The opening of the Gangplank Galleon theme in Donkey Kong Country was based on the title and menu theme to Rare's NES version of Sid Meier's Pirates!, which was also composed by David Wise.

As a way to deter software piracy, the player is prompted to answer questions when starting a new game based on materials found in the game's manual. Failing to answer these properly will cause a significant spike in difficulty, including a forced failure during the game's tutorial sword fight, starting with lower health and crew, and immediately being targeted by the English, Spanish, French, and Dutch governments.