Ubisoft has finally fixed the Windows 11 versions of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Origins but Odyssey remains broken.
The Ubisoft games broken by Windows 11 version 24H2 in November are therefore now, almost, fully fixed. While Ubisoft released updates to Viking era England-set Valhalla and Ancient Egypt-set Origins, Ancient Greece-set Odyssey is still without a fix.
“Hello everyone, we have just deployed a new title update for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla,” Ubisoft said on the game’s Steam page, alongside a similar one on Origins’. “This patch fixes compatibility issues with Windows 11 update 24H2.”
This finally came two months later, though obviously Odyssey remains broken. Ubisoft has not said when it will release a fix for this final game.
These issues come amid a stream of other bad news for Ubisoft, which hoped it would now be celebrating big hits in Star Wars Outlaws and Assassin’s Creed Shadows but is instead scrambling amid poor sales of the former and a handful of delays to the latter.
But via new financial results we now know just how much money it has made for Games Workshop, the British company behind the tabletop hobby upon which Space Marine 2 is based. Reporting results for the first half of its financial year ending December 1, 2024, Games Workshop CEO Kevin Rountree hailed the success of Space Marine 2, which contributed significant royalty revenue to the business.
In fact, licensing revenue from royalty income increased in the period by a whopping £18 million (approx. $21.9 million) to £30.1 million (approx. $36.7 million). Earned income, which is the key figure here, was £26.1 million (approx. $31.8 million), up from £5.9 million (approx. $7.2 million), an increase Games Workshop said was mainly from Space Marine 2. 98% of Games Workshop’s total licensing revenue came from PC and console games (Space Marine 2 launched on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S).
A win all round, then. As you’d expect, Games Workshop is on the hunt for the next blockbuster Warhammer video game, but Rountree also expressed a degree of caution on potential future video game success, admitting hits like Space Marine 2 are few and far between.
Here’s the statement:
During the period, our licensing partners launched two new video games; Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, a third person shooter for PC and console and Warhammer 40,000: Speed Freeks, a combat racing game. Established games continue to contribute, alongside royalty income earned following the success of Space Marine 2. We recognise that successes like these for Warhammer are not a given in the world of video games. Clearly we are looking for the next one. We remain cautious when forecasting royalty income.
So, where could this big Warhammer video game hit come from? It seems inevitable that Saber Interactive will get the chance to continue the Space Marine story with Space Marine 3, and indeed has said it has ideas for a third game.
In the shorter term, Bulwark Studios’ turn-based tactics game Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus II looks set to scratch a very different itch. There are also rumblings that Creative Assembly is finally giving Warhammer 40,000 the Total War treatment, something fans have hoped for for years.
As for Space Marine 2, Saber continues to update the game with cosmetics, new Operations, and new weapons. Season 3 is set for launch this spring.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League just received its final update, which along with the promised offline mode, adds an official ending to the game’s story that wraps everything up in a tidy, if rather uninteresting, way.
As previously announced, Episode 8: Balance is the final update planned for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Alongside some new armore and exotic weapons, the biggest feature in the update is a new Offline Mode that will allow players to continue playing Suicide Squad Game by themselves without requiring an internet connection.
As a reminder, Episode 8 will be the final update to #SuicideSquadGame. The title will remain playable in both Online and the recently released Offline Mode for players to continue to wreak havoc in Metropolis 💥
— Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League (@suicidesquadRS) January 14, 2025
The Offline Mode was announced in December 2023 as part of Rocksteady’s post-launch plans, but the studio was also committed to releasing its promised DLCs and additional characters, leaving the Offline Mode for its final update.
There’s also a big comic book ending to wrap up the story of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, so if you’re okay with spoilers feel free to read below the break. You’ve been warned.
Okay so Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, as the name implies, is about taking out members of the Justice League who have been brainwashed by Brainiac. One of the biggest shocks in the game was when Harley Quinn shoots Batman point blank in the head.
However, Batman was actually still alive. In his masterful gambit, he allowed Brainiac to create clones of the Justice League and then oversaw the events of the game from the shadows as he worked to take down Brainiac in secret.
