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StarTopic Donkey Kong Community |ST| No Country For Old Kongs

Yeah this the least concerned I've been about Donkey Kong since the buyout was announced which is weird to admit. The game will come when it comes.


This was an interesting article where Seth Rogen compared a Donkey Kong movie to the Fast & Furious where a DK movie could also be about family (and maybe racing?). It's interesting how Seth used another Universal IP being the Fast series as the comparison for a DK movie. I believe a DK movie is already in the works as was reported back in 2021 by Giant Freaking Robot and Hyle so is it possible Seth could be hinting at this movie with these comments? Will karts still be heavily involved? Maybe Universal wants to make a kid friendly version of the Fast series. Only time will tell
 
Yeah this the least concerned I've been about Donkey Kong since the buyout was announced which is weird to admit. The game will come when it comes.


This was an interesting article where Seth Rogen compared a Donkey Kong movie to the Fast & Furious where a DK movie could also be about family (and maybe racing?). It's interesting how Seth used another Universal IP being the Fast series as the comparison for a DK movie. I believe a DK movie is already in the works as was reported back in 2021 by Giant Freaking Robot and Hyle so is it possible Seth could be hinting at this movie with these comments? Will karts still be heavily involved? Maybe Universal wants to make a kid friendly version of the Fast series. Only time will tell
Giant Freaking Robot isn't a good source at all
 
I liked the limited father son bonding we got with DK and Cranky in the Mario movie, would be great to see more of that plus all the other members of the kong crew/family. I'd also want Wrinkly to be present or at least acknowledged
 
Yeah this the least concerned I've been about Donkey Kong since the buyout was announced which is weird to admit. The game will come when it comes.


This was an interesting article where Seth Rogen compared a Donkey Kong movie to the Fast & Furious where a DK movie could also be about family (and maybe racing?). It's interesting how Seth used another Universal IP being the Fast series as the comparison for a DK movie. I believe a DK movie is already in the works as was reported back in 2021 by Giant Freaking Robot and Hyle so is it possible Seth could be hinting at this movie with these comments? Will karts still be heavily involved? Maybe Universal wants to make a kid friendly version of the Fast series. Only time will tell

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(the reference to FAST made me think live action)
 
I liked the limited father son bonding we got with DK and Cranky in the Mario movie, would be great to see more of that plus all the other members of the kong crew/family. I'd also want Wrinkly to be present or at least acknowledged
Peach's seat in the Ring of Kong certainly looked like a seat for the Queen of the Jungle Kingdom. An idea that I think would be great for a DK movie is that Wrinkly died when DK was young and that's the reason Cranky is so cranky bc he misses his wife and DK and Cranky's relationship become complicated bc of this tragedy. Sort of like Carl in Up
 
I don't think there's much to worry about anymore. I think DK is returning and fairly soon.

LOVE your Rouge avatar by the way!
Thanks! And I agree, but I'm also nervous about what it looks like. The next DK game coming out will pretty much set the tone for brand going forward for the next while. I hope it's something that pulls more from the Rare era than the Retro games, as great as they are.
 
This was an interesting article where Seth Rogen compared a Donkey Kong movie to the Fast & Furious where a DK movie could also be about family (and maybe racing?). It's interesting how Seth used another Universal IP being the Fast series as the comparison for a DK movie. I believe a DK movie is already in the works as was reported back in 2021 by Giant Freaking Robot and Hyle so is it possible Seth could be hinting at this movie with these comments? Will karts still be heavily involved? Maybe Universal wants to make a kid friendly version of the Fast series. Only time will tell
I do agree that one of the biggest differences between Mario and DK is the latter's strength (or at least, historically) of their extended cast and world, and a movie should freely indulge in such.

Hell, the racing thing could even be a motif that works, thanks especially to Diddy Kong Racing being something that could be mined for ideas as much as it feasibly can be before Microsoft starts taking notice!
 
Fairly sure it hasn't been right yet either. And you'd also have to not count the entire years long "I Believe in Kevin Callahan" saga, which I'm pretty sure at least started non-ironic...
Funnily enough you're right. Both things can be true at the same time. That's more because we haven't gotten a new game since 2014 so no one's been able to be "right" or "wrong" yet. Hyle did mention that the reason DK and Cranky were in the Mario movie once the cast was announced was to spin off a DK movie down the line and while I came to that conclusion myself prior to seeing the movie, I don't think anyone could've guessed that DK would become the 3rd protagonist of the movie at the midway point after Mario and Peach. While this hasn't been proven yet, to me at least it's painfully obvious a DK movie is in the works.

