• How about that Indie World and Partner Showcase? WestEgg, Irene, VolcanicDynamo, and Yakuza Superfan Derachi Discuss the latest on the newest episode of the Famiboards Discussion Club! Check it out here!

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

MondoMega

MondoMega

Puffball Enthusiast
#9 Party Out of the Shadows Puzzle Master Be My Guest!
Pronouns
She/They
tqdq46a.png

Welcome aboard! Following the surprise attention a previous Donkey Kong thread recieved both on and outside of the forum, we've decided that discussion and speculation about the past and future of Donkey Kong is deserving of a fancy new home. This thread will be Famiboards' number one stop for everything DK. Share what you enjoy about your favourite Donkey Kong titles; talk about what you'd like to see from the franchise in future installments; and of course, speculate on the large number of Donkey Kong-related rumors going around the internet in recent times.

XRbgiOI.png


Thankfully in this dry period between new games, Donkey Kong and the rest of the Kong family have been keeping themselves occupied elsewhere. DK and Diddy continue to regularly appear in Mario spin-off titles, joined by Funky in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Dixie in Mario Kart Tour; and of course, King K. Rool made his Super Smash Bros. fighter debut in 2018. Since September 2023 we've seen a couple classic DK games find new life on Nintendo Switch; with a remake of Mario vs. Donkey Kong releasing in February 2024, and a remaster of Donkey Kong Country Returns scheduled for January 2025.

Video games aren't where DK is finding himself busiest right now though; as alongside Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong has been one of the key figureheads of Nintendo's current multimedia expansion:

ALA7EpW.png
R5rwNuL.png
P2lwf8r.png

Film: The Super Mario Bros. Movie released in 2023, featuring Donkey Kong in a prominent role. Cranky Kong also has a notable speaking appearance in the film, alongside further cameos from other members of the extended Kong Family (including Diddy, Dixie, Chunky and Swanky) and a ton of all-new Kong extras. Rumors indicate that this is just the start of Donkey Kong's film career, with a solo Donkey Kong project supposedly in consideration for the future; at this point in time likely to arrive after the second Super Mario animated film (currently scheduled for 2026). Which of Donkey Kong's all-star cast members will get to appear on the big screen next? Perhaps Troff & Scoff? Only time will tell.

LEGO: First announced with a brief teaser on Mar10 Day 2023, Donkey Kong joined the LEGO Super Mario course builder theme with four sets released on August 1st 2023: Donkey Kong's Tree House Expansion Set, Diddy Kong's Mine Cart Ride Expansion Set, Dixie Kong's Jungle Jam Expansion Set and the Rambi the Rhino Expansion Set. It remains to be seen if further DK LEGO sets will release after this initial wave; but whether you're looking for fun playsets or nice collector's items, this new sub-theme should have a lot to love for fans of Donkey Kong Country and the whole Kong family.

Theme Parks: Donkey Kong Country will be the first expansion to Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Japan (opening later in 2024), and will be arriving at Universal's Epic Universe in Orlando when it opens in Summer 2025. The land also rumored to eventually open in Universal Hollywood, though this has not yet been fully substantiated. As leaked, rumored and datamined, the land's main attraction will be the Mine Cart Madness rollercoaster; in addition to a DK mascot meet-and-greet, multiple Power-Up Band activities, a Funky's Fly 'N' Buy shop and more. Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong Power-Up Bands will also join the collection when this expansion opens. Do you think they could demolish the Wizarding World to make space for a Gangplank Galleon attraction...?

Lb5UgxM.png


The Donkey Kong series has a long storied history that i’m sure most who roll into this thread are well-familiar with. From his humble arcade roots to the Donkey Kong Country series, DK has been seen in a variety of forms over the past four decades and counting. Swinging from pegs, barrel blasting through the sky, bongo drumming all night long, beating up his foes to become the king of the jungle, and even reigniting his rivalry with Mario over a passion for toys; the period between new Donkey Kong Country games following Rare’s acquisition by Microsoft saw an experimental period for the Kong family, being thrown into all sorts of genres by multiple different devs. We can’t say the series has totally found its footing since, as the era of Retro's Donkey Kong Country came and went, leaving us yet again stuck in a hiatus between new game releases. At the very least, we have reason to believe the future is looking bright for DK!

As this thread is a celebration of the past, present and future of Donkey Kong, let’s take the time to reflect on that past, with a timeline of DK’s history courtesy of my good friend @CyberWolfJV:

Upff3Ch.png

Notes on the included titles:
What is accounted for?
  • Games with any members of the DK family in a starring role.
  • Remakes and Ports that are significantly significantly altered, rebranded and/or repackaged in collections.
What is not accounted for?
  • Multiple ports of the Arcade trilogy to non-Nintendo platforms (Atari versions kept to represent these).
  • Non-Nintendo LCD games (wrist watch games).
  • Games with cameo appearances by DK characters (Mario series, Skylanders, Tetris, WarioWare, etc) or crossovers not branded as Donkey Kong games (Super Smash Bros.).
  • Rereleases of an existing version of a game (e.g. SNES DKC trilogy rereleased on Virtual Console and NSO).
  • Promotional web browser games.
  • Competition cartridges.
Click to expand...

