In the episode "Never Koop a Koopa" from the animated series "The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3", King Koopa wears a red cape towards the end of the episode, giving him a passing resemblance to King K. Rool. However, this is purely coincidental, as King K. Rool debuted four years after this episode aired in 1990, and in early concept art from around this time K. Rool looked much different. Incidentally, the cartoon version of King Koopa shares K. Rool's similar habit of wearing thematic costumes, and Bowser and his Koopa Troop would take up the Kremlings' usual role of stealing Donkey Kong's banana hoard during the Subspace Emissary story mode in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

In early pre-release footage of the game, the banana-counter went up beyond just two digits, presumably up to 999. It is not known why the counter was reduced from three-digits to two-digits in the final release.

The "starburst" effect that occurs when bouncing on enemies is usually meant to expand, but in the first two Donkey Kong Country games, they were mistakenly coded to contract instead. This issue was fixed in the third game and the subsequent re-releases of all three games on the Game Boy Advance.

In 2018, Donkey Kong Country designer Gregg Mayles posted a tweet off the heels of King K. Rool's reveal as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate featuring a naming sheet from the former game's development dated to March 8, 1994. This document contains several proposed names for various characters and the game itself, with Monkey Mayhem being listed as a working title. Other differences include the following:

• The names "Blonde Kong" and "Honey Kong" were suggested as alternate names for Candy Kong.
• King K. Rool was originally named "Kommander K. Rool".
• Rock Krock was originally named "Krocrock".
• Slippa was originally going to be called "Mr. Hister". This particular name appeared to be changed late in development, as an unused hint from Cranky Kong mentions Mr. Hister.
• Squidge was originally named "Mr. Squidge".
• Clambo was originally named "Ms. Clamity".
• Cranky Kong and Funky Kong's names were originally spelled "Crankey Kong" and "Funkey Kong".

Additionally, the naming sheet lists several proposed characters absent from the final game:

• An owl Animal Buddy named Hooter. In the replies to his tweet, Mayles stated that Hooter "was going to light the way with its night vision", and that it was eventually replaced by Squawks the parrot.
• A mole Animal Buddy named Miney, likely playing off of the counting rhyme "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe".
• A "Kremling Magician" named Kloak, who would later appear in Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest.
• A "Statue Kremling" named Krumble.
• A "Green Kremling" named Klanger.
• A "Robot Kremling" named Krocbot.
• A Moray eel enemy named Mobo.
• A fireball enemy named Fizzle.
• A yeti/"Iceman" enemy named Frozone. In the replies to his tweet, Mayles expressed amusement at "Frozone" also being the name of a character from the 2004 American animated film The Incredibles, stating that "We never used or copyrighted the name, so anyone could have used it." Indeed, "Frozone" is one of several entries on the naming sheet that doesn't have a trademark symbol attached to it. Coincidentally, the Donkey Kong Country television series would feature a yeti character of its own, Eddie the Mean Old Yeti.
• Two fish enemies named Bloop and Gloop; the latter would later appear as an enemy in Donkey Kong Land.
• A "nasty beetle" enemy named Veedub, who would later appear in Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest under the name Click-Clack.

According to former Rare employee Kev Bayliss and current creative director Gregg Mayles, the reason why Donkey Kong Country had the "Country" part of its name was because the game had been known as "The Country Project" during development, owing to the fact that Rare was effectively situated in the middle of the countryside. When staff from Nintendo visited them, they decided to keep 'Country' in the name.

An early pitch made by Rare to Nintendo in the mid-1990's was titled "Donkey Kong VS Super Wario". The premise was that Mario had invented a time machine, but Wario snuck into his laboratory and used it to acquire a futuristic beam gun that he then used to turn Mario into stone. Wario then proclaims that he will use his new weapon to rule all of "Nintendo Land", but unbeknownst to him, a parrot in the corner of the room witnessed everything that took place. The parrot goes off to warn Donkey Kong, who immediately decides to stop Wario then and there.

