With the somewhat mixed reception of Metroid Prime 4 this past year, the hands of Retro Studios are now free to work on what could potentially be their biggest magnum opus to date: The next Donkey Kong Country entry. The Donkey Kong Country series is beloved for its unique, beautiful, and naturally ethereal environments and music, its momentum-based platforming, characters, and of course, their brutal difficulty.
Back during E3 2010, Reggie Fils-Aime unveiled that Retro Studios was working on Donkey Kong Country Returns, a revival of the cult classic SNES series. It launched to a resounding success, currently having sold over 6.5 million copies worldwide on the Nintendo Wii. On top of that, it launched on the Nintendo Switch in January of 2026 and received a Switch 2 upgrade earlier this year. After the original launched on the Wii, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze released in 2014 on the Wii U, though it did not see the same sales as its predecessor given the Wii U’s commercial failure. It sold better when it was rereleased on the Switch, seeing 4.5 million sales as of December 2022, compared to the slightly over 2 million copies sold on the Wii U.
Regardless, poor sales did not stop Tropical Freeze from blowing away critics and players alike. It is praised for its gorgeous visuals, intricate level design, mind-blowing soundtrack, to name a few. And both games are regarded as masterpieces and some of the best 2D platforming you can get your hands on.
That being said, with Metroid Prime 4 wrapped up, Nintendo should get Retro Studios to make a trilogy of their beloved DKC games. Both Returns and Tropical Freeze are some of my favorite games ever, and beloved to millions of fans. They sit amongst the most critically acclaimed 2D platformers. It’s only natural for us to get a third and final game to complete Retro’s collection of DKC games, just as Rare did under Nintendo back in the 1990’s on the SNES.
Nintendo, it’s never been a better moment to get Retro Studios working on the next Donkey Kong game, and plenty of fans are waiting in anticipation. I consider this series to be the best 2D platforming series. While we wait for the next 3D Mario, Nintendo’s big 2D platformer for the Switch 2 should serve as the conclusion to Retro’s DKC games.
What are your thoughts? Should Nintendo work on the next Donkey Kong Country game? Let us know down in the comments!
Nintendo Pow Block – A Nintendo Podcast by Boss Rush
Nintendo Pow Block is a weekly Nintendo podcast hosted by Edward Varnell, Corey Dirrig, and their friends from around the internet. Each week, they dive into the latest Nintendo news and rumors for Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, new and upcoming releases, updates to Nintendo Switch Online and the Nintendo Music app, and discuss what they’ve been playing in the Playing with Power segment.
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