The game reintroduced the Donkey Kong series (alongside the 1994 Game Boy game released a few months prior) after a nearly decade-long hiatus, and in doing also introduced Donkey Kong's modern design, his supporting cast and enemies, setting, musical motifs, and the gameplay mechanics that most of the following Donkey Kong games as well as Donkey Kong's appearances in Mario spin-off titles would build upon. Donkey Kong Country also encourages players to find all Bonus Areas hidden in the game's level to attain 101% completion, a feature its sequels would greatly expand upon. Gameplay features include the ability to ride a variety of other animal characters after freeing them, the ability to pick up and throw Barrels to defeat enemies and uncover hidden passages, and puzzles involving moving throught gauntlet of moving suspended barrels. The player controls Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong (each with their own strengths and abilities) as they travel throughout a variety of linear levels in different environements. The game stars Donkey Kong and his sidekick Diddy Kong, as the two travel across Donkey Kong Island to recover their banana hoard, stolen by the Kremlings and their leader, King K. It was developed by Rareware and published by Nintendo. Super Nintendo Entertainment System - Nintendo Switch Online:ĭonkey Kong Country is a side-scrolling platform game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System released in November 1994. Super Famicom/ Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Virtual Console ( Wii, Wii U, New 3DS), Super NES Classic Edition, Super Nintendo Entertainment System - Nintendo Switch Online Donkey Kong Countryįor alternate box art, see the game's gallery. For Donkey Kong Classics, see Donkey Kong Classics. For information about Donkey Kong Circus, see Donkey Kong Circus. Like reliving gaming show nostalgia? Check out our entire catalog of Saturday Morning Cartoon recommendations."DKC" redirects here. Watch the first few below, if you can handle the hottest of messes. You can find all of the episodes today shoved on discs in your local RedBox. Somehow, with all of this going against it, the show was popular enough to warrant two seasons in the US and a prime spot in Japan. To top it all off, Donkey Kong somehow stood UPRIGHT like a HUMAN. The plot was just as bad, creating characters our of thin air and stories that went nowhere.
The voice acting was equally horrible, and the audio quality in general was well below even late 80s shows. The visuals looked dated almost instantly, and could probably be recreated on the last couple of console generations in real time with ease. DKC suffered from that, featuring not only horribly disjointed motion capture, but primitive (no pun intended) polygons and textures.
The only problem: no one actually knew how to do it. The original Toy Story film debuted the year prior to the show’s release, and everyone wanted a piece of the new visual craze. However, computer animation was still in its infancy.
When the game wowed the industry, Nintendo partnered up to create the show. The game that the show was based on, Donkey Kong Country, was itself a venture in cgi-turned pixel art, bringing incredible visuals to the then aging 16-bit Super Nintendo.
The TV series, which debuted in France just before Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie’s Kong Quest hit retail shelves in 1996, tried to capitalize on the growing trend of computer animation replacing traditional hand-drawn animation. Nintendo has a long history of cartoons in the US, but perhaps none have been more divisive (and perhaps groundbreaking) than Donkey Kong Country.