Oddly, what should have been its triumph was actually its greatest failure: Donkey Kong Country Returns. It was a one stop shop for the platformer junky that didn’t want to play on PC. Wii hosted both the company’s 8- and 16-bit classics, as well as a torrent of excellent brand new entries to the genre. If ever there are gaming history books, the Wii will be remembered as the greatest home for platformers ever conceived. Waggling the old Wii remote won’t be what Wii is remembered for in the gaming canon, though. Nintendo sold just shy of 100 million Wiis over the last seven years, and it owes that success to the popularity of motion-controlled games, in particular Wii Sports, Wii Fit, and Mario Kart Wii.
The strangest thing about the Nintendo Wii is its legacy – or at least what its legacy will shake out as. That’s precisely what Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D is: An apology for one of Nintendo’s most botched releases in recent memory. The Nintendo 3DS has an amazing propensity for second chances, but it’s surprising to see the little handheld making up for the Nintendo Wii’s mistakes.