I don't know what the Kevin Callahan Saga is though. Only been a Kongversation listener since 2018
 
Funnily enough you're right. Both things can be true at the same time. That's more because we haven't gotten a new game since 2014 so no one's been able to be "right" or "wrong" yet. Hyle did mention that the reason DK and Cranky were in the Mario movie once the cast was announced was to spin off a DK movie down the line and while I came to that conclusion myself prior to seeing the movie, I don't think anyone could've guessed that DK would become the 3rd protagonist of the movie at the midway point after Mario and Peach. While this hasn't been proven yet, to me at least it's painfully obvious a DK movie is in the works.

I don't know what the Kevin Callahan Saga is though. Only been a Kongversation listener since 2018
My point is that I'm pretty sure they have yet to share insider knowledge on something that has actually happened before it happened, and that makes them as reliable a source as me saying "I knew K. Rool was going to be in Smash because my uncle works at Nintendo".

Kevin Callahan was a thing from 2014. It was just some guy's blog post where he talked about a new Diddy Kong Racing, and nothing he said ever came true, but Hyle was at least initially really reluctant to dismiss it as a hoax, so "I believe in Kevin Callahan" and some of the specific lines from the blog post became a running joke from the show for a few years. And the thing is, looking back on it, this is really similar to the kind of rumors the Kongversation claims to verify now, so that gives me further reason to be skeptical. Basically, no offense to Hyle, but I'm not convinced he isn't being fed bullshit ala Star Fox Grand Prix or Kevin Callahan because a lot of the stuff that comes out of the Kongversation doesn't sound believable to me.
 
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I'm sure Hyle is in good faith, but I doubt some of his claims. The whole "Retro wanted Rool as Tropical Freeze Switch final boss, Sakurai said no" rumor is too specific, and it's hard to believe a random guy would know so much about the decisions taken by higher-ups in Japan. The idea that Nintendo wanted to separate the Donkey Kong and Super Mario brand seemed plausible. However, I think the opposite is happening, looking at the LEGO sets where Donkey Kong is a sort of "sub-brand" of Super Mario.

Also, @PikminSnezkov is claiming that the VV DK rumor is false. To be fair, Snezkov doesn't have a track record either, but I also believe he's in good faith.
2a. During the SNES era, DK was attempted to be rebooted by Miyamoto under the title "Super Donkey" which we learned about from the Nintendo Gigaleak. That game was cancelled and later reformed into Yoshi's Island after Rare came in and blew Nintendo away with their ACM graphics and they chose DK as the series they wanted to work on and a 3rd party became the home of DK.
Slightly OT, but the main creative force behind Super Donkey wasn't Miyamoto, but Shigefumi Hino (Pikmin and Yoshi co-creator). I extensively wrote about it here, citing various interviews. The gist of it is: Miyamoto wanted Hino to start developing his own game, Hino started experimenting with various characters and prototypes including Super Donkey (but in the same folders from the Gigaleak, we also had this jaw-dropping walking cycle of Link), and ultimately they went with Yoshi's Island. I don't think they started Yoshi's Island after Rare proposed Donkey Kong Country -- by all accounts, Rare chose DK because Miyamoto's team wasn't working with him.

Miyamoto:

In 1994, the president of a company called Rare came to us and said, "You are busy with a lot of franchises like Mario and Zelda, you can't have the time to work on Donkey Kong anymore, can you? Let us handle it." I then replied that they could do it if they could create something of high quality, and they came back with this awesome CG... And so I gave them the OK. Rare's first title was Donkey Kong Country and I think that had quite an impact. The dynamic movement is what is so good about it. It also feels like Rare breathed new life into the Donkeys with their CG. I think that not only could we safely trust them with the franchise, but we were blessed with having them do it because they are the kind of group with the technology that they even had all their dev tools done and ready before development began. Yeah, those guys researched Nintendo games, and then made a "Nintendo-like game" for us. For instance, it felt kind of like an homage to us that right at the beginning of the game you could find a secret by going backwards instead of forwards. (laughs)
 
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Not calling the "K Rool got cut from the TF port due to Smash" thing 100% truth or BS, but my personal belief is that it's most likely a game of telephone tampering some details along the way from Nintnedo to DK Vine. I theorize that Retro wanted to include K Rool as an extra boss, but Nintendo said no, not to keep him for Smash, but to simply release the TF port quicker. Meanwhile, Sakurais team was working on Smash, and K. Rool was probably a very high priority character due to his ballot popularity. So when K. Rool got cut from TF, with a Smash appearance in the pipeline, some people internally may have came to the conclusion that the reason was because of Smash and only Smash.