The ending is told via the comic book illustrations that the different post-launch episodes have been presented in and in true comic book fashion, your favorite heroes are still all alive and the bad guys are defeated. Woo-hoo.
Is this how Rocksteady envisioned the end of Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League? Who can say. The game released to mixed reviews and Warner Bros. said the game fell short of expectations when it came to sales, and the developers announced that it was ending future updates on the game after Season 4.
You can read our full review of Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League here and for anyone looking to play the game, the Offline Mode means you’re able to fully. So if you see it on sale next time, don’t worry about picking it up as the game will still run just fine.
NetEase Games is telling Marvel Rivals players that a new hero will launch every month and a half as additional seasons roll out.
The studio’s creative director, Guangyun Chen, clarified the team’s post-launch plans during an interview with Metro. He doesn’t mince words, promising to release a playable character every half-season. That equals out to at least one new hero every month and a half, or roughly every six weeks.
“Every season we’ll be rolling out fresh seasonal stories, new maps, and new heroes. We’ll actually be breaking down each season into two halves,” Chen said. “The length of one season is three months. And for each half of the season, we will introduce a new hero. We just eventually want to continue to enhance the experience, and, you know, keep everyone excited in our community.”
It’s a tall order that will leave fans with one question as every season winds down: who’s next? Marvel Rivals Season 1: Eternal Night Falls already kicked things off with a strong start by introducing both Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman for the first half, with The Thing and the Human Torch primed to launch with the second half in a few weeks. These are Marvel mainstays who have undeniably earned their place as legendary superhero characters, but keeping up that momentum over time will be quite the challenge.
Marvel Rivals already launched with a strong list of playable heroes that includes names like Wolverine, Magneto, Spider-Man, Jeff the Landshark, and Storm, but there are so many other faces to include. Blade is one character rumored to appear in Season 2, for example, with fans also hoping to see characters like Daredevil, Deadpool, and other X-Men at some point. It’s unclear how NetEase will expand upon the Marvel Rivals roster in the future, but with the success it’s seen so far, the team is showing no signs of slowing down.
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.
Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.
PS5 gamers rejoice, because a popular PS5 exclusive game is on sale today. Stellar Blade is currently discounted at Best Buy for only $39.99 after a hefty 43% price drop. This is $10 lower than the best price I saw during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This discount is exclusively at Best Buy, although other retailers like Amazon may price match later.
Stellar Blade, the first stateside non-gacha from Shift Up, is a well-reviewed game that’s best known for its challenging soulslike gameplay, outstanding graphics, killer soundtrack… and, of course, its suggestive character design.
In our Stellar Blade review, Mitchell Saltzman wrote that “Stellar Blade stands out as a gorgeous and well-crafted action game with very impressive strengths and very clear weaknesses. Both its story and characters lack substance, and some of its RPG elements are poorly implemented, like dull sidequests that very often require you to retrace your steps through previous levels with very little done to make the return trip feel unique or rewarding. But its action picks up most of that slack thanks to the rock solid fundamentals of its Sekiro-inspired combat system, a deep well of hideous monstrosities to sharpen your sword against, and plenty of hidden goodies that do a great job of incentivizing exploration throughout.” IGN officially rated Stellar Blade a 7/10, although I personally loved this game and would have given it a higher score. It didn’t make it into our list of best PS5 games of 2024, but only because it was too new (had to be out for 6 months or longer).
Stellar Blade is a technically demanding game and I run it in “Performance” mode to maintain 60fps. If you own a PlayStation 5 Pro, however, you’ll get the best of both worlds and play in “Enhanced” 4K mode and still get great framerates. According to the official PlayStation blog post, “With PS5 Pro, players will be able to enjoy Stellar Blade in 4K resolution at 50fps or more, with smoother gameplay, and you’ll notice an improvement in grain and detail in the game in PSSR upscale mode. Plus, the HFR (high framerate) option is supported, allowing you to enjoy a fluid gaming experience at 80fps (120hz display support required).”
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn’t hunting for deals for other people at work, he’s hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
Bethesda originally planned to include gore and dismemberment mechanics in Starfield but had to remove them due to technical limitations.
