
Donkey Kong Country Returns HD swung onto Switch earlier this month and it's a perfectly good time. Nothing we haven't seen before, but still a good bit of fun. That is unless you want to play some of the later stages in co-op, it seems, because fans have discovered an oversight that sucks all the fun out of platforming with your pals (thanks for the heads up, GamingReinvented).
As shared on YouTube by the wonderfully named DK fan channel, Kong Kompendium, Returns HD has a problem with its co-op combat: two players can't bounce off the same enemy. It might not sound that weird on paper (heck, Mario does it all the time), but such an ability becomes pretty crucial as you progress into the game's later stages — where bouncing on enemies is the only way to proceed — making a full co-op run on Switch far from ideal.

The original Donkey Kong Country Returns on Wii overcame this problem with a platforming 'buffer', where enemies that had been previously bounced on hung around for approximately 25 frames, giving P2 just enough time to take the same route themselves. The 3DS version got rid of this workaround for the standard one-and-done approach to jumping on enemies — something it could just about get away with thanks to its reduced focus on co-op play — and it seems the Switch has followed in the handheld's footsteps.
It's a difficult oversight to describe (and we recommend checking out the Kong Kompendium video below to see it in action), but the TL;DR of it is that the co-op becomes about trying to "conserve platforming resources" rather than taking the intended route — and looking at the following example from the 'Platform Panic' stage, "conserving" isn't always an option.
It's not enough to consider the game necessarily "broken", and the problem will only apply to those playing in co-op, but come on. A big selling point for the Switch HD remaster is the chance to play with a friend on the go, and right now, that looks like a pretty hair-pulling experience.
Maybe Forever Entertainment has a patch in the works. Maybe. Until then, however, fire up the Wii.
Have you seen this platforming problem in action in DKCRHD? Let us know in the comments.
[source youtube.com, via gamingreinvented.com]
Comments 75
Heck, we didn't even make it to the later stages, playing co-op is so trying that we decided by the end of World 1 we'd have more fun taking turns playing single player.
In general I really love DKCRHD, apart from the scummy situation with the credits. But I really think Forever Entertainment needs to patch this platforming issue ASAP. And if they also happen to e.g. add the sun back to 1-3, so much the better.
@Splash_Woman Really? I’ve had fun with the co-op so far.
It may be difficult, but this should be fixed.
One thing i never liked about these newer DKC games is you can't play single player as just Diddy or just Dixie alone. Also miss the jam sessions with Diddys boom box or Dixies guitar when you cleared a level.
I play solo and have no issues.
I saw this video a few days ago and it's really taking off. Honestly that's a remarkable oversight for a remake that looks like it ruins the well designed flow of the original, in two player mode at least. Hopefully it can be fixed for fans.
Yeah, most likely this is due to Returns HD being mostly if not completely based on the 3DS version - regardless, fingers crossed it will eventually be patched!
I'll be honest, that headline was bananas. It took me a few tries to understand what I was reading. Not trying to be unconstructive, I just think it could be worded a little more clearly. Then again, I'm not a journalist.
My wife and I are playing through it and it is not designed for coop as well as tropical freeze was. But we are having fun, the biggest complaint is the balloons basically run away from you when coming back on stage when dying.
This costs $60 USD, huh? 🙃
@Truegamer79 Actually, Tropical Freeze has an unlockable mode where you can play as all the other Kongs.
So $60 dollar port of a $15-20 game with no new content in which some ways is a graphical downgrade and a new glitch that negatively impacts co-op playing?
The positive I see right now is it's not the new DK look
Didn't know this issue until now.
The problem is when I played the Wii version, I played the entire game alone.
So to me, I didn't notice this feature in Co-Op.
@N00BiSH Please tell me more about this.
@Serpenterror You have no idea what you’re talking about. This isn’t about hand-holding. Some levels are effectively impossible to beat if both players can’t bounce off the same enemy. Sure you can just have Diddy ride on DK, but that’s not really a co-op experience.
this puts me in kong stant pain
This game is so difficult to play co-op anyway, but it shouldn't be impossible. Hopefully there's a patch forthcoming that resolves this and the other aforementioned issues.
My roommate and I are currently playing co-op in this game so we'll have to see if this gets patched by the time we get there. Otherwise, we may have to find a creative workaround using the offscreen player countdown thing.
With the various things noted about this port where it seems to lack that Nintendo first-party polish, I hope Nintendo's partnership with Forever is because all of their other development partners are busy making the most banging console launch window lineup of all-time. Like of course a Mario and Mario Kart, but also second party games like Metroid Terror, Kirby and the Remembered Land, Yoshi's Papier-mâché World, Super NES Remix, Punch-Out!! vs. ARMS, Xenoblade Warriors, etc.
Even without this flaw, making it so both players have to jump on the same enemies within a second of each other seems like a terrible level design decision. Constantly having to stay on top of each other is a pain even for experienced players, and near impossible for casual ones.
Sounds like something Nintendo will (and should) hopefully patch in, because there is no reason for this to be the case.
I‘m surprised by this lack of QA. With sufficient testing, this problem would have easily been identified in advance.
On the other hand, the track record of Forever Entertainment is not flawless. Where is the good old „Seal of Quality“?
The port that keeps on taking.
Sounds like it's affecting only a couple of stages. Can't these just be run solo and then continue on with coop? Seems to be the simplest fix before an hopefully inevitable patch
@LastFootnote alright, here's the deal: if you wanna play as the other Kongs, you have to unlock the game's Hard Mode, done by completing every level and getting every Kong letter. The catch being that in Hard Mode, everything's a one hit kill and there's no checkpoints, which might be a turn-off depending on how you feel about the game's difficulty.
Thank you for calling attention to this! My reason for purchasing this game was to play co-op, and the co-op mode is ruined. We're also playing with the original difficulty where lives are more scarce so it gets very frustrating. I hope it gets patched!!
That tagline is one hell of a stretch. 😅
You know, the likelihood that I would play any of the later stages in co-op is essentially zero, but even so this an "ape"palling oversight.
I imagine this flaw would seriously affect how 2 players team up on the game and is not the experience the creators intended.
They should have ironed out this error in play-testing.
Boo. First Echoes of Wisdom, then Brothership, and now DKC Returns. These farmed-out "Nintendo 1st-party" games lately all have their little compromises, don't they?
Y'all got friends who will play Donkey Kong Country with you? Damn, sounds nice.
Not enough playtesting back on 3ds or here?
@Splash_Woman Yeah, I felt like it was a terrible co-op experience when it came out for that exact reason. They aren't thoughtful about their mechanics at all.
"Un-ape-peeling." Effing brilliant writing.
@N00BiSH
Oh yeah totally forgot about that. I'm right about DKC returns though.
This is why these ports for full price are garbage, the least they could do is give us the definitive version of the game.
@JimNorman I can almost guarantee it’s not a selling point. It’s a feature, sure, because it makes sense. But they’re not basing their marketing around this feature nor is it a feature that will move significant units.
Nintendo is doomed !
Releasing this game at full price is a joke.
1st world problems
They also based Hyrule Warriors DE off the 3DS version which is why it has no weather effects unlike the Wii U version. I'm guessing it cuts out a lot of extra work and someone thought no one would really notice. Pretty minute issue but let that not stop people who wouldn't buy it anyway from saying now it isn't worth the price. I'm sure Nintendo will feel that pinch 👍
It needs to be fixed.
That said acting like more than 0.01% of the people who buy it will play co-op the whole way through is delusional.
Joke's on them, I have no friends so I will never run into this problem 😃
@Teksette What's wrong with Echoes? It played great.
The same issue exists in DK tropical freeze with some barrels. Its annoying but you can get through it. Co-op in these games is mad fun and a unique experience in its own right. I played through the entire of tropical freeze with my gf, who was relatively new to platformers at the time. It was a great experience to share.
You know, sometimes it feels good to not have the money to buy every 1st party Nintendo game.
Hopefully they’ll patch this, but in the meantime: “His coconut gun still fires in spurts; if he shoots ya, it’s gonna hurt!”
