Jump to content

Donkey Kong Country

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the video game. For the TV series, see Donkey Kong Country (TV series).

Donkey Kong Country
The North American box art of Donkey Kong Country: a diorama featuring a number of animals following Donkey Kong, who is running while carrying a banana. The diorama is surrounded by the typical Western SNES box art border on the bottom and right-hand side; the rating ("KA") and words "SUPER NINTENDO ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM" are on the bottom, while a tagline, "An Incredible 3-D Adventure in the Kingdom of Kong!", is on the right. The upper right-hand corner features the words "Only for Nintendo".
North American box art
Developer(s)Rare
Publisher(s)Nintendo
Director(s)Tim Stamper
Chris Stamper
Designer(s)Gregg Mayles
Programmer(s)Chris Sutherland
Artist(s)
Writer(s)Gregg Mayles
Daniel Owsen
Composer(s)
SeriesDonkey Kong
Platform(s)
Release
18 November 1994
  • SNES
    • UK: 18 November 1994
    • NA: 21 November 1994
    • EU: 24 November 1994
    • JP: 26 November 1994
    Game Boy Color
    • EU: 17 November 2000
    • NA: 20 November 2000
    • JP: 21 January 2001
    Game Boy Advance
    • AU: 4 June 2003
    • EU: 6 June 2003
    • NA: 9 June 2003
    • JP: 12 December 2003
Genre(s)Platform
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Donkey Kong Country[b] is a 1994 platform game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It is a reboot of Nintendo's Donkey Kong franchise and follows the gorilla Donkey Kong and his nephew Diddy Kong as they set out to recover their stolen banana hoard from the crocodile King K. Rool and his army, the Kremlings. The player traverses 40 side-scrolling levels as they jump between platforms and avoid obstacles. They collect items, ride minecarts and animals, defeat enemies and bosses, and find secret bonus stages. In multiplayer modes, two players work cooperatively or race.

After developing Nintendo Entertainment System games in the 1980s, Rare, a British studio founded by Tim and Chris Stamper, purchased Silicon Graphics workstations to render 3D models. Nintendo sought a game to compete with Sega's Aladdin (1993) and commissioned Rare to revive the dormant Donkey Kong franchise. Rare assembled 12 developers to work on Donkey Kong Country over 18 months. Donkey Kong Country was inspired by the Super Mario series and was one of the first home console games to feature pre-rendered graphics, achieved through a compression technique that converted 3D models into SNES sprites with little loss of detail. It was the first Donkey Kong game neither produced nor directed by the franchise's creator Shigeru Miyamoto, though he contributed design ideas.

Following its announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show in June 1994, Donkey Kong Country was highly anticipated and backed by a major marketing campaign that cost $16 million in America alone. It was released in November 1994 to acclaim; critics hailed its visuals as groundbreaking and praised its gameplay and music. Its quality and design were favourably compared to the Super Mario series. Donkey Kong Country received several year-end accolades and set the record for the fastest-selling video game at the time. With 9.3 million copies sold worldwide, it is the third-bestselling SNES game and the bestselling Donkey Kong game. Following the success, Nintendo purchased a large minority stake in Rare, which became a prominent second-party developer for Nintendo during the late 1990s.

Donkey Kong Country re-established Donkey Kong as a popular Nintendo franchise and helped maintain the SNES's popularity into the fifth generation of video game consoles. It is considered one of the greatest video games of all time and has been ported to platforms such as the Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, and digital distribution services. Rare followed it with two sequels for the SNES, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (1995) and Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! (1996), and the Nintendo 64 game Donkey Kong 64 (1999). After a hiatus, during which Rare was acquired by the Nintendo competitor Microsoft, Retro Studios revived the series with Donkey Kong Country Returns (2010) for the Wii and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (2014) for the Wii U.

Gameplay

[edit]
From a side-scrolling perspective, Diddy Kong jumps in a jungle-themed level. Donkey Kong trails behind him to the left, while a Kremling enemy hobbles away from him on the right.
The player character, Diddy Kong, jumps on a Kremling in a jungle-themed level.

Donkey Kong Country is a side-scrolling platform game.[2] A reboot of the Donkey Kong franchise,[3][4] its story begins when King K. Rool and his army of crocodiles, the Kremlings, steal the Kongs' banana hoard.[5][6] The gorilla Donkey Kong and his nephew Diddy Kong set out to reclaim the hoard and defeat the Kremlings.[6] Donkey and Diddy serve as the player characters of the single-player game; they run alongside each other and the player can swap between them at will. Donkey is stronger and can defeat enemies more easily; Diddy is faster and more agile.[7] Both can walk, run, jump, pick up and throw objects, and roll; Donkey can slap the terrain to defeat enemies or find items.[8]

The player begins in a world map that tracks their progress and provides access to the 40 levels.[9][10] The player attempts to complete each level while traversing the environment, jumping between platforms, and avoiding enemy and inanimate obstacles. Level themes include jungles, underwater reefs, caves, mines, mountains, and factories.[11] Some feature unique game mechanics, such as rideable minecarts, blasting out of cannons resembling barrels, and swinging ropes.[12] Each area ends with a boss fight with a large enemy.[13] Donkey and Diddy can defeat enemies by jumping on, rolling into, or throwing barrels at them. If hit by an obstacle, one of the Kongs runs off and the player automatically takes control of the other. They will only be able to control that Kong unless they free the other Kong from a barrel.[13]

In certain levels, the player can free an animal that provides the Kongs with special abilities, similar to Yoshi from the Super Mario series.[7] Buddies include Rambi, a rhino that can charge into enemies and find hidden entrances; Enguarde, a swordfish that can defeat enemies with its bill; Squawks, a parrot that carries a lantern; Expresso, an ostrich that flies; and Winky, a frog that can jump high.[6][14] Each level contains collectible bananas, letters that spell out K–O–N–G, balloons, and animal tokens.[15] These items can be found within the main level or by discovering hidden bonus stages, where they are earned via solving puzzles.[16][17] The player starts with six lives.[18] Collecting 100 bananas, all the K–O–N–G letters, a balloon, or three of the same animal token grants extra lives.[18][19]

The player can visit other members of the Kong family from the world map. Funky Kong operates a flight service allowing the player to travel across different areas of Donkey Kong Island; Cranky Kong, the aged incarnation (or father) of Donkey Kong from the original Donkey Kong (1981), provides tips and fourth wall-breaking humour; and Candy Kong saves the player's progress.[6][13][20] The player can increase their completion percentage by finding bonus stages. Reaching the maximum 101 per cent results in a different ending.[5] The game also features two multiplayer game modes. In the competitive "Contest" mode, players take turns playing each level as quickly as possible. In the cooperative "Team" mode, they play as a tag team.[10][21]

Development

[edit]

Background

[edit]
See also: History of Rare
Tim (right) and Chris (left) Stamper; the middle-aged men both wear black polos with red logos on the right of the buttons. Tim has a beard, while Chris is balding.
Rare founders Tim and Chris Stamper (right to left) in 2015

In 1985, the British game developers Tim and Chris Stamper established Rare Ltd. The brothers previously founded the British computer game studio Ultimate Play the Game and founded Rare to focus on the burgeoning Japanese console market.[22] After Nintendo rejected their efforts to form a partnership in 1983, Chris Stamper studied the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) hardware for six months.[23] Rare demonstrated it was possible to reverse-engineer the NES and showed several tech demos to Nintendo executive Minoru Arakawa; impressed, Arakawa granted Rare a Nintendo developer licence.[24][25] Rare developed more than 60 NES games, including the Battletoads series and ports of games such as Marble Madness.[25][26]

When Nintendo released their next console, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), in 1991, Rare decided to limit their output. Around 1992, Rare invested their NES profit in Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI) Challenge workstations with Alias rendering software to render 3D models.[25][27] It was a significant risk, as each workstation cost £80,000.[28] The move made Rare the most technologically advanced UK developer and situated them high in the international market.[25]

Conception

[edit]

Though they had purchased the workstations to produce games for the Nintendo 64, which was in development at the time, Rare discovered it was possible to use them with the 16-bit SNES.[24] Rare tested the SGI technology with Battletoads Arcade (1994) and began developing a boxing game, Brute Force, using PowerAnimator.[26][28] Around this time, Nintendo was embroiled in a console war with Sega, whose Mega Drive competed with the SNES.[28] Nintendo wanted a game to compete with Sega's Aladdin (1993), which featured graphics by Disney animators,[26][29] when Nintendo of America chairman Howard Lincoln learned of Rare's SGI experiments during a trip to Europe.[24]

