With you in control of Donkey Kong you traverse a map of the first world, Lost Mangroves. If you can suspend your disbelief despite all of that, the game proper starts off. Penguins aren’t naughty in the first place typically and pirate ships don’t tend to float above an island and cause mischief. The game itself begins with Donkey Kong and company chilling out when a penguin pirate ship reaches their island and promptly attacks it, causing it to freeze in part and in totality be ensconced by all manner of baddies. With a lack of connection comes a lack of joy, a level of indifference and a wonder of “so what?” The shame with this particular title is that whilst it looks great and plays well, it’s largely impossible to connect with it in the same way I once did with Donkey Kong Country on the SNES.

Games being re-released on the latest platform is not new for Nintendo then, nor it it new for Donkey Kong himself. Now it’s back, on the Switch, in much the same way Donkey Kong Jungle Beat made its way to the Wii after it first sprang to life, bongos and all, on the Gamecube. That was on the Wii U and was released in 2014. In 2010 Nintendo’s Retro studios were tasked with making a new Donkey Kong (Country Returns) game which in turn resulted in a sequel, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. Controlling Donkey Kong, and with a cast of characters including Diddy Kong, it was a delight and a major success.

Coming later in that console’s cycle it was a beautiful game - thanks to the pre-rendered 3D sprites enabled by Silicon Graphics’ hardware - and entirely joyful for anyone who happened to pick up the pad and play.

So I knew about him before Rare developed Donkey Kong Country for the Super Nintendo. He’s one of the most well-known gaming icons around, especially for a fan of Mario and his series of games.

I knew about Donkey Kong before I was first able to play as him, of course.

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