mass of Bananas which fell to the arena's bottom. After both of Tiki Tong's hands were destroyed, he started using his head to attack, as the Kongs dodged his attacks. They then got three blows on Tiki Tong's head finishing him off causing him to explode, the Kongs were then sent flying out of the Tiki Tong Tower and all the way into space. While there, the Kong's knock the moon down to earth, which crushes the Tiki Tong Tower sealing it back inside the volcano. Thus releasing the bananas, which sends them and the moon flying out of the volcano. With the Tiki Tong Tower destroyed, the effects of the hypnosis on the creatures of the island are undone. Donkey and Diddy are able to land before they crash onto the island, and cheer as their bananas continue to rain from the volcano.

Afterwards one of the raining Bananas lands on a monkey statue hidden on a small area of the Island which then proceeds to activate three hidden Monkey Statues which connect to each other with their laser-eyes, then a Golden Temple appears on the area. If the Kongs get all the Rare Orbs from the 8 temples, they'll have access to this temple and its secrets. When the Kongs, enter the Temple, they discover a Golden Banana, after eating the Banana, they are transported to a dreamlike world. Here, they are met with a tough platforming gauntlet with several fruits making up the platforms while avoiding several enemies such as Kowales and Tiki Seekers. After reaching the end, the Kongs manage to obtain a Mirror which unlocks Mirror Mode, a harder mode of the game where the levels are reversed, Donkey Kong nly has one heart, can't use inventory items, and doesn't recieve any help from Diddy Kong (while DK Barrels can still be found in Mirror Levels, Diddy isn't in any of them).

Gameplay[]

The game includes a Super Guide similar to the one of Super Mario Galaxy 2 as a new Kong named "Super Kong" (A white Donkey Kong) advises struggled players. The game came with many traditional elements of the Donkey Kong Country series returning, including mine cart levels, swinging from vine to vine, collecting bananas, and the golden "KONG" letters. There are also levels with the characters and foreground environments appearing as silhouettes, spawning several new gameplay mechanics.

Reception[]

The game received excellent reviews and is one of 2010 very best. It received a remarkable total of 88% by GameRankings. IGN's Craig Harris gave the game 9/10 as well as editors choice award stating, "This is an incredibly challenging, old-school throwback that might not set the genre afire with innovation, but in my book, it's better than the awesome game that inspired it", continuing to state, "Rare should be proud that its design is in the right hands. Or just insanely jealous". GamesRadar gave the game 8/10 and GameSpot gave it 8.5/10. GameInformer gave it 9.5/10 saying it is the "Best Platformer" of 2010 and awarded it the "Best Wii Exclusive of 2010". As in the share of Nintendo, three companies rated the game, that includes:

• Nintendo Power 8.5/10
• Nintendo World Report 9.5/10
• Official Nintendo Magazine 92/100

The game sold around 5 million copies worldwide.

Gallery[]

To view Donkey Kong Country Returns's image gallery, click here.