After impressing Nintendo with a demonstration of Brute Force,[28] Tim Stamper—inspired by Mortal Kombat's use of digitised footage in place of hand-drawn art—suggested developing a platform game that used pre-rendered graphics.[27][30] Nintendo granted the Stampers permission to use the Donkey Kong intellectual property.[30] The franchise had been largely dormant since the unsuccessful Donkey Kong 3 (1983),[31][32] so Nintendo figured that licensing it posed minimal risk.[30] Some sources indicate that the Stampers obtained the licence after Nintendo offered them their catalogue of characters and they chose Donkey Kong.[25][28] Conversely, the lead designer Gregg Mayles recalled that it was Nintendo that requested a Donkey Kong game.[29] According to Mayles, Nintendo codenamed the project "Country" (based on Rare's location in Twycross), leading to the title Donkey Kong Country.[33]

Rare assembled a team of 12, the largest in their history at that point, and development began.[29] Nintendo was sceptical of Rare's approach to graphics,[29] concerned it would make the game unplayable.[34] Early in development, Mayles and other developers presented a demo to Nintendo staff in Japan. One in attendance, the Game Boy creator Gunpei Yokoi, felt the game "looked too 3D", but Mayles said Donkey Kong's creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, was supportive and gave Rare his approval.[29] Donkey Kong Country was the first Donkey Kong game that was neither directed nor produced by Miyamoto,[10] who was working on Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (1995).[35] Miyamoto was still involved with the project and Rare said he provided crucial input.[36]

Nintendo is usually highly protective of their intellectual properties, but was relatively uninvolved with Donkey Kong Country, leaving most of the work to Rare.[28][29] Programmer Brendan Gunn noted that the Stampers worked to shield the team from outside influence.[28] Rare spent 18 months developing Donkey Kong Country from an initial concept to a finished game,[28] and according to product manager Dan Owsen, 20 people worked on it in total.[27] It cost an estimated US$1 million to produce,[37] and Rare said that it had the most man hours ever invested in a video game at the time, 22 years.[36] The team worked 12–16-hours every day of the week.[38] Gunn said that the team was under significant pressure from the Stampers and to finish the game in time for Thanksgiving due to Nintendo's competition with Sega.[28]

Design

[edit]

The stages were painstakingly arranged so that the player could "go first time" past obstacles ([i.e.] if there was a swinging rope then when it came on screen it was swinging towards you so you could jump onto it straight away)... If you time everything correctly, you can get through the level efficiently and impressively.

Rare drew inspiration from the Super Mario series, Mayles citing Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988) as the primary influence on the level design. Mayles wanted to make a game that was accessible but would flow seamlessly for a skilled player; as such, objects were placed so well-timed players could continually move through a level.[29] Mayles noted that although the concept of speedrunning did not exist at the time, "the way the game was designed definitely supports it".[39]

The team designed levels using Post-it Notes; they would conceive a set piece (such as swinging ropes), create every variation they could think of, drew them on Post-it Notes, and pieced them together.[40] Rare featured barrels as a primary game mechanic to pay homage to the original arcade game,[41] and included hidden collectibles like coins and balloons to add depth.[42] Diddy Kong originated from Rare's search for a game mechanic akin to Super Mario's power-up system in that he would serve as the player's health. Mayles said: "We thought a second character could perform this function, look visually impressive, and give the player a feeling that they were not alone".[29]

Donkey Kong Country did not have much scrapped content; Gunn said he only regretted that Donkey Kong walks across dotted lines instead of paths on the world map, which could not be implemented due to time constraints.[28] One scrapped idea, a collectible that would evade the player by running or hiding, served as the basis for the Jinjos in Rare's subsequent game Banjo-Kazooie (1998).[43] Reviewing Donkey Kong Country for release, Nintendo directed Rare to reduce the difficulty to appeal to a broad audience, reasoning that the secrets would provide sufficient challenge for hardcore gamers. At this point, Miyamoto made some last-minute suggestions, such as Donkey Kong's terrain slap, that were incorporated.[44] Nintendo's Kensuke Tanabe flew to Twycross to localise the game with Rare.[45]

Characters

[edit]

Kevin Bayliss was in charge of redesigning Donkey Kong. He wanted a character that looked believable and could perform animations like pounding his chest.[41] His initial design was blocky and muscular to make Donkey Kong easy to animate, but it became more cartoonish when Nintendo faxed reference material. Some of Bayliss' designs were in the style of his Battletoads work,[46] and the final design's eyes came from those of the Battletoads.[34] Miyamoto provided some suggestions, including the red tie,[29] but left the design's specifics to Bayliss.[41]

Because Donkey Kong did not have much of an established universe, Rare was free to expand it with new characters. Mayles conceived Diddy as a redesign of Donkey Kong Jr.[29] Unlike the original Donkey Kong Jr., Rare did not want Diddy to share his build with Donkey Kong, so they based him on a spider monkey and made him agile to give him distinct moves.[47] Nintendo considered the redesign too great a departure and asked it to be reworked or presented as a new character. Mayles felt the redesign suited the updated Donkey Kong universe, so he chose to make it a new character. Naming the character was a challenge, and Rare dropped their preferred "Dinky Kong" due to legal problems.[29]

Rare staff spent hours at the nearby Twycross Zoo recording gorillas for reference, which they described as "a complete waste of time".[28] They found their movements unsuitable for a fast game and their noises too quiet to be captured by a microphone, so they based Donkey Kong's running animation on a horse's gallop and had programmer Mark Betteridge provide Donkey and Diddy's voice clips.[29][28] Rare positioned Cranky Kong as the original Donkey Kong character from the arcade games but avoided mentioning this in the game and marketing materials out of fear that Nintendo would disapprove of the idea,[34] though it was mentioned in the instruction manual.[48] The antagonists, the Kremlings, were recycled from a cancelled Rare game,[34] and their name is a play on the Moscow Kremlin.[49] Rare's initial story was extensive and spanned 15 pages, but Nintendo had it condensed to fit into an instruction manual.[27]

Graphics

[edit]
A photo of an SGI Challenge workstation: a computer monitor sits atop its tower.
Rare used SGI Challenge workstations (pictured) to produce Donkey Kong Country's pre-rendered visuals.

Donkey Kong Country was one of the first games for a mainstream home video game console to use pre-rendered 3D graphics,[28] a technique used in the earlier 1993 Finnish game Stardust for the Amiga.[27] Rare developed a compression technique to incorporate more detail and animation for each sprite for a given memory footprint, which better preserved the pre-rendered graphics. Nintendo and Rare called the technique Advanced Computer Modelling (ACM).[29] Rare briefly feared competition from DMA Design's Uniracers (1994), which also featured pre-rendered graphics, but the staff was relieved upon learning that the player character was Uniracer's only element that was pre-rendered.[28]

The artists began by modelling the characters in NURBS using PowerAnimator and adding textures. They then created the animations and rendered them frame by frame before compressing them for the game. The ACM process was handled by a designated computer that had a proprietary utility similar to Deluxe Paint.[26] Adapting to the cutting-edge SGI workstations was difficult;[28] Gregg Mayles' brother Steve said they had a steep learning curve. The game was Rare's first to require multiple programmers,[39] and they worked with little guidance.[26] To help, Nintendo provided Rare with research material regarding apes, barrels, and caves.[27] The pre-rendered graphics allowed for variety and detail uncommon at the time,[29] and Tim Stamper constantly pushed the team to go further and incorporate weather and lighting effects.[28]

The ACM process pushed the SNES hardware to its limits;[29] Betteridge said Rare wanted to do everything they could with the hardware similar to what they had done with the NES game Battletoads (1991).[40] A single SGI screen took up more memory than an entire SNES cartridge, and Gregg Mayles described transferring the backgrounds into the game by splitting them into tiles as "the bane of the project".[29] Models took hours to render,[26] so the team would leave the computers running overnight.[28] Sometimes, artists would shut down other artists' computers in the middle of the process so they could render their own models.[26] The SGI machines required a massive air conditioning unit to prevent overheating, while the team worked in the summer heat without relief.[28] Programmer Chris Sutherland was responsible for implementing the graphics and found reducing the characters' frames of animation challenging.[26]

Music

[edit]
"Aquatic Ambience"
A 21-second excerpt from "Aquatic Ambience", the music that plays in Donkey Kong Country's underwater levels. The composition took five weeks to produce using a Korg Wavestation and Wise has called it his favourite track in the game.
Problems playing this file? See media help.
David Wise, Donkey Kong Country's primary composer

David Wise composed most of the soundtrack.[50] Wise initially worked as a freelancer and assumed his music would be replaced by Koji Kondo because of the importance of Donkey Kong to Nintendo.[51][52] Rare asked Wise to record three jungle demo tunes that were merged to become the "DK Island Swing", the first level's track.[52] Miyamoto was impressed,[51] and Wise was enlisted to produce the final score.[52] Before composing, Wise was shown the graphics and given an opportunity to play the level they would appear in, which gave him a sense of the music he would compose. He chose samples and optimised the music to work on the SNES's SPC700 sound chip.[38][49] Wise worked separately from the team in a former cattle shed, visited occasionally by Tim Stamper.[28][49]