NtedvBi.png


With this long hiatus between Donkey Kong releases, many rumors about the status of the property have begun to pop up. To not give the people involved any unwanted attention, this section will remain a brief summary of the active DK video game rumors rather than a comprehensive catalog of what individual sources have said and when. I imagine a lot of Donkey Kong fans are well-acquainted with this chatter regardless, so a full play-by-play isn't necessary here. Of course, there's no way to fully verify the validity of any of these rumors, so I welcome users to remain skeptical and question their accuracy with reasonable discussion and arguments.

Most notable of the long-standing DK rumors is of course what is colloquially referred to as 'MonkEPD'. Multiple sources suggest that a new Donkey Kong title is in production internally at Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development; often speculated to be the Tokyo studio in particular. With said Tokyo studio posting recruitments for both a 3D Action Game and 2D Action Game (in 2019 and 2020 respectively), many have taken that as a sign that they have two seperate projects in production: 3D Mario and 2D DK. Even in 2024 this mystery remains open, as the recruitment has yet to be tied to any Nintendo titles released since 2020.

Another Donkey Kong rumor suggests that following the appearance of Bowser and DK in Skylanders: SuperChargers, Activison studio Vicarious Visions began planning and early production on a 3D DK installement for NX, under the codename 'Freedom'. It is said that this title was concieved and shelved within a relatively short period within 2015-2016, and the cancellation came down to the reallocation of resources towards Activision-published projects. A May 2024 video from the Did You Know Gaming YouTube channel corroborated many of the claims made about the project, while introducing further insight and details.
 
Last edited:
WIP it may be, but it's off to a great start so far! 💚

Cheers. And here's to us hopefully being rewarded with a new and great release sometime soon!
 
To continue with the Retro talk. It’ll be fun to see what they do after Metroid Prime. If Nintendo has DK then Retro will probably have to try another IP (or attempt another new IP). I used to want a new Diddy Kong Racing, but I wonder if it makes sense with Mario Kart now.
 
DK64 > DKC:TF > DKCR > DKC

Haven’t played through DKC2 and DKC3 yet… (The SNES was the only Nintendo system aside from Virtual Boy that I didn’t have as a kid, so I missed out on a lot that I still need to make up for…)

DK64 was an incredibly important game for me; it was my first N64 game and the first time I played a game through to completion, and you could say that it’s the game that got me into gaming more seriously in the first place (since before that I mostly just casually played NES games and was horrible at them, lol). I can’t wait for it to come to Switch so I can replay it! (I got it on Wii U but couldn’t finish it there because the Virtual Console version was literally unplayable at times due to how dark it was…)
 
I cannot for the life of me understand how it came to be called "MonkEPD" and not "EPDK." Not only is EPDK superior for having the character's name in it, the stresses are all wrong on "MonkEPD." The natural way to pronounce EPD is with a stress on the E, but the stresses in "monkey" are "MONK-ee." So do you stress every syllable in "MonkEPD"? Do you unstress the E, so it ends up sounding like "monkey police department"?

It's just bad. Drop it. Run with EPDK, I'm begging you all.
 
2 > 3 > TF > 1 > R

TF is great but I still think there's so much about the Rare games I miss. All 5 of the Countries are good games though.

Not gonna even bother ranking DK64 lol

AngryAlchemist said:
And referencing my favorite movie to boot!
Click to expand...
Hmmmmm I bet whoever came up with this idea is cool and based
 
Embers said:
I cannot for the life of me understand how it came to be called "MonkEPD" and not "EPDK." Not only is EPDK superior for having the character's name in it, the stresses are all wrong on "MonkEPD." The natural way to pronounce EPD is with a stress on the E, but the stresses in "monkey" are "MONK-ee." So do you stress every syllable in "MonkEPD"? Do you unstress the E, so it ends up sounding like "monkey police department"?

It's just bad. Drop it. Run with EPDK, I'm begging you all.
Click to expand...
looking forward to monkepd
 
Embers said:
I cannot for the life of me understand how it came to be called "MonkEPD" and not "EPDK." Not only is EPDK superior for having the character's name in it, the stresses are all wrong on "MonkEPD." The natural way to pronounce EPD is with a stress on the E, but the stresses in "monkey" are "MONK-ee." So do you stress every syllable in "MonkEPD"? Do you unstress the E, so it ends up sounding like "monkey police department"?