I don't have that much input on Kevin Callahan, I watched a few kongversation episodes back in that era but wasn't paying that much attention to the leaks at that time. But there was definitely some talk of VVs DK (outside of DK Vine) before DK Vine went public with it. Yes there's the chance that everyone's being japed by a mastermind troll that was screwing with at least dozens of people, but I personally consider that a very small chance
 
Everything I base my beliefs on is simply due to the gargantuan multimedia push DK is receiving, which is frankly unprecedented for any video game franchise, especially one that is seemingly dormant to the outside. Theme parks sections in 2 or 3 locations, significant presence in the Mario movie, LEGO DK, and a rumored solo movie are far more evidence that DK is getting a new game than frankly any other video game franchise getting rumors or leaks atm. Star Fox Grand Prix for example didn't have any other evidence outside of reputable leakers claiming to have heard about it. I don't follow the cult of personality leakers and view what they say as gospel. The evidence for a massive DK push is clear as day to me at least. Since the evidence is so overwhelming, I just tend to believe what seems most plausible and VV making DK and then it getting cancelled and moving in house simply seems the most plausible.

Considering Nintendo inked the deal in 2015 w/ Universal with Mario being Phase 1 of their multimedia push, with DK being saved as a Phase 2 expansion, I simply don't believe that there was absolutely nothing in development between 2015 and whenever EPD took over in 2018 or so. Maybe you could write that off as Nintendo putting DK on the backburner to ensure the Switch launch was successful, but even then I don't necessarily believe that either.

The Mario and DK brands being split thing is something I suppose you could say Hyle was wrong about. However, I think you could say he was both right and wrong about it. What I mean is that out of all the LEGO sets, DK is the only one with the "Donkey Kong" branding on it. Something not afforded to Luigi's Mansion and Yoshi stuff. Also, Miyamoto claiming that "even though this is a Mario movie, Donkey Kong will be making an appearance" is also Miyamoto acknowledging that they're separate, but have a shared lineage. Donkey Kong will also have his own merch seperate from Mario in SNW via the Funky's Fly and Buy shop. The long and the short of it is the best way to view the DK and Mario franchises are that they're sister franchises and part of a greater universe. The best comparison I've heard is Superman and Batman where they have their own locales, their own villains, their own cast, and their own stories, but they crossover all the time. There's even a Batman vs. Superman comic series and movie similar to Mario vs. Donkey Kong. No one views Batman as lesser than Superman or vice versa and the same should be applicable to Mario and DK
 
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Also, have you ever thought about how Miyamoto felt the need to point out DK's redesign in the movie for no reason? Like.. everyone suffered redesigns for the movie, from minor adjustments to more drastic changes; Bowser likely is the one more distant from his game design than most, and Miyamoto decided to talk about DK.. making also a point of the 40th Anniversary of the series.

Then.. we have Chunky and Swanky handpicked to appear in the movie; small appearences, sure, but they SPECIFICALLY picked two Kongs that haven't appeared in any games (besides remakes) for more than 20 years out of the blue.. The movie would be the exact same with the usual suspects chosen (DK, Diddy, Dixie and Cranky), but they for some reason decided to throw us a bone there.. we only have Kiddy missing for a modern appearence now
 
I don't have that much input on Kevin Callahan, I watched a few kongversation episodes back in that era but wasn't paying that much attention to the leaks at that time. But there was definitely some talk of VVs DK (outside of DK Vine) before DK Vine went public with it. Yes there's the chance that everyone's being japed by a mastermind troll that was screwing with at least dozens of people, but I personally consider that a very small chance
This is exactly what I was alluding to when I mentioned Star Fox Grand Prix. There's a precedent for Nintendo rumors that get talked about by "insiders" for years and then never come to fruition. Obviously Vicarious Visions Donkey Kong isn't happening, but I have a hard time believing it ever was.
 
