Donkey Kong Country Returns HD Pulls Off Surprising NPD Feat

It’s honestly very fair to say that the days of the Nintendo Switch are numbered. No, not in the “it’s about to die a painful death from its rivals” kind of way. After all, Sony and Microsoft aren’t exactly “rocking it” on all fronts right now. Instead, we’re talking about how we’re likely less than five months away from the release of its successor, the Nintendo Switch 2. Thus, every game that comes out for the Switch before its successor’s arrival is important, even if it’s a game like Donkey Kong Country Returns HD, which gamers weren’t exactly pumped for.

Why weren’t they pumped for it? Simply put, no one asked for it. What they were asking for was a brand-new entry in the franchise, which mysteriously hasn’t had anything new since the Wii U era! Sure, Donkey Kong has had some remakes and remasters, and the Wii U game got ported to Switch, but that’s not the same. Fans want something new, and they’re not getting it. The irony here, as noted by Mat Piscatella on Blue Sky, is that despite the “lack of hype,” the game was the only new title in America to break the Top 20 NPD Charts:

So, yeah, that’s impressive, and the fact that this doesn’t include digital sales likely means that the sales figure is even higher. Plus, NPD data only accounts for the US, so it’ll be interesting to see how the UK and Japan numbers come into play.

What’s making people nervous about this is the simple fact that while Donkey Kong Country Returns HD isn’t just a port but the second version of the Wii title, as it had an earlier port on 3DS, Nintendo still charged full price for it. Many weren’t happy about that because it didn’t have “new content,” just merged content from the Wii and 3DS versions.

Nintendo has had a bad habit of doing this lately, and if there are more ports to come on the Nintendo Switch 2, it’s likely to be encouraged by “certain successes” to keep charging full price, which will annoy gamers even further.

Focusing back on Donkey Kong, between the recent release and the Wii U port that dropped early in the Switch’s life, it’s clear that DK and his family are still incredibly popular. Plus, he was featured in the first expansion of Super Nintendo World!

When you add all this up, Donkey Kong is ripe for a new title, and hopefully, it’ll happen on Switch 2.