Donkey Kong 64 drops onto Nintendo Switch Online

Stefan L 28/05/26 No Comments

Donkey Kong 64 has dropped into the N64 library of games featured in Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack for Switch and Switch 2. Totally fitting, when DK64 was bundled with the N64 Expansion Pak back in the day.

Donkey Kong 64 is the absolute zenith of the collectathon platformer, and Rare’s final outing with the tie-toting great ape (and with the iconic DK Rap for the soundtrack). K. Rool has kidnapped the Kong family, so DK sets out from DK Island to reclaim all the Golden Bananas, save the other Kongs and foil K. Rool and Kremling crew once again.

There’s also a bunch of minigames and multiplayer modes to indulge in with up to four players able to compete in deathmatch and last man (ape?) standing game modes.

DK64 followed on from the Donkey Kong Country trilogy on the SNES, all of which are also available on Nintendo Switch Online, and came to build on Rare’s newer 3D platforming expertise with Banjo-Kazooie. It pushed the N64 to its limits, requiring the Expansion Pak accessory which ended up being bundled with the game to add a bit more RAM to the console. There’s been some back and forth on why the Expansion Pak was required, with some former Rare staff claiming that this was down to a bug that Rare couldn’t resolve, while others say that the bug was resolved and the accessory just enabled better lighting.

Thankfully both Switch and Switch 2 have enough RAM to handle DK64.

While the rate of additions has slowed to barely a drip, there’s a sizeable collection of great N64 titles included in Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack.