Donkey Kong (universe): Difference between revisions

The hiatus for Donkey Kong was definitively ended later that year, however, thanks to the efforts of the British developer [[Rare Ltd.]] Rare sought out a partnership with Nintendo as a second-party developer and appealed to them with their work at Silicon Graphics, Inc. in the field of pre-rendered three-dimensional graphics in animated sprite form, and Nintendo consented to Rare developing a new game centered on Donkey Kong using this technology. Rare adopted the trademark name "Rareware" and released ''{{s|mariowiki|Donkey Kong Country}}'' for the SNES in November 1994. The side-scrolling platformer received widespread critical acclaim and became the second best-selling SNES game in the system's lifespan, and was revolutionary for being one of the first games for a mainstream home video game console to use pre-rendered 3D graphics. Rareware debuted the familiar modern-day design of Donkey Kong with the game, which included his trademark red necktie (which was actually introduced in the aforementioned Game Boy ''Donkey Kong''), and introduced a full supporting cast of side-characters and enemies that were owned by Rareware themselves during their affiliation with Nintendo. The most well-known of these new side characters is [[Diddy Kong]], Donkey Kong's "little buddy". Originally intended to be a redesign of Donkey Kong Jr., the character came into his own after Nintendo expressed concern with how drastically different his design had become (Donkey Kong Jr., oddly enough, was forever relegated to incredibly scarce cameo appearances in future ''Mario'' games following this).

Donkey Kong remained a regular in ''Mario'' games as always, and his contributions have included the full ''[[mariowiki:Mario vs. Donkey Kong (series)|Mario vs. Donkey Kong]]'' series of puzzle games that pay homage to the original ''Donkey Kong'' coin-op's scenario. The characters and setting originally introduced by Rareware and associated with the ''Donkey Kong Country'' brand have also made fairly regular appearances in games published by Nintendo, but are largely developed by a variety of second-party developers: the Paon Corporation developed the Game Boy Advance puzzle game ''{{s|mariowiki|DK: King of Swing}}'' and its Nintendo DS sequel ''{{s|mariowiki|DK: Jungle Climber}}'', as well as the Wii racer ''{{s|mariowiki|Donkey Kong Barrel Blast}}''; [[Namco]], meanwhile, developed all three titles in the ''{{s|mariowiki|Donkey Konga}}'' series of GameCube rhythm games that use a unique bongo drum-themed peripheral for input (a peripheral also used as a controller for the Nintendo-developed GameCube platformer ''{{s|mariowiki|Donkey Kong Jungle Beat}}'').

 

Throughout the 2000’s, the mainline ''Donkey Kong'' series has been on hiatus not unlike the buildup to Rare’s SNES trilogy. The second hiatus for the ''Donkey Kong'' franchise came to an end when Texas developer [[Retro Studios]] was approached by Nintendo and Miyamoto to produce a new ''Donkey Kong Country'' game. Having concluded their saga with the ''Metroid Prime'' trilogy, along with core staff leaving the studio to pursue other interests, Retro jumped at the chance to revitalize another neglected Nintendo franchise. The result of these efforts was ''{{s|mariowiki|Donkey Kong Country Returns}}'', a return to the sidescrolling gameplay style of ''Donkey Kong Country'' released for the Wii in 2010. Critical reception to this game was incredibly positive, with points of praise going to the level design and challenge while criticism was aimed at the sometimes disruptive motion controls. A port of ''Returns'' by Monster Games was released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2013 featuring an easier difficulty and additional exclusive levels. Following the Wii version’s success, Retro Studios felt there were many opportunities to seize on with a sequel on more powerful hardware. As such a direct sequel, ''{{s|mariowiki|Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze}}'', was released for the Wii U in February 2014. Reception was far stronger to ''Tropical Freeze'' than it was to ''Returns'', with points of praise going to the more ingenious level design, impressive visuals, and musical score by original series composer David Wise. The game was rereleased for the Nintendo Switch in May 2018 with a new easier difficulty and featuring Funky Kong as a playable character. Since the Switch port’s release, Retro Studios has had no plans for a third ''Donkey Kong Country'' game as the team has since shifted focus to developing ''Metroid Prime 4'' for the Nintendo Switch.