Poll: What Review Score Would You Give Donkey Kong Country Returns HD?

It's one of my favorite platformers of all time. But this release is a 6/10 for me. The frame drops and stuttering, especially in later levels, is unacceptable.

If it was $40 maybe a 8 or 9 but the effort is just sad at $60

Good but lazy

@StarPoint Yup and at $60 with all those issues is simply unacceptable.

As a game? 9
As a 60$ remaster? 6 or 7 I guess

No more than a 7. The game is fine, sometimes fantastic, but technical side is far from good.

The game itself is a 10/10 platformer, but all the issues surrounding the HD version (price tag, performance, not crediting the og developers) drop it to like a 6/10.

Of course 9% say it’s Abysmal. Why am I not surprised? I’m not saying it’s a 10/10, but it’s definitely not a 1/10 either.

Price issues aside the game just falls short of what is expected in today’s re-release, re-masters etc.
No funky Kong inclusion is a big loss. As the difficulty curve means that it’s not suitable for all. In all recent releases Nintendo has insisted on inclusion, and by adding helps and hints in each recent release such as the gold leaf box in Mario games, funky played his part for Dk games to leave this out now feels very lazy.
What’s new, well nothing, no extra level or a reverse mode, nope nothing.
And then add the performance issues for its age it’s really not a great package.

I have to agree with these posts that are talking about the $60 price being too high. $40 would have been a much better price especially for a game that is 14 years old. A Wii/Wii U "Classics Library" for $30-$40 would have done well on Switch.

It's still just as good as it ever was and all those complaints about the assets or minor graphical differences from Wii are ridiculous. I mean come on unless you're really nitpicking you won't even notice but this site sure wrote up a big drawn out article about it.

The only problem is that price. An HD remaster of a Wii game shouldn't cost 60 dollars. That was just plain greedy. It's still an excellent game and a must have If you've never played. If that price bothers you so much stick with the Wii version or buy a used copy if you don't already own it.

My only complaint is the loading times. Everything else is great imo. Price doesn't bother me really, but I understand why some people are displeased with it. Donkey Kong Country Returns is in my top 5 greatest games of all time!

@Truegamer79 What can do? People are happy to pay full price for 10 year old ports, so Nintendo is happy to oblige.

@SykoMuffin How bad are the loading times? I was 100% sure that I was going to buy this game again, but long loading times are my biggest problem with a game.

A 7, just like NL. It’s the exact same game with no content, which seriously deducts a couple of points. It’s got a couple of odd hiccups like the level transition music being loud, but I actually haven’t come across any noticeable performance issues. The game looks and plays well enough to me. It may sound like high praise for a passable port, but I believe this is the best way to play Returns. Getting to play on the big screen with traditional controls and no waggle is still something.

7. It was a great return to form for Country series. I hate it on we how you had to blow on the stupid thing and shake the motion controls. At least that is largely fixed here. I'll wait till it's 30 bucks.

@harrystein
Well i bought it so i can have Tropical freeze and DKC returns on the same system and because it's still the same game i already love. Not gonna say i was happy about the price but whatever it's only money. 😝

@JohnnyMind It's a Wii game that offers nothing different from Wii. If you never played this game before then the value (still crazy) is fine. If you happen to still own a Wii, you're better off dusting off the old thing, and using that money to buy something else. You gain nothing of value from this deal except paying full for a bit of nostalgia. If that's worth it, then okay. I don't know.

What's next? Switch 3 releases and is no longer backwards compatible, so now we begin porting Switch games over at 70$ a pop?

This is a must for platform loving gamers. 9/10 and tropical freeze 10/10 both on the same console, on the big screen without the waggle

Why do you take the price into account?

The price can change, while the game remains as it is (later patches here not assumed). If somebody reads these comments in a couple of years, they will be very irritated.

It‘s like you‘d read comments from 1996 about DKC3 like

„Bad game, because Nintendo wants full price, but it’s only a 2D game, and nobody wants to pay full price in this new era of 3D gaming.“ Totally out of place for somebody who wants to play DKC3 today via NSO, because the game was and is great, regardless of contemporary feelings.

As a platformer, the gameplay and level design are some of the best around 9/10. But I was really hoping for more QOL improvements. Seeing as this game has a lot of collectible items, something like a “Retry Level” or “Restart from Checkpoint” option could have gone a long way. Having to exit back out to the map, wait for a loading screen, re-enter the stage, then wait again for a loading screen can get a little frustrating for players who like to find everything. I guess losing a life intentionally is the closest thing, but at the cost of losing Diddy. Great game otherwise.

