Donkey Kong Country Returns

Donkey Kong Country Returns
Donkey Kong Country Returns
Donkeykongcountryreturns.jpg
North American box art
Developer(s) Retro Studios
Nintendo
Publisher(s) Nintendo
Director(s) Bryan Walker
Producer(s) Kensuke Tanabe
Composer(s) Kenji Yamamoto[1]
Minako Hamano
Masaru Tajima
Shinji Ushiroda
Daisuke Matsuoka
Series Donkey Kong
Platform(s) Wii
Release date(s)
Genre(s) Platforming
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer
Rating(s)

Donkey Kong Country Returns, known as Donkey Kong Returns (ドンキーコング リターンズ Donkī Kongu Ritānzu?) in Japan, is a side-scrolling 2.5D platform game developed by Retro Studios and released by Nintendo for the Wii console on November 21, 2010, in North America, December 3, 2010, in Europe, and on December 9, 2010, in Japan.[1][2][3][5] It is the series's first traditional home console installment since Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, and also the first Donkey Kong Country entry not to involve Rare during the development.[1]

The game is about a group of evil tikis known as the Tiki Tak Tribe that arrive on Donkey Kong Island,[6] and hypnotize the animals on the island to steal Donkey Kong's bananas. This forces him to retrieve the hoard with the help of Diddy Kong.[7] The game received very positive reviews, receiving an average score of 88% on GameRankings and Metacritic, and sold 4.96 million copies worldwide by the end of March 2011.[8]

Contents

Gameplay

Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong ride a barrel. Returns combines 2D gameplay with some 3D graphics like character models and this mine cart in the foreground.

Players take control of Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong,[1] with many traditional elements of the Donkey Kong Country series returning, including mine cart levels, swinging from vine to vine, collecting bananas, and the golden "KONG" letters.[9] There are also levels with the characters and foreground environments appearing as silhouettes, spawning several new gameplay mechanics.[10] In single player, players can only play as Donkey Kong, although Diddy Kong rides on Donkey Kong's back, and Donkey Kong can use Diddy's jetpack to extend his jumps. Multiplayer mode enables a second player to simultaneously control Diddy Kong.[10] If one player dies in two player mode, he can be brought back by hitting a DK Barrel that floats into view, similar to New Super Mario Bros. Wii. To avoid problems arising from differences in player skills, Diddy can hop on Donkey's back to take on a more passive role, while his jetpack can be used to make some of his partner's jumps easier.[10] Donkey can pound the ground to defeat enemies and unveil secret items, as can Diddy.[10] The game has two control schemes, with the standard system using the Wii Remote in conjunction with the Nunchuk, as well as a more classical approach employing the Wii Remote held sideways, both of which use motion controls for the ground pound move.[1] In addition to common series elements like secrets and unlockables, there is also a time attack mode.[10] Two animal buddies, Rambi and Squawks, appear in the game.[11] The game also utilises the Super Guide feature that has appeared in New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Super Mario Galaxy 2. If the player loses 8 lives in a single level, they will be given the option to allow a white Donkey Kong recolor named Super Kong to take over and complete the level for them. However, Super Kong will not go looking for collectibles, nor will he show the player where they are, and he keeps anything he does happen to collect, so the player doesn't get them.[12]

Plot

A group of evil tikis known as the Tiki Tak Tribe arrive on Donkey Kong Island,[6] and hypnotize the animals on the island to steal Donkey Kong's bananas. This forces him to retrieve the hoard with the help of Diddy Kong.[7] The different types of tikis fill the role of the antagonists this time, replacing the Kremlings, which do not appear in the game.[1][10] Cranky Kong, who owns shops throughout the island, is the only Kong family member that appears in addition to Donkey and Diddy.[6]

