Donkey Kong Country HD’s Pre-Order Bonuses Have Been Revealed

Nintendo gave the world its first look at the Donkey Kong area of Super Nintendo World Japan on Monday evening, and it kept the DK vibes going after Shigeru Miyamoto was done showing us around. Donkey Kong Country Returns HD releases exclusively on Nintendo Switch in January 2025, and now we know what some of the pre-order bonuses will be if we commit to picking up the game ahead of its release date.

Nintendo approaches pre-orders a little differently. It doesn’t tend to have collector’s editions, and it also doesn’t feel compelled to reveal pre-order bonuses as soon as pre-orders go live. Potentially quite a smart strategy as those who really want the game will place their pre-orders right away, and a few months later those on the fence might be convinced once the bonuses they get have been confirmed.

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It was revealed after the Nintendo World Direct that those who have pre-ordered Donkey Kong Country Returns HD, and others who pre-order it between now and release day, will get a pen barrel. A pen holder shaped like the barrels that have been appearing in Donkey Kong games for decades. Well, not everyone will get one. In the US, the pen barrel pre-order is not only a GameStop exclusive, but judging by the wording of Wario64’s tweet, it appears to be restricted to those who have placed their pre-orders in-store.

Pre-Order Donkey Kong Country Returns HD For A Free DK Pen Barrel

Now, Where Do I Need To Go To Get Those Pins

With the recently released Mario & Luigi: Brothership, Nintendo offered different pre-order bonuses at different retailers. Whether Best Buy and Target – and perhaps even Amazon now its relationship with Nintendo appears to be somewhat fixed – will have Donkey Kong pre-order bonuses of their own. However, the bonuses revealed in the UK paint a promising picture of what else might come with the game if you buy it early.

Reported by Nintendo Life, if you pre-order the Switch’s next Donkey Kong game from My Nintendo UK, you’ll get a set of pins designed to look like the letters that spell out Kong waiting to be discovered in DK levels throughout the series’ history. Hopefully that will be a store-exclusive pre-order bonus in the US too. To get the barrel in the UK, you will need to buy the slightly more expensive Adventure Bundle which also includes the best bonus item of all – a Donkey Kong bum bag.

The green bag has been designed to look like a Donkey Kong Country level with silhouettes of characters and trees dotted along it, and a tiny banana on the zip. As with the pins, there’s currently no way to get the bag in the US. It seems likely it will be revealed as a pre-order bonus eventually though, or perhaps something you can exchange your platinum points for once the game has been released.

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