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Game Boy classic Donkey Kong Land is heading to the Japanese 3DS Virtual Console on April 4. This doesn’t sound like big news for those of us in the West, but take a gander at who made the game: Rare. The studio’s Donkey Kong Country trilogy appeared on the Wii Virtual Console back in 2007, but were removed from the service in 2012. Donkey Kong Land‘s Virtual Console release means Nintendo must have resolved whatever issues led to their delisting, and perhaps we’ll see the rest of Rare’s Nintendo catalog on the Virtual Console in the future. Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong 64, Diddy Kong Racing, Jet Force Gemini… the list of classics goes on and on. And of course, perhaps we’ll get a Donkey Kong Land re-release here in the West.
Donkey Kong Land pushed the limits of the Game Boy hardware when it was released near the end of the aging handheld’s lifespan in 1995. Its use of pre-rendered 3D character models and a jazzin’ soundtrack are inspired by its big brother on SNES, Donkey Kong Country, and it’s jaw-dropping that Rare was able to translate it so seamlessly to the lowly 8-bit Game Boy. If it reaches European and North American Virtual Consoles, Donkey Kong Land is well worth your time.
Source: Siliconera
Please please PLEASE let the Country SNES titles make it to WII U virtual console. I have the cartridges for SNES, but my system is a fickle bastard and I’d much rather have all the best Nintendo games on one console.
Excellent, now bring the trilogy here and get the freaking SNES games back on Virtual Console!
I loved Donkey Kong Land! I hope the sequels make it too, and that this isn’t one of those cruel Japan-only offerings.
…Also, of course, hoping that Rare’s other stellar classics come to VC. Battletoads and the SNES/N64 Donkey Kong games are the most sorely missing, but I sure wouldn’t mind re-buying Jet Force Gemini or, dare I dream, Banjo-Kazooie and Goldeneye again.
Fingers crossed!
Hope these come stateside. Loved them back in the day. I thought I heard once that the problem was Rare owned the “Kremlin” characters. Don’t know if that’s true but it makes sense since they weren’t in DKC Returns
I’m glad I still have the gameboy trilogy. They look great on the Gameboy Player. I’m glad Nintendo is doing a great job in releasing good games on the virtual console.