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

So the Direct is rumored to be happening next week, which is the same week Tropical Freeze came out a decade ago. It's also a day before the Mario vs. Donkey Kong remake launches. Oh, and there's a massive SNW expansion opening in Japan possibly as soon as next month. If they don't announce the new game here, it'll be such a colossal missed opportunity that I'm going to assume it doesn't exist and people have been lying to me for six years. I don't care if it's a Switch 2 game; just announce the damn thing.
 
Professor Chops said:
So the Direct is rumored to be happening next week, which is the same week Tropical Freeze came out a decade ago. It's also a day before the Mario vs. Donkey Kong remake launches. Oh, and there's a massive SNW expansion opening in Japan possibly as soon as next month. If they don't announce the new game here, it'll be such a colossal missed opportunity that I'm going to assume it doesn't exist and people have been lying to me for six years. I don't care if it's a Switch 2 game; just confirm the damn thing.
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If that title exists and it’s got as much care and attention as we all hope, then it will be a major early-life title for the Switch 2, in my opinion, and it’s also an opportunity, in a way.

If we absolutely have to have an announcement in February, it may be Returns, even if I too dream of a new game and I am tired of waiting.
 
boodream said:
If that title exists and it’s got as much care and attention as we all hope, then it will be a major early-life title for the Switch 2, in my opinion, and it’s also an opportunity, in a way.

If we absolutely have to have an announcement in February, it may be Returns, even if I too dream of a new game and I am tired of waiting.
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I would be happy with an announcement of DKCR Remastered, DK64 on NSO, and (maybe) confirmation that a new game is coming. But to announce nothing when we're approaching the tenth anniversary of the last game's release would be so unbelievably stupid. If Nintendo thinks that Mario vs. Donkey Kong is enough, they have truly learned nothing since the Rare buyout. Thankfully, I'm optimistic that it won't come down to that.
 
The tenth Donkey Kong game in my marathon, that being DKC Returns 3D, is done now at 200 percent completion. Just the original trilogy one more time and then Tropical Freeze to go...
20240206_080407.jpg
 
Im not confident anymore in (when) we see DK. Right now, everything's lined up too perfectly, it just seems to good to be true. Either way, as soon as the next DK game gets announced Nintendo absolutley better affirm us that it won't take another 10 years to see a new game. The fact we've gotten to this point in the first place is ridiculous for a series they say they value as much as they do
 
Drybones2015 said:
My theory until disproven is that DK64 runs like garbage on the Switch Online software and Nintendo is being forced to completely remake it....
Well, more of a pipe dream, really.
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With how bad the N64 emulator is, I don't even doubt that it's probably having troubles with one of the more notoriously difficult games to emulate.
Plus DK64 could really use a remake for better performance and changing up the structure for the better.
 
If the Wii U N64 emulator could handle DK64, I don't see why the better NSO emulator wouldn't be able to.

Anything is better than the dark filter and the input lag of the Wii U VC
 
CyberWolfBia said:
If the Wii U N64 emulator could handle DK64, I don't see why the better NSO emulator wouldn't be able to.

Anything is better than the dark filter and the input lag of the Wii U VC
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Except worse input lag, worse controller deadzones, worse performance on a lot of games, and less accurate emulation with new visual bugs not present in the WiiU releases.

But hey it doesn't have the dark filter and loads slightly faster!
 
JazzyFuture said:
Except worse input lag, worse controller deadzones, worse performance on a lot of games, and less accurate emulation with new visual bugs not present in the WiiU releases.

But hey it doesn't have the dark filter and loads slightly faster!
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Honestly, everything I've played of N64 games on Switch are an improvement over the Wii U emulation.. 🤷‍♀️ besides maybe the lack of button remapping, I think the emulation is fine as it is.
 
CyberWolfBia said:
Honestly, everything I've played of N64 games on Switch are an improvement over the Wii U emulation.. 🤷‍♀️ besides maybe the lack of button remapping, I think the emulation is fine as it is.
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F-Zero X is basically unplayable with the deadzones on Switch, something that was a problem on WiiU but they quickly released a fix for in a patch.
F-Zero X got added nearly 2 years ago now, and it's the only version to not consistently run at 60fps.
It also doesn't emulate the memory card so many games cannot save. How they have not changed this is beyond me.