@harrystein Count 10 seconds to load a level. That can be an issue when you speed run the levels, which I don't do. If you play to find the KONG letters and the puzzle pieces, that's not an issue to me because 10 seconds to wait before spending 10 minutes in the level is OK to me.

Excellent game in 2010 and great game in 2024. Since 2010, It's been surpassed by DKCTF and also Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair, accourding do Digital Foundry. It aged well but not as well as immortal classics such as SMB3 and SMW. Should have been released alongside or prior to DKC TF, a superior game that has been available on Switch for over 5 years.

@harrystein
When you first boot up the game, the loading times are a bit ridiculous but every subsequent time you play it the loading improves. It's really weird. Maybe it's just because I got my Switch on launch and it's a bit slow; idk. It's nearly Wrath of Cortex levels of loading when you first turn on the game (around a minute). After you play it for the first time, the load times are twice of what they were on the Wii. In the Wii, the game basically didn't load at all so I would say it's noticeable but not unbearable. I really only play it in handheld for reference.

7/10
Great game, not so great port.

I really don't think it is anything special. Tropical Freeze is so so much better.

I gave it a 6, I kind of wished I hadn't bothered.

@Lord You can play as a silver version of DK if you die enough times by pressing + next to the pig, so it should be possible for everyone to finish the game on modern difficulty.

We've only had the game 4 days. Most people assigning numbers either haven't played it or haven't played enough to really justify a score yet. Ask me in a couple weeks. And yes, I've played the Wii version.

@speedracer216 you didn’t have to blow. The Wii remote doesn’t have a mic. You pressed crouch and shook controller to make DK drop and blow. Yes the shaking controller was a bit different and not everyone’s taste. I concentrated on getting good at a firm quick shake and beating this rock hard as nails awesome game. Unless are you referring to 3DS version? That would make sense

the price does not bother me, having a game finally on the switch and taking it wherever i go and using on Switch 2 when it comes out is great for me

Considering the HD rerelease package only, I give it a 6/10. It’s clearly a phoned in effort to get more Donkey Kong merch out to sell to those visiting Donkey Kong Land in Super Nintendo World.

It’s a great game originally, but the rerelease is just fine and not quite worth the $60 price.

As a game if you have never played it a 9, it's a must play.
For me playing it for a third time, and for the price considering I got it for £42.00 instead of £50.00 retail, for me it's still an 8 this time around. It's still an fantastic game.

@harrystein I was in the same boat as you, but after buying and playing the whole game I'm happy to say the loading times didn't bother me at all. 10-15 seconds before/after a level just isn't that big of a deal, especially since there's no loading time for bonus rooms or anything else within levels, and after losing a life you're back in the action within moments.

The one caveat here is time trials, where restarting one will load the whole level again (which I believe was also the case on Wii but now the loading times are longer). So if you're into time trials, that may be a deal breaker. But for me they're a novelty I barely touch, so the loading times ended up being a non-issue.

The game has serious issues in the multiplayer mode that needs a patch ASAP:

https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/1i3z9lo

@Lord The game does have an easy mode though? Also lets you skip stages if you die enough times, so I'm not sure what you're on about.

I voted average because I played the exact same game on the 3DS!

7 is fair, good game but it's a really mediocre port, should have been brushed up to Tropical Freeze standards, then we could talk about a 9.

It is so good, that I still feel like buying it a second time.

Great game! Got this for £36 at Currys. Really enjoying playing it through. It's leagues above the Wii version. God that's looks awful these days, this HD version is soooo much cleaner. My advice would be ignore the reviews, and if you can find it discounted somewhere, buy it and enjoy it! Ps. I haven't noticed any performance issues so far

@Max_the_German
"Why take price into account?"

Because that is how much it is being sold for at the time of the poll.

One of the best platformers I have ever played. Value is subjective as I've beaten it a couple times before.

As a game: 9/10

As a remaster: 4/10

@StarPoint basically my exact answer as well. The game is an easy 9 or 10 for me but the state of this release bogs the score down.

@Max_the_German
The game isn’t a bad game because Nintendo is charging $60 for a 2D game.
This current release of DKC Returns is bad because charging $60 for a poorly-remastered Wii game is not a good business practice.
To follow your example, if Nintendo put a slightly upscaled version of DKC3 on the N64 for full price, it would also be a bad release and be lampooned at the time and today because it would not be a good business decision.
I haven’t played DKC Returns, but I’m sure that I would enjoy it, albeit probably slightly less than Tropical Freeze, which is one of my favorite games of all time. 2D platformers are some of my favorite games in general. But this release fundamentally is not worth the asking price.