It's just bad. Drop it. Run with EPDK, I'm begging you all.
Click to expand...
I read it Monk - E - P - D.
 
TF > DKC2 (= DK'94) > DKC3 > DKJB > DKC1 = DKCR > DK64

TF and DKC2 (and DK'94) are the only ones I truly love, though I think all of them are at least enjoyable. Even DK64 which can be a miserable experience at times still has some redeeming qualities. Hope it comes to NSO so I can play it again.

I finished an old save of DKC1 a few days ago and I'm currently playing DKC2 again. 2 feels like such a big improvement over the first one in most ways but it also reminded me that I never really liked how the Rare games felt to play. It's all about the vibes and the music.

It's always funny to me that I have the Retro games on opposite sides of my ranking but that has mostly to do with me finding Returns a bit derivative and disliking the controls on the Wii. I wish we had gotten a remaster with the 3D bonus world on Switch so I could give it another try.
 
Dardan Sandiego said:
TF > DKC2 (= DK'94) > DKC3 > DKJB > DKC1 = DKCR > DK64

TF and DKC2 (and DK'94) are the only ones I truly love, though I think all of them are at least enjoyable. Even DK64 which can be a miserable experience at times still has some redeeming qualities. Hope it comes to NSO so I can play it again.
Click to expand...

I hadn't factored the classic games into my ranking, but DK94 would rank right at the top if I did! It's not just a brilliant game, it's one of the best on the Game Boy, and probably one of the best Nintendo's ever released. I can't wait for that to hit NSO so I can play through it again!
 
I wonder if Minis will March ever Again?

Anyway, solution is simple. Give it to Omega Force and they'll make a Donkey Kong Pirate Warriors. That's all DK fandom needs right now. Beating the crap out of kremlings.
 
I submit to you that if Lanky Kong, in fact, "has no style, has no grace," he would not be able to "handstand when he needs to." And furthermore, the fact that "this crazy Kong just digs this tune" proves he does in fact possess style. No further Lanky slander will be tolerated at this time.
 
Up until last week I had only beaten Tropical Freeze in terms of Country. I'm playing through the original trilogy on NSO, and beat K.Rool in DKC2 last night.


....I won't lie. I'm not sure I'd have made it without the rewind feature. Those last few levels are brutal!

I'm gonna try and 100% DKC2 to get the proper ending and then move on to 3.
 
How I'd rank the main DK games:

S Tier: DKC2, TF, DK94
A Tier: DKC1, DKCR, DKC3
B Tier: DK64, DKJB

I've been replaying the SNES games quite a bit. Played DKC2 during flights on my vacation, and now dabbling in DKC3 again.
 
Look at my AV. My main man Diddy here has been with me for ages since I played DKC for the first time on GBC. How time flies.

My ranking is

DKC2 > TF> DKC 1> DKC3 > DKCR

Never touched 64, but I really wanna give it a spin.
 
Glad this thread's been created and it's going strong!

Question: What's better? The DKC games on SNES or DKC on GBA? On one hand, the SNES games have the best audio and visuals by far. On the other hand, the GBA versions have more content, link cable support, mini games, more collectibles, and other QoL improvements.

I think that DKC3 on GBA is better than the SNES version given it's got a brand new world and a new David Wise OST.
 
Last edited:
KremlingKuthroat said:
Glad this thread's been created and it's going strong!

Question: What's better? The DKC games on SNES or DKC on GBA? On one hand, the SNES games have the best audio and visuals by far. On the other hand, the GBA versions have more content, link cable support, mini games, more collectibles, and other QoL improvements.

I objectively think that DKC3 on GBA is better than the SNES version given it's got a brand new world and a new David Wise OST.
Click to expand...
DKC 3 is better on GBA for a lot of the QoL features, but I do really love Evaline Novakovic's soundtrack. Her rendition of Water World is... ugh, just amazing.

 
We love Donkey Kong. Sometimes he's weighed down by a crappy group of friends like Sonic is, but he's one of the best video game characters out there. For the platformers I'd rank them

Donkey Kong Country Returns
Donkey Kong Jungle Beat
Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze

Donkey Kong 64
Donkey Kong Country

Donkey Kong Country 3
Donkey Kong Country 2: The Diddy Kong one

As I've said in other threads, I've definitely had my fill of the Country-style games with their Diddy Kongs and such. Would love a sequel to Jungle Beat or a classic series entry. If Donkey Kong is like Sonic and his annoying friends, Dread Kong or Ninja Kong have the potential to be his Shadow imo. And it's time for Jr. to come home.
 
Raccoon said:
Isn't Jr. the current Donkey Kong, and Cranky Kong the classic one?
Click to expand...
This isn't clear to the point where I say throw it all out. My understanding is Rare had their own lore for it and Miyamoto said something along the lines of "what the fuck are you talking about? Donkey Kong throws the barrels" which is how we end up with stuff like Yoshi's Island 2 Baby Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong 94.

