Donkey Kong Country Returns HD: a solid Switch port with some unexpected failings

Donkey Kong Country Returns HD is the latest in a series of comebacks for DK, bringing the original Wii-era adventure back for the Nintendo Switch as the platform sails into the sunset. It’s an interesting project too, as Nintendo handed the reigns to Forever Entertainment, who then rebuilt the whole thing to run in the Unity Engine.

The Return of Kong Returns is a certainly a choice but there is some logic here – the more enjoyable DKC Tropical Freeze already exists on Switch, so bringing over the Wii game means you can experience both of Retro Studios’ Kong adventures in one place.

This was their first non-Metroid Prime game, released back in 2010, and was quite a pivot given the difference in genres. I personally enjoyed the game back then, but its controls felt a little lacking compared to the Super NES titles and the soundtrack felt like a bit of a cheap imitation of the originals. Three years later, the game was ported to Nintendo 3DS, necessitating a change from 60fps to 30fps gameplay, with the port handled by Excite Truck developer Monster Games.

For the current port to Switch, I was a bit nervous about the game’s prospects given Forever’s track record, which includes slightly sub-par remakes of Panzer Dragoon and The House of the Dead. However, I shouldn’t have worried – this is fundamentally the best work to come out of Forever Entertainment to date.

The remastering is tastefully done, the new textures generally look excellent and it feels authentic to the original. Furthermore, as a Unity game on Switch, the resolution and frame-rate are surprisingly solid, especially given how poorly Forever’s previous Switch games performed, but there are some unexpected flaws as well.

Let’s start with the opening FMV. This has been massively improved and might even have been completely remade if the original assets still existed. This may seem like a minor thing, but the handling of video assets usually reveals a lot about the quality of a conversion. When little attention is paid to FMV quality, it usually indicates that corners have been cut, at least in my experience. Thankfully, that’s not the case here.

In-game first impressions are also positive, with the remaster remaining true to the original visual design. The focus here is on new textures, modified effects and updated character models, with the underlying scene geometry remaining largely unchanged. The new textures are much sharper, holding up well at the higher resolution – 1080p in docked mode and 720p in portable mode – and image quality is reasonable. I like the new sky textures here and I’m glad they sharpened up the background scenery to avoid a low-res look. Rain and water rendering are also improved substantially.

The closer you look though, the more you start to spot some oddities. Visual effects that were missing in the original trailer have been implemented and improved, but there are still small hiccups – the dust clouds kicked up while pounding the DK symbol are reduced, and the animation of the barrel breaking as DK shoots out of it is a bit sloppy.

You might not notice stuff like this while just playing through, but you probably would notice the missing sunset in stage three, the less glowy floating KONG letters, and simplified shadows on the intro to the first boss fight. These sorts of nips and tucks are throughout, and while these are minor changes, it still feels weird to see a game released on a vastly more powerful system with fewer effects and details.

If this was the extent of the changes, I’d be more likely to shrug and just roll with it as the end result is still pretty good, but there are two other issues. First, loading times. These aren’t too bad, but they’re nearly twice as long as they were on the Wii version running from a disc. Sure, asset sizes have increased, but this still feels like a big step back.

Second is the frame-rate. It’s important to note that we’ve seen Unity games running at 1080p 60fps on Switch – including Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair with better visuals – but most Unity releases tend to run with performance hiccups or at lower resolutions, so 1080p 60fps is still worth celebrating. But the Wii version of this game basically runs flawlessly, so the few areas of slowdown stick out. The fact that this game runs worse than its more technically advanced sequel doesn’t sit right with me.

That’s what makes this game so tricky to discuss. On the surface, Forever did a better job here than anything else in their back catalogue, but it still falls short of what Retro Studios did with their Switch ports, and at this price, compromise shouldn’t be required.

On top of all that, while the game is perfectly fine, I think it’s the least interesting game Retro Studios has made to date. It’s very by-the-numbers; the controls and trajectory feels a lot less satisfying than classic DKC games and the level design is repetitive compared to Tropical Freeze. The biggest sin has to be the music though, which frankly I did not enjoy thanks to some fairly sedate tunes and poor instrumentation in some of the remastered tracks.

So what’s the takeaway here? The reality is that this release is both good and disappointing at the same time. The remastering efforts are largely successful, but the areas where it falls short feel less acceptable when considering the age of the original. When you consider the technical precision one expects from a proper Retro Studios game, it’s arguably even more disappointing.

If you hunger for DKC Returns and haven’t played it yet, it’s a good version of the game and one that lets you play without the controller shaking antics of the Wii version. If you’re already au fait with the title, there are more exciting retro remakes to spend your time with.