Donkey Kong Country

, Diddy Kong (behind him there is Donkey Kong) jumps on a Kremling in the game's first level, Jungle Hijinks. Donkey Kong Country is a side-scrolling platform game. its story begins when the crocodile King K. Rool and his army, the Kremlings, steal the Kongs' banana hoard, 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. Some feature unique game mechanics, such as rideable minecarts, blasting out of cannons resembling barrels, and swinging ropes. Each area ends with a boss fight with a large enemy. 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 assumes control of the other. They will only be able to control that Kong unless they free the other Kong from a barrel. In certain levels, the Kongs can free an animal that grants them special abilities, similar to Yoshi from the Super Mario series. The player can increase their completion percentage by finding bonus stages. Reaching the maximum 101 per cent unlocks a different ending. Donkey Kong Country includes two multiplayer modes. In the competitive "Contest", players take turns playing each level as quickly as possible. In the cooperative "Team", they play as a tag team. ==Development==

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. After Nintendo rejected their efforts to form a partnership in 1983, Chris Stamper studied the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) hardware for six months. Rare demonstrated it was possible to reverse-engineer the NES and showed several tech demos to Nintendo of America president Minoru Arakawa; impressed, Arakawa granted Rare a Nintendo developer licence. Rare developed more than 60 NES games, including the Battletoads series. 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. The move made Rare the most technologically advanced UK developer and situated them high in the international market. impressing Nintendo. The franchise had been largely dormant since the unsuccessful Donkey Kong 3 (1983), so Nintendo figured that licensing it posed minimal risk. Other titles considered included Rumble in the Jungle, Monkey Mayhem, and Donkey Kong and the Golden Bananas. Miyamoto was still involved with the project and Rare said he provided crucial input. Nintendo is usually highly protective of their intellectual properties, but was relatively uninvolved with Donkey Kong Country, leaving most of the work to Rare. The level locales were inspired by the films Return of the Jedi (1983) and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984). Rare featured barrels as a primary game mechanic to pay homage to the original arcade game, and included hidden collectibles like coins and balloons to add depth. Diddy Kong originated from Rare's search for a game mechanic akin to Super Mario 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". Characters and story Kevin Bayliss was in charge of redesigning Donkey Kong. He wanted a character that looked believable and could perform animations like pounding his chest. 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's designs were in the style of his Battletoads work, and the final design's eyes came from those of the Battletoads. though it was mentioned in the instruction manual. Rare created each character using Donkey Kong's model as a base and made the Kong designs consistent to reflect that they were relatives. but Nintendo asked them to use original characters. They recycled the Kremlings from Johnny Blastoff and the Kremling Armada, a cancelled Monkey Island-style adventure game. 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. Wise worked separately from the team in a former cattle shed, visited occasionally by Tim Stamper. 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. 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. so Wise adopted it. ==Release==

Marketing Lincoln unveiled Donkey Kong Country at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago, which took place from 23 to 25 June 1994. 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.—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. Exposed, hosted by comedian Josh Wolf, provides a "behind-the-scenes" glimpse of the Treehouse, the Nintendo of America division where games are tested. Nintendo gave away Donkey Kong T-shirts as a pre-order bonus, Context (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). 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". In Japan, the game was released under the title Super Donkey Kong. Donkey Kong Country set the record for the fastest-selling video game at the time: it sold over 500,000 copies within a week, 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 15 million, outpacing the week's highest-grossing film (The Santa Clause, 11.5 million) and album (Miracles: The Holiday Album, 5.2 million). In the UK, it was the top-selling SNES game in November 1994. Donkey Kong Country sold six million copies worldwide in its first holiday season, grossing in worldwide sales revenue. Cumulative sales reached 9.3 million copies. Based on available sales figures, it is the third-bestselling SNES game ==Reception==

Donkey Kong Country received critical acclaim and was lauded as a paradigm shift that set new standards for video games. It received perfect scores from several outlets. Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) called Donkey Kong Country "one of the few games that is actually as good as the hype", and Total! declared it the best game of 1994. GameFan said that Donkey Kong Country set a new quality standard that many developers would attempt to imitate. The visuals were considered the best aspect. Reviewers considered them a major technological achievement, their detail unprecedented for a 16-bit game. EGM said that the graphical quality prompted questions about the purpose of 32- and 64-bit hardware. Total! said the character animations surpassed those of a Disney film and applauded the parallax scrolling. Several critics said the graphics were the best on available hardware, with Entertainment Weekly writing that they were comparable to matte paintings. ==Post-release==

