Donkey Kong Country Returns 3DS

Donkey Kong Country Returns 3DS Review

In 2010 Nintendo’s favorite gorilla swung onto Nintendo Wii consoles with his first ever title of the reanimated Donkey Kong classic for the Super NES, Donkey Kong Country Returns. Now that three years have passed since the original making, Nintendo and Retro Studios come together once more to deliver the revamped edition of their Wii masterpiece in Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D.

Although just added with the new two word lettering “3D”to make it somewhat anew, Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D still plays closely to its Wii predecessor, however tweaked with a few new minor good and bad changes.

STORYLINE

The story line is replicated from the previous Wii title seeing Donkey and his side kick chimp Diddy journey through eight diverse worlds in search of a gang of  Tiki bandits that have made off with their stash of bananas.

GAMEPLAY

In doing so the journey is amazing as you pursuit in the craziest 2D platforming ever to be created for the 3DS. The gameplay remains the same so you can expect the same high expectation as portrayed in the Wii title, whether it’s swinging from vine to vine, blasting out of barrels, rampaging through obstacles on the back of a rhino, speeding down tracks on mine carts or rocketing on a rocket barrel away from a giant gorilla/chimp eating bat, there is always that fun aspect in every moment and level of Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D.

CONTROLS

Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D has adapted onto a new way of game play controlling, rather than physically tiring the gamer out and causing them to break up a sweat due to the Wii’s in synced controls, Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D  adapts back onto the traditional grip and press controls.

VISUALS

The main aspect that blows the player right away is as soon as they surpass the main title, the player instantly is introduced to the games high standard visuals. Each world is detailed beautifully and there is so much attention and detail put in to every aspect of the game. It’s so rich with color and everything just bounces out regardless if the 3D feature is activated. Not to mention the uniqueness of interacting backgrounds that are blended into the levels, for example there is a level where waves are in the background yet they make their way to the foreground becoming an obstacle for Donkey to triumph over. It’s so creative and geniously fantastic.

Unfortunately the game runs on half the frame rate of the Wii title and has a lower resolution making the game not as visually clean on the 3DS, however it still does a hard core job of remaining pretty.

At times while playing through the adventure, the camera can prove to be a nuisance as it pans out at times making it hard to see particularly when you are sent to the background, clearly gameplay like this is more suitable for a TV experience and tends to get annoying and frustrating at times, however the 3D capability does tend to bring it out more helping players to see the background gameplay more clearly at times.

NEW CONTENT

Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D has been kind in adding a  “New Mode” for new comers, which allows them to start off with 3 live slots and more items in Cranky Kong’s shop to help along with the challenging obstacles of each level such as Red Balloons, which give Donkey more continues, Green Balloons to lift Donkey up if he falls off the edge, Banana Juice to make Donkey temporarily invincible, Heart Boost to extend Donkey’s overall live slot by one and Crash Guard Potions that make Donkey temporarily immune to crashing while traveling in a rocket barrel or mine cart. These all can be purchased by collecting Banana Coins distributed around the levels.

For those that look to take the game to an extreme gaming experience can play the “Classic Mode”, which offers none of the helpful potions except for continue balloons, Banana Juice and Map Keys, which opens up locked paths in a certain world, and starts the player off with only 2 lives instead of 3.

Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D has also updated on its levels adding a new set of World 9 levels made  specifically for the 3DS.

SOUNDTRACK

Another highlight of playing through this game was the soundtrack. The soundtrack is fantastic! The great combination of the old jazzy tracks from the old Super Nintendo games as well as the mix of new tracks are brilliant and gives it such an enjoyable gaming experience to play along to.

MULTIPLAYER

I must say I was let down by the multiplayer. It was disappointing to see that if you wanted to play a conjoined session with a friend both players would need a copy of the game, which made the  multiplayer more enjoyable on the Wii console.

REPLAY

As for further replay players can go back and try to collect everything such as KONG letters and puzzle pieces which unlock art work, dioramas and music, though a bit of warning due to the games challenging gameplay, it may take a while to complete.

OVERALL – {rating}

Although it may have some extremely minor issues, It still possess everything a good game should have; it’s enjoyable, it’s great to look at, it plays extremely well, is not too easy and not too tough. It’s a very well balanced game and is clearly one of the best 2013 platform games for the 3DS.