The pitch was rejected by Nintendo, who asked Rare to create entirely new enemies for the game rather than just using Wario. Rare instead decided to re-use the Kremlings, a group of enemies originally conceived for an unannounced cancelled point-and-click adventure game titled "Jonny Blastoff and the Kremling Armada", and developing a new pitch titled "Donkey Kong and the Golden Bananas". The plot of this pitch was that Donkey Kong nodded off while guarding the Golden Banana, a relic sacred to his home island, allowing Korporal Krizzle (a prototype Kremling) to steal it. Grandpa Kong (prototype Cranky Kong) wakes up Donkey Kong and tells him to rescue the Golden Banana as the entire island was at stake. Before going, Donkey Kong enlists the help of Junior (a prototype Diddy Kong who started as a re-design of Donkey Kong Jr.) to retrieve it. This pitch would become the basis for Donkey Kong Country.

Nintendo was apparently worried that the game was "too 3D" and that it would make players feel overwhelmed by the complexities of the graphics.

The "Puftup" enemy from Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest was originally intended to appear in this game, and its idle animation is even found in the game's code.

In the international release of the game, the title screen shows Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong swinging on a rope. In the Japanese version, it says Super Donkey Kong (the Japanese name for Donkey Kong Country) and shows Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong walking with Rambi, Squawks and Expresso with a Slippa and some Zingers following them.

At the file select menu of the game, entering Down, Down, Down, Down, A, R, B, Y, Down A, Y, then Select will take the player to a sound test menu.

Through the use of an Action Replay code in the Super Nintendo version, it's possible to access a debug tool that makes all enemy objects lose their solidity and freeze in place. The player can use the D-pad to move around freely. Some gravity is present, but not much.

When visiting Funky Kong, a piece of music is often played which features a sound byte going "Hi-yah!" This sound byte is a sample from The System song "The Pleasure Seekers."

The Japanese version is actually easier than the American or PAL versions, unlike many games of its time. The Japanese version has many more DK Barrels, and has fewer enemies.

In the opening intro, Cranky can be seen standing on the red girders from the original Donkey Kong playing a phonograph. The music playing is from the NES version of Donkey Kong.

Early in development, Cranky had a much nicer personality compared to his mean spirited one he has in game.

The Kremlings in Donkey Kong Country were originally created for another game in development at the time, an unannounced cancelled point-and-click adventure game titled "Jonny Blastoff and the Kremling Armada", but Rare repurposed them for DKC and they seemed to fit perfectly.

In an earlier version of Donkey Kong Country, Jungle Hijinxs was known as "Jungle Japes". The title Jungle Japes was reused as the first level of Donkey Kong 64.

This game was Donkey Kong's only playable appearance in a main-series Donkey Kong game until Donkey Kong 64, despite the game's sequel and triquel games bearing the Donkey Kong Country name.

Cranky Kong is the antagonist in the original Donkey Kong arcade and NES game. The Donkey Kong that you play as is the grandson of Cranky Kong.

In May 1995, an interview with series creator Shigeru Miyamoto and Rare co-founder Tim Stamper about the development of Donkey Kong Country (DKC) was published in the magazine Electronic Games, conducted by game journalist Steven L. Kent. Kent later claimed on an episode of G4's docuseries "Icons" that Miyamoto was angry during this interview, channelling it into bitter criticisms of DKC's gameplay and the Western market's praise of its pre-rendered graphics, and that Stamper "sat there and took it, even though really the anger wasn't meant to be at Stamper". Miyamoto clarified in a 2010 interview with IGN that he did like the game despite these rumored criticisms, and that he worked closely with Rare and Stamper during development.

Years after the interview's publication, Kent would print an alleged portion of a later interview with Miyamoto in his 2001 book "The Ultimate History of Video Games", claiming that the anger had stemmed from "touchy" internal discussions regarding Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. The hand-drawn crayon art style of that game was said to be a result of the alleged anger over DKC's graphics causing him to rebel against Nintendo's internal evaluation committee, who wanted Yoshi's Island to use pre-rendered graphics. Part of the Miyamoto quote reads:


Developers on Yoshi's Island have given less angered statements regarding the choice in art style over the years. Yoshi's creator Shigefumi Hino and game director Takashi Tezuka each claimed that it was done for sentimental reasons, as the development team believed that all video games from that point on would likely utilize 3D graphics. They decided to "fight back" in Hino's words by scanning in hand-drawn illustrations and manually editing them to be readable sprites, creating a unique art style intended as a bow-out for 2D graphics:


Since then, every game in the Yoshi series has taken on a deliberately different visual style, including hand-crafted assets and real-world materials, to set itself apart from the Mario series.