Donkey Kong Country Returns
Donkey Kong Country Returns is a 2010 platform game developed by Retro Studios and published by Nintendo for the Wii console. The game was released first in North America in November 2010, and in PAL regions and Japan the following month. The game's story focuses on an evil group of Tiki-like creatures known as the Tiki Tak Tribe that are unleashed on Donkey Kong Island and hypnotize the island's animals into stealing Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong's banana hoard, prompting the two to traverse the island to reclaim it.
Summary from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA, read 5 September 2026.
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- Released
- 2010
- Developer
- Retro Studios
- Platforms
- 1 systems
- Critics
- Not scored
- Steam Deck
- Unknown
- Download
- Not stated
The record
| First released | 21 November 2010 |
|---|---|
| Developer | Retro Studios |
| Publisher | Nintendo |
| Platforms | Nintendo Wii |
| Genres | Platformer |
Source. Catalogue facts from Wikidata Q585939, seeded 30 August 2026.
How long is Donkey Kong Country Returns? How long to beat it
Total play time for Donkey Kong Country Returns is about 28.4 hours to do everything, and around 11.2 hours to reach the end of the main story. These are player-submitted times from HowLongToBeat, not our own, shown with the number of players behind each.
| How you play | Hours | Players logged |
|---|---|---|
| Just the main story: straight through the critical path | 11.2h | 493 |
| Main + the extras: story plus the side content most people do | 16.7h | 386 |
| Completionist: everything: 100% the game | 28.4h | 113 |
Source: HowLongToBeat community submissions, read 2026-10-19.
Where Donkey Kong Country Returns sits on the grid
The grid places every game in the catalogue on measured axes rather than on an opinion. This is where Donkey Kong Country Returns lands on each map it has the data for, with the share of the catalogue it beats on each axis.
- Year
- 75ahead of 28% of the catalogue
- Reach
- 40ahead of 81% of the catalogue
Percentiles are against the games that carry a reading on that axis, not the whole catalogue: counting a game with no figure as a zero would flatter everything that has one. How the grid works.
What readers say about Donkey Kong Country Returns
Reviews written by people who have played it. These are separate from the GamingPickz Score and are never averaged into it: that score comes from thousands of Steam reviews with a sample-size correction, and a handful of unverified ratings would distort it rather than improve it.
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Where Donkey Kong Country Returns appears
The ranked lists and finder pages Donkey Kong Country Returns qualifies for, from its own genre and platform to what it takes to run.
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Common questions about Donkey Kong Country Returns
What platforms is Donkey Kong Country Returns on?
Donkey Kong Country Returns is available on Nintendo Wii. It first released in 2010.
Who made Donkey Kong Country Returns?
Donkey Kong Country Returns was developed by Retro Studios and published by Nintendo.
How long does it take to beat Donkey Kong Country Returns?
about 11.2 hours for the main story, 16.7 hours with the main extras, 28.4 hours to complete everything, from HowLongToBeat's player-submitted times. These are community medians, so your own run may be shorter or longer.