It’s a normal day in Kongo Jungle. Heroes Donkey and Diddy are hanging out at their hut. Nothing’s wrong, except for a huge volcano on DK Island erupting, causing the appearance of mysterious Tiki creatures. They hypnotize the animals of DK Island by playing the song of their people, and have them steal the Kong’s most prized treasure, the Banana Hoard. Diddy goes to investigate, while DK has a Tiki visit him. The Tiki, after realizing the song doesn’t work on the less mentally gifted of Kongs, gets a nice beating of the DK variety, and our hero sets off to find his nephew and the hoard.

Gameplay is pretty simple. You run, you jump, you roll, you ground pound. Very similar in nature to Donkey Kong’s style of play in DKC. One complaint people might have, given the game’s nature as more of a throwback title, would be that motion controls are involved for many of these commands, including rolling, ground pounding, and a new technique that has DK blow air towards him. Though it’s nothing straining; a simple shake of the Wii remote in conjunction with a direction (neutral will ground pound; down will blow air, forward will roll) is all it takes, but I’ve seen people complain about it on boards. I personally have no problem with this, but it should be noted that Classic and Gamecube controllers do not work with this game. A valid complaint, but otherwise the controls are all very simple and easy to understand.

Breaking series tradition, Donkey Kong is given two hearts to play with. This serves as a health bar, allowing him to take two hits before he’s done in, as opposed to previous games’ one-hit-and-you’re-done for each partner. This, however, doesn’t apply to falling into the abyss or crashing in a vehicle; those are all instant death situations, even if you have Diddy (more on him later). Ground pounding is done by simply shaking the Wii remote while not moving or ducking. This will be used to break crates under you, open treasure chests, activate trap doors to reach other areas, activating nearby mechanisms such as cannons, and push down large buttons. It can also be used to stun nearby enemies, possibly flipping them over, unveiling an otherwise spiky part to jump on.

Rolling is mostly the same as it was, a simple roll forward taking out enemies in front. It can also be used to break objects in your path (though objects with a target on them must be broken by throwing a barrel at it). If you have Diddy, the roll can be sustained by continuously shaking the Wii remote, being only interrupted by running into a wall or other obstruction, or, well, falling. Granted, just stopping to shake works too. You can also jump out of a roll, to reach distant places. You can also jump out of a roll even if you have fallen off of the ledge, making it feasible to obtain items (usually KONG letters, more on that later) tucked away in a pit. Blowing hot air is a more situational move, allowing DK to put a breeze through flowers and grass, possibly bringing out hitten items. It can also be used to extinguish flames, including candles and even fire on enemies, allowing you to defeat them. On grassy walls and ceilings, you can also grip onto them and climb. Older mechanics such as blasting from barrels and swinging from vines are in tact, as well.

One of the primary differences between old-school DKC and this game is how Diddy is implemented. You no longer tag out between DK and Diddy, but instead, Diddy simply plays backpack, but offers a few advantages. When you hold the jump button after a jump, Diddy will activate his Jetpack, allowing a good second of hovering time, enabling you to make your jumps easier or, in some cases, reach otherwise inaccessible areas (coupled with the roll jump, you can catch some serious air). Another advantage, previously noted, is that the roll can be extended for as long as the ground will let you. You are also awarded with an additional 2 hearts. When these two hearts expire, Diddy runs away. He can be found in DK Barrels. Other items include bananas (bunches equate to 5, “big” bunches equate to 10), and 100 of them will net you an extra life, also awarded when you obtain a red balloon. Hearts will refill a lost heart, simple enough. Banana coins are used to buy items from the home-shop of the ever nostalgic Cranky Kong. KONG letters are also found in the stages; nabbing all four of them in a stage will award you with a medal; obtain all of these medals in each world to unlock a hidden “K” stage, which are some fairly difficult platforming challenges that offer no checkpoints until the end. These stages do not have KONG letters, but they do, like all other stages, have puzzle pieces hidden in them.

Puzzle pieces are often hidden away, but some are in plain sight; puzzle pieces only unlock artwork from the Extras menu, and don’t provide any in-game challenges like the KONG letters do. If you’re having trouble finding them, you can hire Squawks the parrot from Cranky’s, and he’ll, well, squawk when you’re near one. Some puzzle pieces aren’t found in the open stage, but require completion of a bonus stage instead, accessed by a bonus barrel. These bonus stages are all very simple and appear multiple times. The goal of them is to simply maneuver yourself through a room and collect all the items held within, consisting of bananas, coins, and maybe a 1up balloon, within a time limit. If you manage to grab all the items within the time given, a puzzle piece appears that you then grab. The lack of real bonus stage variety could be considered a criticism of mine, but I figure it’s no different from the original DKC; now they at least give you a collectible incentive to complete them. The location of these bonus stages will also be detected by Squawks if you have him equipped for the stage. KONG letters and puzzle pieces make up for two of three “collectibles” for each stage; more on the third one later.