Plus there's all the issues with OoT and Yoshi's Story that happened at launch. If they were having trouble with the transparency, fog and reflections, I could absolutely see them having troubles with all of DK64's effects that pushed the N64 to it's limit that many emulators could not handle for a good while. IIRC DK64's emulator on WiiU VC had to be basically tuned specifically for DK64 so it wasn't a mess with polygons going everywhere due to that game's memory leak issues.

NSO can barely handle Goldeneye as it is right now.
 
Hearing rumblings from NateTheHate that this upcoming direct may be a partner showcase. Hopefully, that would mean DK is being saved for Switch 2, as I'm hoping he is!
 
Hibby said:
Hearing rumblings from NateTheHate that this upcoming direct may be a partner showcase. Hopefully, that would mean DK is being saved for Switch 2, as I'm hoping he is!
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When do you think Nintendo will reveal DK if it is coming to Switch 2 then? I'm hoping next month, pre-GDC, which is before March 18th.
 
SilicaKong20XX said:
When do you think Nintendo will reveal DK if it is coming to Switch 2 then? I'm hoping next month, pre-GDC, which is before March 18th.
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if a new Donkey Kong game, be it 2D or 3D, i believe Nintendo might anounce the game on a presentation dedicated to the console or in a Nintendo Direct in 2025, 3D Mario came first as a launch title, later on year 1(2025) or year 2(2026), a new Donkey Kong release on Nintendo next console.
 
Giancarlo said:
if a new Donkey Kong game, be it 2D or 3D, i believe Nintendo might anounce the game on a presentation dedicated to the console or in a Nintendo Direct in 2025, 3D Mario came first as a launch title, later on year 1(2025) or year 2(2026), a new Donkey Kong release on Nintendo next console.
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I pray to hope it's gets announced via the former and not the latter, hopefully.💀
 
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I'd love for a DK game to play the Odyssey to Mario's Breath of the Wild. Have the next 3D Mario be the launch game for the next system and about six or so months after that, release a major Donkey Kong title to ride the early moment of the console. A 3D Country game would be fantastic, but even a 2D game circa Spring 2025 (assuming a Fall 2024 release for the Switch 2) would have a space to itself and still be far enough removed from Mario Wonder's release to still feel distinct.
 
Honestly I wouldn't be too upset if the game released next year, just announce it ASAP at the Switch 2 event so I can finally have some piece of mind that we'll actually get a new entry to begin with. We had an almost 2 year gap between Splatoon 3s announcement and reveal, and 1+ year announce-to-release gaps for other titles, so I don't see why DK needs to get announced 4-6 months before it's supposed to come out.

Alternatively, DK could be the big game that launches the Switch 2. Granted I think it's more likely to launch with 3D Mario game, but a Nintendo system never launched with a Zelda game, until BOTW came along, and look how that payed off. You don't really need Mario to sell a system day one.
 
Professor Chops said:
I don't care if it's a Switch 2 game; just announce the damn thing.
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Unless the Direct announces the next console (or somehow comes after the announcement of the next console), how are they going to announce the game when they haven't even acknowledged that it's console exists?
(Though if you include cross-gen releases in the category of "Switch 2 game," then disregard this post)
 
crazybenjamin said:
Unless the Direct announces the next console (or somehow comes after the announcement of the next console), how are they going to announce the game when they haven't even acknowledged that it's console exists?
(Though if you include cross-gen releases in the category of "Switch 2 game," then disregard this post)
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I don't know. A logo would suffice, or even some off-the-cuff comment from Miyamoto about how the next Donkey Kong game is in development. I just want them to acknowledge the franchise and stop treating it like a D-tier Mario spin-off. You see how the fanbase reacts when NoA merely advertises the SNES DKC trilogy on NSO; that's how starved we are.
 