Donkey Kong Country features atmospheric music that mixes natural environmental sounds with prominent melodic and percussive accompaniments.[53] Its soundtrack attempts to evoke the environments and includes music from levels set in Africa-inspired jungles, caverns, oceanic reefs, frozen landscapes, and industrial factories.[28][53] Wise cited Koji Kondo's music for the Super Mario and Legend of Zelda games, Tim and Geoff Follin's music for Plok! (1993), and 1980s synthesiser film soundtracks, rock, and dance music as influences,[52] and wanted to imitate the sound of the Korg Wavestation synthesiser.[53] He wrote lyrics for each melody, though The New York Times noted "no one is really meant to hear them".[51]

Since Donkey Kong Country featured advanced pre-rendered graphics, Wise wanted to push the limits to create "equally impressive" music and make the most of the limited memory he was working with.[49] Wise found Donkey Kong "a little more brutal" than Mario, so departed from Super Mario's Latin and calypso-inspired sound.[51] He wanted to compose in the style of 1940s jazz, seeking to imitate the Glenn Miller Orchestra in the "DK Island Swing",[51] but was restricted by the SPC700's limitations; he "used a lot of small samples and made [the soundtrack] very synthesised" to work around them.[38] His colleague Grant Kirkhope said that Wise's familiarity with the SNES hardware meant he could "make it do things that people hadn't heard before".[51]

"Aquatic Ambience", the music that plays in the underwater levels, took five weeks to compose. Wise was inspired by a recent breakup, which made him feel as if he was drowning.[51] He considers the track his favourite and the game's biggest technological accomplishment in regards to the audio.[49] The boss theme was inspired by the Nine Inch Nails song "March of the Pigs" (1994), and K. Rool's theme was influenced by sea shanties, barrel organ music, and the work of Iron Maiden.[51] For the title screen theme, Wise remixed Nintendo's original Donkey Kong theme to demonstrate Donkey Kong's evolution.[49] Wise said his primary focus was to make the most of the SPC700, and he input the music by hand to save memory. He noted the process was easier than composing for the NES due to the larger number of sound channels.[28]

Eveline Novakovic contributed seven tracks, including the world map theme, as her first SNES project.[50][54] Novakovic was inexperienced with the SNES hardware and Wise helped teach her as they worked together. She attempted to provide the levels a sense of purpose and drew inspiration from film composers like Alan Silvestri and Klaus Doldinger.[54] Funky Kong's theme was originally written by Robin Beanland.[50] According to Beanland, the track was intended for an internal progress video about another Rare game, Killer Instinct (1994), before Nintendo decided to use it in a Donkey Kong Country promotional trailer. Beanland said Tim Stamper liked it and wanted to include it in the game,[55] so Wise adopted it.[28]

Release

[edit]

Marketing

[edit]

Lincoln unveiled Donkey Kong Country at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago, which took place from 23 to 25 June 1994.[56] The unveiling was the finale of Nintendo's conference and did not reveal that Donkey Kong Country was a SNES game until the end of the presentation, fooling the audience into believing that it was for the upcoming Nintendo 64. Gregg Mayles recalled the audience was stunned in silence before bursting into applause.[29]

As one of the flagship games of Nintendo's Play It Loud! promotion,[26] Donkey Kong Country was backed by an exceptionally large marketing campaign—"marketing blitzkrieg", as Hardcore Gaming 101 put it.[5] According to the Los Angeles Times, Nintendo spent US$16 million on marketing Donkey Kong Country in America alone; at the time, major games typically had an average marketing budget of US$5 million.[57] Marketing materials emphasised the revolutionary graphics—often noting that Rare's SGI workstations had been used to create the Jurassic Park (1993) film's dinosaurs[58]—and positioned Donkey Kong Country as a direct competitor to Sega's Mega-CD and 32X platforms to remind players it was not for next-generation hardware.[59]

Nintendo sent a promotional VHS tape, Donkey Kong Country: Exposed, to subscribers of the magazine Nintendo Power.[10][59] Exposed, hosted by comedian Josh Wolf, provides a "behind-the-scenes" glimpse of the Treehouse, the Nintendo of America division where games are tested.[10][59] Nintendo World Report wrote that Exposed was "probably the first time most people outside of Nintendo learned about the [Treehouse]" and the promotion allowed players to see the game for themself at home, rather than having to learn about it secondhand from a magazine.[59] Exposed also features gameplay tips and interviews with localisers, playtesters, and Tim Stamper.[10][59]

In October 1994, Nintendo of America held an online promotional campaign through the internet service CompuServe. The campaign included downloadable video samples of the game, a trivia contest in which 800 people participated, and an hour-long online chat conference attended by 80 people, in which Lincoln, Arakawa, and vice-president of marketing Peter Main answered questions. Nintendo's CompuServe promotion marked an early instance of a major video game company using the internet to promote its products.[60] Nintendo gave away Donkey Kong T-shirts as a pre-order bonus,[58] and partnered with Kellogg's for a promotional campaign in which the packaging for Kellogg's breakfast cereals featured Donkey Kong Country character art and announced a prize giveaway. The campaign ran from November 1994 to April 1995.[61] Fleetway Publications published a promotional comic in the UK in 1995.[62]

Context

[edit]
See also: 1994 in video games
A Super Nintendo Entertainment System PAL-region console (a grey video game console with two grey buttons for "Power" and "Reset" and a grey one for "Eject") and its controller (a gamepad with a D-pad on the left, "Start" and "Select" buttons in the middle, four buttons on the right, and two shoulder buttons on top).
Donkey Kong Country was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (PAL-region console pictured) when it was beginning to face competition from next-generation hardware.

By October 1994, Nintendo was still in fierce competition with Sega and its popular Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. Donkey Kong Country was released a month after Sonic & Knuckles for the Mega Drive. The Los Angeles Times characterised the coinciding releases as a battle; both featured company mascots, boasted "Hollywood-sized" marketing budgets, and advertised revolutionary technological advances (lock-on technology for Sonic & Knuckles and 3D-rendered graphics for Donkey Kong Country).[57]

Donkey Kong Country was highly anticipated. Hardcore Gaming 101 wrote: "It was everywhere. You couldn't escape it. It was on the cover of every magazine. It was on gigantic, imposing displays and marquees at Wal-Mart and Babbages... For kids of the era, November 20th seemed like the eve of a revolution".[5] The Exposed VHS tape contributed significantly to the hype.[63] Donkey Kong Country was expected to gross at least US$140 million in the US if it matched sales projections.[57] Nintendo anticipated that it would sell two million copies in a month, an expectation that Main acknowledged was unprecedented but was "based on the off-the-chart reactions we've received from game players and retailers".[57]

USGamer noted that Nintendo, at the time of Donkey Kong Country's release, faced difficulty to keep the SNES profitable. The fifth generation of video game consoles was on the horizon, the 32-bit prowess of Sony's PlayStation and the Sega Saturn far exceeding the SNES's capabilities. The Nintendo 64 was not due for release until 1996, so Donkey Kong Country, wrote USGamer, served as Nintendo's "bluff" to make it seem that the SNES could hold its ground against next-generation hardware.[32]

Sales

[edit]

Donkey Kong Country was released worldwide in November 1994, two weeks ahead of schedule and around the Black Friday shopping season.[36][58] It was released in the UK on 18 November,[36] in North America on 21 November, in Europe on 24 November, and in Japan on 26 November.[64] In Japan, the game was released under the title Super Donkey Kong.[65] Donkey Kong Country set the record for the fastest-selling video game at the time:[66] it sold over 500,000 copies within a week,[67] and sales reached one million copies in the US alone in two weeks. In its second week on sale in the US, the game grossed US$15 million, outpacing the week's highest-grossing film (The Santa Clause, US$11.5 million) and album (Miracles: The Holiday Album, US$5.2 million).[68] In the UK, it was the top-selling SNES game in November 1994.[69] Donkey Kong Country sold six million copies worldwide in its first holiday season,[70] grossing $400 million in worldwide sales revenue.[71] Cumulative sales reached 9.3 million copies. Based on available sales figures, it is the third-bestselling SNES game[26][72] and the bestselling Donkey Kong game.[73]

Reception

[edit]

Donkey Kong Country received critical acclaim and was lauded as a paradigm shift that set new standards for video games.[d] Diehard GameFan and Total! said it changed expectations for 16-bit and platform games,[85][86] and Entertainment Weekly wrote it "is to most 16-bit games what most 16-bit games are to their Atari forebears. Once you've played it, everything else before it seems like a peewee".[79] Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) called Donkey Kong Country "one of the few games that is actually as good as the hype",[75] and Total! declared it the best game of 1994.[86] GameFan said that Donkey Kong Country set a new quality standard that many developers would attempt to imitate.[87]

