Unlike the original game, Donkey Kong can take two hits instead of just one, but the difficulty has been increased to make up for it. A quick downward swipe of the remote makes him roll, which speeds things up but also leaves him open to getting hurt by enemies. You can start swinging the Wii remote and nunchuk at any point to make Donkey Kong pound the ground, which allows him to destroy boxes and uncover secrets. Once you get past the feelings of déjà vu, there are actually quite a few changes to the game. You can even re-enter the hut to get a free extra life in the form of a red balloon with Donkey Kong’s face on it. Like the original, there’s a cave opening below Donkey Kong’s hut that you can enter, although this time it contains a collectible puzzle piece rather than Kong’s hoarded bananas. As fellow editor Ben Reeves put it, “I guess that’s how Donkey Kong opens doors." I started the game inside Donkey Kong’s hut on top of a cliff, where I had to slam the Wii remote and nunchuk alternately to make Donkey Kong pound the ground until he finally smashed through the door of his hut. The first level I played, a jungle stage, started off fully aware of the nostalgia it's appealing to, looking almost exactly like the first level of the original Donkey Kong Country. Rather than try to put Nintendo’s most famous ape into 3D like Rare tried with Donkey Kong 64, Donkey Kong Country Returns is a classic 2D platformer.
As such, you can imagine my pleasure to hear that Retro Studios, the talented team behind the Metroid Prime games, will be handling a relaunch of the Donkey Kong Country series on the Wii. Though the 8- and 16-bit Mario games always (rightfully) hogged the spotlight, I had a special love for Rare’s trio of Donkey Kong Country games on the SNES. I was raised on the NES and SNES, and my favorite genre growing up was 2D platformers.