Most of us growing up with a Super Nintendo in our homes were amazed in December of 1994 when one of the best looking platform games ever fell into our video game consoles.  It brought stunning pre-rendered 3D sprites and mindblowing music into our living rooms with some of the greatest gameplay ever brought to a home system. That game was Donkey Kong Country. It was immedately a smash hit and catapulted the then-little studio known as Rare into the big leagues. The years followed with 2 sequels expanding upon the original title and the Donkey Kong Country Trilogy for the SNES became legendary for always providing a solid and jam packed gameplay experience.

After Donkey Kong Country 3, Rare decided to try and make lightning strike once again and bring the Gorilla into full 3D with Donkey Kong 64 – sadly, their efforts fell short, especially when compared with their own in-house 3D platformer Banjo-Kazooie. After 1999, not much was heard from the family of Kongs aside from a few gimmicky spin off titles.

Flash forward to 2010, an entire decade later, and it seems that Donkey Kong Country is set to make its triumphant return to gaming! Brought to us by Retro Studios, best known as the team who brought Samus and the Metroid franchise back to life with their amazing Metroid Prime series, they are set to do the same with revitalizing yet another timeless classic franchise on the Nintendo Wii!

Right off the bat, you know what Donkey Kong Country Returns aims to once again deliver. Instead of trying to bring the series into full three dimensional gameplay once again, this title returns the series to its roots of masterful precise 2D gameplay. You control Donkey Kong or Diddy Kong (or both if you and a friend decide to play co-op!) and make your way through jungle-themed enviroments out to stop King K. Rool's evil plot. Jumping on baddie's heads, making perilous jumps with precise timing, finding well hidden secret paths through levels, and collecting all the letters in the word KONG – This is Donkey Kong Country exactly how you remember it.

The game seems to take full advantage of the Nintendo Wii's graphical horsepower, with levels taking place in the foreground and the background, continually jumping between the two in order to reach the ending.

The game supports the Wiimote + Nunchuck control style which takes a bit to get used to – especially using the analog stick to move – but once you get used to it, it becomes second nature. Here's to hoping Nintendo and Retro implement support for the Classic Controller for all of us older gamers to use, fully bringing us back to the days of our childhood!

Donkey Kong Country Returns is set to debut this winter on the Nintendo Wii.

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