Franchise: Donkey Kong

Dutch electronics company Philips planned to release a Donkey Kong game for the CD-i as part of the deal with Nintendo that led to the release of Hotel Mario, Link: The Faces of Evil, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, and Zelda's Adventure. The Donkey Kong game's existence was alluded to in two "Gaming Gossip" articles by Electronic Gaming Monthly as well as a trade ad which depicted Donkey Kong exiting a limousine alongside Mario, Link, and Zelda. However, more concrete evidence for the game's existence didn't emerge until former Riedel Software Productions employee Adrian Jackson-Jones included a post on his LinkedIn page stating that he programmed the engine for it (the LinkedIn post incorrectly cites Australian visual effects studio Rising Sun Pictures due to them sharing initials). This information was then brought to public attention in 2022 by the LostMediaWiki, a website which documents searches for lost or otherwise publicly unavailable works.

An investigation by Time Extension led to writer John Szczepaniak getting in contact with both Jackson-Jones and Riedel Software Productions owner Michael J. Riedel. Both parties have little memory of the Donkey Kong game due to the amount of time that passed and the company's habit of erasing their data for cancelled projects. Additionally, Jackson-Jones revealed that due to a memory disorder, he recalls little about the game other than his direct experiences programming it. Despite this, Jackson-Jones was able to confirm his involvement with the Donkey Kong game, stating that one of the biggest difficulties during development was the CD-i's memory limitations, which were circumvented by only loading in assets that would be visible on-screen, using the player's movement to determine what to put into memory.

Although King K. Rool's motivation for stealing Donkey Kong's banana hoard has never been officially confirmed, two theories have been brought up by former Rare employee Leigh Loveday: either K. Rool steals them because he likes bananas, or he wants Donkey Kong to starve to death so that K. Rool can occupy his treehouse.

The former theory is backed up by the instruction manual for Donkey Kong Country stating that the Kremlings steal the bananas for their rich nutritional value in potassium and Vitamin A, and by artwork drawn by Steve Mayles on Playtonic Games's Twitter page, which shows K. Rool sitting next to Gruntilda from Banjo-Kazooie on a pile of bananas while reading a book titled "101 Banana Recipes."

The latter theory is only supported by the game DK: Jungle Climber where K. Rool mentions how much he despises bananas.

Nintendo has reused Grant Kirkhope's (the composer of the music for Donkey Kong 64 as well as DK's voice actor) voice clips for DK's voice in other games such as Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Mario vs. Donkey Kong, the GBA remake of Donkey Kong Country, & even in the E3 demo of Donkey Kong Jungle Beat.

There is an unreleased Donkey Kong music game called Donkey Kong no Ongaku Asobi (translated to Donkey Kong's Fun with Music). It would have been on the NES and would have followed Donkey Kong Jr. Math as a series of Donkey Kong edutainment games.

With the success of Donkey Kong Country, Nintendo gave Rare permission for a sequel on the Virtual Boy. This happened just after the launch of the Virtual Boy and was only in the early planning stages for a matter of weeks before it was cancelled due to lack of sales of the Virtual Boy console.

Swanky and Candy are the only two Kongs yet to be playable, though Candy was going to be a playable character in the cancelled Diddy Kong Pilot a few weeks after Redneck Kong was scrapped from the game. They both are members of the "Bonus Bonanza" in the Game Boy Advance remake of Donkey Kong Country 2.

Shigeru Miyamoto has stated the name "Donkey Kong" came from him confusing the word "donkey" with the word "ass", thinking it meant something stupid. He assumed an American audience would think "Donkey Kong" meant "big stupid ape". Nintendo laughed when he suggested the name, but it ultimately stuck.