There were countless Wii titles from the late 00’s-early 10’s that people are nostalgic about while having nothing but fond memories of. When it comes down to the platform genre of gaming Donkey Kong Country Returns was one of the best non-Mario games to have appeared on the Wii console. Donkey Kong Country Returns was developed by Retro Studios who was responsible for the Metroid Prime trilogy from ‘02-‘07. This game was initially released back in 2010 for the Wii console before it was ported for the Nintendo 3DS and Wii-U between ‘13-‘15. Donkey Kong Country was such as big deal was because it was the first installment within its series to have a another developer aside from Rare. The Donkey Kong Country series was seemingly dead following the release of Donkey Kong Country 3 for the SNES back in 1996. Donkey Kong Country Returns was a title that had similar 2D platform gameplay to the SNES Country titles from ‘94-‘96. However, everything in Donkey Kong Country Returns looked fresh and modernized by early 10’s standards. Donkey Kong Country Returns featured detailed 3D character and level designs; along with an interesting plot that introduced a set of new villains known as the Tiki Tak Tribe. Donkey Kong Country Returns included at least nine different worlds which looked far more challenging than the DK previous installments for the SNES. Throughout, each level players collect various items including, bananas, banana coins along with puzzle pieces. Depending on what items players collected before the end of each stage players were able to update the image gallery within the game.
One of the most unique features that made Donkey Kong Country Returns stand out from its predecessors was the cutscenes before and after each boss battle. Normally, creatures in each boss battle were possessed by the Tiki Tak Tribe. The final boss of Donkey Kong Country Returns was Tiki Kong who replaced King K. Rool who was usually the main antagonist in older Donkey Kong Country games. While many people believe that Tiki Kong a fairly decent villain and challenging boss; the average DK fan would not put him above the likes of King K. Rool. Following, its initial release for the Wii console back in ‘10 the game managed to reach roughly under five million copies in worldwide sales. Donkey Kong Country Returns may not have been as popular as the SNES Country trilogy from the mid 90’s; but there is no question that the game was a commercial success that received plenty of positive feedback. Both fans and critics of the Donkey Kong series would are that Country Returns was one the best installments within the series; that Nintendo has put out within the past fifteen years.
Gaming Hearts Collection 