Donkey Kong Country Returns is a 2010 developed by and published by for the console. The game was released first in in November 2010, and in PAL regions and the following month. The game's story focuses on an evil group of -like creatures known as the that are unleashed on Donkey Kong Island and hypnotize the island's animals to stealing and 's banana hoard, prompting the two to traverse the island to reclaim it.
Donkey Kong Country Returns was the first installment of the series to not involve the original series developer . The game was a critical and commercial success; it has sold over 6.53 million copies worldwide, making it one of the and received positive reviews for its graphics, level design, and gameplay, although its motion controls and difficulty received more mixed responses.
A port developed by , titled Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, was released in North America and PAL regions in May 2013 and in Japan the following month. A sequel, , was released for the in February 2014 and ported for the in May 2018.Players take control of the series's protagonist , as well as his friend in certain situations, with many traditional elements of the Donkey Kong Country series returning, including mine cart levels, the ability to swing between vines and collect bananas, the golden "KONG" letters and puzzle pieces. New gameplay elements include levels in which the characters and foreground environments appear as , spawning several new gameplay mechanics. In single-player mode, players can only play as Donkey Kong, although Diddy Kong rides on Donkey Kong's back, and Donkey Kong can use Diddy's jetpack to jump further. Multiplayer mode enables a second player to control Diddy Kong. If a player's character dies in two-player mode, it can be brought back by using the other character to hit a "DK Barrel" that floats into view, a mechanic similar to the one used in . To avoid problems arising from differences in the players' skills, Diddy can hop on Donkey's back to take on a more passive role, while his jetpack can be used to make his partner's jumps easier. Both Donkey and Diddy can pound the ground to defeat enemies and unveil secret items