Development

Development on Donkey Kong Country Returns started in April 2008, just after some of the key personnel of Retro Studios had left the company.[1][13] At that time, Shigeru Miyamoto wanted to create a new Donkey Kong game and, at his request, producer Kensuke Tanabe recommended Michael Kelbaugh, the CEO of Retro Studios, who had previously worked on the Donkey Kong Country series while he was employed at Nintendo of America.[1][13] Satoru Iwata frequently referred to this turn of events as "fate" in his meetings with Retro Studios, which is why Kelbaugh suggested the homophonous project codename F8.[1][13]

Similar to New Super Mario Bros., the game was developed with the intention to invoke nostalgic feelings in players with its art style and sound, while trying to provide them with new gameplay experiences.[13] Retro tried to make the game "accesible to all players", but with a "kind of difficulty that made players want to try it again".[14] The game employs fully polygonal 3D graphics with levels containing three times the amount of textures and polygons that Retro's Metroid Prime 3: Corruption offered in a single room.[1] Though Miyamoto initially opposed the idea, simultaneous two-player gameplay was implemented, contrary to the tag-team system of the original series.[7][13] Tanabe said a partial inspiration for the feature was to make Returns "stand out" compared to the New Play Control! rerelease of Donkey Kong Jungle Beat.[13] Over the course of six months, two thirds of the game's tools and engine had to be rewritten by the programmers, the animation and collision systems being subject to the most changes,[1] and while experiments were conducted with underwater levels, they were ultimately omitted as they felt too slow and unfitting to the overall gameplay.[15] Two levels in the game, "Tidal Terror" and "Mangoruby Run," proved to be the most difficult levels to design and program, each requiring several months of development time.[14][16] Retro tried to use in Return the same camera engine used for the Morph Ball in Metroid Prime, but found it unable to handle the quick and complex movements of the characters, particularly after implementation of two-player simultaneous gameplay.[17]

Development accelerated at the outset of 2010, and the project was just "beginning to cohere as a game" around the time of E3.[14] Donkey Kong Country Returns was officially announced at Nintendo's press conference held on June 15, with four playable levels available on the show-floor. Although the game was set for release in autumn that year, the team still had 70 levels to create or refine.[16] Around the end of development, Tanabe had lower back pain and needed to take a week off. During that time, assistant producer Risa Tabata took over his duties, and Tanabe decided to keep her in charge for the rest of production.[14] The music, which was inspired by David Wise's score for the Super NES games,[1] was written by Kenji Yamamoto, who had worked in the Prime trilogy. Yamamoto wrote songs to fit the mood of certain levels, and some songs were rewritten if their matching levels went under heavy redesign.[14] Takashi Nagasako voiced both Donkey Kong and Cranky Kong, while Katsumi Suzuki voiced Diddy Kong.

Reception

Critical Response

 Donkey Kong Country Returns
Aggregate scores
Aggregator Score
GameRankings 87.61%[18]
Metacritic 87[19]
Review scores
Publication Score
1UP.com A
Game Informer 9.5/10
GamePro 4/5
GameSpot 8.5/10
GamesRadar 8/10
GameTrailers 9.0/10
IGN 9/10
Nintendo Power 8.5/10
Nintendo World Report 9.5/10
Official Nintendo Magazine 92/100
PALGN 9/10

Donkey Kong Country Returns received very positive reviews. It currently has an average score of 87% on GameRankings and Metacritic. IGN's Craig Harris awarded the game a score of 9.0/10 and an Editor's Choice award, stating, "This is an incredibly challenging, old-school throwback that might not set the genre afire with innovation, but in my book, it's better than the awesome game that inspired it," continuing to state, "Rare should be proud that its design is in the right hands. Or just insanely jealous."[20] Aussie-Gamer gave the game 4.5/5 stating that "The king of swing is back, and reminds us once again why Retro Studios is one of Nintendo’s best developers."[21] Game Informer awarded the game a score of 9.5/10 (as well as naming it Game of the Month for the December 2010 issue), with the reviewer hailing it as "one of the best platformers [they'd] ever played."[22] GameInformer later picked it as the "Best Platformer" and "Best Wii Exclusive" of 2010.[23] Giant Bomb gave the game 4 out of 5 stars claiming, "Retro recaptures most of Donkey Kong's venerated platforming roots in this fine Wii sequel."[24] GameXplain awarded the game 5 out of 5 stars for both single player and co-op calling it "one of the best platformers in the last 10 years."[25]