Former employee Dennis Mejillones, who was a character artist on The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, Fallout 4, and Starfield, told Kiwi Talkz that Bethesda had to cut the feature because the interaction with space suits became too complex.
“There was a lot of implications with the different suits from a technical perspective,” he said. “There’s a lot that has to go with it. You have to cut the helmet in a certain way and it’s got to come off, you have meat caps to the bottom where the flesh is.
“We had systems for all of that and it turned into a big rat’s nest. All these things you have to count for now with all these crazy hoses on the helmets and all that kind of stuff that we added. Or now you could change the body size significantly. The character creator had evolved quite a bit.”
Some fans lamented that Starfield, which was the first full single-player role-playing game from Bethesda in eight years, didn’t have the gore and dismemberment mechanics that were present in Fallout 4. Mejillones said these mechanics make more sense in Fallout than in Starfield, however, given their “tongue in cheek” humor. “It’s part of the fun,” he said.
New Marvel Rivals character the Invisible Woman is proving useful when it comes to detecting what fans believe are bot enemies in their lobbies.
Bots are an issue Marvel Rivals fans have obsessed over for weeks, with many believing that developer NetEase Games may be pitting them against low-level AI opponents to help keep players engaged. Discussion on this topic has only ramped up since Season 1 introduced Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman last Friday, but the hero additions brought more than changes to the current meta.
As players began to tap into what made these new Fantastic Four characters tick, Reddit user barky1616 shared a video showing an off-the-wall use for Invisible Woman’s trademark ability. The clip shows Sue Storm turning invisible and, somehow, blocking the path of half of the enemy team by simply standing in front of them. They don’t try to walk around or fight her until she is booted out of invisibility mode, at which point the battle continues as you’d expect. It’s a bizarre video that many are using as additional evidence to suggest that bots are quickly becoming a bigger issue for Marvel Rivals.
The idea is that, because the other team is supposedly made up of bots, they are unable to realize their path is blocked by this new hero. Your results may vary if you choose to try this Invisible Woman trick on your own, but it’s still a strange clip that has the community scratching their heads at best and fearing a more substantial bot problem at worst.
Without confirmation from NetEase, it’s unclear if AI enemies are truly sneaking their way into Marvel Rivals matches or if there’s something else going on. IGN has reached out to NetEase about the alleged existence of bots in Marvel Rivals.
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.
Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.
With over 1100 chapters, nearly as many episodes of the anime, movies and OVAs, a live-action Netflix series, a card game, and much much more, One Piece has become its own media empire. The tales of the Straw Hat Pirates are beloved all over the world, and now One Piece: Luffy’s Bento Panic, a new board game from Kess Entertainment, brings the crew to your tabletop! This party game is fun for even those that haven’t hopped on the pirate ship themselves.
Designed by Anthony Thorp, three to nine players take on the roles of crew of the Straw Hats, returning after a successful adventure. In typical fashion, Luffy and his crew decide to celebrate the only way they know how – with a giant feast full of the crew’s favorite delicacies. What follows is a mad rush as each person tries to eat as much as they can before Luffy devours everything and the party’s over. The goal of Bento Panic is to amass the most points (finished piles of food) by the time the bag of food is empty or Luffy wakes up the third time. This is a fast game where a full session, even at larger player counts, won’t take you very long, making it perfect for parties.
Each turn is fairly straightforward, with each player being able to take one of five possible actions: grab food from the bag, eat piles of food that are in front of them, try to steal your neighbor’s food, block someone trying to steal yours, or use your character’s special ability. Each action is associated with a simple one-handed gesture that each player performs two at a time. Stealing, for example requires you to point at one or both of the players to your left or right while grabbing food tokens from the bag requires you to simply reach out towards the bag. It makes for a silly time, and it’s the fact that everyone performs the actions together that makes the game so quick to play.
When I first saw the player count of Bento Panic could go up to nine people, my immediate concern was that this game would quickly spiral into chaos. Few games manage player counts so high, but luckily I never found this to be the case here, because you really only need to worry about the people on your immediate left and right. It’s only your neighbors that you have to worry about attempting to steal from you, so regardless if you are playing with only three of you or the full roster of nine, your risk of being stolen from never increases beyond those two people.
