 The game 's story focuses on a group of evil creatures called Tikis known as the Tiki Tak Tribe that arrive on Donkey Kong Island , and hypnotize the island 's animals to steal Donkey Kong 's bananas . This forces him to retrieve the hoard with the help of his nephew Diddy Kong . Donkey Kong Country Returns is the series ' first traditional home console installment since Donkey Kong Jungle Beat ( 2005 ) , and also the first Donkey Kong Country entry not to involve video game developer Rare during its development . The game received generally positive reviews , receiving an average score of 87 % on GameRankings and Metacritic , and selling 4 @.@ 96 million copies worldwide by the end of March 2011 . 