Theme parks sections in 2 or 3 locations, significant presence in the Mario movie, LEGO DK, and a rumored solo movie are far more evidence that DK is getting a new game than frankly any other video game franchise getting rumors or leaks atm.
All of this that Kuthroat is saying makes me believe that this new DK game will have a release range of it either being out in Fall 2023 to Summer 2024 which is when the Universal Japan park opens. I do think that we are at least a year's away from the game getting released, since I bet that Nintendo may want to have a new DK out on Switch in preparation for the park. It doesn't make sense at all for the park to open and to still rely on the Switch port of Tropical Freeze as people's main option for DK on Switch afterall...
 
All of this that Kuthroat is saying makes me believe that this new DK game will have a release range of it either being out in Fall 2023 to Summer 2024 which is when the Universal Japan park opens. I do think that we are at least a year's away from the game getting released, since I bet that Nintendo may want to have a new DK out on Switch in preparation for the park. It doesn't make sense at all for the park to open and to still rely on the Switch port of Tropical Freeze as people's main option for DK on Switch afterall...
tbf it's not thanks to our beloved NSO. would love dk64 NSO and a returns dx remake tho.
 
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Would love an interactive LEGO DK, Diddy, and Dixie figure like Mario, Luigi, and Peach. Maybe we can at least get a DK one if this line does well. 🤞
 
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Welp.. speaking of DK Vine.. forum is officially dead :\


Hyle and his team are promising a new place for us soon enough, but now, we are all refugees here at Famiboards!.. The old boards will remain as read-only archival though
Damn, end of an era. At least the archives are still there. A lot of good memories back in the day... and some not so good ones lol.

I thought it would be because of hosting issues, but learning it's because of an old internet tech issue is... well, it's something alright. Probably won't bother signing back up for the forum. I've barely posted in the last decade, mostly to celebrate K. Rool getting into Smash.
 
Welp.. speaking of DK Vine.. forum is officially dead :\


Hyle and his team are promising a new place for us soon enough, but now, we are all refugees here at Famiboards!.. The old boards will remain as read-only archival though
Well, that explains why no one has been posting anything this month...

My final record is 6399 posts, making me the 13th most prolific poster in DK Vine history. Don't be like me, kids. (Actually that doesn't even seem to be a particularly impressive number on this much younger forum, so maybe I don't have as much of a problem as I thought...)
 
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I'm definitely gonna sign up for the new forum, but I've always been more of a lurker. Lately I was posting there a bit more, since the movie and the rumors of the new game has ignited more substantial conversations there;

But I'm always interested on seeing people talk about lore and their interpretations on DKU as well
 
I'm definitely gonna sign up for the new forum, but I've always been more of a lurker. Lately I was posting there a bit more, since the movie and the rumors of the new game has ignited more substantial conversations there;

But I'm always interested on seeing people talk about lore and their interpretations on DKU as well

I've always been a bit more of a lurker as well on DK Vine, mainly due to the fact that I'm a bit shy online and that I will accidentally break the rules on there.
 
I've got a habit of being on game forums way more often during specualtion/prerelease periods, then dropping out after the game the forum focuses about releases. I was on Smashboards just about everyday during the Smash 4 dlc and Ultimate hype cycles. But the actual games/dlc released, I shifted my time to playing the games, then moving on. I'll stick around on DK Vines new forum but by the next DK game releases I'll probably just be an occasional visitor/lurker. Though, if we get into the timeline where's there's consistent DK/DKU stuff to speculate and hype over all the time, then I'd definitely still be a regular
 
I discovered DKVine in 2015. I was super hyped about Yooka-Laylee’s release and couldn’t get enough info. I stumbled across an interview w/ Chris Sutherland on this podcast called the “Kongversation”. I thought to myself, “Wait. There’s a Donkey Kong podcast?” I then casually listened to the Kongversation over the years and lurked on the forums over the years. I was heavy into following Smash Ultimate speculation and lurked on the K. Rool Smashboards thread. Once K. Rool was confirmed for Smash, I got the courage to create a DKVine forum account to share my love for the series since it’s my favorite franchise ever and this was a monumental moment.

I’ll still post on the new DKVine forums and this forum occasionally bc I simply love DK and don’t have anyone in my life that feels the same lol so I have to find likeminded Kong lovers online to share my enthusiasm with.
 