One of the ways the game can end is when Luffy wakes up for the third time. In the grab bag that contains all of the food tokens (a nice fabric drawstring bag adorned with the iconic Straw Hat pirate logo no less) are special “juicy meat” ones that move Luffy down his sleep track. Once that track hits zero, Luffy wakes up and will steal all the food that hasn’t been eaten yet from whomever has the biggest pile of meat in front of them.
Fans of One Piece know just how “on-brand” it is that Luffy would lose control when meat is involved. This mechanic also provides the game with a good “push your luck” feeling, where you have to risk waking up Luffy and losing your piles of uneaten food, or do you play it safe and try to eat a smaller pile or two first, and have others take the risk?
This is a fast game where a full session, even at larger player counts, won’t take you very long.
Another aspect to take into account when making your choice of actions are the special abilities that your other opponents have at their disposal. Each Straw Hat has an ability that can be activated by striking a dramatic pose as your action, with abilities like Jinbe’s “Fishman Karate” that cancels out any steal actions being taken against you while letting you then take a food pile from any pirate that attempted to steal your food. Once these are used, they can’t be used again until you’ve been stolen from, which means sometimes you want someone to steal from you. Using these skills is completely optional, and the game is fun with or without them.
Bento Panic can still offer up a good time for folks who may not be into One Piece and can’t tell one Straw Hat from the other. At its heart, this is a set collection game mixed with reading other players’ intentions. It’s fun, but it doesn’t offer much depth. However, it also never overstays its welcome, which makes it great as a party board game, or as a palate cleanser between other complex games. Bento Panic gets better with more people playing it – in my play sessions, even at the max player count of nine, everyone was still having fun, which a lot of other games can’t say.
Following Uncharted’s 2022 cinematic outing and The Last of Us’ hit HBO show, it was only a matter of time until Sony announced that Horizon was coming to the silver screen. PlayStation Studios and Columbia Pictures recently formally confirmed that a movie adaptation of Horizon Zero Dawn is in the works, which will bring to life both Aloy’s origin story and the video game’s vibrant, machine-filled world. And while development of the movie is only in the early stages, I’m already pretty confident that it could be Sony’s first major video game win at the box office… if it stays true to the games.
The last few years have seen several video game success stories grace both the small and big screens. The Super Mario Brothers and Sonic films, both skewed for family audiences, are the gold standard in terms of both critical reception and box office numbers. On TV, Sony’s own The Last of Us show sits alongside the likes of Netflix’s Arcane and Amazon Prime’s Fallout as fan favourites. And even adaptations that have had more middling reviews from fans and critics have been able to come out on top at the box office; the Tom Holland-led Uncharted movie grossed more than $400 million.
But while it’s true that the days of the “video game curse” are mostly long gone, there are still issues that persist in this field. Uncharted may have found its audience, but it is not the faithful adaptation of the original games fans were hoping for. More recently, we have seen poor critical and box office performance for the likes of last year’s Borderlands film and Amazon’s Like a Dragon: Yakuza series. Both seemed completely uninterested in staying faithful to the storylines, lore, or even simply the tone of the games they were built upon. They simply did not accurately depict the world of the games that fans fell in love with.
While such failures can occur in video game adaptations, they are part of a wider issue with adaptations in general. Netflix’s The Witcher has taken considerable liberties with its source material, significantly changing the original books’ events and characters, plus shifting the overall tone. While adaptations often need to make changes to fit their new medium, these examples feel like they have become different things entirely. And for fans of the original texts – the pre-baked audience that should be the first in line to watch a new adaptation – this can be not just incredibly disappointing, but also signal the project’s eventual downfall.
That brings us back to Horizon. The recently announced movie isn’t actually the first attempt at bringing Horizon to screens. Back in 2022 Netflix announced it was developing a series based on the game, and rumours began to circulate about a “Horizon 2074” project that was to be set during the pre-apocalypse period, perhaps trying to fill in some of the backstory the games touch upon and skirt around. This direction, while ultimately never confirmed by Netflix, certainly proved polarising for the game’s fanbase, who are clamouring for a story that is faithful to the one that made the original game such a resounding success. Plus, of course, they want to see huge robot animals, which a pre-apocalypse setting would naturally not feature.
