• Hey everyone, staff have documented a list of banned content and subject matter that we feel are not consistent with site values, and don't make sense to host discussion of on Famiboards. This list (and the relevant reasoning per item) is viewable here.
  • Furukawa Speaks! We discuss the announcement of the Nintendo Switch Successor and our June Direct Predictions on the new episode of the Famiboards Discussion Club! Check it out here!

News Donkey Kong Country Returns HD announced for Nintendo Switch, coming January 16th, 2025

Reader mode
I actually think this is a good choice for a remaster? It is never a bad decision to rescue something from the Wii, being that it was standard def and everything was saddled with motion controls. Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, while more requested, are arguably less valuable options as they already exist in HD.
 
ComradeKoopa said:
I thought Tropical Freeze was one of the best 2D platformers ever made. Would I like this too?
Click to expand...
I think probably yeah

DKC Returns is a very "most of the way there" kind of game imo. The art, level design, music, etc all makes for what I'd consider a 7.5 or 8 out of 10 versus TF's 9 or 9.5. It's a fun DK-ass DK game

Like, people generally praise Tropical Freeze to high hell and tend to have less to say about Returns, but I'd say that's because Returns is "only" a pretty damn-good game, and then with Tropical Freeze they took what they learned and figured out how to elevate "pretty good" to "peak"
 
Oh my God I love Returns! The Mine Karts and Rocket Barrel levels are hard as all heck but I absolutely-super-mega-hyper-enjoyed them! I was disappointed that there were so much less of them in tropical freeze.

It’s been so long since I played this, I can’t wait to 2-300% this again with cleaner graphics and better controls. Looking forward to that old remixed Country music too. And this time I can relive the glory with my 12 year old and 9 year old! 🥲

$40, $50, $60? Don’t care, this game is absolutely valuable to me if I can play it on current hardware!

Unfortunately, it’s looking like Donkey Kong doesn’t get his nose job in this one.

Edit:
Oh yes and about a future title. It’s in the works undoubtedly. Too much is surrounding DK for a brand new ambitious title to not be in the works. The Switch generation of fans can catch up on all Donkey Kong things known to man. Only 2 Donkey Kong things known to monkeys are yet to arrive on Switch.

Something big is coming and I suppose Switch 2 is where it will debute! As it should by this point if you ask me.
 
Last edited:
yikes. i'm not a nitpicky person but that's a lot of visual and animation downgrades from the wii version. almost wish this was based on the wii version and they ditched the 3DS levels. tho there's no reason they couldn't have both.
 
Is the color/brightness increase just a side-effect of that being done for the darkening from 3D mode? Idk, kind of a weird thing to lead the tweet with, I don't mind it...

I'm have decent faith this will be cleaned up with how far out the release is, and hope they give it full care.
 
blondkayvon said:

I guess unsurprisingly it is based off the 3DS version. Most of this seems like it’d be unnoticeable in regular play but I am pretty bummed that the beautiful Rambi-starting-running animation is just straight up gone.
Click to expand...

I actually prefer the more saturated colors, but everything else is a massive downgrade. Is there a way we can bring this to the attention of the devs? I don't even know if they're aware of these problems considering the port is seemingly based on the 3DS version.
 
0
i expend some time comparing footage and didnt notice most of those things,what i noticed looked like an improvement or change, if you have to zoom in and put something in slow motion to people notice something, your nitpicking hard, no wonder most responses on twiiter are mocking the guy
some stages are brighter some are lighter seems like a change to the lighting system
the water is redone from scratch
posting the boss cutscene wheres dk model has an 10x higher polycount and real fur and then complaining about something in the background instead of talking about the the fucking protagonist.like the bat who also has an improved model and a new laser effect and the octopuss who had a very fake looking light and know is more realistic
 
MetalLord said:
i expend some time comparing footage and didnt notice most of those things,what i noticed looked like an improvement or change, if you have to zoom in and put something in slow motion to people notice something, your nitpicking hard, no wonder most responses on twiiter are mocking the guy
some stages are brighter some are lighter seems like a change to the lighting system
the water is redone from scratch
posting the boss cutscene wheres dk model has an 10x higher polycount and real fur and then complaining about something in the background instead of talking about the the fucking protagonist.like the bat who also has an improved model and a new laser effect and the octopuss who had a very fake looking light and know is more realistic
Click to expand...
This. Also, it's 6 months away from release. It will improve.

