The 3DS revival of Donkey Kong Country will make its retail debut in a little more than two months.
Donkey Kong Country stands as one of the finest platformers ever released on the Super Nintendo. That’s no mean feat, as the SNES has literally hundreds of platformers to choose from. Of course, this was from an era in which developer Rare was still widely seen as one of the best companies in the industry. The success of Donkey Kong Country (and more specifically, GoldenEye and Perfect Dark) eventually drove Microsoft to sign Rare as an exclusive second-party developer, though the firm’s output since that deal was put into place has left both fans and Microsoft itself wondering when the developer lost its magic touch.
But forget about all that for a moment. We’re here to discuss Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, an upcoming Nintendo 3DS title that hopes to revive the game in much the same way as the 3DS iteration of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Like that game, Returns 3D will rely heavily on the 3DS’ exclusive technology, lending the classic title new, higher definition 3D graphics. Though technically a port of the Wii’s Donkey Kong Country Returns, the 3DS game offers a host of new material designed for hardcore fans of the series.
All of this information has been known to the public for months, but until this morning the game lacked an official release date. However, the official Nintendo Europe Twitter account changed all that a few hours ago. According to Nintendo, Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D will make its retail debut on May 24.
We have no worries about the quality of the game’s 3D graphics. Nintendo is seemingly the only company capable of creating useful, visually attractive 3D on the 3DS. What concerns us about this game is exactly how much new content it might include. Its Wii predecessor was a good game, but it lacked a certain something that might have propelled the classic title beyond simple “rehash” status. Fingers crossed that for the 3DS version, Nintendo and developer Monster Games can find enough extant and new content to convince Donkey Kong fans to buy this game for what would effectively be a third time.
Source: Twitter