In April 1995, following Donkey Kong Country success, Nintendo purchased a 25% minority stake in Rare, which increased to 49% over time. Rare began developing concepts for a Donkey Kong Country sequel during production, and Nintendo green-lit the project immediately after the success. ''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, with a theme reflecting Gregg Mayles' fascination with pirates. Like its predecessor, ''Diddy's Kong Quest'' was a major critical and commercial success. Other teams at Rare used Donkey Kong Country 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 visuals and gameplay on the handheld Game Boy. It was one of the earliest video game soundtrack albums released in the United States. The Japanese soundtrack CD, 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. 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. 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. The port was developed alongside the GBC version of Perfect Dark and many assets, including graphics and audio, were re-used from the Donkey Kong Land games. 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. The GBC version was a runner-up for GameSpots annual Best Game Boy Color Game and Best Platform Game awards, and during the 4th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated it for the "Console Family" award. It sold 2.19 million copies worldwide. 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. 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. It adds a new animated introductory cutscene, 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. In September 2012, the game was delisted from the Virtual Console for unknown reasons, though Kotaku Jason Schreier suggested it may have been related to licensing problems with Rare. Donkey Kong Country returned to the Wii U's Virtual Console in February 2015 and was added to the New Nintendo 3DS' Virtual Console in March 2016. It was included in the Super NES Classic Edition, a dedicated console released by Nintendo in September 2017, and was released on the Nintendo Switch via the Nintendo Classics service in July 2020. ==Legacy==

Donkey Kong Countrys visual appeal helped the SNES remain popular in a period of uncertainty for cartridge-based games. 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, and Diddy Kong starred in a Nintendo 64 racing game spin-off, Diddy Kong Racing (1997). 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 16th anniversary in 2010. A sequel, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze'', was released for the Wii U in 2014. Retrospective assessments (pictured in 2015), disliked Donkey Kong Country. and Jeuxvideo.com said they had offered a new depth of realism. IGN and AllGame said the visuals remained impressive for the SNES (though IGN thought they were no longer as significant a draw), while GameSpot thought the graphics rivalled 32-bit consoles. Conversely, USGamer said that, though technically impressive, they did not age well, with "cringe-inducing", "paper-thin backgrounds". 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. but criticised the GBA version's downgrades, which IGN considered detrimental to the experience. and it was often described as one of the most overrated video games. For example, Vice wrote that it did not deserve to be considered a classic and, alongside GameSpy, called its gameplay unremarkable and lacking depth. According to IGN, critics accused Donkey Kong Country of "sacrificing gameplay for the sake of a short-run attention grab and quick impulse sales", Its soundtrack is considered one of the best in games, praised for its atmosphere and diversity. However, 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. Miyamoto denied this in 2010, noting he "was very involved" in Donkey Kong Country and had corresponded with Stamper throughout development. In 2014, USGamer described Kent's claims as "seemingly apocryphal", Influence Donkey Kong Country exerted "revolutionary influence", according to GameSpot. 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. Sega commissioned BlueSky Software to develop the Mega Drive game Vectorman (1995) in response to Donkey Kong Country popularity. Many developers imitated the visuals; 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". Crash 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. The pre-rendered visuals inspired other games, including Kirby Super Star (1996) and ''Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island (1996), and critics have identified Donkey Kong Country references or influence in games such as the Mega-CD version of Earthworm Jim (1995), Sonic Blast (1996), Rayman Origins (2011), Mekazoo (2016), and Kaze and the Wild Masks (2021). 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. Wise's soundtrack was considered highly influential, developing a cult following for his work. IGN said Donkey Kong Country contributed to an increased appreciation for video game music as an art form, and The New York Times called it the video game equivalent to the Beatles' Revolver (1966). and in crossover games such as Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. fighting series. Its tracks are often remixed, Wise contributing to an OverClocked ReMix album in 2004. "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, Glover sampled it in his 2012 song "Eat Your Vegetables", to which Wise expressed approval. Donkey Kong Country established Rare as one of the leading video game developers visual appeal, and tech demo-like design. though Playtonic's head Gavin Price declined to label it a spiritual successor. 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. ==Notes==