10-15 seconds loading time every death?

I won´t buy. Thank you all for this information.

@The_Pixel_King so they should give a 10 because they may not want a remaster of a remaster!? When can people start lowering the grade? Donkey Kong Country Returns HD Returns? Donkey Kong Country Returns HD Returns 2k? Donkey Kong Country Returns HD Returns 2k Returns? Donkey Kong Country Returns HD Returns 2k Returns 4k? Donkey Kong Country Returns HD Returns 2k Returns 4k Returns?

Why did you make us make an account to vote?

I am a daily lurker who loves this website for its polls.

For the record, I voted Poor, because of the graphics downgrades (the tide is a strong example).

Although I do acknowledge some textures look better in this version of the game.

@Tibob

"Good but lazy"

(suggestion: a certain "Laziness Does Not Exist" book)

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Laziness-Does-Not-Exist/Devon-Price/9781797120591

It was a 10/10 when it first released.

It’s still a 10/10 now.

10/10, 24/7/365.

I love doing barrel rolls. DK loves barrels. So, i love Donkey Kong Country Returns.

@Gameplay4fun Who said anything about giving it a ten? I simply said, whether you wanted this Switch port or not, there’s no way DKCR is a 1/10 game. A five or six? Possibly. Maybe even a four for some. But a one?

I’m guessing the people who rated this game so low haven’t even played it. And guess what? It isn’t even aimed at those who played it on Wii or 3DS. This port, like many others before it, is primarily aimed at the tens of millions of Switch owners who have not played it before.

I loved the game then, I loved it again then, and I love it now. One of the best platformers ever made. I’ll buy it again when it returns returns returns and will enjoy it just as fondly.

Im very much enjoying it, but the 8/10 I gave it feels weird. There just isn’t enough new about this game to feel like I’m rating a new game. Im just really rating the original. Im not a graphics person at all, so the HD upgrade doesn’t really impress me much. So, bravo you uncredited developers at Retro!

Edit: a previous edition of my post gave credit to Rare.

After the reviews people are biased anyway

@Rykdrew No, when you die you restart immediately from the last checkpoint. The 10 seconds loading is when you enter the level.

@Notsoavid

At Retro.

@StarPoint And don't forget about the price. Lower price would be ok for this game, but 60 Euro, definitely not. And I don't like the disrespectful towards the original development staff.

@Uncle_Franklin Thank you. My post has been corrected.

I mean, okay, it's a remaster of a game, that had already been released twice.
But in general, what is the purpose of these polls a few days after release? Who has finished the game by now? Definitely not the majority I would assume and hope.
I'm pretty sure you got your review code more days in advance and it's your job to review games.
At least give it two weeks, better one month.

The port itself is meh...I seriously don't know why they decided to move this game to freakin' Unity. Whenever I hear Unity, I just KNOW the game will have some sort of issue, performance, bugs, crashes...anything. It was the same story with the Super Mario RPG remake, both games are great, but Unity just...brings them down just a little.

Right now the only thing that's bugging me about DKCR HD is the loading screen, loading times is...fine, whatever, I don't care...but the music and SFX are way too loud. I also started to notice the audio being choppy here and there as I got to World 2. >.>

@JohnnyMind @Max_the_German The price is what Nintendo is asking for to play the game. So yeah it matters. They're asking you to pay the same price as a new game to re-experience a game that you already experienced with no new additions (which means that the entertainment value is going to go down, since you know what to expect) and performance that is questionable at best. Hard to justify the value proposition there.

And the argument of "oh just wait for the price to go down" doesn't really hold much water either, since Switch games in general haven't gone down in price. Hell, even 2017 Switch games are still being sold for a full $60. The only way you're saving money by waiting is by buying used, and used games are lower price for more reasons than just people being done with the game, they carry higher risk that the game stops working due to wear and tear.

seems like nintendo's quality control is slipping with all the outsourcing it's been doing lately. the good old nintendo polish appears to be something we can't always rely on when unproven 3rd parties are involved.

We're not quite talking Sonic Colours Switch category bad, but it's generally considered a cardinal sin when your version of an existing game is technically inferior, and two hardware generations later. I mean, when a game takes longer to boot up from a cartridge than the over a decade ago version did from a disc. ... Well, do you really need me to complete that sentence?

Mediocre port/10. Shame on Nintendo for letting a mid-tier (at best) developer like Forever Entertainment work on one of their most beloved franchises.

