subdirectory_arrow_right Donkey Kong Country (Game), Donkey Kong Country 3 (Game), Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (Game), Donkey Kong Country 2 (Game), Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! (Game)
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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.
Visual comparison images:
https://bsky.app/profile/mariobrothblog.bsky.social/post/3lsyuqkowgc2g
https://bsky.app/profile/mariobrothblog.bsky.social/post/3lsyvqfebns2u
DKC SNES:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXHDSA35_2k#t=40s
DKC GBA:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oThzu4wVDbc#t=156s
DKC 2 SNES:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKKn1oxbLlU#t=50s
DKC 2 GBA:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjtgqz8EO0U#t=335s
DKC 3 SNES:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT3-qdoVihY#t=265s
DKC 3 GBA:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K949DkLQOWU#t=210s
https://bsky.app/profile/mariobrothblog.bsky.social/post/3lsyuqkowgc2g
https://bsky.app/profile/mariobrothblog.bsky.social/post/3lsyvqfebns2u
DKC SNES:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXHDSA35_2k#t=40s
DKC GBA:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oThzu4wVDbc#t=156s
DKC 2 SNES:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKKn1oxbLlU#t=50s
DKC 2 GBA:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjtgqz8EO0U#t=335s
DKC 3 SNES:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT3-qdoVihY#t=265s
DKC 3 GBA:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K949DkLQOWU#t=210s
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• 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.
Gregg Mayles' original tweet:
https://x.com/Ghoulyboy/status/1027946702270021638
Mayles' confirmation that Squawks replaced Hooter:
https://x.com/Ghoulyboy/status/1028581505566748674
Mayles' remark on the shared name "Frozone":
https://x.com/Ghoulyboy/status/1028884538381004802
The Cutting Room Floor article:
https://tcrf.net/Prerelease:Donkey_Kong_Country_(SNES)#Early_Naming_Sheet
https://x.com/Ghoulyboy/status/1027946702270021638
Mayles' confirmation that Squawks replaced Hooter:
https://x.com/Ghoulyboy/status/1028581505566748674
Mayles' remark on the shared name "Frozone":
https://x.com/Ghoulyboy/status/1028884538381004802
The Cutting Room Floor article:
https://tcrf.net/Prerelease:Donkey_Kong_Country_(SNES)#Early_Naming_Sheet
subdirectory_arrow_right Sid Meier's Pirates! (Game)
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Sid Meier's Pirates! - Soundtrack:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVPa617_-8I
Donkey Kong Country - Gangplank Galleon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5aeisPAzM4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVPa617_-8I
Donkey Kong Country - Gangplank Galleon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5aeisPAzM4
subdirectory_arrow_right Mario Kart World (Game), Donkey Kong Bananza (Game), Donkey Kong (Franchise)
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Many players assumed that the redesign was derived from his appearance in the film, resulting in complaints that it represented a sterilization of the character's public image. Closer to the release of Donkey Kong Bananza, the game's producer Kenta Motokura and the character's creator Shigeru Miyamoto explained their reasoning for the redesign. Motokura revealed that the design was first conceived for Donkey Kong Bananza before being applied to Mario Kart World and the film, and was made to account for the former game's 3D gameplay. He stated that they first accounted for how players would spend the majority of their time viewing DK from behind before snowballing into more substantial "creative adjustments," using his design from the original arcade game as a reference point; Motokura quipped that they "returned to where it had all started" while overhauling his design. According to Miyamoto, the redesign was intended to make DK more expressive, citing Donkey Kong Jungle Beat as the starting point to the new direction they took his design.
Kevin Bayliss 2019 Boundary Break interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwWHzilbQ34#t=380s
Bayliss tweet [source provided by Rocko & Heffer]:
https://x.com/Kev_Bayliss/status/1883094732680958129
Shigeru Miyamoto IGN interview:
https://www.ign.com/articles/the-big-shigeru-miyamoto-interview-i-see-nintendo-as-like-a-talent-agency-and-we-have-within-our-roster-a-lot-of-talented-characters
[Below sources and info provided by VinchVolt.]
The Gamer article detailing the initial criticism towards Donkey Kong's redesign and the assumption that it drew from the film:
https://web.archive.org/web/20250616130014/https://www.thegamer.com/the-new-donkey-kong-seems-ugly-and-bad/
GameRant article about Bayliss defending the redesign:
https://web.archive.org/web/20250414165709/https://gamerant.com/new-donkey-kong-design-donkey-kong-country-artist-comment/
Archived Ask the Developers interview:
https://web.archive.org/web/20250715145224/https://www.nintendo.com/us/whatsnew/ask-the-developer-vol-19-donkey-kong-bananza-part-1/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwWHzilbQ34#t=380s
Bayliss tweet [source provided by Rocko & Heffer]:
https://x.com/Kev_Bayliss/status/1883094732680958129
Shigeru Miyamoto IGN interview:
https://www.ign.com/articles/the-big-shigeru-miyamoto-interview-i-see-nintendo-as-like-a-talent-agency-and-we-have-within-our-roster-a-lot-of-talented-characters
[Below sources and info provided by VinchVolt.]
