Let me just start off by saying I grew up with the Donkey Kong Country franchise, but I am facing the new Wii pseudo-sequel with some apprehension. When I first heard the news at E3, my first reaction was really? A Wii game? If nothing else, I would have expected this to be a Virtual Console Release in the vein of Sonic the Hedgehog 4.

Speaking of the number 4, another thing that immediately caught my eye was how the focus on the title was on the word Returns, and present in its absence was the number 4. This is a bit disappointing as the original DKC was the only one where there wasn't much incentive to get all the Bonus Barrels/DK coins (which didn't exist, if memory serves me correctly) other than bragging rights. This was thee biggest structural change to the gameplay that the two sequels introduced and I loved. Collect all the bonuses, get the "other world" stages to open up.

The more I thought of Returns, the more I began to worry. I quickly came up with several reasons why this game may not live up to the name of its predecessors:

-It's a DKC game...not made by Rare. Rare was synonymous with the franchise and its a bit disheartening that this game won't be made by them (yes, yes, I know it's not feasible since Microsoft owns them). While I certainly respect Retro's pedigree with the Metroid franchise, DKC is altogether an entirely different beast.

-No Dixie Kong. Her hair twirl was such a refreshing way to scale the stages in DKC2. The combination of Dixie and Diddy was always my personal favorite.

-Reading comments about the music and how Retro Studios wants to maintain the spirit of the original, they will reportedly be recycling music from the old game(s?). I hope that they don't merely ride the coattails of the greatness that is the DKC series, in not just this aspect of music, but in terms of the entire overall design of the game.

-Animal Friends: Who's making the cut? Rambo, Sqauks, and Enguard (sp?) were awesome, and I hope that they are retained. The ostrich (forgot its name) and Winky...not so much. Hopefully there will be some new animal powers introduced so it doesn't suck.

-An alternate world tied to bonus coins as mentioned above. There better be one. Really.

-How much of the greatness of the old games is childhood nostalgia? How well did the formula actually hold up? DK64 was pretty atrocious imho, and I haven't played DKC3 since I was about 10 years old, the last time I ever really sunk my teeth into the DKC franchise. I got every bonus barrel and DK coin in all 3 games as a little kid. Admittedly, I was really amazing at platform games as a kid, but what if the games were just simple games and my fondness for them is skewed...Mario games have certainly held up through the years, I hope the DKC games follow suit.

I still to this day remember receiving a VHS tape for the original DKC game from Nintendo. The graphics were mind blowing at the time. I think I was seven years old, and I just knew I had to have the game. One awesome Christmas present later, I did. Same with the sequels.

Platformers along with RPGs quickly became my favorite genres as a child, due in no small part to the DKC games. While my love for RPGs has always stayed, my affinity for platformers has gradually diminished, with the exception of a game like Mario Galaxy here and there. All I hope for now is that Retro creates an entry that is faithful to the original trilogy and leaves all my fond memories squarely intact when Donkey Kong Country, returns.