To say “Donkey Kong is back” would not do justice for how special this moment is. Retro Studios has worked with Nintendo to develop a new Donkey Kong game, “Donkey Kong Country Returns,” on the Nintendo Wii. Not only that, but they did it in the best way imaginable – by bringing him back to surroundings that fans have been longing for.

When RARE first created Donkey Kong Country back in the mid ’90s, the giant ape and his monkey-pals were kings of the 2D genre.

With 3D-rendered character models and the most fun sidescrolling gameplay imaginable, the Donkey Kong Country series was one of the most cherished series of the time.

“Donkey Kong Country Returns” is part reimagining/remake of the original DKC series on the Super Nintendo.

You play as Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong and sidescroll through levels, collecting the K.O.N.G. letters, jumping on enemies, ground pounding, looking for secrets, getting to the end of the level, and fighting a boss at the end of each world.

The game can be played with one or two players – similar to “New Super Mario Bros. Wii.”

Player 1 always takes control of Donkey Kong, while Player 2 always takes control of Diddy Kong. When playing by yourself, you always control Donkey Kong (with no switching ability) while Diddy Kong rides on DK’s back and assists in flying around with his jetpack.

Fans of the original series will find a lot of throwbacks to the original “Donkey Kong Country.” The music and level layout seem like updated versions of some levels in the first DKC. As for returning characters, other than DK and Diddy Kong, the only other member of the Kong family to return is Cranky Kong, who sets up shop and sells items like extra lives. As for returning animals, only Rambi the Rhino is actually controllable. Squawks the Parrot is featured in the game, but rather hanging onto his feet and flying around, Squawks serves as an item you can purchase in Cranky’s shop that helps you find hidden items.

Characters like Funky Kong, Candy Kong, Dixie Kong and even King K. Rool do not make an appearance.

As for enemy types, Kremling enemies (crocodiles from the original DKC) do not make a return.

Instead the main antagonist of the game is taken up by a group of Tikis.

These floating Tiki-masks and wands hypnotize the animals in Kongo Jungle and force them to steal DK’s cherished banana hoard.

DK and Diddy set out to get their bananas back – just like they did in the original Donkey Kong Country.

There is no denying that Donkey Kong Country Returns plays off a lot of nostalgia from the original DKC released in 1994 – but Retro is far from ashamed of it and never hides their love for the DK family.

Lots of “easter eggs” are hidden throughout the game, like a reference to the documentary “The King of Kong” and even items shaped like the “RARE” (former developer) logo.

I was a huge fan of Donkey Kong Country back in the day, but it seems like every game that DK and Diddy have appeared in since Donkey Kong Country ended haven’t been the same.

All I wished for was a return to the game that I fell in love with, and this is as close as my wish can get.

Forgive the cliché, but there’s no better way to put it – “Donkey Kong Country Returns” is “on like Donkey Kong.” My only minor complaint is that the motion controls do get annoying after long periods of play, but that’s easy to overlook. The game is challenging, but it still allows new gamers to easily pick it up and play.

The bottom line is this – if you played a Donkey Kong game in the past and you own a Nintendo Wii, there isn’t much reason to miss out on this game.

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