Donkey Kong Country Returns is a return to form. Instead of reimagining Rare's classic SNES series, as it did Metroid in its Metroid Prime trilogy, developer Retro Studios is creating a game that's a lot more, well, "retro." DKC Returns appears to erase the 14-year gap since DKC3 -- really, it has been that long -- doing its best to fit in with a series that was designed for a console benchmarked by "bit."

DKC Returns does employ modern platforming design and technology, like 3D environments with playable foreground and background areas, but it does so subtly, as not to stray far from an authentic feel -- how we might remember DKC on the SNES. And, truly, I had forgotten that the original DKCs were not fully co-op. Oh right, I'm remembering, the SNES games had that tag-in/tag-out multiplayer. So, as I demoed DKC Returns at Nintendo's E3 booth with Joystiq's own JC Fletcher, it was actually a new Donkey Kong Country experience that felt just like something I'd enjoyed many years ago.