The year? 2010. Reggie Fils-Aime tells the audience at E3 that Retro Studios has been tasked with breathing new life into a treasured IP, saying, "If you listen, you can hear it coming." The following Donkey Kong Country Returns trailer ended up blowing off so many socks around the world that there must have been a cold-feet pandemic. I remember that moment well.
When the same game got a shiny new re-release in 2025 (in the form of Donkey Kong Country Returns HD), people were notably less enthused - but perhaps that wouldn't have been the case if they knew about the update that was coming one year later.
As much as Donkey Kong Country Returns is now revered as one of Nintendo's all-time greats, there were a few rumblings of dissatisfaction among certain DK fans at the time (not me, though; I was over the moon). So what was the matter? Well, the game largely ignored much of the original DKC cast. People didn't like the Tiki Tak Tribe replacing the Kremling Krew, and they longed to see more members of the Kong family than just Donkey, Diddy, and Cranky.
Some people even thought that it was a reboot designed to negate the continuity established by Rare Ltd. in the iconic DK games of the 90s. If not a reboot, they'd say, then how do you explain the absence of Dixie Kong? She's led multiple adventures in the past and lives on Donkey Kong Island, so surely she should be leading the resistance against the Tikis? It was a good question, and as much as I adored the game and felt it perfectly captured the feel of the original DKC, if I could have changed one thing, it'd have been adding more Kongs.
Well, luckily, Nintendo has fixed that problem 16 years later (which, shockingly, is bigger than the gap between Donkey Kong Country 3 on the SNES and the original release of Donkey Kong Country Returns). In a free update to the Nintendo Switch version of the game, Dixie Kong is added as a playable character. So, what that means is that history has been re-written - Dixie Kong was there with Donkey and Diddy as they fought the Tikis after all. Her absence no longer requires an explanation.
She plays just as she did in the sequel, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, and I can't wait to go through every level again with her. I suspect that if she had been in the game at launch, its reception would have been a lot warmer, because it'd have helped this new version stand out more from the original (just as the 3DS version did with its new levels). There's also a new Turbo Mode, which lets you play levels at superfast speeds, which offers yet another new way to experience the game's beautiful levels, plus some QOL improvements for Switch 2.
In our Donkey Kong Country Returns HD review, Connor said "[the game] is easily one of the best platformers of the Switch era" and scored it an 8/10. Who knows what he would have scored it if it had Dixie Kong and Turbo Mode when he played it? Probably 11/10.
Last year, I saw a lot of people say "Why would I buy it when I still have the original?" and while I bought it because the refined graphics and controls were enough for me, I can understand others wanting to save their cash - but I suspect this free update will be what entices certain fans to buy it again, especially while it's 17% off on Amazon (US). Meanwhile, if you have never played it, this is an exciting opportunity to experience a classic game in its best form yet.