Donkey Kong Country Returns HD Developer Revealed

Donkey Kong Country Returns HD is heading to Nintendo Switch next year, giving a new audience a chance to play a classic game originally developed by Retro Studios. While Retro was responsible for the Wii game, Nintendo usually hands development of remasters over to different teams, and it seems that will be the case for Donkey Kong Country Returns HD. It appears that the remaster is being handled by Forever Entertainment SA, a developer based in Poland. Polish outlet Bankier.pl has shared official documentation revealing Forever’s involvement, so even though Nintendo hasn’t announced anything, it all looks pretty official. 

While Forever Entertainment might seem like an unusual choice, the developer actually makes a lot of sense. As noted by Nintendo Life, Forever signed a publishing deal with Nintendo in 2021. That agreement would see Forever given financial backing in exchange for bringing “several” games to Nintendo’s platform. It appears that Donkey Kong Country Returns HD will be one of those games. 

On Forever Entertainment’s official website, the company proclaims itself to be “one of the biggest game publishers on Nintendo Switch in the world” though it releases games for “all major platforms.” The website also notes that Forever handles “remakes of well-established IPs in cooperation with top figures in the gaming industry.” Donkey Kong Country Returns HD seems to be just the latest such example, as Forever has previously worked on the remake of Panzer Dragoon. 

The Switch era has seen Nintendo expanding its partnerships with a number of different companies around the world. We’ve seen it with larger ones like Ubisoft, Bandai Namco, and Koei Tecmo, as well as smaller companies like Forever Entertainment, Grezzo, and Good-Feel. These deals have worked out very well for fans, keeping a steady stream of exclusives on Switch, and enabling wholly-owned Nintendo studios to focus on bigger things. 

Retro Studios has now spent more than five years plugging along at Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, and the agonizing wait is nearly at an end. Having the studio shift resources to working on a remaster of one of its older games could have made that wait take even longer, so it’s a good thing Nintendo outsourced Donkey Kong Country Returns HD to Forever Entertainment, instead. Hopefully the studio will do right by this new version! 

Are you excited for Donkey Kong Country Returns HD? Did you play the original game on Wii? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp, on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!