The visuals were considered the best aspect. Reviewers considered them a major technological achievement, their detail unprecedented for a 16-bit game.[e] EGM said that the graphical quality prompted questions about the purpose of 32- and 64-bit hardware.[75] Total! said the character animations surpassed those of a Disney film and applauded the parallax scrolling.[88] Several critics said the graphics were the best on available hardware,[f] with Entertainment Weekly writing that they were comparable to matte paintings.[79] The soundtrack and audio were also lauded.[g] Total! said the music built atmosphere,[86] Top Secret wrote the "captivating" soundtrack asserted itself as a masterpiece in its own right,[80] and EGM and Entertainment Weekly said the audio quality was unprecedented for the SNES and on par with a CD's.[75][79]

Reviewers praised the gameplay for its variety and depth;[75][92][93] Entertainment Weekly appreciated that it did not build upon the original arcade game's design.[79] Total! described Donkey Kong Country as addictive, accessible and exciting, with humour, imagination, puzzles and secrets, that proved there was still potential in the platform game genre.[93] EGM and GameFan wrote that the game was lengthy and offered plenty of technique,[75][94] and GamePro commended the replay value that searching for bonus stages provided.[13] EGM and GamePro found searching for bonus stages was challenging,[75][95] though GamePro said it was easy to "breeze through the game" without them and criticised the boss fights as simplistic.[95]

Critics frequently compared Donkey Kong Country to the Super Mario series,[75][93] particularly Super Mario World (1990).[74][86][92] Some considered Donkey Kong Country an improvement upon the Mario formula.[75][92][93] GameFan said it would be a worthy successor to Super Mario World even without the graphics[92] and Total! wrote that it took Mario's best elements, increased the speed, and presented them better.[93] Next Generation felt the gameplay, though good, did not meet the standards of previous SNES games such as the Mario and Legend of Zelda series and prevented it from being a "typical Nintendo blockbuster".[77] CVG wrote that Donkey Kong Country was the only SNES game that matched Super Mario World, but that it would be a conventional platformer without its graphics. It warned that experienced players may find the game, designed for a broad audience, unoriginal.[74]

Accolades

[edit]

Donkey Kong Country received many Game of the Year awards.[25] For EGM's Best and Worst of 1994, it won Game of the Year, Best SNES Game, and Best Animation; Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong won Best Game Duo.[82] It also received Video Games: The Ultimate Gaming Magazine's awards for Game of the Year, Best SNES Game, Best Action Game, and Best Graphics.[84] Donkey Kong Country was the only video game included in Time's Best Products of 1994 list, coming in second behind the Chrysler Neon,[96] and it became the first game to win the Favourite Video Game Kids' Choice Award at the 1995 Kids' Choice Awards.[81]

Post-release

[edit]

In April 1995, following Donkey Kong Country's success, Nintendo purchased a 25% minority stake in Rare,[24] which increased to 49% over time.[25] Rare was the first non-Japanese studio to enter such a relationship with Nintendo, making them a second-party developer; Nintendo published Rare's subsequent games and allowed them to expand their staff from 84 to over 250 and move out of the farmhouse to an advanced development site elsewhere in Twycross.[24] Rare was one of the first developers to receive Nintendo 64 software development kits and decided to start spending more time developing fewer games.[24][30] Nintendo and Rare's partnership produced acclaimed Nintendo 64 games such as GoldenEye 007 (1997), Banjo-Kazooie (1998), Perfect Dark (2000), and Conker's Bad Fur Day (2001).[24][25]

A proposed Game Boy port of Donkey Kong Country was repurposed as a separate game, Donkey Kong Land (1995), after the programmer Paul Machacek convinced Rare that it would be a better use of resources and expand the potential audience.[97] Rare began developing concepts for a Donkey Kong Country sequel during production,[98] and Nintendo green-lit the project immediately after the success.[99] Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, released in 1995, features Diddy rescuing a kidnapped Donkey Kong from K. Rool and introduces Diddy's girlfriend Dixie Kong. Diddy's Kong Quest was designed to be less linear and more challenging,[100][101] with a theme reflecting Gregg Mayles' fascination with pirates.[101] Like its predecessor, Diddy's Kong Quest was a major critical and commercial success.[102]

Other teams at Rare used Donkey Kong Country's technology in the fighting game Killer Instinct and Donkey Kong Land, Donkey Kong Land 2 (1996) and Donkey Kong Land III (1997), which attempted to replicate Donkey Kong Country's visuals and gameplay on the handheld Game Boy.[26] Following Diddy's Kong Quest, the Donkey Kong Country team split in two:[54] one half began working on Project Dream, a role-playing game that used the Donkey Kong Country technology,[h][103] and the other on Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! (1996).[54] Rare followed Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! with Donkey Kong 64 (1999), the first Donkey Kong game to feature 3D gameplay.[26] In 2002, Rare was acquired by Nintendo's competitor Microsoft and the Donkey Kong rights reverted to Nintendo.[25][99]

Other media

[edit]

A soundtrack CD, DK Jamz, was released in North America via news media and retailers in November 1994,[104] with a standalone release in 1995.[105] It was one of the earliest video game soundtrack albums released in the United States.[106] The Japanese soundtrack CD, Super Donkey Kong Game Music CD ~ Jungle Fantasy,[i] was released in January 1995. In addition to the game music, it features seven rearrangements by Yoshiyuki Ito, who previously composed rearrangements for Nintendo's Zelda and Metroid soundtrack releases.[107] The soundtrack was rereleased through the Donkey Kong Country Trilogy compilation album in November 1996 and via Nintendo Music, Nintendo's music streaming service, when it launched in October 2024.[108][109]

A competition-oriented version of Donkey Kong Country was sold through Blockbuster Video. Its changes include a time limit for the playable levels and a scoring system, which had been used in the Nintendo PowerFest '94 and Blockbuster World Video Game Championships II competitions. It was later distributed in limited quantities through Nintendo Power. The competition version of Donkey Kong Country is the rarest licensed SNES game; only 2,500 cartridges are known to exist.[5]

Rereleases

[edit]
Diddy Kong rides a rhino, Rambi, and rams into a beaver enemy, Gnawty. The upper left screenshot shows the SNES version, the upper right shows the GBC version, and the bottom shows the GBA version.
Different versions of Donkey Kong Country: the SNES original (top left), the Game Boy Color version (top right), and the Game Boy Advance version (bottom).

In 2000, Rare developed a port of Donkey Kong Country for Nintendo's Game Boy Color (GBC) handheld console.[110] It was released in North America on 4 November 2000, in Europe on 17 November, and in Japan on 21 January 2001. The port was developed alongside the GBC version of Perfect Dark[111] and many assets, including graphics and audio, were re-used from the Donkey Kong Land games.[5] Aside from graphical and sound-related downgrades due to the GBC's weaker 8-bit hardware, the port is mostly identical to the original release.[112] One level was redesigned and another was added.[5] It also adds bonus modes, including two minigames that supplement the main quest and support multiplayer via the Game Link Cable, as well as Game Boy Printer support.[112][113] The GBC version was a runner-up for GameSpot's annual Best Game Boy Color Game and Best Platform Game awards,[114] and during the 4th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated it for the "Console Family" award.[115] It sold 2.19 million copies worldwide.[116]

Despite its acquisition by Microsoft, Rare continued to produce games for Nintendo's Game Boy Advance (GBA) since Microsoft did not have a competing handheld.[25] It ported Donkey Kong Country as part of Nintendo's line of SNES rereleases for the GBA.[117] The GBA version was released in Australia on 4 June 2003, Europe on 6 June, in North America on 9 June, and in Japan on 12 December.[118][119][120] It adds a new animated introductory cutscene,[121] redesigned user interfaces and world maps,[5] the ability to save progress anywhere, minigames, and a time trial mode.[121] It features downgraded graphics and sound,[5][121] the former due to the GBA's lack of a backlit screen.[26] The GBA version sold 1.82 million copies,[122] including 960,000 in the US by August 2006. Between January 2000 and August 2006, it was the 19th highest-selling game for a Nintendo handheld console in the US.[123]

The SNES version of Donkey Kong Country has been digitally rereleased for later Nintendo consoles via Nintendo's Virtual Console service. It was released for the Wii Virtual Console in Japan and Europe in December 2006, and in North America in February 2007.[124] In September 2012, the game was delisted from the Virtual Console for unknown reasons, though Kotaku's Jason Schreier suggested it may have been related to licensing problems with Rare.[125] Donkey Kong Country returned to the Wii U's Virtual Console in February 2015[126] and was added to the New Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console in March 2016.[127] It was included in the Super NES Classic Edition, a dedicated console Nintendo released in September 2017,[128] and was released on the Nintendo Switch for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers in July 2020.[129]

