A port for the Nintendo 3DS developed by Monster Games, titled Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, was released in North America and PAL regions on May 24, 2013, in Australia the following day, and in Japan the following month.

To avoid problems arising from differences in the players' skills, Diddy can hop on Donkey's back to take on a more passive role, while his jetpack can be used to make his partner's jumps easier.

Throughout the game, the pair travel through nine worlds to recover their stolen bananas: the Golden Temple, the Volcano, the Factory, the Cliff, the Forest, the Cave, the Ruins, the Beach, and the Jungle.

[13] Miyamoto said that Nintendo had been receiving requests from the North American audience for a new Donkey Kong Country,[14] and Tanabe suggested that Retro would be a suitable developer for such a project.

[13] Returns was designed for Donkey Kong Country fans,[15] and the team spent the first week of development playing the SNES games to gather inspiration.

[9] Retro sought to carry memorable elements—such as side-scrolling gameplay, barrel cannons, and minecart sequences—while refining them to create a new experience,[16] and continue the series' broad appeal and accessibility.

He wanted Retro to keep Donkey Kong Country's unique visuals and feel in mind,[14] and emphasized elements he felt should be retained from prior games.

[9] Miyamoto wanted players to move similarly to Donkey Kong when he slaps the terrain, so Retro designed Returns around the Wii Remote and Nunchuk.

[16] Unlike Rare's games, which allowed players to swap between the two Kongs at will, Retro designed Donkey and Diddy as a combined character.

[18] Since the Metroid Prime and Donkey Kong Country series were popular among speedrunners and hardcore gamers, Retro added the time trial mode late in development.

[22] Tanabe felt that simultaneous multiplayer was one way Returns should differ, since previous Donkey Kong games only let players take turns.

[22] To distinguish Returns' multiplayer from New Super Mario Bros. Wii's and allow skilled gamers to play swiftly, Retro removed the collision detection between Donkey and Diddy.

Retro refrained from lowering the difficulty for multiplayer, though the team did discuss making it easier to obtain lives and allowed Diddy to ride Donkey's back if one player was having trouble.

[16] Retro retained the previous Donkey Kong Country games' art style, but developed environments using polygons rather than the pre-rendering technique that Rare used to create the SNES trilogy.

[16] The team noted that while audiences often perceive side-scrolling games as simple and archaic, they are actually quite difficult to develop due to the amount of care that goes into each level.

[16] The player character has over 2,000 animations in single-player and 6,000 in multiplayer, far greater than Samus Aran's in the Metroid Prime games,[9][24] and Retro drew inspiration from Jungle Beat to develop Donkey Kong's movements.

[12] Kenji Yamamoto, who worked with Retro on the Metroid Prime series, composed most of Donkey Kong Country Returns' soundtrack,[25][10] alongside Minako Hamano, Masaru Tajima, Shinji Ushiroda, and Daisuke Matsuoka.

Iwata considered the soundtrack a large part of Donkey Kong Country's appeal and told Tanabe to handle it with care during the first Returns meeting.

He did not use a full orchestra, but focused on what Tanabe felt made Donkey Kong Country's music iconic, such as piano arrangements and the bassline.

[29] In 2019, Wise said that it was too late for him to contribute to Returns by the time he connected with Kelbaugh, but they stayed in contact in case Retro decided to develop a sequel.

[12] E3 2010 proved to be a turning point for the development; Iwata observed that "the game rapidly bloomed once [Retro] entered the final stretch", with more ideas and elements introduced.

Seething underneath the surface of every gamer who cut their teeth on 16-bit platformers was a longing for a return to form for the wayward gorilla and his adventures... Donkey Kong Country was a brand that had a growing sense of latent desire associated with it".

[34] In August 2009, IGN reported that Retro was known to be working on a new Wii game but was going great lengths to conceal its identity, including restricting access to parts of its headquarters.

[36][37] Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé announced Donkey Kong Country Returns during his keynote address at E3 in June 2010,[38] when he introduced a trailer showcasing various levels and set pieces.

[10] GameSpot said that the trailer sparked cheers from the crowd,[44] with Hardcore Gaming 101 writing that Nintendo's use of the Country branding promised fans a return to form for the franchise.

[49] Nintendo of America partnered with the produce distributor Chiquita to label its bananas with Donkey Kong stickers and host a contest in which customers could submit pictures of themselves dancing.

[51] On December 2, Nintendo Australia piled a five-meter (16.4 feet) stash of around 10,000 bananas, weighing two tons, at the Circular Quay in Sydney.

[65] Between March 31 and June 30, 2016, inclusively, the digital re-release of Donkey Kong Country Returns was made available for North American Wii U users exclusively as a My Nintendo reward.

[128] Critics lauded its graphics, level design, and fast-paced platforming and gameplay, which they saw as a return to form for the Donkey Kong Country games, but its motion controls and difficulty curve received a variety of opinions.

[94] GameTrailers praised the game's gameplay and the diversity of the levels,[97] while Giant Bomb stated that "Retro recaptures most of Donkey Kong's venerated platforming roots in this fine Wii sequel".