The gaming tech focussed team at Digital Foundry have taken on a new project which is examining Donkey Kong Country Returns HD which launches tomorrow on the Nintendo Switch. One of the first things mentioned is their reservations about Forever Entertainment, given some of the company's previous projects, however Digital Foundry says that this is "the best work to come out of Forever Entertainment to date," which should reassure those who are on the fence. Here's a selection of the things you might want to know about.
"I was a bit nervous about the game's prospects given Forever's track record, which includes slightly sub-par remakes of Panzer Dragoon and The House of the Dead. However, I shouldn't have worried - this is fundamentally the best work to come out of Forever Entertainment to date."
"The focus here is on new textures, modified effects and updated character models, with the underlying scene geometry remaining largely unchanged. The new textures are much sharper, holding up well at the higher resolution - 1080p in docked mode and 720p in portable mode - and image quality is reasonable. I like the new sky textures here and I'm glad they sharpened up the background scenery to avoid a low-res look. Rain and water rendering are also improved substantially."
"There are two other issues. First, loading times. These aren't too bad, but they're nearly twice as long as they were on the Wii version running from a disc. Sure, asset sizes have increased, but this still feels like a big step back. Second is the frame-rate. It's important to note that we've seen Unity games running at 1080p 60fps on Switch - including Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair with better visuals - but most Unity releases tend to run with performance hiccups or at lower resolutions, so 1080p 60fps is still worth celebrating. But the Wii version of this game basically runs flawlessly, so the few areas of slowdown stick out. The fact that this game runs worse than its more technically advanced sequel doesn't sit right with me."
"So what's the takeaway here? The reality is that this release is both good and disappointing at the same time. The remastering efforts are largely successful, but the areas where it falls short feel less acceptable when considering the age of the original. When you consider the technical precision one expects from a proper Retro Studios game, it's arguably even more disappointing."
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