Earlier this week, Nintendo released Donkey Kong Country Returns HD, the remaster of the Wii and 3DS video game that was developed by Retro Studios. However, players have noted that the original team members at Retro are not given individual credits in the updated version. Instead, the credits state that it was “based on the work” of Retro Studios, while the team at Forever Entertainment gets its credits for working on the remaster. Now, Nintendo has issued a statement about the situation.
“We believe in giving proper credit for anyone involved in making or contributing to a game’s creation, and value the contributions that all staff make during the development process,” said a Nintendo spokesperson to Eurogamer.
That statement doesn’t really address why the original team’s names were excluded from the credits, and this has happened before. In 2023, the Retro Studios developers behind Metroid Prime were left out of the credits for Metroid Prime Remastered. Similarly, external translators voiced their frustrations last year because Nintendo didn’t credit them for their work either.
This story has been largely overshadowed by the reveal of Switch 2 earlier this week. It seems likely that the Donkey Kong Country franchise will be revisited on that system as well. However, it’s not among the games rumored for Switch 2. In the meantime, the bizarre Donkey Kong Country animated TV series is still available to watch on Prime Video.