Awesome / Donkey Kong Country Returns

• The ending, where Donkey Kong punches the moon into Tiki Tong's lair! Right before he does it, he looks at the moon and sports a face that says "yeah, I'm totally doing this!"
  • And if you do it in co-op, Diddy rocket boosts DK into it.
• In the beginning cutscene, Donkey Kong gets ambushed by Kalimba, who starts his hypnosis routine. Does Donkey Kong fall under his spell like the other animals? Nope, he merely does an Aside Glance before giving the tiki the classic primate Slasher Smile and starts beating the crap out him for coming into his house uninvited and kidnapping his beloved banana hoard. Also counts as an epic Establishing Character Moment.
  • Becomes a Crowning Moment of Funny when Word of God says the only reason Donkey Kong doesn't serve the Tikis is that he's too dumb to hypnotise.
  • It's even funnier when you watch Kalimba after his second failed hypnosis attempt and you can just hear him thinking, "...well shit."
  • Kalimba gets one at the end of world 1. After noticing the Kongs entering the arena, he promptly gives them the Death Glare, angry for being beaten and humiliated by them at the start of the game before proceeding to brainwash Mugly, a giant froglike monster big enough to swallow DK whole and can take a lot of punishment, to kill them.
• The rolling rail segment in level 4-3, Bombs Away. Words fail to do it justice.
• Tiki Tong gets one in his battle. Does he hypnotize some poor sap into fighting for him? Does he stand aside while his henchman does all the work? No. He directly engages DK. Admittedly, it doesn't end so well for him. BUT STILL!
• Getting to pull off a Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on each Tiki before knocking them into the sky never gets old.
• The reveal trailer at E3. It starts off with Reggie Fils-Aime telling the audience, "Retro Studios has produced some great Metroid titles. But when they said they were ready for something new, we asked them to take one of the most treasured franchises in video game history and to make it magic again. If you listen, you can hear it coming." Cue gameplay footage with the familiar DKC theme playing. When Donkey Kong burst onto the screen, the audience cheered. And when they saw it was traditional 2D side-scrolling in the vein of the classic DKC games, they cheered even louder.

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