Donkey Kong Country Returns

Donkey Kong Country Returns is a side-scrolling platformer available for the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo 3DS consoles.

And I think it's fantastic.

He's back again, and about time, too!

I love its tight, precise physics and controls that allow for quick platforming.

In this game, jumping the shark is a measure of success!

I love the levels that live and breathe with detail.  Creatures scurry in the background, and the environments react to your actions.  Pounding the ground might cause the trees in the background to wobble, or make ripples in a puddle, fruit to fall.

It's all so alive, you could just sit there in the level and soak it all in even if you weren't trying to find all the little hidden goodies packed into all of the game's well-designed levels.

I love finding hidden bonus stages and acquiring jiggies to complete puzzles.

I love discovering what I can interact with, finding that I can break through that floor or blow on that pinwheel or that there's a hidden barrel just off screen that will fling me over to some hidden part of the stage filled with bananas and bonus coins.

How do the snakes hold on?

I like the buddy system, how it lets me play as both Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong without having to choose between them, each bringing their own strengths to the table and teaming up to bypass their weaknesses.

I love the intro, how it gets the story across in a few minutes with no dialog and gets me pumped to go beat up the bad guys right away.

I also love the absurdity of it all.

Evil Tiki Masks!
That are also musical instruments!
That are hypnotizing the local wildlife to steal DK's bananas!
I love it! XD

I think he stole some vertebrae from the other dinosaur skeletons...

I love the enemy design that serves both form and function.

You can tell exactly how to interact with a given foe just by looking at them.

I love their quirky little personalities that bleed out through their animations, from downtrodden parrots to insane voodoo drums, pissed off crabs, nonchalant chickens on stilts that freak out when you knock them over, very surprised dinosaur skeletons, and everything in between.

Actually, come to think of it, there are lots of chicken enemies...

I love the difficulty.  It's challenging without being punishing, and isn't shy about throwing lives at you should you need them.  It's got a nice ramp-up, so that any given level in the game feels just about the right amount of challenge for how much of the world you've progressed through.

DK begins to suspect that this may not, in fact, be a carnival ride.

I love the crazy music, from the haunting mushroom caves to the zany brass band that plays when your rocket barrel fires up its engines.  From the rhythmic drums of the jungle to the serene echoes of the water mix.  The music in this game is amazing.

Yes, that's a giant bat spewing sound-lasers while I ride away on a rocket.

This game is my childhood redone with modern design sensibilities and finesse.

And I love every freaking second of it.

100%

<3 James Manley-Buser, Progammer, Fugazo Games