I will always contend that it's not Nintendo fans' fault for feeling this way. This is simply an epic fail on Nintendo's part in not making DK a household name for 20 years since the buyout. DK was their number 1 IP in the 1980s, and then it became their number 2 IP in the 1990s (although Zelda and Pokemon exploded in 1998 with those legendary titles), and now it's not even viewed by most Nintendo fans as a top 10 series. That's all on Nintendo, not the fans. DKCR was the only time a DK game released post-buyout that had the same impact in terms of critical, commercial, and most importantly, cultural relevance since DK64. DKCTF had the first two, but it never had the cultural relevance of DKCR. I guess returning to Country the first time around was a big deal, but the shine wore off the second time around.
I think the reason is that 2D platformers were essentially a dead genre in the 6th generation outside of the GBA and Jungle Beat on the GameCube. When New Super Mario Bros. came out on the DS it was incredible because everyone thought that we'd never get another Super Mario Bros. traditional sidescroller. Then DKCR came out to great fanfare and all the legacy games like Sonic, Mega Man, Rayman etc. got new 2D installments.
That's the power of having teams that consistently work on the IP! Mario has several teams and a full support studio dedicated to it, let alone Camelot mostly making Mario sports game and Next Level Games doing both Luigi's Mansion and Mario Strikers. HAL will always prioritize Kirby as its main brand given its success, even with smaller titles like BOXBOY and Part-Time UFO, and HAL also has Vanpool to help with spinoff material now. And we can see the effect with Xenoblade and Fire Emblem, which get to be the core projects for Monolift Soft and Intelligent Systems!
That's also true. If we had main games in conjunction with these then I think the brand would have been in a healthier space, but instead it felt like lots of experimentation with no core to build around. Even in the slower N64 and GameCube eras, Mario spinoffs could build themselves around Super Mario 64 or Super Mario Sunshine.
What I find kinda interesting there is that Nintendo seemingly did care enough about Rare's DK characters that they went ahead and provided modern redesigns for most of them and even made a few new characters, for contractors like Paon, Namco and even Rare themselves to use.
I dunno if I'd say K. Rool has surpassed Diddy in popularity - Diddy is still a very popular Smash character and that gives him a lot of visibility, and he's still in some spin-offs like Mario Kart Tour. K. Rool coming back after 10 years was just such a huge deal that it basically revived the fandom for him overnight, but he still hasn't appeared again since Smash so he's mostly popular in that specific context. If both Diddy and K. Rool continue to make frequent appearances in DK games, I think the "novelty" of K. Rool returning will wear off like it did with the Koopalings.
What I find kinda interesting there is that Nintendo seemingly did care enough about Rare's DK characters that they went ahead and provided modern redesigns for most of them and even made a few new characters, for contractors like Paon, Namco and even Rare themselves to use.
For example, remember those new Kremling OCs from Barrel Blast?
An old interview with Barrel Blast's dev team reveals that they were actually created in-house by Nintendo's character team.
You also have a weird case in the form of Tiny Kong, who got redesigned into being a teenager starting with Diddy Kong Racing DS. Rare had explicitly stated in a Scribes circa 2007 that it was Nintendo's decision to do so, so it all lines up.
Some of those so called "Paon designs" are still being used to this day, like Funky, Dixie and even K. Rool in Smash Bros. Speaking of which, you'll remember that Smash Brawl and Smash 4 had trophies of certain DKC characters with modernized appearances that never appeared anywhere else.
I suppose Nintendo had made these in the event that a contractor or developer wanted to make use of them...but I guess nobody got around to.
Maybe it's a controversial opinion, but I'd rather have Retro be the dedicated Metroid Prime studio. They seem to be the only studio capable since Bandai Namco allegedly was working on the cancelled build.
That's fair. My pet theory is that Cranky Kong is getting a big push and will be viewed as a major DK character in the next few years starting with his appearance in the Mario movie. I also think he'll be the next Smash DK character. Miyamoto apparently loves Cranky Kong behind the scenes
The thing is we don't even know if they'd be interested in more DK. I doubt they're disinterested, but like, both times they switched franchises, it was their own doing (from Metroid to DK, from ??? project to Prime 4).
Cranky would be great in Smash and he more than deserves it, but it would be hard to not be a little disappointed if Dixie got snubbed. She's still one of Nintendo's most iconic female leads and really should have been in Smash a while ago alongside K. Rool. Of course if both get in that would be fantastic (perhaps with Dixie as a semi-clone of Diddy, I don't think an Echo would really work), but DK content in Smash has historically been... slow, let's just say lol
I do find it interesting how people fixate on what percent of Retro's staff have been there 20+ years. I've never seen any other studio analyzed from that angle.
To some degree, I can't blame Retro, too much. Even if they were, again, playing in some one else's world, who would turn the chance to put your own stake down?
Outside of the weirdness with K. Rool/Kremlings, I'd say the lack of more returning Kongs and animal buddies from Rare's games was more on Retro just not being able to find decent gameplay application with them.
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I just don't think Retro will ever be truly happy until they have something of their own.
Quite honestly, the only reason I'd want K. Rool to be a villain again is because it means more Kremlings. Something that might not happen if he went good and a new baddie team was the focus again, and we've gone a loooooong time without seeing Krusha, Klump and co.
Me, that’s me. I would be happy to see K. Rool in any capacity but it’s been over 15 years since he was the villain of a DK game. We aren’t getting so many DK games that we can keep cycling through forgettable one-off villains and ignoring K. Rool. If we are looking at one DK game every 4-5 years and nothing else, this constant villain changing is so done. Nobody remembers or cares about the non-Syrup villains in Wario Land either.
Yeah, and for another comparison, in any of the Mario RPG games where Mario and Bowser team up, Bowser never pulls a fast one on Mario after the big bad of the game is defeated as far as I remember. Even in Sparks of Hope he just seems grouchy/embarrassed after he's done helping Mario and co. K. Rool seems like the kind of character that would be either disgusted at the idea of working with DK or deceptively nice until the bigger threat is defeated, then the façade ends and he'd immediately try to backstab the kongs
It’s crazy how Luigi’s Mansion became one of Nintendo’s biggest series overnight. Three successful console games (the last one being the highest selling Nintendo game ever made by a western dev AND outselling every non-BOTW Zelda), and an arcade game (I’ve played it, it’s pretty fun!).Adding a little bit of Sales Data here for context. I think the orange graph is especially powerful to assess the overall sales history of different franchises.
DONKEY KONG SALES
Blue = Home Console ; Yellow = Handheld Console ; Green = Hybrid Console
Titles marked with * lack official sales numbers
TOP 3 GAMES PER FRANCHISE
Blue = Home Console ; Yellow = Handheld Console ; Green = Hybrid Console
Top 3 Average Sales per Franchise
It's also crazy how 1 entry can push your IP up significantly in sales. BotW and New Horizons pushed both Zelda and Animal Crossing to the top in terms of highest selling Nintendo franchises.