GameTrailers gave the game a score of 9.0, praising its gameplay and diversity of the levels.[26] Video game talk show Good Games two presenters gave the game a 9 and 8.5 out of 10, praising how true the music kept to the style of the original tracks, and that it managed to keep from becoming too complex while still avoiding being over-simplified, saying "If you're a fan of the old Donkeys, or your just want a great platforming experience, this is worth at least as much as Kong's golden banana hoard."[27] X-Play gave the game a 4/5, praising the similarity to previous games, its replay value, and the graphics but criticizing the motion controls "that force you to react quickly at bad times, a button press would suffice" and the co-op game play, saying "if your partner has a penchant for dying, look forward to some short games as he or she will most likely drain the number of lives you both share".[28]

GamesRadar gave the game 8/10, praising the title for its standout levels and fan service while criticising it for levels that are "frustrating, unclear and often misleading way that is unlike any prior Donkey Kong adventure", and motion controls that make them "question the controls in a platformer".[29]

Sales

The game debuted third at the Japanese game charts, with 163,310 units sold,[30] and has sold 638,305 copies in Japan as of January 2, 2011.[31] In North America, the game debuted at sixth place in the charts,[32] with 430,470 units sold.[33] By the end of March 2011, Donkey Kong Country Returns had sold 4.96 million copies worldwide.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Craig Harris (17 June 2010). "E3 2010: Kensuke Tanabe and the Metroid Palm Tree". IGN.com. IGN Entertainment, Inc.. http://wii.ign.com/articles/109/1099190p1.html. Retrieved 18 June 2010. 
  2. ^ a b "Nintendo Refreshes the Dog Days of Summer with Upcoming Cool Games". What's New. Nintendo of America, Inc.. 17 August 2010. http://www.nintendo.com/whatsnew/detail/5I08cWlLTMvJatloJq4lpiJRTrwaLWlJ. Retrieved 18 September 2010. 
  3. ^ a b Matt Wales (29 September 2010). "Donkey Kong Country Returns Gets UK Date". IGN.com. IGN Entertainment, Inc.. http://wii.ign.com/articles/112/1124182p1.html. Retrieved 29 September 2010. 
  4. ^ Daniel Vuckovic (11 November 2010). "Donkey Kong Country Returns out in Australia December 2". Vooks.net. http://www.vooks.net/story-19718-Donkey-Kong-Country-Returns-out-in-Australia-December-2.html. Retrieved 11 November 2010. 
  5. ^ a b "ドンキーコング リターンズ". Nintendo Co., Ltd.. http://www.nintendo.co.jp/wii/sf8j/index.html. Retrieved 10 November 2010. 
  6. ^ a b c Chris Slate. "The Boys are Back!". Nintendo Power (Future Publishing Limited) (December 2010): 48–56. 
  7. ^ a b c "Donkey Kong Country Returns". Nintendo E3 Network. Nintendo of America, Inc.. 15 June 2010. http://e3.nintendo.com/wii/game/?g=dkcr. 
  8. ^ a b "Supplementary Information about Earnings Release" (PDF). Nintendo. 2011-04-26. p. 10. http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2011/110426e.pdf#page=5. Retrieved 2011-04-26. 
  9. ^ Simon Bramble (15 June 2010). "Donkey Kong Country Returns revealed". Official Nintendo Magazine. Future Publishing Limited. http://www.officialnintendomagazine.co.uk/article.php?id=17891. Retrieved 15 June 2010. 
  10. ^ a b c d e f "E3 2010: Reviving DKC Interview". GameTrailers. MTV Networks. 18 June 2010. http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-donkey-kong/700682. Retrieved 18 June 2010. 