Minus will talk about a personal project that relates to the rumored Donkey Kong EPD game that I've been doing for about a year now. Starting back in November 21st, 2021, I started a goal where I go through a bunch of Donkey Kong games that I never played up until that point starting with the original Donkey Kong Country. So far, the progress that I made is this:

DKC:
Started on November 21st, 2021, finished on December 19th, 2021
DKC 2:
Started on April 17th, 2022, finished on May 30th, 2022
DKC 3: Started on July 9th, finished on August 26th, 2022
DKL:
Started on September 17th, 2022, finished on October 23rd, 2022
DKL 2:
Started on October 31th, 2022, finished on December 8th, 2022
DKC III:
Started on December 12th, 2022, finished on January 4th, 2023
DK 64:
Started on January 5th, 2023, currently playing through it.

The rest of the games that I will play will depend on when the new DK game will release; those games being...

DK: King of Swing
DK: Jungle Climber
DKCR 3D
DKCTF (Switch) (Replay)

The latter two games are likely going to be next after I finished DK 64 and when the Nintendo Direct will inevitably happen in June. Anyways, I am wondering how all of you feel about this project I am doing.
 
I've got a habit of being on game forums way more often during specualtion/prerelease periods, then dropping out after the game the forum focuses about releases. I was on Smashboards just about everyday during the Smash 4 dlc and Ultimate hype cycles. But the actual games/dlc released, I shifted my time to playing the games, then moving on. I'll stick around on DK Vines new forum but by the next DK game releases I'll probably just be an occasional visitor/lurker. Though, if we get into the timeline where's there's consistent DK/DKU stuff to speculate and hype over all the time, then I'd definitely still be a regular
I can probably say 60% of my posts on DKVine are Smash or Smash-adjacent. Same with Smashboards (I originally registered an account to help show support for K. Rool being a DLC fighter in Smash 4, way before the ballot even). Smash speculation tends to turn me into an insane person but when the game/content drops there is much less to talk about outside of technical stuff. I think forums about a specific series, it’s hard for me to stay plugged in every day for years on end. It’s easier to be more active in a forum focused on a broader topic like this.
 
Dang. Sorry to hear about the old DKVine forum going down. I was on there a fair bit before and around the release of DKC Returns with the username Stuart. I would pop in every once and again, like in the prerelease period for the Donkey Kong Adventure DLC for Mario+Rabbids too. Glad to hear they're getting an up to date new forum though.
 
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Absolutely beautiful work here. I know some of the people that had input on this here are on this forum, so good work to everyone involved. Also was amazing to see some of the cartoon voice actors return for this. I really, really want Benedict Campbell to be in the DK movie now. He's still got it
 
Not calling the "K Rool got cut from the TF port due to Smash" thing 100% truth or BS, but my personal belief is that it's most likely a game of telephone tampering some details along the way from Nintnedo to DK Vine. I theorize that Retro wanted to include K Rool as an extra boss, but Nintendo said no, not to keep him for Smash, but to simply release the TF port quicker. Meanwhile, Sakurais team was working on Smash, and K. Rool was probably a very high priority character due to his ballot popularity. So when K. Rool got cut from TF, with a Smash appearance in the pipeline, some people internally may have came to the conclusion that the reason was because of Smash and only Smash.

I don't have that much input on Kevin Callahan, I watched a few kongversation episodes back in that era but wasn't paying that much attention to the leaks at that time. But there was definitely some talk of VVs DK (outside of DK Vine) before DK Vine went public with it. Yes there's the chance that everyone's being japed by a mastermind troll that was screwing with at least dozens of people, but I personally consider that a very small chance

As far as K. Rool in TF Switch goes. Yes that's definitely a possibility. I was also informed it may have been due to Shinya Takahashi also wanting Retro only to include Donkey Kong Country characters that were in the original Wii U version only.

So a new character like Tawks the parrot. And traditional DKC characters only from the Wii U game
 
There is actually a very fascinating story about how Grassland Groove got it's music choir.
When David Wise was composing for the piece, he intended to use free royalty samples of African tribal chants / singing. But Nintendo came down and said "No no, we cannot do that"

So Kenji Yamamoto gathered his division together for an ensemble of staff members and together, Yamamoto conducted the choir of Grassland Groove with those Nintendo employees!
 
As far as K. Rool in TF Switch goes. Yes that's definitely a possibility. I was also informed it may have been due to Shinya Takahashi also wanting Retro only to include Donkey Kong Country characters that were in the original Wii U version only.

