The Donkey Kong Country games are some the most popular platformers on the SNES, and are fairly expensive second-hand. Confusion reigned when Nintendo quietly delisted them from the original Wii Virtual Console in November of 2012. The most popular theory was that Microsoft, the current owners of Rare (original developers of the Donkey Kong Country franchise) and thus the owners of all Rare logos demanded that the games be removed. Of course, that is still only speculation. Perhaps no one will ever know the complete reason.
Not that any of that matters now, since today Nintendo has released the Donkey Kong Country games onto the eShop along with the GameBoy spin-off titles, Donkey Kong Land. In celebration of this event, if you buy any Donkey Kong Country or Donkey Kong Land title, you will receive 30% off if you buy Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze on Wii U or Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D on 3DS. If you have a linked Nintendo Network ID account, it doesn’t matter what system you buy the Virtual Console titles on. Either way, you’ll be able to redeem the 30% off discount.
If there’s any part of this news that’s slightly disappointing, it’s the fact that the Donkey Kong Country games are rereleases of the original SNES games and not their enhanced GBA counterparts. But this is still exciting news for anyone who wants to relive the classic games on their Wii U or 3DS. Is anyone planning on picking these up?