Only 2D platformers I would ever want to play with friends are Mario Wonder, Kirby Star Allies, and Kirbys Return to Dreamland Deluxe. Still, this should be fixed.
Man, as much as I'm enjoying it, this release is so messy, and $60 really doesn't seem like a good price for something that doesn't seem to have a whole lot of care put into it. This may as well have kept its $20 Nintendo Selects price on Wii and 3DS; Metroid Prime got a much better remaster, and it only cost $40. This is just embarrassing for Nintendo.
Really goes to show what IPs Nintendo actually cares about. Kirby's Return to Dream Land and Mario 3D World get tweaked main games and new content, meanwhile things like DKC Returns HD are low effort ports, and the dev team who wanted to do amazing things with BDSP were given such little time they had to re-use most of DP's original coding.
Returns is a single player game. I know there is a 2 player option, but let's be real here, it is a single player game.
So many little iffy things about this game that makes me so hesitant to get it. The credits one isn’t even a small bother to me and people really blow that deal out of the water.
I have to be honest, I’m at the end of fifth world, and I think playing with two players would be awful and possibly frustrating enough to put me off the game. These levels are clearly designed first and foremost as single player gauntlets that are quite challenging. The idea of another thing running around the screen to distract my eye makes me sweat.
@Truegamer79 agree. Sometimes i would get a 2nd controller on tropical freeze and ditch DK on purpose for Dixie.
@N8tiveT3ch do you understand what the article is saying or am i missing something
What an appalling port.
Nintendo can’t be charging less now, not when they’re about to start raising prices for everything
Oof, that's actually a pretty big issue. I played through the game in single player, so I never noticed that. But yeah, I can absolutely see how this would make some of the temple levels impossible to get through without player 2 dying. Pretty glaring oversight that I hope they patch. Maybe Nintendo acquired the wrong company. How do you let AlphaDream die but then buy Forever Entertainment instead?
@link3710
I included Echoes in that short list of imperfect outsourced games because I couldn’t help but feel that it’d have been a smoother, more elegant experience if Nintendo had their internal “A” team on it.
Specifically I was thinking the echo selection system would have been more ergonomic and fun than a long single row of icons you have to parse through.
Granted, I’ve only played 2-3 hours of the game so maybe it’s not as potentially annoying as I imagine.
But I’m not saying that Echoes or the other games are bad, really, just that I feel they’re kind of middling when compared to Nintendo’s output pre-2024. Like you can sense R&D’s priorities shifted to Switch Deux.
I’ve never been more disappointed at a games success than I was when I saw this abomination was charting.
Nintendolife 8/10
actually maybe nintendo crediting Forever ent. instead of Retro was for the best cause they deserve to be put on full blast with this
I'm sure they will fix it with New Donkey Kong County Returns HD U Deluxe Edition on Switch 2!
@HatesCheese on the fourth release at full switch 2 game price it will surely be a 9/10. Maybe they should slap “Legacy Edition” somewhere on it.
@Truegamer79 hear hear
@MatoFilipovic But DKC has always been co-op.
Typical Nintendo throwing out trash to grab easy money from fans.
@Splash_Woman yeah I always felt like this games is absolutely not intended to be played co-op and it was added in at the end just as a bonus. There's so many stages where it just work horribly. Tropical Freeze was better designed around it.
@LastFootnote you can unlock an Hard Mode where you can use any character you like, but you have no checkpoint and die in 1 hit.
This is an issue with so many co-op platformers, like 3D World and Rayman Legends. It's really dumb.
This game is such a disappointment of expectations for a HD remaster.
@JimNorman
"Maybe Forever Entertainment has a patch in the works. Maybe."
Maybe Nintendo life could contact Forever Entertainment and ask? https://forever-entertainment.com
@Not_Soos Nintendo bought Shiver Entertainment, not Forever.
Why wasn't this caught on during your review @Nintendolife? Shouldn't you review the co-op aspect of a game as well?
@Teksette I'm not so sure on the selection thing... considering Aonuma basically came out and said it was his decision in order to get players to try using unusual echoes, I doubt it being in-house would have changed anything.
Come on, Nintendo, this is just lazy. It doesn't suit you, either. Glad I skipped.
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