Legacy

[edit]

Donkey Kong Country's visual appeal helped the SNES remain popular in a period of uncertainty for cartridge-based games.[17] Consumers were unfamiliar with 3D graphics at the time.[32] According to Official Nintendo Magazine, by bringing next-generation graphics to the SNES just 12 days before the PlayStation's Japanese launch, Donkey Kong Country persuaded consumers that an immediate upgrade was unnecessary.[130] IGN wrote that the game "saved the SNES" and revitalised sales by bringing back lapsed fans.[7] Donkey Kong Country also helped Nintendo pull ahead of Sega and win the console wars of the 1990s.[131] Whereas Nintendo continued to release AAA games such as Donkey Kong Country, Sega had alienated audiences with add-ons such as the Mega-CD and 32X,[70] and its subsequent console, the Saturn, failed.[131]

The Donkey Kong Country series re-established Donkey Kong as one of Nintendo's most popular and profitable franchises.[99] Donkey Kong Country heralded Donkey Kong's transition from villain to hero;[99][132] Rare's redesign became his standard appearance,[133] and its gameplay format was followed by sequels.[99] The game inspired an animated series that ran for 40 episodes from 1997 to 2000,[134] and Diddy Kong starred in a Nintendo 64 racing game spin-off, Diddy Kong Racing (1997).[135] Following Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!, the Country series went on a hiatus until Donkey Kong Country Returns, developed by Retro Studios, was released for the Wii on Donkey Kong Country's 16th anniversary in 2010. A sequel, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, was released for the Wii U in 2014.[99] Wise, who left Rare in 2009, returned to compose Tropical Freeze's score.[38]

Retrospective assessments

[edit]
Shigeru Miyamoto, a middle-aged Japanese man wearing a herringbone blazer and white shirt.
False rumours spread that Donkey Kong's creator, Shigeru Miyamoto (pictured in 2013), disliked Donkey Kong Country.[32]

Reviewing the Virtual Console rerelease, Nintendo Life felt the visuals were still among the SNES's best,[6] and Jeuxvideo.com said they had offered a new depth of realism.[14] IGN and AllGame said the visuals remained impressive for the SNES (though IGN thought they were no longer as significant a draw),[7][136] while GameSpot thought the graphics rivalled 32-bit consoles.[2] Conversely, USGamer said that, though technically impressive, they did not age well, with "cringe-inducing", "paper-thin backgrounds".[17] Hardcore Gaming 101 agreed, writing that the visuals looked plastic-like, did not hold up well once the novelty of pre-rendering had worn off, and were clearly experimental, even if their detail was admirable.[5] Critics praised the GBC version for attempting to preserve the visuals in spite of hardware limitations,[18][137] but criticised the GBA version's downgrades,[119][138] which IGN considered detrimental to the experience.[121]

Donkey Kong Country became divisive in the years following its release.[32] Eurogamer wrote that it became popular to dislike it in the early 2000s,[139] and it was often described as one of the most overrated video games.[133][140][141] For example, Vice wrote that it did not deserve to be considered a classic and, alongside GameSpy, called its gameplay unremarkable and lacking depth.[133][142] According to IGN, critics accused Donkey Kong Country of "sacrificing gameplay for the sake of a short-run attention grab and quick impulse sales",[7] which USGamer attributed to the "flimflammery of its visuals and the relative mundanity of its actual game design".[32] USGamer wrote the game was often criticised as an example of style over substance, with gameplay that was arguably inferior to SNES launch games such as Super Mario World and Super Castlevania IV (1991).[32] GameSpy complained that Donkey Kong Country overshadowed games such as Yoshi's Island, which it considered superior.[133]

Donkey Kong Country has been described as one of the greatest video games of all time.[j] USGamer wrote that the criticism was unfair because it "exudes craftsmanship ... Rare went to great pains to create a consistent, seamless world that managed to convey trompe-l'oeil immersion", something few developers could replicate.[32] Though retrospective reviewers criticised the boss fights,[5][6][17] they praised the rhythm, variety, and replay value.[k] Polygon said that although some aspects had not aged well, Donkey Kong Country remained among the best Donkey Kong games and deserved praise for resurrecting the franchise.[147] Its soundtrack is considered one of the best in games,[72][121] praised for its atmosphere and diversity.[5][14][17] Hardcore Gaming 101 said it was the one element that had unquestionably aged well and contained some of the 16-bit era's most memorable music.[5]

In the years following its release, rumours spread that Miyamoto disliked Donkey Kong Country and found it amateurish,[32] and had created the hand-drawn art style of Yoshi's Island in retaliation for its pre-rendered visuals.[32][148] The author Steven L. Kent claimed Miyamoto said that "Donkey Kong Country proves gamers will put up with mediocre gameplay if the art is good" in a 1995 Electronic Games interview.[148] Kent said that Nintendo's marketing department had rejected Yoshi's Island as it lacked Donkey Kong Country's pre-rendered graphics, and that this had possibly motivated Miyamoto's remark.[148] Miyamoto denied this in 2010, noting he "was very involved" in Donkey Kong Country and had corresponded with Stamper throughout development.[149] In 2014, USGamer described Kent's claims as "seemingly apocryphal",[32] and in 2019, the video game historian Frank Cifaldi found that the Electronic Games interview did not contain the alleged quote from Miyamoto.[150]

Influence

[edit]

Donkey Kong Country exerted "revolutionary influence", according to GameSpot.[132] Kotaku said its unprecedented graphics represented the future of games and Nintendo World Report wrote that it set standards for how platform games could look and play.[58][151] Sega commissioned BlueSky Software to develop the Mega Drive game Vectorman (1995) in response to Donkey Kong Country's popularity.[152][153] Many developers imitated the visuals;[32] IGN identified the Saturn games Clockwork Knight (1994) and Bug! (1995) as examples.[154] USGamer wrote that few games achieved the same quality and that 2.5D games, such as Crystal Dynamics' Pandemonium! (1996), exposed the "illusion upon which [Donkey Kong Country] was built".[32] Kotaku said Donkey Kong Country was an event that could not be replicated in modern times due to the game industry's growth.[58]

Naughty Dog's founders Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin cited Donkey Kong Country as the primary influence on their break-out game Crash Bandicoot (1996).[155] Crash's first functional levels drew upon techniques employed by Donkey Kong Country, such as steam vents, drop platforms, bouncy pads, heated pipes, and enemies that move back and forth.[156] The pre-rendered visuals inspired other games, including Kirby Super Star (1996) and Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island (1996),[157][158] and critics have identified Donkey Kong Country references or influence in games such as the Mega-CD version of Earthworm Jim (1995),[159] Sonic Blast (1996),[160] Rayman Origins (2011),[161] Mekazoo (2016),[162] and Kaze and the Wild Masks (2021).[163] The Australian Broadcasting Corporation credited Donkey Kong Country for maintaining the popularity of 2D games and ensuring the development of new entries in the Mario, Kirby, and Yoshi series.[3]

The soundtrack was also influential and Wise developed a cult following for his work.[164] IGN said Donkey Kong Country contributed to an increased appreciation for video game music as an art form,[165] and The New York Times called it the video game equivalent to the Beatles' Revolver (1966).[51] Rearrangements of the music appear in Donkey Kong 64, Donkey Kong Country Returns, and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze,[166][167][168] and in crossover games such as Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. fighting series.[169] Its tracks are often remixed, Wise contributing to an OverClocked ReMix album in 2004.[170][171][172] "Aquatic Ambience" has been particularly influential. It has been described as "the 'Eleanor Rigby' of video game music", praised by artists such as Trent Reznor and Donald Glover,[165] and The A.V. Club wrote that it spawned a "minor cult" dedicated to remixes.[173] Glover sampled it in his 2012 song "Eat Your Vegetables", to which Wise expressed approval.[174]