The game itself has always been a 9/10 for me. The remaster is pretty barebones--some assets like the water have been drastically updated from the original and looks really nice, but other assets are showing their age and in some cases look unfinished. Overall though, the enhancements put the game almost on par with Tropical Freeze visually, I would say. But it's overpriced for what's largely a barebones port. As the game the entire DK Universal park is based on, it deserved better. I think a redone soundtrack by David was would have also been cool since he didn't do the original, but alas.

This is the definitive way to play the game, though. It has local co-op and TV support like the Wii game, but it also has normal button controls, portability, and the extra levels from the 3DS game. Playing this game on Wii and having to waggle the controller every 5 seconds is an annoying workout. I haven't noticed any significant framerate issues as some people have said, but I usually don't notice that sort of thing. The resolution looks really sharp, too.

Overall, I'd say it's a better upscaled port than Luigi's Mansion 2, but that isn't a very high bar. I'm happy to have the game on Switch, but in some ways, it feels like a missed opportunity. Considering Tropical Freeze didn't sell super well at $60 on Switch despite most people not owning a Wii U, I don't expect this straightforward port of a 15-year-old game to sell much higher than a million units, honestly. As a re-release, I'll say it's a 7/10.

This can either be looked at as an upscale from the 3DS version, or the Wii version with extra levels, so the markdown for price doesn't make sense when taking these into account. If you mark it down because you're paying for a game you already own twice already then you're not the intended audience for the game. Full price re-releases of old games are pretty common.

Gameplay: 8/10
Music: 7/10
Visuals: 6/10
Value: 3/10

Overall: 6/10

I just bought a digital copy and played through the first two worlds. It’s great! The game is just as fun as when I played it many years ago.

I will say, even though $60 is a steep price, especially for a Wii remaster, adding the button controls and exclusive levels from the 3DS version while having the 60(ish) FPS from the Wii version definitely makes this the best way to play the game as of writing.

I gave the score 5 / 10 because I'm not a fan of Donkey Kong games.
I got Donkey Kong game on Wii Australia version from purchasing an used Wii PAL version along with 10 free original Wii games Australia version and I got Donkey Kong as well.
I gave 5 from 10 because I knew the gameplay have some potential but still not a fan of gorilla animal as playable characters.

I never owned the Wii version but picked up the 3DS version and loved it. Glad to have a HD graphic upgrade from the 3DS version I own that also works on Switch and Switch 2 in the future. I’m loving every minute of playing this game, but admit that Donkey Kong Country Returns isn’t quite as good as Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze. Still, I already own Tropical Freeze and this gives me a lot of great levels to play. Using the game vouchers I got this one for $50 and is completely worth it for me (I really enjoy platform games). 10/10

Idk why people use price as a factor on how you rate the game, like some of these people in the comments have.

9 because it's a great game
2 minus because it's ridiculously overpriced
7 final score

Tropical Freeze is better anyway. Not worth the money to buy this again.

Didn't bother to buy it yet, and won't rank it until I've finished it. Tropical Freeze was an 8 for me. I believe this will be either a 7, or a 6... But again, I'll refrain from voting until I own the game.

price is always part of the scoring for me. And $50 for a Switch port of a 3DS port of a Wii game is utter nonsense. Especially with no new content

@IceEarthGuard if I have $60 available and can purchase one new game, it matters a great deal to me what I get for that $60. Price is always part of the calculation for most people who don't have unlimited riches

I played it at its time. Wont rebuy it, but if anyone havent played it, its a good catch. Really fun game, though I would prefer other artistic design, look-n-feel.

@Mando44646 I'm talking about the rating for just the game itself. I understand time length and cost together being a factor for someone's score/rating, but just only cost alone, makes no sense to me.

When someone rates a game 9/10, and then lets say 10-15 years later they release it again with a few extra stuff or just make it look better graphically without tweaking any of the original gameplay, for an increased price. Your rating for the game should technically be still 9/10 (if everything work as it did back them with no problems.)

If I do change my rating for a game, it won't be because of the price.

@IceEarthGuard I think differently. This means that if this game hadn't been released 15 years ago, and it was an unreleased game released today, it definitely wouldn't have received a 9/10.
New standards

@Rykdrew Not sure what you are trying to get here. I'm talking about a game that did release 10-15 years ago and being rereleased. Why are you bringing up if it's a game that didn't release? I'm not talking about unreleased games either. Unreleased means pretty much no one ever played the game at all except for the devs/play testers.

Whole point of my comment is that I do not factor in price with the rating/score that I give to games.