  11. ^ Craig Harris (22 September 2010). "Monkeying Around in Donkey Kong Country Returns". IGN.com. IGN Entertainment, Inc.. http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/112/1122720p1.html. Retrieved 22 September 2010. 
  12. ^ Kristine Steimer (8 November 2010). "Donkey Kong Country Returns: Diddy's Day Out". IGN.com. IGN Entertainment, Inc.. http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/113/1132979p1.html. Retrieved 8 November 2010. 
  13. ^ a b c d e f "Iwata Asks: DKCR". Nintendo E3 Network. Nintendo of America, Inc.. 16 June 2010. http://e3.nintendo.com/iwata-asks/#/?v=iwataasks_tanabe. Retrieved 16 June 2010. 
  14. ^ a b c d e "Iwata Asks: Donkey Kong Country Returns". Nintendo of America. 2010. http://us.wii.com/iwata_asks/donkey-kong-country-returns/vol1_page1.jsp. 
  15. ^ "Their Orders Are To 'Make A Better Donkey Kong Country'". Kotaku. Gawker Media. 25 June 2010. http://kotaku.com/5572645/their-orders-are-to-make-a-better-donkey-kong-country. Retrieved 28 June 2010. 
  16. ^ a b Claiborn, Samuel (3 March 2011). "GDC: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Donkey Kong Country Returns and Retro Studios". IGN. http://wii.ign.com/articles/115/1153582p1.html. 
  17. ^ Fletcher, JC (2011-03-04). "Retro reflects on Donkey Kong Country Returns, denies sequel plans". Joystiq. http://www.joystiq.com/2011/03/04/retro-reflects-on-donkey-kong-country-returns-denies-sequel-pla/. Retrieved 2011-08-23. 
  18. ^ "Donkey Kong Country Returns". GameRankings. http://www.gamerankings.com/wii/997764-donkey-kong-country-returns/index.html. Retrieved November 21, 2010. 
  19. ^ "Donkey Kong Country Returns". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/game/wii/donkey-kong-country-returns. Retrieved November 21, 2010. 
  20. ^ http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/113/1135734p1.html
  21. ^ http://aussie-gamer.com/review/donkey_kong_country_returns_review/
  22. ^ Donkey Kong Country Returns review - 9.5/10 in Game Informer
  23. ^ . Gameinformer. February 2011. pp. 40–41. 
  24. ^ http://www.giantbomb.com/donkey-kong-country-returns/61-31732/reviews/
  25. ^ http://www.gamexplain.com/article-315-1290189624-donkey-kong-country-returns-review.html
  26. ^ http://www.gametrailers.com/video/review-donkey-kong/707720
  27. ^ Donkey Kong Country Returns Review. Bendixsen 8.5/10, O'Donnell 9/10. ABC Television. 29 November 2010. No. 42, season 5. Transcript.
  28. ^ Xplay: Donkey Kong Returns Review on You Tube.
  29. ^ gamesradar.com - criticism
  30. ^ Brendan Sinclair. "Big in Japan December 6–12: Monster Hunter Portable 3". http://www.gamespot.com/wii/adventure/donkeykongcountryreturns/news.html?sid=6285579&mode=all. 
  31. ^ Ishaan (January 6, 2011). "This Week In Sales: Coming Out Of The Holidays". Siliconera. http://www.siliconera.com/2011/01/06/this-week-in-sales-coming-out-of-the-holidays/. Retrieved 2011-01-10. 
  32. ^ Fletcher, JC (2010-12-09). "November NPD: Best month ever for retail, Xbox". Joystiq. http://www.joystiq.com/2010/12/09/november-npd-best-month-ever-for-retail-xbox/. Retrieved 2010-12-25. 
  33. ^ Invisible Walls, Episode 139. GameTrailers. 2010-12-24. Event occurs at 15:22. http://www.gametrailers.com/video/episode-139-invisible-walls/708767. Retrieved 2010-01-10. 

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