Donkey Kong Country established Rare as one of the leading video game developers[25] and set the standard for its work.[142] It originated conventions characteristic of Rare's later output, including an emphasis on collecting items,[5] irreverent humour,[175] visual appeal, and tech demo-like design.[142] Nintendo and Rare's partnership continued until Star Fox Adventures (2002) for the GameCube, after which Rare was acquired by Microsoft.[25] The 2019 game Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair—developed by Playtonic Games, whose staff includes Rare alumni that worked on Donkey Kong Country—was noted for its gameplay similarities to Donkey Kong Country,[176] though Playtonic's head Gavin Price declined to label it a spiritual successor.[177] Nintendo Life also identified similarities between Donkey Kong Country and Kroko Bongo: Tap to the Beat! (2017), a platform game developed by the Stampers' mobile game studio FortuneFish.[178]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Credited as Eveline Fischer
  2. ^ Known in Japan as Super Donkey Kong (Japanese: スーパードンキーコング, Hepburn: Sūpā Donkī Kongu)[1]
  3. ^ EGM's four reviewers gave Donkey Kong Country one 10/10 score and three 9/10 scores.[75]
  4. ^ Attributed to multiple references:[75][79][85][86]
  5. ^ Attributed to multiple references:[75][77][88][89]
  6. ^ Attributed to multiple references:[77][90][88][89]
  7. ^ Attributed to multiple references:[79][75][86][91]
  8. ^ Project Dream was eventually retooled into Banjo-Kazooie.[103]
  9. ^ Japanese: スーパードンキーコング ゲームミュージックCD ジャングル・ファンタジー, Sūpā donkī kongu gēmu myūjikku CD janguru fantajī
  10. ^ Attributed to multiple references:[143][144][145][146]
  11. ^ Attributed to multiple references:[2][6][7][17][136]

References

[edit]

