Donkey Kong Country Returns

Under the influence of a group of evil Tikis, the animals of Donkey Kong Island have raided Donkey Kong's banana hoard and stolen his stash of bananas - and being an ape of large appetites he understandably…

86 21 November 2010

Platform Action

Donkey Kong Country Returns is a platform developed by Retro Studios, released 21 November 2010 on Wii U and Wii. The main story takes about 25 hrs to finish.

Verified 10 Oct 2026 Sources: IGDB , Wikipedia

What Donkey Kong Country Returns is

Donkey Kong Country Returns is a platform game developed by Retro Studios and released in 2010. It was published by Nintendo. It is available on Wii U and Wii.

The premise, in the publisher's words

Donkey Kong Country Returns is a 2010 platform game developed by Retro Studios and published by Nintendo for the Wii console. The game was released first in North America in November 2010, and in PAL regions and Japan the following month. The game's story focuses on an evil group of Tiki-like creatures known as the Tiki Tak Tribe that are unleashed on Donkey Kong Island and hypnotize the island's animals into stealing Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong's banana hoard, prompting the two to traverse the island to reclaim it.

Description from Wikipedia · source

How it plays

It is played from a side view perspective. Its themes are action. It supports multiplayer and includes co-op. Local play supports 2 players. Available modes: Co-operative, Multiplayer and Single player.

Where it sits in the Donkey Kong series

Donkey Kong Country Returns is the 147th of 190 entries we hold in the Donkey Kong series. The next entry was Mario Sports Mix in 2010. Its critic score of 86 is 11 points above the series average of 75. The highest-rated entry is Super Smash Bros. Melee at 100.

See all 190 Donkey Kong games in release order →

How it was received

Donkey Kong Country Returns holds a critic score of 86 out of 100. That places it above 88% of the 2,372 rated platform games in our database, which average 72. Games released in 2010 averaged 70, so it scored 16 points above the year average. Player ratings track closely with critics at 84, across 198 votes.

How long it takes, and what that costs

The main story runs about 25 hrs.

What it launched against

Donkey Kong Country Returns launched on 21 November 2010, within three weeks of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, Call of Duty: Black Ops and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. It reviewed better than 2 of the 4.

Released around the same time: Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit.

Cheats and codes

We have not confirmed any working cheat codes for Donkey Kong Country Returns yet. Rather than reprint a list we have not tested, this section stays empty until one is verified.

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