The Gamer article detailing the initial criticism towards Donkey Kong's redesign and the assumption that it drew from the film:
https://web.archive.org/web/20250616130014/https://www.thegamer.com/the-new-donkey-kong-seems-ugly-and-bad/
GameRant article about Bayliss defending the redesign:
https://web.archive.org/web/20250414165709/https://gamerant.com/new-donkey-kong-design-donkey-kong-country-artist-comment/
Archived Ask the Developers interview:
https://web.archive.org/web/20250715145224/https://www.nintendo.com/us/whatsnew/ask-the-developer-vol-19-donkey-kong-bananza-part-1/
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The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 - Never Koop a Koopa:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RENsLRjMs_Y
Early concept art of King K. Rool before Donkey Kong Country:
https://www.unseen64.net/2017/12/27/jonny-blastoff-kremling-armada-rare-pc-cancelled/
Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Subspace Emmisary cutscene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87rWrI9BtHc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RENsLRjMs_Y
Early concept art of King K. Rool before Donkey Kong Country:
https://www.unseen64.net/2017/12/27/jonny-blastoff-kremling-armada-rare-pc-cancelled/
Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Subspace Emmisary cutscene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87rWrI9BtHc
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Page 406 of SNES/Super Famicom: A visual compendium by Bitmap Books. ISBN 978-0-9956586-2-2
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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.
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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.
Destructoid article on Donkey Kong VS Super Wario:
https://www.nintendo.destructoid.com/original-pitch-donkey-kong-country-wario/
Unseen64 article on Jonny Blastoff and the Kremling Armada:
https://www.unseen64.net/2017/12/27/jonny-blastoff-kremling-armada-rare-pc-cancelled/
Donkey Kong and the Golden Bananas pitch:
https://www.mariowiki.com/List_of_Donkey_Kong_Country_pre-release_and_unused_content#Donkey_Kong_and_the_Golden_Bananas
https://www.nintendo.destructoid.com/original-pitch-donkey-kong-country-wario/
Unseen64 article on Jonny Blastoff and the Kremling Armada:
https://www.unseen64.net/2017/12/27/jonny-blastoff-kremling-armada-rare-pc-cancelled/
Donkey Kong and the Golden Bananas pitch:
https://www.mariowiki.com/List_of_Donkey_Kong_Country_pre-release_and_unused_content#Donkey_Kong_and_the_Golden_Bananas
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Nintendo was apparently worried that the game was "too 3D" and that it would make players feel overwhelmed by the complexities of the graphics.
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According to character designer Gregg Mayles on Twitter, after the announcement that King K. Rool would be in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, a character that Gregg had named and designed the actions of, he revealed that the character was original called "KOMMANDER K. ROOL" and that Donkey Kong Country was originally to be called MONKEY MAYHEM. He also mentioned that the "K." in K. Rool does not actually stand for anything and the name itself is only intended to be a play on the word "cruel", though he joked that the initial could stand for something mundane and off-character, such as "Keith".
In addition, Gregg's brother Steve, who designed the look and visual design for the character, also revealed that the programmers thought King K. Rool was "too big" and too taxing on the game's memory, and thus several frames of the character's animation had to be dropped as a result.
In addition, Gregg's brother Steve, who designed the look and visual design for the character, also revealed that the programmers thought King K. Rool was "too big" and too taxing on the game's memory, and thus several frames of the character's animation had to be dropped as a result.
subdirectory_arrow_right Donkey Kong Country (Game)
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Gregg Mayles interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Lhf4g5cuRM
The Cutting Room Floor article:
https://tcrf.net/Donkey_Kong_Country_(SNES)#Cranky_Kong
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Lhf4g5cuRM
The Cutting Room Floor article:
https://tcrf.net/Donkey_Kong_Country_(SNES)#Cranky_Kong
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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.
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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."
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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.
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It was rumored that Shigeru Miyamoto disliked Donkey Kong Country. The rumor stated that Miyamoto said "Donkey Kong Country proves that players will put up with mediocre game play as long as the art is good."
Later in an interview with IGN, Miyamoto clarified that he did in fact like Donkey Kong Country, and that he worked very closely with Rare on the game.
Later in an interview with IGN, Miyamoto clarified that he did in fact like Donkey Kong Country, and that he worked very closely with Rare on the game.
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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.
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