So a new character like Tawks the parrot. And traditional DKC characters only from the Wii U game
Tawks felt uniquely "Rare" like no other DK character Retro made before. I hope we see more new characters like him and in general
 
Yeah this the least concerned I've been about Donkey Kong since the buyout was announced which is weird to admit. The game will come when it comes.


This was an interesting article where Seth Rogen compared a Donkey Kong movie to the Fast & Furious where a DK movie could also be about family (and maybe racing?). It's interesting how Seth used another Universal IP being the Fast series as the comparison for a DK movie. I believe a DK movie is already in the works as was reported back in 2021 by Giant Freaking Robot and Hyle so is it possible Seth could be hinting at this movie with these comments? Will karts still be heavily involved? Maybe Universal wants to make a kid friendly version of the Fast series. Only time will tell
Time to revive Donkey Kong Racing; it's not like Microsoft owns that title.
 
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Out of curiosity, for those who played through Donkey Kong 64, what part of the game is the most commonly agreed upon element that they find frustrating? I'm asking like mechanics, minigames, certain collectibles, worlds, etc. I'm asking this, because so far in my first ever playthrough, which has been mostly blind and without any sort of outside help, there hasn't been anything that bad that makes me not want to continue it at all.
 
Out of curiosity, for those who played through Donkey Kong 64, what part of the game is the most commonly agreed upon element that they find frustrating? I'm asking like mechanics, minigames, certain collectibles, worlds, etc. I'm asking this, because so far in my first ever playthrough, which has been mostly blind and without any sort of outside help, there hasn't been anything that bad that makes me not want to continue it at all.
A lot of people have a problem with Beaver Bother. My personal least favorite mini game was the race with the bug guy in the ice level though.

Outside some of the mini games, people have an issue with the backtracking. I find the best way to alleviate that issue is to stick with a Kong and try to do as much as you can with that Kong until you have to switch. There will still be backtracking involved but it won't be as bad.
 
My personal least favorite mini game was the race with the bug guy in the ice level though.
I know that you have to deal with the beetle again at some point in the game. The Angry Aztec challenge with him was one of the most difficult parts for me; so I'm anticipating that the Crystal Caves race will be a pain to deal with.
 
Out of curiosity, for those who played through Donkey Kong 64, what part of the game is the most commonly agreed upon element that they find frustrating? I'm asking like mechanics, minigames, certain collectibles, worlds, etc. I'm asking this, because so far in my first ever playthrough, which has been mostly blind and without any sort of outside help, there hasn't been anything that bad that makes me not want to continue it at all.
You have to do the mechanical fish when you first reach Gloomy Galleon, because an ammo upgrade later on makes it nearly impossible. Beaver Bother is terrible, so is the slot machine minigame, and the top down one with the mine carts can also get brutal. The thing with the minigames is that they're all repeated at least two or three times and get much harder as the game goes on, so if you beat it once and think "that wasn't so bad", it's probably going to get worse. The beetle is fairly infamous, but the Fungi Forest rabbit race is even worse, I think you basically have to rely on him getting stuck on something to actually win the second one. I think the thing I spent the most time on was actually DK Arcade though, I remember the second round being incredibly hard (and this one is required to beat the game).

DK64's reputation is really not primarily because of its awful/broken parts though. They sure don't help, but it's more just the general tedium and nothingness of the game that breaks people. It's infamous for how much stuff it has to collect, but the other part people don't really talk about is how little game there is attached to that stuff. It's on the exact opposite end of the spectrum from Banjo-Tooie, which has extremely elaborate scenarios for a smaller number of collectibles than the first one. There is occasionally an actual objective here that isn't a bad minigame, like flying through rings with Diddy's jetpack (this is another potentially really hard part, if you're not used to the jetpack in Pilotwings this has a steep learning curve). But they are not where you're going to be spending most of your playtime. It feels like at least 80% if not more of the game is basically just walking around hitting switches and picking up fruit. Generally the switch will open a door, and out comes a banana or a minigame that gives you a banana.

