Donkey Kong Country Returns was always going to lend itself to the depth treatment on a purely aesthetic level, with its endless barrel-hopping between chunky 2D planes and the pleasure its art team takes in sending foliage scudding past in the foreground or allowing volcanoes to erupt in the far distance.

Bosses can be tough, but there are no real classics.Īs for the 3D, that's both blessing and curse with a game like this. Besides, to balance that out you get to enjoy the fact that the original game's irritating shake controls have been replaced with face buttons when it comes to the likes of rolling about or smacking downed bosses into oblivion. Textures aren't quite what they used to be, but the frame-rate never falters, and while neither the weirdly sleepy circle pad or the d-pad offers a truly ideal means of chucking Nintendo's angry gorilla around, they both allow for just enough precision to keep you happy. I assume the 3DS is taking a bit of a pounding itself with this latest version of 2010's Wii platformer, but new developers Monster Games have handled what's essentially an expanded port with intelligence. The art's a touch less charming, but to make up for that you get a world of taut drum skins ripe for pounding, hobbling crabs ripe for pounding and, well, anything else that could conceivably be made ripe for pounding, really. Donkey Kong games feel heavier than Mario games - slower when turning, deadlier when they've picked up momentum. He barges, charges and pummels his way through his levels, he's a friend to the hit-pause and the shoulder slam, and his Yoshi stand-in - for the few glorious moments that you generally get to enjoy him - is a grubby little rhino who looks like he might have spent some serious time in the big house. One of the more striking differences between Mario and Donkey Kong is that the gorilla still carries the swagger of an ex-villain with him.

Donkey kong country returns 3d review