Citations

[edit]
  1. ^ "『スーパードンキーコング』が発売された日。3Dモデルを取り込んだ緻密で美しいグラフィックに思わずうっとり。現在も続く人気シリーズの初代作品【今日は何の日？】| ゲーム・エンタメ最新情報のファミ通.com". Famitsu (in Japanese). 26 November 2020. Archived from the original on 14 May 2022. Retrieved 15 July 2022.
  2. ^ a b c Provo, Frank (23 February 2007). "Donkey Kong Country review". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  3. ^ a b "Good Game Stores - Feature: Reboots". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 26 February 2013. Archived from the original on 1 June 2022. Retrieved 1 June 2022.
  4. ^ Grubb, Jeff (15 March 2013). "Nintendo plans to release Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D on May 24". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on 15 October 2020. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n DiRienzo, David (25 January 2015). "Donkey Kong Country". Hardcore Gaming 101. Archived from the original on 25 February 2021. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Olney, Alex (24 October 2014). "Donkey Kong Country review (Wii U eShop / SNES)". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on 3 March 2021. Retrieved 10 June 2022.
  7. ^ a b c d e f Thomas, Lucas M. (20 February 2007). "Donkey Kong Country review". IGN. Archived from the original on 23 August 2012.
  8. ^ Nintendo 1994a, p. 12–15.
  9. ^ Nintendo 1994a, p. 8.
  10. ^ a b c d e f Langshaw, Mark (18 August 2012). "Retro corner: 'Donkey Kong Country'". Digital Spy. Archived from the original on 26 May 2019. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  11. ^ Nintendo Power staff 1994, p. 8–17.
  12. ^ CVG staff 1994, p. 52–53.
  13. ^ a b c d Scary Larry 1994, p. 51.
  14. ^ a b c Garnier, Michel (22 January 2010). "Test du jeu Donkey Kong Country sur SNES". Jeuxvideo.com (in French). Archived from the original on 30 October 2019. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  15. ^ Nintendo 1994a, p. 9; 18–19.
  16. ^ Nintendo 1994a, p. 31.
  17. ^ a b c d e f Oxford, Nadia (23 January 2019). "Super NES retro review: Donkey Kong Country". US Gamer. Archived from the original on 20 November 2020. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  18. ^ a b c Provo, Frank (17 May 2006). "Donkey Kong Country review". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 26 January 2018. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  19. ^ Nintendo 1994a, p. 18–19.
  20. ^ Irving, Mike (19 June 2022). "Cranky Kong works out that new-fangled Twitter thing". VG247. Archived from the original on 29 June 2022. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
  21. ^ CVG staff 1994, p. 52.
  22. ^ Hunt 2010, p. 28–43.
  23. ^ Dawley, Heidi (29 May 1995). "Killer Instinct for hire". Bloomberg Businessweek. Archived from the original on 2 June 2017. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  24. ^ a b c d e f g IGN staff (1 March 2001). "GameCube developer profile: Rare". IGN. Archived from the original on 25 January 2013. Retrieved 14 June 2022.
  25. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l McLaughlin, Rus (28 July 2008). "IGN presents the history of Rare". IGN. Archived from the original on 14 April 2013. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  26. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m DF Retro: Donkey Kong Country + Killer Instinct - A 16-Bit CG Revolution! (YouTube). Digital Foundry. 16 December 2017. Archived from the original on 11 December 2021. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
  27. ^ a b c d e f Undercover Lover 1994, p. 54.
  28. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v McFerren, Damien (27 February 2014). "Month of Kong: The making of Donkey Kong Country". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on 31 January 2016.
  29. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Hunt, Stuart (22 June 2021). ""Yes, we did go to the zoo and observe the gorillas": The making of Donkey Kong Country". GamesRadar+. Archived from the original on 11 June 2022. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  30. ^ a b c d Waugh, Eric-Jon Rossel (30 August 2006). "A short history of Rare". Bloomberg Businessweek. Archived from the original on 15 October 2016. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  31. ^ Parish, Jeremy. "10 interesting things about Donkey Kong". 1Up.com. Archived from the original on 23 June 2012. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  32. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Parish, Jeremy (21 November 2019). "Donkey Kong Country turns 25: Gaming's biggest bluff". USGamer. Archived from the original on 20 November 2020. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  33. ^ Mayles, Gregg [@Ghoulyboy] (14 August 2018). "'Country' was the code name Nintendo gave the game after visiting Rare. We were located in the picturesque and rural countryside, hence the name 'country'. Somehow it managed to end up part of the game's name!" (Tweet). Retrieved 11 September 2022 – via Twitter.
  34. ^ a b c d Zwiezen, Zack (25 November 2019). "Nintendo was worried Donkey Kong Country was 'too 3D'". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 23 September 2020. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
  35. ^ Sao, Akinori (2017). "Super Mario World & Yoshi's Island developer interview". Super NES Classic Edition. Nintendo. Archived from the original on 9 June 2021. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  36. ^ a b c d "Rarewhere: Donkey Kong Country". Rare. Archived from the original on 29 May 1998. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  37. ^ Palumbo & Kalb 1996, p. 92.
  38. ^ a b c d Gera, Emily (5 March 2014). "Synth, big band jazz and the remaking of Donkey Kong Country's amazing sound". Polygon. Archived from the original on 31 May 2022. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
  39. ^ a b Robinson, Andy (21 November 2019). "Donkey Kong Country team reflects on the game's 25th anniversary". Video Games Chronicle. Archived from the original on 31 January 2022. Retrieved 14 June 2022.
  40. ^ a b "Rare Vintage: Part One". Edge. 11 October 2010. pp. 1–2. Archived from the original on 17 October 2010. Retrieved 17 October 2022.
  41. ^ a b c Milne 2022, p. 18.
  42. ^ Milne 2022, p. 20.
  43. ^ Retro Gamer staff 2007, p. 20.
  44. ^ Undercover Lover 1994, p. 55.
  45. ^ Iwata, Satoru (1 December 2010). "Donkey Kong Country Returns - White-knuckled action". Iwata Asks. Archived from the original on 5 July 2022. Retrieved 4 July 2022.
  46. ^ Wood, Austin (19 January 2021). "Original Donkey Kong Country drafts reveal the characters that might have been". GamesRadar+. Archived from the original on 16 June 2022. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
  47. ^ Milne 2022, p. 18–20.
  48. ^ Nintendo 1994a, p. 27.
  49. ^ a b c d e f Wise, David (5 July 2019). Composer David Wise Dissects Donkey Kong Country's Best Music. Game Informer (YouTube). Archived from the original on 11 December 2021. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
  50. ^ a b c "Rare: Scribes". Rare. 21 December 2005. Archived from the original on 27 December 2005. Retrieved 13 June 2020. Let's see. Once he'd polished off the new DKC3 GBA score Dave found the time to dig up a full list, and it looks like this: Robin did Funky's Fugue, Eveline did Simian Segue, Candy's Love Song, Voices of the Temple, Forest Frenzy, Tree Top Rock, Northern Hemispheres and Ice Cave Chant, and the rest was the doing of Mr. Wise. Hot damn! It always makes me feel empowered when we can provide actual, genuine, non-fabricated information.
  51. ^ a b c d e f g h i King, Darryn (19 November 2024). "The Man Behind the Legendary Donkey Kong Country Soundtracks". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 19 November 2024. Retrieved 19 November 2024.
  52. ^ a b c d Greening, Chris (December 2010). "Interview with David Wise". Square Enix Music Online. Archived from the original on 15 January 2012.
  53. ^ a b c Wise, David (December 2004). "The Tepid Seat - Rare Music Team" (Interview). Rare. Archived from the original on 26 January 2007.
  54. ^ a b c d Yarwood, Jack (22 June 2021). "A 'Rare' interview with Donkey Kong Country composer Eveline Novakovic". FanByte. Archived from the original on 20 January 2022. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  55. ^ Beanland, Robin [@TheRealBeano] (22 February 2019). "Thanks 🙂 Yes it was originally written for an internal update/progress video for KI. @NintendoAmerica liked the track enough to use it for DKC promotion at E3...Tim loved it on the promo video and wanted it on the game. Here's the original version 🙂" (Tweet). Retrieved 13 June 2020 – via Twitter.
  56. ^ Gillen 1994, p. 70.
  57. ^ a b c d Kronke, David (15 October 1994). "It's gonna be a video jungle out there: Video-game stars Donkey Kong and Sonic the Hedgehog will battle it out with new games backed by tech advances and mega-marketing". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 18 September 2015. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
  58. ^ a b c d e Rogers, Tim (27 November 2019). "Let's remember Donkey Kong Country, 25 years later". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 2 June 2022. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
  59. ^ a b c d e Berube, Justin (9 September 2014). "Remembering Donkey Kong Country Exposed". Nintendo World Report. Archived from the original on 22 January 2021. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  60. ^ Fitzgerald, Kate (14 November 1994). "Videogames vie for online eyes: Sega, Nintendo, Acclaim finding target audience in front of computer screen". Ad Age. Archived from the original on 9 March 2018.
  61. ^ EGM staff 1995, p. 66.
  62. ^ Szczepaniak, John (30 September 2021). "Check out this forgotten Donkey Kong Country comic from the UK". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on 20 July 2022. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  63. ^ GamePro staff 1996, p. 12.
  64. ^ McFerren, Damien (21 November 2014). "Anniversary: 20 years ago today, Rare resurrected the Donkey Kong brand". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on 5 June 2020. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  65. ^ Miller, Zachary (30 March 2015). "Donkey Kong Country (Wii U VC) review mini". Nintendo World Report. Archived from the original on 5 June 2020. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  66. ^ Next Generation staff 1996, p. 45.
  67. ^ Billboard 1995, p. 77.
  68. ^ Nintendo 1994b, p. 12120032.
  69. ^ CVG staff 1995, p. 115.
  70. ^ a b Buchanan, Levi (20 March 2009). "Genesis vs. SNES: By the numbers". IGN. Archived from the original on 18 September 2018. Retrieved 12 June 2022.
  71. ^ Nintendo 1995, p. 01030008.
  72. ^ a b Pollack, Hilary (17 July 2020). "The 'Donkey Kong Country' soundtrack is better than Xanax". Vice. Archived from the original on 29 November 2020. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  73. ^ Gray, Kate (25 April 2022). "Feature: The best (and worst) selling games of Nintendo's biggest franchises". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on 30 May 2022. Retrieved 29 June 2022.
  74. ^ a b c CVG staff 1994, p. 54.
  75. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Semrad et al. 1994, p. 34.
  76. ^ Storm 1994, p. 33.
  77. ^ a b c d McDonnell 1995, p. 102.
  78. ^ Atko & Andy 1994, p. 39.
  79. ^ a b c d e f g Strauss, Bob (9 December 1994). "Donkey Kong Country". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 4 September 2018. Retrieved 4 June 2022.
  80. ^ a b Kopalny 1995, p. 58.
  81. ^ a b "First winner of "Favorite Video Game" in Nickelodeon's Kids' Choice Awards". Guinness World Records. 20 May 1995. Archived from the original on 4 April 2022. Retrieved 9 June 2022.
  82. ^ a b EGM staff 1994, p. 12–22.
  83. ^ GamePro staff 1994.
  84. ^ a b Video Games staff 1995, p. 44–46.
  85. ^ a b Storm 1994, p. 76.
  86. ^ a b c d e f Atko & Andy 1994, p. 38.
  87. ^ Storm 1994, p. 79.
  88. ^ a b c Atko & Andy 1994, p. 37.
  89. ^ a b Storm 1994, p. 78–80.
  90. ^ Nintendo Power staff 1994, p. 102.
  91. ^ Storm 1994, p. 81.
  92. ^ a b c d Storm 1994, p. 80.
  93. ^ a b c d e Atko & Andy 1994, p. 37–38.
  94. ^ Storm 1994, p. 80–81.
  95. ^ a b Scary Larry 1994, p. 52.
  96. ^ GamePro staff 1995, p. 155.
  97. ^ Machacek, Paul (11 March 2005). "Scribes". Rare. Archived from the original on 11 May 2006. Retrieved 18 June 2022.
  98. ^ Milne 2018, p. 64.
  99. ^ a b c d e f Goergen, Andy (12 February 2014). "Donkey Kong Country, through the years". Nintendo World Report. Archived from the original on 3 July 2020. Retrieved 29 May 2022.
  100. ^ The Feature Creature 1996, p. 41.
  101. ^ a b Milne 2018, p. 66.
  102. ^ Antista, Chris (14 October 2010). "New screens honor the legacy of Donkey Kong Country - but WHY?". GamesRadar+. Archived from the original on 5 January 2022. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
  103. ^ a b Retro Gamer staff 2007, p. 19.
  104. ^ EGM staff 1995, p. 68.
  105. ^ Kombo (4 May 2012). "Donkey Kong Country, Streets of Rage, New Adventure Island, The Legend of Kage". GameZone. Archived from the original on 6 June 2020. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  106. ^ Elston, Brett (28 April 2009). "17 videogame soundtracks ahead of their time". GamesRadar+. p. 3. Archived from the original on 13 October 2019. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  107. ^ Greening, Chris. "Super Donkey Kong Game Music CD - Jungle Fantasy :: Review by Chris". Square Enix Music Online. Archived from the original on 18 June 2024. Retrieved 20 November 2024.