The only other animal to appear in the game is Rambi the Rhino. Rambi can take out most any obstacles in your way, including spikes, metal boxes, and, of course, enemies by simply trampling them. Rambi falls fast, however; even Diddy’s jetpack has a minimal effect on keeping him in the air. If he gets hurt, the Kongs will be thrown off as he runs rampant, but you can try and jump back on him before he runs too far, or simply lands in a gap. He also has his own variations of DK’s moves that allow him to find hidden items and paths, as well. Unfortunately, that’s about it as far as familiar characters go. Though another “character” is Super Kong, which acts as this game’s take on the new Nintendo standard of Super Guide. If you die enough times in an area, you will be prompted at the checkpoint that the guide is available. Super Kong will show you how to proceed through the stage, but will not go out of his way to show hidden passageways.

As for the worlds themselves, there are eight main worlds and a secret world. Ranging from the obligatory jungle to the pirate-infested beach to a prehistoric cliff to the ever-loved factories, the worlds are all varied and add plenty of concepts and things to generally avoid. In a few stages, pirates will constantly be shooting cannons at you. If that wasn’t enough, waking up a family of bats in the cave will result in the head overgrown Zubat shooting energy beams for you to dodge. Then, of course, somewhere in the jungle, the freaking plague will be chasing you all the way to the end of the stage. Each world has a number of stages, usually around 6-8 counting bonus stage (buying the secret key from Cranky’s shop opens this stage) and the aforementioned K stage, as well as a boss. If you’re going for completion and you’re a sucker for time trials, then you’ll be glad to know each stage has a Time Attack mode once completed initially. The timer is very strict for Gold, but there are easier times to hit for Silver and Bronze respectively. The awarded medal makes the third and final “collectible” medal for each stage, in addition to KONG and puzzle pieces.

This game also has co-operative modes, with one player as Donkey Kong and the other playing as Diddy. This makes for a very friendly game towards inexperienced players, as they can play as the more enabled Diddy from a more experienced gamer can play as DK. If the stretch is too tedious for the inexperienced Diddy, he can simply jump back on his uncle’s back and provide jetpack support. In addition to the jetpack, a separately controlled Diddy can utilize his Peanut Popguns and shoot enemies from a distance. On bigger enemies and bosses, it might not damage the enemy, but rather, keep it distracted while DK goes in for a hit. Great if you’re a gamer and you’ve got someone wanting to play with you that just isn’t that good at these kinds of games, possibly a little sibling or a significant other.

One other feature of the game I will mention are the vehicle segments. Both mine cart and rocket barrel make multiple experiences as a travel medium for the Kongs. Mine cart segments can be controlled one of two ways, and are dependent on the stage itself; when you jump you will either bring the cart with you, or the cart stays on its rails. The latter means you’ll have to jump to another cart before the current cart crashes or falls into the abyss. Mine cart levels are generally more forgiving than in the original, however. While they still require strict timing, you can at least jump on enemies safely. Though this isn’t without a few changes. Sometimes, you’ll have to duck in the mine cart to avoid having your head be introduced to crystals and other sharp objects found directly above a mine rail. The mine rail itself can also break off into a circular shape, forcing you to guinea-pig on the rolling wheel while the mine cart (with you in it!) is still inside. The other vehicle, the rocket barrel, is another new addition. Upon activating it, the rocket barrel will start flying to the right automatically, and your way of controlling it is to hold a button to make it increase altitude; the decrease of altitude happens simply by not pressing anything. You have to keep it steady though, as many obstacles and enemies will be found in these segments. These require a constant look at what’s in front of you, as it goes fast, and the barrel can be fairly hard to control reflexively. Naturally, both of these modes of travel work in an autoscroll fashion.

Another thing I want to commend this game for is the soundtrack. While it may seem like it relies on remixes of tracks from the first DKC game (about 2/3 to 3/4 of the soundtrack, I’d say, are remixes of some sort), this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it strikes a pure hit of nostalgia with remixes of Simian Segue (overworld), Fear Factory, Mine Cart Madness, Aquatic Ambiance, and many more. If you ever took a liking to DKC music like many others, you’re sure to appreciate the soundtrack, as well.

All in all, Donkey Kong Country Returns is a faithful return to a time when games were simple. Well, maybe not by Cranky’s standards, but the general feel of 90′s games these days have been largely “outdated” by state-of-the-art graphics and trigger-happy mechanics. While there has been a large dose of games recently to remedy that lack of real 80′s and 90′s “simple but tough” gameplay, such as Megaman 9-10, and Super Meat Boy, among others, it’s great to see Donkey Kong Country back in the spotlight. While there are a number of glaring absences from the formula (lack of most all the Kong support family sans Cranky, no water levels and Enguarde, no Kremlings and K. Rool…), I can still say, with Rafiki voice and all: he has returned.