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 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.