On another note-- if it's the Year of GameCube, then maybe people are finally ready for Him.
Sumo_Kong.png
 
Brock Reiher said:
We love Donkey Kong. Sometimes he's weighed down by a crappy group of friends like Sonic is, but he's one of the best video game characters out there. For the platformers I'd rank them

Donkey Kong Country Returns
Donkey Kong Jungle Beat
Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze

Donkey Kong 64
Donkey Kong Country

Donkey Kong Country 3
Donkey Kong Country 2: The Diddy Kong one

As I've said in other threads, I've definitely had my fill of the Country-style games with their Diddy Kongs and such. Would love a sequel to Jungle Beat or a classic series entry. If Donkey Kong is like Sonic and his annoying friends, Dread Kong or Ninja Kong have the potential to be his Shadow imo. And it's time for Jr. to come home.
Click to expand...
Very bold of you. Very bold.

Got an explaination for that bottom column?
 
Mer.Saloon said:
Very bold of you. Very bold.

Got an explaination for that bottom column?
Click to expand...
I think the SNES games are definitely the worst style of Donkey Kong (never bothered to see one to the end), but the first one has some good atmosphere and is obviously a big deal. The sequels are the first but with worse atmosphere and even worse, no Donkey Kong. DKC3 is a slight improvement for at least ditching Diddy.
 
0
KremlingKuthroat said:
Glad this thread's been created and it's going strong!

Question: What's better? The DKC games on SNES or DKC on GBA? On one hand, the SNES games have the best audio and visuals by far. On the other hand, the GBA versions have more content, link cable support, mini games, more collectibles, and other QoL improvements.

I think that DKC3 on GBA is better than the SNES version given it's got a brand new world and a new David Wise OST.
Click to expand...

I never really saw much value in the GBA games additional content. It's all badly designed and looks awful and out of place.

DKC3 has the Wise soundtrack going for it which is great, but I wouldn't say it's superior to the original at all, I think it's a nice alternative. Overall I still prefer the og tracks, they're some of the moodier and weirdest pieces of music in all of gaming history.
 
Mer.Saloon said:
DKC 3 is better on GBA for a lot of the QoL features, but I do really love Evaline Novakovic's soundtrack. Her rendition of Water World is... ugh, just amazing.

Click to expand...

Okay so I thought a David Wise re-do of the DKC3 OST would be amazing (1 and especially 2 are incredible to me) but I looked it up and.. it almost doesn't even sound like Wise? They replaced all the moody, contemplative, environmental music with some fast-paced beat-heavy stuff that imo doesn't even match the feel of the level themes? I'm kinda confused.. like.. why did they do that?
 
Leo said:
I never really saw much value in the GBA games additional content. It's all badly designed and looks awful and out of place.

DKC3 has the Wise soundtrack going for it which is great, but I wouldn't say it's superior to the original at all, I think it's a nice alternative. Overall I still prefer the og tracks, they're some of the moodier and weirdest pieces of music in all of gaming history.
Click to expand...
I think both the SNES and GBA versions have their own merits. I love all 6 personally and view them as completely different experiences. Even the GBC version of DKC has some unique content even though it's kinda almost made obsolete by DKC on GBA lol

Btw, aren't we getting some more footage of the Mario movie today? I think I heard some more footage would be shown on NBC
 
Leo said:
I never really saw much value in the GBA games additional content. It's all badly designed and looks awful and out of place.

DKC3 has the Wise soundtrack going for it which is great, but I wouldn't say it's superior to the original at all, I think it's a nice alternative. Overall I still prefer the og tracks, they're some of the moodier and weirdest pieces of music in all of gaming history.
Click to expand...
I think the GBA games hit differently when playing on the original system coloring, because boy does the over-saturation of the GBA era hit these especially hard.

But the additions of the extra goodies you can find in levels is a nice touch that does help add to the GBA versions. I also really like how the bosses in DKC1 got a huge upgrade compared to their original versions.

chocolate_supra said:
Okay so I thought a David Wise re-do of the DKC3 OST would be amazing (1 and especially 2 are incredible to me) but I looked it up and.. it almost doesn't even sound like Wise? They replaced all the moody, contemplative, environmental music with some fast-paced beat-heavy stuff that imo doesn't even match the feel of the level themes? I'm kinda confused.. like.. why did they do that?
Click to expand...
Most of those are sample music because the DKC GBA games were rushed out the door, and trying to get Novakovic's soundtrack out of the GBA speaker required WAY more effort than just making brand new music. And even then, the music used in the GBA release rely a lot on unedited samples to carry them.

Like the harmonica music used in the shops. I heard that entire ENTIRE song in a documentary once.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


Back
Top Bottom