I stand in plea, under coconut tree,
"Two visa I need, to Donkey Kong Country",
"We shall return to thee, return in 3D.
Return eating banana with big monkey".
"Miyamoto don’t concern, Miyamoto don’t cry,
for we, my friend, are booked to fly."

Esse jogo ele acerta em vários pontos, principalmente em ser um retorno a franquia clássica, já que na época que o returns lançou a nintendo aparentava estar meio perdida com donkey kong mas esse jogo veio pra aperfeiçoar a formula antiga.

Em relação as fases eu tenho pontos importantes para comentar, a questão artística das fases é muito impressionante por que além de bonito, eles são bem únicos também, posso citar como exemplo a fase do polvo que vem as ondas que ele faz e você precisa desviar delas, porém nessa mesma fase tem algo que eu gostaria de ressaltar que são os bosses do jogo, que salvando um ou outro, o restante todo é extremamente fraco, algo triste pois a franquia sempre foi marcada por ter bosses bem únicos e marcantes, um ponto interessante de voltar é que mini bosses que aparecem perto dos finais dos mundos seriam muito melhores se fossem realmente utilizados como bosses de fato. Voltando novamente ao problema das fases, eu não entendo o por que esse jogo tem fases tão ridiculamente difíceis, sério isso tornou a experiência do jogo tão frustrante, o jogo pede para que você acerte times e faça pixel perfect em um jogo que em têse era pra ser desafiador, mas não frustrante.

O efeito do 3D que é exclusivo da versão é bem feito mas honestamente não é como se alguém se importasse com essa feature pois ela se torna "massante" com mais de 5 minutos usando, ainda mais no meu caso em que eu jogo em um 3Ds normal.

Além disso tudo como o jogo gosta de ter bastante fanservice, na minha opinião eles poderiam ter se aprofundado muito mais nessa parte, tipo sério? um jogo do donkey kong sem a clássica fase na água? ou melhor, é sério que botaram só um animal montável no jogo? não vejo o por que não se aprofundar mais nesse tipo de coisa que só deixaria a experiência do jogo mais divertida.

Agora falando mais sobre uma visão geral do jogo, ele tem sim bons pontos e foi muito importante para o renascimento do donkey kong na sua forma original mas os problemas com as fases tornam a experiência tão desagrádavel a longo prazo, e olha que eu nem citei o fato do jogo ter excessivamente muitos colecionaveis, enfim, acho que pra quem tem o console vale o teste.

Donkey Kong Country Returns is a great game, but I'm just not a fan of this version. It feels off compared to the Wii version and I can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe it's control feel or the loss of 60 fps, it simply doesn't feel as good. It does remove motion controls, and as someone who likes motion controls, this is a big plus for this version. However, emulation does exist, so you can play the Wii version without motion controls, but I get it if you don't want emulate.

If this is your only way to play Donkey Kong Country Returns then this is by no means abysmal and is a perfectly acceptable way of experiencing it. It's a solid platformer with great level design and good visuals for the platform it's on. A definite must-play if you're a fan of 2D platformers.

Probably my favourite game of all time. I'm rating the 3ds version here because of the extra content, and I kinda prefer it to the Wii version, even though I have more nostalgia and memories from the Wii version. It's really just my comfort game, you can hop on at any time and complete a few levels. My only complaint is that a few levels are the fucking worst and the people who are responsible for them; hope you wake up from a nap drenched in sweat and uneven socks (I'm looking at you, 4-3 Bombs Away...)

Also... THE MUSIC! Holy fuck, the music! Spearheaded by Minako Hamano and co., the soundtrack includes not only original songs but also reworked songs by the legendary one-two-punch dream duo of David Wise and Eveline Fisher. If these names don't ring a bell, maybe you've heard "Aquatic Ambience"? If not, you are missing out on what must be not only the best water-level song of all time, but perhaps the best ambient song of all time. The whole OST is an absolute tour-de-force of video game soundtrack mastery. If you're not planning to play the actual game, you owe it to yourself to download the soundtrack. Trust me.

Anyways, great game! Recommended to anyone into Nintendo platformers and the like.

