When you think of Nintendo, one man usually comes to mind: a chubby little plumber named Mario. Mario has become the stamp for what Nintendo is, but Mario wasn’t the original stamp for Nintendo. No, that actually goes to a barrel-throwing ape named Donkey Kong. Yes, Mario first made his appearance with Donkey Kong, but back then, he was just called “Jump Man.” But when Nintendo went from arcade to home console, Donkey Kong slowly became a lost legend as Super Mario took over with all the fame.

Donkey Kong slowly faded away after a few sequels, and when the Super Nintendo came around, Rare had the idea to revamp Donkey Kong into a new platforming classic. Nintendo approved, and we were blessed with Rare’s pure brilliance, astounding graphics based on computer-generated images, an amazing musical score, and an almost rhythmic wonderful platforming game. It was an utter success, and sequels and cartoons were spawned all over again. Donkey Kong did slowly burn out again after the success of the series, a few party games and one decent 3-D game on Nintendo 64, but then Retro Studios got a hold of the rights, and we are now blessed with a follow up to Rare’s classic Donkey Kong Country series.

Donkey Kong Country Returns starts with the antagonists of the game, small musical instruments called Tikis, which have the power of mind control, hypnotizing animals of the jungle to steal Donkey Kong’s bananas while Donkey Kong is asleep. When DK realizes this, he starts to go after them, but one of the Tikis pushes him back into his shack and tries to hypnotize him, too, and well ... I guess you just can’t do that to good old DK. Donkey finishes him, and he starts on a quest with Diddy to find his bananas. It is quite a simple plot that works well and brings in a new cast of enemies outside of the classic Kremlings. That’s right — no more Kremlings. The Donkey Kong cast is shrunk to just a few characters, including Rambi the Rhino and Cranky Kong, which is about it this time around. That’s not a compliant either.

If you are familiar with any of the Donkey Kong Country games, you will feel right at home. It defiantly pays its tributes to the classics while adding to the already great series. Donkey Kong Country Returns is a side-scrolling 3-D game that offers a handful of challenges. It’s basic platforming at best — jump on enemies’ heads and make your way through the obstacles. The gameplay varies from moving forward on foot, mine cart levels or making your way through a level on a rocket made from a barrel. Diddy is not a playable character this time around, unless you play two-player, but when you find him in his barrel, he can extend your life by two hearts, and as he rides on Donkey Kong’s back, you can use Diddy’s barrel rockets to do a longer hover jump. The game also has added a few other mechanics. Donkey Kong can grab walls covered in grass and climb them, he can do his ground pound to stun enemies, and he can blow on plants to uncover bananas or put out an enemy who is on fire.

Donkey Kong Country Returns plays very well. I will admit I would much rather have liked having an option to use the classic controller or GameCube controller. In some games, the waggling of the Wii-mote can be fun, but in this game, it gets to be a little weird. Shaking the controllers to ground pound is a lot of fun, but to roll, you hold the analog in the direction you want to go and shake, and to blow, you hold down the analog and shake. A few times, I rolled off an edge trying to blow out a fire, or I blew on an enemy I wanted to roll into. You can definitely adapt, but I would have preferred this to be more precise and tighter in the controls.

Other than that, this game is a blast and just feels like it fits in so well with the classics! I feel like I’m back playing my old Super Nintendo with a few upgrades. Retro did an amazing job taking old songs and spicing them up, taking the basic controls and adding new moves that didn’t feel gimmicky but added to the gameplay, and the detail to the simple side-scrolling levels is just pure amazing! Being able to interact with things in the backdrop or barrel shooting into the backdrop to finish a level works so well.

The last thing I want to talk about with my experience is the difficulty. I don’t care who you are, this is a HARD game. You will see the death screen SO many times; the developers even put in a feature that if you die so many times, the game will allow a character named Silver Kong to beat the level for you as you watch. This may seem like you can cheat through the game, and if you are like me, it makes you only more determined since it seems insulting, but on the plus side, if you just can’t beat a level, you know you have help so you don’t give up on the game entirely. I was actually happy Donkey Kong Country Returns was difficult; it’s rather fun to learn the pattern to a level and feel you have mastered it.

Donkey Kong Country Returns is an amazing game. If I learned anything, it is that Retro Studios should be trusted with any franchise. They did Metroid and now Donkey Kong with great justice. Hell, let’s see Retro do a Mario game or even a Zelda game. I can honestly say if they can do the whole first-person shooter creepy vibe for Metroid and then jump to Donkey Kong and nail it as Rare did, I would trust them with anything. I definitely would recommend this game. If you are a fan of the series, BUY THE GAME, period. It offers so much gameplay and replay value. If you want a game on the Wii that offers a good challenge and anyone can play from casual to hardcore, go pick up a copy of Donkey Kong Country Returns.

Check out TreavorClark's video review at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK8VBMFJc7s.