However, such fans need not worry: whatever the plans were for that show, the project is no longer in development at Netflix and Horizon is now being reworked into a cinema release. Given the heavy CGI effects that any Horizon adaptation would need to realise its iconic visuals, this is a smart move, as the increased budget of a Hollywood movie is one of the keys to realising the story and world’s potential and make them shine on the big screen.
If Horizon is given the same kind of treatment afforded to The Last of Us on the small screen, there is no reason it can’t be PlayStation’s first big cinema win.
But there’s much more to Horizon than its incredible robotic creatures. Consider the success of Fallout, Arcane and The Last of Us in the past few years. These adaptations were praised for being worthy extensions of their source material and for their faithfulness to not just the visuals, but also the tone and stories of their original game franchises. Gamers care about adaptations having an authentic story. The Last of Us did, of course, craft new storylines that deviated from its source material, but most of the show stayed true to the narrative structure of the games. The result was a show that sailed on the proven strength of the game, which resonated with both fans and newcomers. And so if Horizon is given the same kind of treatment afforded to The Last of Us, Arcane and Fallout on the small screen, there is no reason it can’t be PlayStation’s first big cinema win.
Remaining faithful to the original game isn’t something to do just for the sake of fan expectation, though. Horizon Zero Dawn received the Best Narrative award at the The Game Awards in 2017, as well as the Outstanding Achievement in Story award at the 2018 DICE awards, which shows how highly regarded the game’s story is. It is a tale worth staying faithful to. Set in 31st century North America, it follows Aloy, a member of the Nora Tribe, as she explores the mystery surrounding her origins and how they link to an old-world scientist, Elisabet Sobeck, who is Aloy’s perfect doppelganger. These characters and the world they exist in are captivating: Aloy in particular is a brilliant anchor, and her allies Erend and Varl are easy to root for thanks to relationships that are massively fleshed out across Horizon Zero Dawn and its sequel, Forbidden West. Further depth is added through the examination of how attempts were made to save Earth’s climate, with a rogue AI expanding to create the creatures that now populate so much of the Earth. Complimenting this is the mysterious Sylens, a constant presence and an enigma we want to get to the root of.
The intricacy of each community and settlement Aloy uncovers along her journey makes for an expansive, immersive world that feels completely unique. This worldbuilding is fuel for a compelling film franchise. Much like how James Cameron’s Avatar series has explored the culture and traditions of Na’vi tribes, a Horizon film could dig into the ways tribes like the Nora protect themselves from Earth’s robotic hunters. The unique combat encounters are a highlight of both Horizon games, and with the likes of the saber tooth tiger-like Sawtooths, the towering Tallnecks, and sky-bound Stormbirds, there’s the potential to litter the landscapes with impressive visuals. Alongside rival tribes and those loyal to the rogue AI Hades, these creatures ensure the games are full of action and suspense. Those same elements would provide interesting challenges for Aloy and her allies in a movie adaptation, too. All combined, Horizon is a rich source of creative and visually-rich storytelling that needs very few changes to suit the current cinematic landscape.
Horizon’s story is compelling from the offset, and if followed faithfully, I believe its film adaptation could be, too. What makes Horizon stand out from other would-be franchises is the diligence in its story, crafting a world that is unique, timely, and fresh with an aesthetic that feels distinctly cinematic. There are so many nuances to the world and the storytelling that it is easy to imagine a Horizon adaptation being a resounding success both critically and at the box office. And with the more expansive story of Forbidden West, there is a huge canvas for the franchise as a whole to work with – if adapted carefully, this could be a long-term proposition for Sony. There is a huge opportunity to make a film franchise that can match the success of its source material, which has proven to be tremendous success across the last two generations of PlayStation consoles, captivating gamers worldwide.