  108. ^ Greening, Chris. "Donkey Kong Country Trilogy :: Review by Chris". Square Enix Music Online. Archived from the original on 21 June 2024. Retrieved 20 November 2024.
  109. ^ Scullion, Chris (1 November 2024). "Nintendo Music app: The full list of game soundtracks available so far". Video Games Chronicle. Archived from the original on 13 November 2024. Retrieved 2 November 2024.
  110. ^ "Donkey Kong Country (GBC / Game Boy Color) game profile I News, reviews, videos & screenshots". Nintendo Life. 31 May 2021. Archived from the original on 10 June 2022. Retrieved 15 July 2022.
  111. ^ IGN staff (25 July 2000). "Interrogating Rare's Game Boy team". IGN. Archived from the original on 25 October 2013. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  112. ^ a b Harris, Craig (22 November 2000). "Donkey Kong Country". IGN. Archived from the original on 6 June 2020. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  113. ^ Provo, Frank (17 May 2006). "Donkey Kong Country review". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 26 January 2018. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  114. ^ GameSpot Staff (5 January 2001). "Best and worst of 2000". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 13 February 2002.
  115. ^ "D.I.C.E. Awards By Video Game Details Donkey Kong Country". Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Archived from the original on 24 July 2023. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
  116. ^ CESA 2021, p. 167.
  117. ^ Provo, Frank (11 June 2003). "Donkey Kong Country review". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 1 October 2019. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  118. ^ "Go Banana's on Game Boy Advance". Nintendo Australia. 4 June 2003. Archived from the original on 28 June 2003. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  119. ^ a b Kosmina, Ben (5 September 2003). "Donkey Kong Country". Nintendo World Report. Archived from the original on 11 September 2019. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  120. ^ "Donkey Kong Country (GBA / Game Boy Advance) game profile I News, reviews, videos & screenshots". Nintendo Life. 21 March 2021. Archived from the original on 11 July 2022. Retrieved 15 July 2022.
  121. ^ a b c d e Harris, Craig (6 June 2003). "Donkey Kong Country". IGN. Archived from the original on 29 May 2022. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  122. ^ CESA 2021, p. 168.
  123. ^ Keiser, Joe (2 August 2006). "The century's top 50 handheld games". Next Generation. Archived from the original on 10 October 2007.
  124. ^ "Donkey Kong Country (SNES / Super Nintendo) game profile I News, reviews, videos & screenshots". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on 5 July 2020. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  125. ^ Schreier, Jason (26 February 2015). "Donkey Kong Country back on Wii U after mysterious two-year absence". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 26 January 2018. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  126. ^ Sirani, Jordan (26 February 2015). "Six Donkey Kong games arrive on Virtual Console". IGN. Archived from the original on 6 June 2020. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  127. ^ Hillier, Brenna (6 March 2016). "3DS Virtual Console gets SNES classics – Earthbound Donkey Kong Country, more". VG247. Archived from the original on 24 September 2016. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  128. ^ Soupporis, Aaron (27 September 2017). "SNES Classic Edition review: Worth it for the games alone". Engadget. Archived from the original on 31 May 2021. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  129. ^ Moon, Mariella (8 July 2020). "Nintendo Switch Online is adding 'Donkey Kong Country' this month". Engadget. Archived from the original on 12 June 2022. Retrieved 12 June 2022.
  130. ^ Castle 2014, p. 100–101.
  131. ^ a b Kelion, Leo (13 May 2014). "Sega v Nintendo: Sonic, Mario and the 1990's console war". BBC. Archived from the original on 2 July 2018. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
  132. ^ a b Taruc, Nelson (22 November 1999). "Donkey Kong 64 review". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 26 January 2018. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
  133. ^ a b c d GameSpy staff (19 September 2003). "25 most overrated games of all time". GameSpy. Archived from the original on 8 May 2006. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  134. ^ DiRienzo, David (18 May 2014). "Donkey Kong Country (Cartoon)". Hardcore Gaming 101. Archived from the original on 1 June 2022. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
  135. ^ Watts, Martin (23 February 2014). "Month of Kong: The making of Diddy Kong Racing". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on 1 June 2022. Retrieved 1 June 2022.
  136. ^ a b Marriott, Scott Alan. "Donkey Kong Country review (SNES)". AllGame. Archived from the original on 14 November 2014.
  137. ^ Harris, Craig (22 November 2000). "Donkey Kong Country". IGN. Archived from the original on 28 May 2022. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  138. ^ Mariott, Scott. "Donkey Kong Country". AllGame. Archived from the original on 14 November 2014. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  139. ^ Bramwell, Tom (3 June 2003). "Donkey Kong Country". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 1 October 2019. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  140. ^ DiRienzo, David (17 April 2015). "Donkey Kong Jungle Beat". Hardcore Gaming 101. Archived from the original on 13 August 2020. Retrieved 12 July 2020.
  141. ^ Electronic Gaming Monthly staff (4 April 2005). "The 10 most overrated games". 1Up.com. Archived from the original on 12 May 2012. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  142. ^ a b c Dransfield, Ian (2 December 2014). "Twenty years on, 'Donkey Kong Country' is still as terrible as it ever was". Vice. Archived from the original on 31 May 2022. Retrieved 31 May 2022.
  143. ^ "The 100 greatest games". Empire. 2009. p. 76. Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  144. ^ Moore, Bo; Schubak, Adam (15 March 2022). "The 100 greatest video games of all time". Popular Mechanics. p. 37. Archived from the original on 11 June 2022. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  145. ^ Polygon staff (29 November 2017). "The 500 best games of all time: 300-201". Polygon. Archived from the original on 30 March 2018. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  146. ^ Slant staff (9 June 2014). "100 greatest video games of all time". Slant. p. 4. Archived from the original on 17 July 2015. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  147. ^ Parish, Jeremy (10 May 2018). "The definitive ranking of Donkey Kong games". Polygon. Archived from the original on 3 April 2019. Retrieved 31 May 2022.
  148. ^ a b c Craddock, David (27 June 2017). "21 facts you might not know about all the games on the SNES Classic". Shacknews. Archived from the original on 16 June 2022. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
  149. ^ Harris, Craig (17 June 2010). "E3 2010: Shigeru Miyamoto likes Donkey Kong Country after all". IGN. Archived from the original on 27 June 2021. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  150. ^ Cifaldi, Frank [@frankcifaldi] (27 June 2019). "Sorry, they do talk about tech but there's nothing remotely like that in here" (Tweet). Retrieved 13 June 2020 – via Twitter.
  151. ^ Hernandez, Pedro (17 August 2011). "Donkey Kong Country 1 & 2". Nintendo World Report. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 1 June 2022.
  152. ^ Elston, Brett (30 September 2010). "Game music of the day: Vectorman". GamesRadar+. Archived from the original on 15 July 2022. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
  153. ^ Taborda, Zillion (27 December 2015). "Vectorman". Hardcore Gaming 101. Archived from the original on 27 September 2023. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
  154. ^ Buchanan, Levi (2 February 2009). "What hath Sonic wrought? Vol. 10". IGN. Archived from the original on 11 June 2022. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  155. ^ Moriarty, Colin (4 October 2013). "Rising to greatness: The history of Naughty Dog". IGN. Archived from the original on 26 November 2013. Retrieved 31 December 2013.
  156. ^ Gavin, Andy (5 February 2011). "Making Crash Bandicoot - part 4". All Things Andy Gavin. Archived from the original on 7 July 2011. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
  157. ^ Sao, Akinori (10 October 2017). "Kirby Super Star developer interview - SNES Classic Edition". Nintendo. Archived from the original on 17 August 2019. Retrieved 21 August 2019.
  158. ^ Mean Machines Sega staff 1996, p. 25.
  159. ^ Williams, Mike (29 May 2020). "Nothing wrong with playing it again". USgamer. Archived from the original on 22 October 2020. Retrieved 17 June 2022.
  160. ^ Ronaghan, Neal (21 June 2013). "Grinding Game Gears: An overview of Sonic's portable origins". Nintendo World Report. Archived from the original on 9 May 2019. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
  161. ^ Parkin, Simon (14 November 2011). "Rayman Origins review". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 17 June 2022. Retrieved 17 June 2022.
  162. ^ Priestman, Chris (28 July 2015). "Donkey Kong Country-inspired platformer Mekazoo will have tag team-style local co-op". Siliconera. Archived from the original on 17 June 2022. Retrieved 17 June 2022.
  163. ^ Peeples, Jeremy (26 March 2021). "Review: Kaze and the Wild Masks". Hardcore Gamer. Archived from the original on 17 June 2022. Retrieved 17 June 2022.
  164. ^ Hopkins, Matt (29 November 2019). "Gaming tunes that whip sack both in and out of their virtual worlds". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 10 June 2022. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  165. ^ a b IGN (6 August 2023). The Most Emotional Video Game Music in the Unlikeliest of Places. Archived from the original on 11 August 2023. Retrieved 12 August 2023 – via YouTube.
  166. ^ Power, Tom (7 December 2019). "As Donkey Kong 64 turns 20, the devs reflect on its design, the infamous DK Rap, and how a shocked Shigeru Miyamoto created the Coconut Shooter". GamesRadar+. Archived from the original on 14 June 2022. Retrieved 14 June 2022.
  167. ^ DiRienzo, David (17 April 2015). "Donkey Kong Country Returns". Hardcore Gaming 101. Archived from the original on 21 April 2022. Retrieved 14 June 2022.
  168. ^ Mejia, Ozzie (1 May 2018). "Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Nintendo Switch) review: Funky like a monkey". Shacknews. Archived from the original on 17 April 2021. Retrieved 14 June 2022.
  169. ^ Green, Jake (17 April 2019). "Super Smash Bros Ultimate music list - every song in Super Smash Bros Ultimate, full soundtrack". USGamer. Archived from the original on 15 January 2019. Retrieved 14 June 2022.
  170. ^ Reynolds, Shawn (29 October 2016). "New Donkey Kong Aquatic Ambience remix composed for video game music awards". Hardcore Gamer. Archived from the original on 11 June 2022. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  171. ^ Sorlie, Audun (6 November 2009). "Original Donkey Kong Country composers contribute to OverClocked ReMix's Serious Monkey Business". Original Sound Version. Archived from the original on 7 September 2021. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  172. ^ Sofka, Samantha (10 February 2014). "GameChops releases Club Kong: A modern jazz remix of Donkey Kong music". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on 11 June 2022. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  173. ^ Vishnevetsky, Ignatiy (7 January 2016). "Chill out with Donkey Kong Country". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on 29 June 2022. Retrieved 29 June 2022.
  174. ^ Reseigh-Lincoln, Dom (24 May 2018). "Random: Childish Gambino sampled Donkey Kong Country and David Wise definitely approves". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on 11 June 2022. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  175. ^ Gilbert, Henry (23 September 2014). "Nintendo trivia - 64 little known facts about the gaming giant". GamesRadar+. Archived from the original on 15 November 2023. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  176. ^ Davenport, James (28 June 2019). "Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is basically Donkey Kong Country on PC". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 31 May 2022. Retrieved 1 June 2022.
  177. ^ Dring, Christopher (14 June 2019). "Playtonic: "We are never using the term spiritual successor again"". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on 16 June 2019. Retrieved 1 June 2022.
  178. ^ McFerran, Damien (5 September 2017). "The latest game from the Stamper brothers feels like a Donkey Kong Country sequel". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on 16 June 2022. Retrieved 16 June 2022.

Works cited

[edit]
[edit]
Wikiquote has quotations related to Donkey Kong Country.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Donkey_Kong_Country&oldid=1259215446"