Donkey Kong Country Returns HD is just around the corner and, now that the embargo on our review coverage has lifted, we can officially confirm that developer Forever Entertainment is responsible for the porting duties on Retro Studios’ platformer.
However, much like Metroid Prime Remastered before it, Nintendo has opted to omit the original Retro Studios development team from the credits of the new release. Instead, it simply states ‘Based on the work of the original development staff’.
The removal of Retro Studios’ staff from Metroid Prime Remastered caused quite a stir with some key developers from the original team, with engineer Zoid Kirsch stating that he felt “let down” by the exclusion, and technical lead engineer Jack Mathews going one step further and calling it “a travesty”.
Despite the backlash, Nintendo has maintained its stance on condensing the credits for an entire development team into one rather dismissive sentence. You can see exactly how this appears in the credits via the below screenshots:
It’s a shame, but it seems clear at this point that this is now Nintendo’s standard practice regarding remasters and ports. The company has also attracted some controversy for its similar stance on keeping its partner developers hidden from public view until close to their games’ release dates.