If the film can take the ingredients that have made the game such a success and keep them intact, then the basics are in place for a compelling adaptation. And with more Sony titles set to become film and TV franchises, such as Ghost of Tsushima and Helldivers 2, such an approach would set PlayStation up for success in an entirely new medium. But forgetting what made Horizon great in the first place – or, even worse, purposefully diverging away from it – could put Sony not only in the firing line of negative fan feedback, but also the same kind of financial difficulties suffered by Borderlands. Bad adaptations have been overwhelmingly rejected by fans, and as a result often audiences as a whole. Let’s hope that Sony (plus the writers and directors it chooses) recognise what they have on their hands and do right by Horizon.
Chris Connor is a coffee and whisky driven culture wordsmith, with work published at NME, Radio Times, Yahoo, and others.
I owe Donkey Kong Country Returns HD an apology. I laughed in disbelief at its initial announcement because it’s not only the third time Nintendo has sold us a version of this 2010 Wii platformer, it’s also the third Switch re-release Donkey Kong has seen despite not getting a completely new adventure in the last decade. This remaster’s reveal felt like the wrong game at the wrong time, but it only took a few minutes of running across a decently spruced up Donkey Kong Island to realize Returns is still one of the best 2D platformers Nintendo has made this century. It has all the things I want from this genre: satisfying movement that demands skill and precision, a large lineup of replayable challenges stuffed with secrets to find, and a practically unparalleled attention to detail in its superb level design that’s pretty much only rivaled by its sequel, Tropical Freeze. Even though the remaster itself feels barebones and a few elements could have used a slightly more modern touch, this is definitely the best way to play Returns and one of the top bananas in the Switch’s impressive platformer lineup.
As I barreled through 80 levels set in jungles, caves, and more, it struck me just how few games like this are made anymore. In an era where modern platformers like Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Astro Bot mostly focus on wowing you with spectacle and joyously ushering you through their handcrafted digital theme parks, Returns stands out as it doubles down on the platforming itself. It’s full of tough levels and nail-biting moments that require you to master its central jumping, rolling, and swinging mechanics to overcome its biggest challenges. No shade to the two games I just mentioned – I adore them both – but revisiting Nintendo’s version of this classic platformer style is refreshing, and I love how it isn’t afraid to test you.
Difficulty-wise, this is several steps above Mario and Kirby, and that’s another great differentiating factor from the other platformers in Nintendo’s stable. The level design is incredibly impressive: Every stage introduces a new idea and explores it to the fullest as it ramps up the challenge without ever making it unclear what is expected of you. To reclaim Donkey Kong’s home, you’ll have to outrun hordes of ape-eating spiders, avoid enormous lethal waves, and make perfect jumps across crumbling platforms, and it’s always exciting to see what obstacle will be thrown at you next.
DK’s perfect controls and satisfying abilities keep the challenge fun.
The difficulty stays fun rather than frustrating thanks to Donkey Kong’s perfect controls and immensely satisfying abilities. There’s a distinct weight to the movement in Retro Studios’ pair of Donkey Kong games, as if you can really get a sense for the heft of this big ape as you move, resulting in a platformer more focused on momentum where you’ll often have to plan your moves ahead of time and gear up for that next huge leap. The advanced rolling-jump mechanic in particular – where Donkey Kong gets a free jump in midair after rolling off a ledge – leads to some of the most rewarding platforming out there when you pull off a crazy move to save yourself or snag a hard-to-reach collectible. Your options open up even more when you break Diddy Kong out of a barrel. He both doubles your max health and adds an extremely helpful hover ability that’s a game changer in tougher sections.
If testing your mettle isn’t for you, the optional Modern Mode – which is slightly altered from the 3DS port’s New Mode – adds extra hearts to DK and Diddy’s health, expands the inventory at Cranky Kong’s shop with more useful aids (like a Green Balloon that saves you after falling into a pit), and lets you take more consumable recovery items into each level. Plus, if there’s a stage you just can’t clear, Super Kong will eventually show up and offer to automatically beat it for you. I love challenging platformers, so I stuck to Classic Mode and never looked back, but these are at least great options for people who don’t like to get stuck.