They could release it as is, and just the fact that it has the 3DS levels plus no waggling would make it the definitive version. Let's appreciate that, and simultaneously hope it's $50 or even $40.
 
0
It's not even because it's taking from the 3DS version, it's missing visuals from that too. Lighting was pretty similar to Wii. This just seems like an eh port from what we've seen because it's from a studio with not the greatest track record. Hopefully it turns out good but I'm very much betting this will be a port that's on par at best.
 
MetalLord said:
i expend some time comparing footage and didnt notice most of those things,what i noticed looked like an improvement or change, if you have to zoom in and put something in slow motion to people notice something, your nitpicking hard, no wonder most responses on twiiter are mocking the guy
some stages are brighter some are lighter seems like a change to the lighting system
the water is redone from scratch
posting the boss cutscene wheres dk model has an 10x higher polycount and real fur and then complaining about something in the background instead of talking about the the fucking protagonist.like the bat who also has an improved model and a new laser effect and the octopuss who had a very fake looking light and know is more realistic
Click to expand...
It's true that those things are not noticeable but still why would they remove some nice effects like smoke or sand etc..? I'm hoping it's only because the game isn't finished.
 
0
i'm hoping it will improve but i'm not optimistic. i don't see why they would start their remaster work by using the 3DS version as the base and then go back and add what was removed/changed from the wii version. doesn't seem like the most efficient work flow. they should have just used the wii version as the source and then brought the 3DS content into it.
 
Outside of some off-coloring to maybe accommodate for a tiny 240p screen, Returns 3D has all of the visual and lighting effects of the Wii version, so being the 3DS version wouldn't be the reason for those issues in Returns HD.

I won't debate about the color, because some seem to prefer the the oversaturated washed out look for some reason. But considering that this is supposed to be just an HD port and not something like a remaster or remake, saying the colors are incorrect is just true.
 
Drybones2015 said:
Outside of some off-coloring to maybe accommodate for a tiny 240p screen, Returns 3D has all of the visual and lighting effects of the Wii version, so being the 3DS version wouldn't be the reason for those issues in Returns HD.

I won't debate about the color, because some seem to prefer the the oversaturated washed out look for some reason. But considering that this is supposed to be just an HD port and not something like a remaster or remake, saying the colors are incorrect is just true.
Click to expand...
It's... less washed out than before. Washed out is the opposite of oversaturated.

Also Returns 3D is indeed missing visual effects, such as the rainbow at the end of Wonky Waterway.

And this is very blatantly a remaster, given that they are deliberately updating many elements of the graphics, like textures, character models, and water effects. They didn't "accidentally" do any of this, and you approaching it as if they're making mistakes in replicating the Wii Returns instead of showing an unfinished build of a new version of the game that's clearly in the process of updating and replacing many graphical elements is frankly bizarre.

Sure, if things like the waterfalls in the background of Temple Topple are for some reason still missing when the game comes out, they fucked up and did a sloppy job with it, but some missing effects in a build being shown when the game is over half a year from release isn't weird.
 
I'm going to remain optimistic that it will look better in future trailers.

It isn't apples to apples but Advance Wars Reboot Camp looked significantly better in its second showing after the debut trailer left most less than impressed.
 
the left side half of the ship is using a temporary texture,thats not in either version of the original game,they probably retexturing the ship
VcVRzfc.jpeg

sqlbjZU.jpeg
 
Stilt Village said:
It's... less washed out than before. Washed out is the opposite of oversaturated.
Click to expand...
Washed out is not the opposite of saturation, you're thinking of muteness. Textures can absolutely be oversaturated and also washed out. Like the examples circled in this image that are more apparent:
Grid-Art-20240620-170903132.jpg


Stilt Village said:
Also Returns 3D is indeed missing visual effects, such as the rainbow at the end of Wonky Waterway.
Click to expand...
I forgot about the rainbow, but I also had already checked that everything different or missing that was gone over in that thread IS in the 3DS version before making that statement.