So, Donkey Kong Country Returns has always been the one game in the series I never beat, whether it be the initial release on the Wii or the 3DS version. I'm not entirely sure why, I think I just never really felt compelled to. It doesn't help that Donkey Kong Country Returns suffers from "Wii-itis" by having forced motion control gimmicks, which is actually a big reason why I chose this 3DS version to play instead of the original. Despite loving all the Donkey Kong Country games - even Tropical Freeze - something about Returns just doesn't grip me in quite the same way. Nonetheless, I'm glad I went to beat this game. It was a good time overall and a Donkey Kong Country game is pretty much always going to be a good game. If you ever feel the itch to play Donkey Kong Country Returns, I highly recommend picking up this 3DS version instead while its still available if you're alright with a graphical downgrade. It's only $20 and its more than worth picking up in my opinion.

Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D's gameplay has a certain frantic, fast-paced sense of flow to it, which makes the whole experience feel excellent. That feeling of high energy is most present in the Rocket Barrel and Mine Cart levels, which are frustrating but also very exhilarating for their breakneck pace and relatively limited control that requires quick precise reflexes. For the most part, Returns carries the spirit of the original trilogy's design, but it feels a lot different due to some key differences. I feel that the most noticeable change is how the physics are handled. There's a very apparent weight to Donkey Kong's jumps and fall speed that aren't present in the originals, which I think was an interesting decision to make. It makes sense considering how DK is supposed to be a big dude and it does feel nice once you get used to it, but it takes a bit to get accustomed to if you're expecting this to feel the same as the originals. Speaking of Donkey Kong, in this game you control only him and not Diddy or Dixie. Dixie unfortunately got ditched entirely in this game and Diddy is only here as a glorified jetpack unless you're playing multiplayer. In some ways, I get why this decision was made; its meant to mirror how the first game was, where there's only Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong, plus they wanted to place more emphasis on Donkey Kong. I'll give them that, it is pretty silly that the series named DONKEY KONG Country only has one game out of the classic trilogy where he is playable. I can see why they may have wanted to avoid this happening again, but is there really no way we couldn't have had the classic tag team style in the game somewhere without needing a buddy to play with? I think this is unfortunate, but I can still understand why they did this. Probably the third biggest change is the heart system. In the original trilogy, when you got hit, you just immediately die unless your partner was alive. In Returns, you start with two hearts that deplete one by one whenever you get hit (unless you fall into a pit or touch lava, which is always instant death). You also get a few extra hearts whenever you pop open a DK Barrel. Some other notable changes include the fact that multiplayer now has players control both Kongs independently, the addition of an Item Shop, unlockable stages opened through buying a key from the Item Shop, special "K Levels" earned by finding all the K-O-N-G letters in every level of a world, a gimmicky blow move that interacts with certain objects or enemies in the environment of a level (I will say they did find some cool uses for it but its generally just not all that fun to use), and letting you beat the shit out of a boss after fighting it. That last feature in particular is fun to do, especially if its a boss that frustrated you.

As far as difficulty goes, WOW this game kicked my ass so much. I say this as someone who can get through all the SNES Donkey Kong Country games without dying much. As annoying as it is that this game has the whole Super Kong thing, where essentially an AI comes in to beat the game for you if you accept the prompt (and the game loves to remind you of Super Kong if you die too many times), I can sorta see why they did this considering just how tough this game gets. Some of these levels and bosses are so much harder than anything from the SNES games and Tropical Freeze. However, it still felt very doable and none of the difficulty felt cheaply done. Whenever you're really struggling, you've likely grabbed enough Banana Coins to buy a bunch of lives from Cranky Kong anyway, so you'll pretty much never get a game over. I was just really surprised coming into this game and getting whooped. I thought it'd be easy considering I can beat Tropical Freeze and the original trilogy with little difficulty.

Everything about the design of Donkey Kong Country Returns is excellent, but, unfortunately, I find it doesn't really match the highs of the original trilogy or Tropical Freeze. That's not to discount its many positives, though. The music is a little disappointing in that it features too many remixes for my liking, but its still a stellar addition. For instance, the two different themes for the Rocket Barrel levels are easily some of my favorite songs in the entire series. Visually, Donkey Kong Country Returns goes for a much more expressly cartoony style, which I think suits it well. This decision helps it stand out from the original trilogy, which was still cartoony but focused a lot on blending that whimsical feeling with the realism (at the time) of pre-rendered 3D graphics. That worked great for those games, but Donkey Kong Country Returns needed to do something different visually to stand out. The style also helps prevent it from looking like garbage on the notably underpowered Wii, which also applies to this 3DS version I chose to play. Everything about this game's visuals, sounds, and overall design works well. Clearly, Nintendo and Retro Studios liked this new style for Donkey Kong Country Returns, since the sequel of Returns - Tropical Freeze - takes this style and improves on it even further.