The one place Returns occasionally gets a little bit too mean is its on-rails minecart and rocket barrel levels. These areas can suffer from a lot of trial-and-error, where I frequently died to sudden enemies or obstacles I had no way of reasonably avoiding on my first attempt. This is worsened if you’re going for the hidden collectibles in each stage, where you’re almost guaranteed to miss at least some of them the first time through until you know the level’s patterns. It’s especially frustrating because everything in these sections is a one-hit kill; a problem Tropical Freeze later solved by introducing vehicle-specific health bars. To be fair, it’s not a huge issue – Modern Mode adds an item in Cranky’s shop that can make these sections less of a pain, and I still really enjoy them for how they break up the pace of the standard stages – but I can’t help but feel they could have used a bit of freshening up. Similarly, the boss fights are largely fantastic, but they still suffer from a complete lack of checkpoints, and being forced back to the beginning after dying in the final phase feels more like a waste of time than a meaningful challenge.
This really is just a new coat of paint and nothing more.
The absence of any updates to these stumbling points highlights just how barebones Returns HD is as a remaster. This really is just a combination of the Wii and 3DS versions of Returns with a new coat of paint, and nothing more. It’s a competent update, but it’s nowhere near the level of something like Metroid Prime Remastered – the other Retro Studios game that got a shiny updated release on Switch. It certainly doesn’t look bad, and it almost always runs at a smooth 60 frames per second, but even Tropical Freeze’s 2018 Switch port looks noticeably nicer. That’s most apparent when comparing Donkey Kong’s character model across the two games: DK’s fur looks amazing in Tropical Freeze, but just a little bit off in Returns. This is very clearly still a Wii game in HD everywhere from the levels to the cutscenes, which is completely fine, but I would’ve liked to see the graphics get a bit more love when the movement otherwise aged so well. Still, this is undoubtedly the best way to play Returns, as the Wii version had mandatory waggling motion controls that have been mercifully made entirely optional, and the extra 3DS levels have been rescued from that version’s downgraded graphics and co-op that required two systems and copies. That makes Returns HD the first time you can play this adventure on your TV with traditional button controls and all of its content intact, and that’s great to see.
Speaking of multiplayer, Returns HD is fully playable in two-player co-op where a second player takes control of Diddy Kong, but it’s not necessarily how I would want to play through the entire campaign. It’s different from its contemporary New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which was made with multiplayer in mind from the beginning, in that it feels more like a neat bonus feature tacked onto a single-player game. The camera is so zoomed in that it’s easy for someone to fall behind, and these levels are clearly designed around just one player given their abundance of falling platforms and fast-moving obstacles. There’s still fun to be found in multiplayer, and it’s by no means a bad experience – but unless you have a great co-op partner willing to deal with some slight annoyances (or a young child/sibling that’s just content to be along for the ride), your best bet is either flying solo or passing the controller back and forth, as was also the case back on Wii.
That said, it’s a testament to the original that almost nothing was changed for this remaster and the final product is still so great. The attention to detail in its level design is remarkable. Unlike Mario, there are no unexplained floating platforms or blocks – every single platform DK runs across is seamlessly built into the landscape, often through its masterful interplay between the foreground and background, and it all culminates in one of the most impressive, cohesive worlds in any platformer. The biggest highlight of this is the factory world, which wonderfully implements conveyor belts, gears, and other machinery as the main methods of getting around. The soundtrack and settings play it a little safe (especially when compared to its sequel), but it’s important to remember that the original Donkey Kong Country Returns was tasked with bringing the franchise back after years away, so Retro Studios naturally chose to revisit some of the staples.
Each level is stuffed with secrets to find, too, with the classic KONG letters and plenty of puzzle pieces tucked away in seemingly every corner. Sometimes exploration slows down the otherwise furious pace more than I’d like – blowing air onto all the dandelions, flowers, and candles you pass feels clunky and is an outdated mechanic that Tropical Freeze rightfully removed – but I still had a blast spending roughly 15 hours tracking down every letter and bringing my save file to 100% completion while also tackling tons of worthwhile content that appears after the credits roll.
