After having already brought Wii U title Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze to the Switch, Nintendo has decided to do the same for its predecessor, 2010’s Donkey Kong Country Returns. It’s already a tad disappointing Nintendo isn’t giving us a brand-new Donkey Kong game, but what’s really left some fans baffled is that this HD port is being sold at $60.
This was discovered via the Nintendo Switch eShop, and is somehow surprising and unsurprising at the same time. On the one hand, Donkey Kong Country Returns is well over 10 years old, and you can track down a second-hand copy of either the original Wii version or the 3DS port for a fraction of Nintendo’s asking price. What’s more, while this port does include the levels added to the 3DS version, it otherwise lacks any entirely new content. You can’t even play it in co-op online, and while I personally think Donkey Kong Country Returns is a great 2D platformer worth playing, I don’t think I could recommend it at $60.
It’s especially shocking when you remember that last year’s Metroid Prime remaster, which offered a far more noticeable graphical glow-up, is being sold at $40. However, this is hardly the first time Nintendo has done this. HD ports of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and Kirby’s Return to Dream Land also retailed at $60, as well as today’s Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD. Not that this has stopped fans from complaining regardless.
Over on a Nintendo subreddit, many are astounded by the asking price, with a couple arguing it wouldn’t be so bad if it came bundled with Tropical Freeze. It’s also been pointed out how similar HD re-releases were far more affordable, such as Activision’s remasters of the original Crash Bandicoot games. The N. Sane Trilogy was three games in one yet was sold at $40. More recently, Ubisoft launched a remaster of Beyond Good & Evil, and it’s very cheap at only $20. “It’s reasons like this I just don’t buy Nintendo anymore,” wrote one Reddit user. “I love the classics but I’m not going to spend $60 on a game they basically threw new graphics on.”
In a separate thread, others have tried to defend or at least rationalize Nintendo’s decision, such as pointing out how Donkey Kong has more of a mainstream presence and has sold better when compared to something like Metroid. Not to mention Nintendo’s been pushing DK more into the limelight lately, as evidenced by his presence in the Super Mario Bros. movie and getting a dedicated expansion at the Super Nintendo World theme park.
As one Reddit user also importantly points out, the game’s age means a sizable portion of Nintendo’s audience missed out on the original, so it may as well be brand-new for them: “There’s more and more kids every year aging up and becoming the exact target demo for some of these games. It really doesn’t make sense for Nintendo to devalue their evergreens.” And while I mentioned how copies of the Wii and 3DS versions can be found online, younger audiences are unlikely to have an old Wii or 3DS console lying around somewhere, or go out of their way to buy one of those second-hand.
Despite some fans’ refusal to pick up Donkey Kong Country Returns HD at full price, I don’t expect this to severely hamper the game’s sales. Aside from those who never got to play the original, Nintendo has cultivated enough of a dedicated audience on Switch that would happily fork over $60 for anything it puts out thanks in part to the company’s first-party output being consistently high quality.
