Next week Donkey Kong Land is being released on Japanese 3DS VC. Why does this matter at all? Mainly because about a year and a half ago Nintendo pulled the DKC Trilogy from Wii VC first in Europe and then in the US and Japan as well. They have not appeared on Wii U VC. Why they were pulled no one knows. Perhaps for some legal reason given Rare is with Microsoft. Perhaps some deal regarding the Wii VC release expired and they had to do it. Perhaps they did it for no reason whatsoever though that seems unlikely.

It's a great sign to see a Rare developed game be released on a VC. Shows they can get the games out. Whatever was stopping them before is taken care of. Or, alternatively, since Microsoft doesn't have a handheld, phones excluded, they were okay with 3DS VC and made that deal.

Plus DKL is a great game to release. It's full of crazy elements and manages to do the DKC look with 4 monochromatic colors. Frankly I've always thought the 3DS VC lacking because it didn't have this game.

Hopefully this'll also come out in the US soon. Also the DKC trilogy proper on Wii U. Times are good for Donkey Kong Country right now.