It's not a platformer, you can barely jump up a staircase or walk in a straight line, and there are very few challenges related to climbing anything. It's not a shooter, most of the time the guns are just for hitting stationary switches, and there are again very few instances where they actually test your aim. Most abilities follow suit. It's not like Banjo-Kazooie where you get the ability to become invincible and you can do it anywhere, in this one you get the ability for only Donkey Kong to use a barrel you can find that will turn him invincible for a short time so he can walk to a specific location once. It's not like Banjo-Kazooie where you get the ability to ground pound and then the same basic action is used in a bunch of different contexts for smashing wood huts or making a turtle retract his feet, in this one you get the ability to press switches, which can be color-coded based on level of ground pound you possess and face-coded so that only a specific character is allowed to press them. When Diddy gets a new headbutt move, it is for hitting switches and only that. You could replace most of the abilities in this game with keys and it would be fundamentally the same game. It's like they removed all of the actual game mechanics and all of the layers of abstraction that would make it a video game in favor of setting these apes loose in a Skinner Box.

This is why the so-called "lock and key design" in games like Zelda and Metroid is really special. I find that most metroidvanias and Zelda-likes put very little emphasis on this or miss the point entirely. The bow in Ocarina of Time is not a key, it's a toy. An entire game mechanic unto itself. You can master using it, there are specific challenges testing how good you are at using the bow. Missiles don't just open red doors, they're an extremely important weapon. Taking the care to both fulfill the "action" side of action adventure by making using the item a skill, and to work these items into the fabric of the world itself by having Link shoot eyeballs or targets instead of a toupee off a man's head or a button with a picture of a bow on it is what separates Zelda from Jungle Japes or an inane adventure game puzzle where you have to find the one specific use for tape that the developers thought would be funny.

Lastly, a lot of people will go on about the tedium of the character switching in DK64, but in my experience planning my moves to get as much as possible in one go and set things up for the next character was actually the most interesting part of the game, even though it's hard to say if this was even an intended part of the gameplay loop or if the entire color-coding concept was thoughtless padding from beginning to end. I mean, if there's one thing I can compliment the game on, it sometimes has a nice atmosphere with the music and fancy lighting effects, so just walking around picking things up while thinking about where you'll go next can really be kind of zen. Or maybe that was just my brain trying to cope after playing hours of DK64.
 
You have to do the mechanical fish when you first reach Gloomy Galleon, because an ammo upgrade later on makes it nearly impossible.
Ouch, glad that I actually did all of Gloomy Galleon by itself before moving on to Fungi Forest presumably to get the ammo upgrade.
game).

DK64's reputation is really not primarily because of its awful/broken parts though. They sure don't help, but it's more just the general tedium and nothingness of the game that breaks people. It's infamous for how much stuff it has to collect, but the other part people don't really talk about is how little game there is attached to that stuff.
From the experience I played, I feel like part of the reason DK 64 doesn't annoy nor bore me as much as others do is because of a metaphorical comparison I made comparing this game to. To me, it feels a bit like organizing your bedroom or unknoting a giant knot, one piece at a time. When I see different colored bananas or a switch that only one character can press, something within my brain gets some sort of satisfaction from solving the "puzzle" as some may call it in the same way that it is for the metaphorical examples I provided earlier if that makes sense. Part of also why I don't feel as burned out on the game may be because my last SIX DK games were the original Country games alongside the Land trilogy, which took me about a year to get through. So playing DK 64 may have been a fresh of air for me personally on that front. That's not to say that what you are saying is invalid or anything, it's just my perspective.
 
Out of curiosity, for those who played through Donkey Kong 64, what part of the game is the most commonly agreed upon element that they find frustrating? I'm asking like mechanics, minigames, certain collectibles, worlds, etc. I'm asking this, because so far in my first ever playthrough, which has been mostly blind and without any sort of outside help, there hasn't been anything that bad that makes me not want to continue it at all.
Having to swap Kongs for color-coded collectibles.
 

Absolutely beautiful work here. I know some of the people that had input on this here are on this forum, so good work to everyone involved. Also was amazing to see some of the cartoon voice actors return for this. I really, really want Benedict Campbell to be in the DK movie now. He's still got it

And the parallels of my favorite franchises continue! And I'm here for that!
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Beautiful synergy ;P
 
Seeing the response to the K.Rool animation and how it's written and resonating like...
I do sometimes feel it's weird how I can see the same people beg for Mario to diversify especially in Paper yet want DK to stay the same with its characters, but at least until there are far more consistent games I think this kind of thing shows why, this character has so much potential
I'm a hypocrite for saying this while wanting Paper Mario to have partners again but I think if the new game doesn't have K.Rool it'd be a tradgedy
 


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