Overall, Donkey Kong Country Returns is a great game with a lot of positives to it. I have my gripes with it and I just can't help but find it less interesting than the other games of the Donkey Kong Country series for one reason or the other, but that's not to discount its quality. Retro Studios knew what they were doing here and I'm so glad they made an amazing reboot for this series I hold near and dear to my heart. Donkey Kong Country Returns gets a solid 4 and a half stars from me.

I think this is the inferior of the two Retro Studios DK games, but Returns is still an excellent platformer that really knows how to handle momentum-based movement and gameplay. The 3DS struggles a bit visually to keep DK front and center, resulting in losing him in the fray sometimes, but generally the game retains the high bar of its audiovisual Wii presentation. The game does suffer from some moments of poor hit detection and baffling checkpoints, but this only pops up in the late stages where challenge may be appreciated. This game adds an easy mode for those who just want to enjoy the ride and it's a welcome addition for those who may be in for the game's cheery appearance but don't want the smoke of the latter half's brutal difficulty spikes. This 3D port also adds a few levels at the end, which function as remix stages for each world. None of these were too difficult, and aren't as tightly constructed as Retro's initial batch, but it's a fun bonus for those who played the Wii version and need a reason to try this one out. Returns is less well balanced than its follow-up, but it maintains to be one of the Wii's best games, and now 3DS's best ports.

I have a bit of a soft spot for DKCR. It was the first Donkey Kong game I played as a kid, and my mom was also sort of a fan of it, since she really enjoyed the older Donkey Kong Countries on SNES. I tried replaying the Wii version, for old time's sake, and gave up after World 2 since I wound up hating the motion controls. Swapped over to the 3DS version, and while it was certainly more enjoyable to control, I just don't think this game is as good as I thought it was.
It's still good, obviously, but now that I can compare it to the other games, it's definitely not one I can see myself looking back at too fondly, nostalgic or not.
While maybe not as big of a deal as the gameplay, in exchange for better controls, the game looks and runs noticeably worse. Part of what I liked about Returns was the pretty environments, especially in the silhouette levels. Unfortunately, the 3DS cannot seem to do them justice.
I did, at least, like the new content added with all the extra levels in World 9, but by that point I had kinda just wanted it to be over already.

Honorable fuck-yous to 6-K in particular, decently fun game. Maybe eventually I'll play Tropical Freeze, people seem to like that one.

One of the games I was always willing to replay on my 3DS, over and over again. Every level is unique and slowly tells a story in each world, ending with a unique boss. It's a perfect game difficulty wise. It will fuck you up in some parts but is so satisfying you'll keep coming back. Only better game featuring the familiar ape is Tropical Freeze, improving upon this game in every way, though still owing its existence and identity to this game. Donkey Kong Country kicks 2D Mario in the trouser. Play the 3DS version and beat it as many times as I have.

Monke time 🦍🦧🐒

Donkey Kong Country Returns is definitely derivative. Most of the aesthetics are lifted straight from the SNES trilogy and have basic “names” (literally just Jungle, Beach, Ruins, etc.). The planks of wood are such boring villains that I often forgot they were there. However, it’s still FUN AS HELL and gets progressively more difficult, culminating in a brutal final world with a killer soundtrack. It’s very much a modern Donkey Kong Country game functioning near-perfectly on the 3DS, and it’s hard not to love it.

Special shout-out to the silhouette levels, which still look visually striking even in 240p.

DKCR3D revolutionizes the 2D platformer by abolishing the run button; the optimal way to go fast is to use the committal, risky, but satisfying roll jump. This means no holding a button down for minutes straight, and the actions are mapped to X and B, letting your thumb rest naturally on the chief buttons.

The run button still lingers in the Mario series like a parasite, and the 3DS Virtual Console maps A and B literally, mimicking the poor layout of the Game Boy.

DKCR3D ditches these antiquated philosophies to deliver a much more ergonomic experience that elevates it over most other Nintendo platformers.

Other positives include:
+Fantastic physics on our favourite fleabag
+Great art direction that mixes cartooniness and verisimilitude
+Excellent remixes of DKC1's score
+Levels are full of useless crap