Stilt Village said:
And this is very blatantly a remaster, given that they are deliberately updating many elements of the graphics, like textures, character models, and water effects. They didn't "accidentally" do any of this, and you approaching it as if they're making mistakes in replicating the Wii Returns instead of showing an unfinished build of a new version of the game that's clearly in the process of updating and replacing many graphical elements is frankly bizarre.
Click to expand...

This is an HD Port, porting a game that wasn't originally HD into HD, of course there will be texture rework, and giving the Kongs a semblance of fur is an obvious choice. If Nintendo considered this a remaster then they would have named it one like they did with Metroid Prime, which had an extreme visual overhaul when being ported to HD. But no, it's on the scale of Skyward Sword and Luigi's Mansion 2.
I never said the game was finished. In fact I was one of the first to suggest that this was a last minute project that's releasing next year because they aren't finished with it while others seemed to think Nintendo has been sitting on it for a while. Don't put words in my mouth for the sake of having an argument, crap like that is frankly lame.

We don't know where they are in developing it nor do we know what they consider finished about it. The point of that thread was to bring attention to issues I noticed. Is it not better to do that now when they might still be working on it and maybe don't even realize some of the things I pointed out, or to do it after release when they completely moved on?
If the coloring is completely intentional by them, then come release I'll just accept that it's a design choice that I disagree with.
 
I like the colors in this Switch version. The only thing in that tweet I can see missing is the animation with Donkey Kong checking out that Tiki air ship. For the things that I would never know is missing I’ll leave that to the Hawkeyes.
 
0
I’m not going to pretend I know the ins and outs of game dev, if they are porting the game from one system to another, why would they remove effects? Is this done on purpose?
 
0
Gartooth said:
This is honestly the least interesting DK announcement they could've made. TF is already on Switch and just a better game overall, and Returns has gotten plenty of limelight being on 3DS. I wouldve taken even a remake of DK64 over this just to have something unexpected for the brand.

I do think it's nice at least a definitive edition of this game now exists by combining better visuals and performance with the exclusive 3DS content.

I can't help but feel Donkey Kong deserves better though than Nintendo's promotion around the theme park being a remaster of DKCR and a remake of Mario vs. Donkey Kong. We know they can do more when Mario RPG fans over there get 2 remakes and a brand new game. Losing hope that DK could be a Switch 2 launch year game with this in January though...
Click to expand...
It could be a warm-up title or a "yiu can get this lesser dk game kn the Switch but the swatch has DK 3D Ape Rool Fools lr whatever".
I still believe
 
0
Drybones2015 said:
Washed out is not the opposite of saturation, you're thinking of muteness. Textures can absolutely be oversaturated and also washed out. Like the examples circled in this image that are more apparent:
Grid-Art-20240620-170903132.jpg
Click to expand...

I think I know what you mean but I don’t think it’s related to saturation.

Those textures are about the same saturation as the original. The main difference is the brightness. They are brighter in the remaster. You can test this yourself by using a Color Picker and sampling the texture.

. I just took a sample of the bright point of the tree in both versions

ZODy26U.png
5BpBrSu.png

As you can see that the Hue, Sat and Brightness values below the sample show that the Wii version is more saturated. It’s just that the brightness in the Switch version is cranked up (99% Switch vs 58% Wii) and hue changed. But sat is about the same across most textures in those images.

I do think they went a bit overkill tho with the brightness in some areas. but yeah they did try to make the game appear more vibrant by increasing brightness. But it's not really oversaturated.
 
0
Reader mode
You must log in or register to reply here.


Back
Top Bottom