SilicaKong20XX said:
When do you think Nintendo will reveal DK if it is coming to Switch 2 then? I'm hoping next month, pre-GDC, which is before March 18th.
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Hopefully, sometime this year. If Nintendo truly did want to revitalize the DK brand, they'd announce it for around launch window.

If not... probably next year.
 
HotelDrink said:
With the reputation the game has it probably just wasn't a priority for Nintendo to put it on nso.
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Yoshi's Story has been available since launch and it's a far worse game than Donkey Kong 64.

The hate for DK64 is greatly exaggerated. In addition to being highly successful upon release, it was consistently one of the best-selling Virtual Console games on the Wii U. Prior to the server shutdown, it was ranked 12th. Also, the DK Rap was featured in the Mario Movie, so the game is more relevant than it's been in years.

Yes, DK64 is objectively flawed, but it still has a ton of fans—far more than the internet would have you believe.
 
The internet has led me to believe that DK64 has far too many fans.

Also I cannot sanction calling Yoshi's Story worse, and I don't like Yoshi's Story at all. It's at least competent at executing its weird bad ideas. DK64 is incompetent execution of no ideas.
 
Controlling the characters and exploring the island was fun in 64. They nailed movement in that game. Another 3D DK would be a dream game for me.
 
Leo said:
Good feel is probably one of the most overrated studios out there. Didn't like any of their games, Woolly World is fine at best, Kirby and Wario are terrible.
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I’ll say it, I think woolly world is overrated, though to be honest I don’t love any of the yoshi games, even island
 
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I don't think DK64 not being on NSO at the moment has anything to do with its reputation, it's just because Nintendo's trying to milk NSO as long as they can and despite owning it technically, there still is some legal hang up they have to deal with in regards to Rare/Microsoft, which is a factor into why the DKC trilogy were added later on the SNES app, or why we still haven't got the DK Land games on the GB app (nor the remakes on GBA, which they didn't bother re-releasing on the Wii U shop) on the GBA app.
 
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I had my issues with DK64 even at launch (the more the game contrasted with the DKC games in gameplay focus and tone the less interested I became) but in the grand scheme it was really just guilty of not being as engaging as the various platformers around it. Rare had typically been pretty strong a taking certain Nintendo style games and really doing their own interesting (and a times improved) execution. Super Mario to DKC, Mario Kart to Diddy Kong Racing, Mario 64 to Banjo Kazooie, etc. DK64 was one where the ideas basically amounted to "more characters and bigger". Nothing inherently wrong with that, but it just really didn't amount to a particularly strong hook for a lot of fans.

It's a fine game, just one that every time I go back and play, I eventually find myself wishing I was playing either another 3D platformer, or the 2D DKC releases. Even future playthroughs will probably be the modded version with the Kong character choices mapped to the D-Pad because the tag barrel mechanic feels so tedious in its design now.
 
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Dinoman96 said:
I don't think DK64 not being on NSO at the moment has anything to do with its reputation, it's just because Nintendo's trying to milk NSO as long as they can and despite owning it technically, there still is some legal hang up they have to deal with in regards to Rare/Microsoft, which is a factor into why the DKC trilogy were added later on the SNES app, or why we still haven't got the DK Land games on the GB app (nor the remakes on GBA, which they didn't bother re-releasing on the Wii U shop) on the GBA app.
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I'd be more inclined to believe legal issues to be the case if it wasn't for the fact that the Wii U N64 VC launched with DK64 and Microsoft has more Rare games on the Switch N64 app than Nintendo does. Diddy Kong Racing may be another story, but if Nintendo wants DK64 on their console, it's getting put on their console. Them holding on to these games to have big hitters still available to release years later makes way more sense. Though a krool thing to do considering the DK drought they've been putting us through for 6 years now (10 if you don't think a port or dlc for a Mario game counts).
 
Drybones2015 said:
I'd be more inclined to believe legal issues to be the case if it wasn't for the fact that the Wii U N64 VC launched with DK64 and Microsoft has more Rare games on the Switch N64 app than Nintendo does. Diddy Kong Racing may be another story, but if Nintendo wants DK64 on their console, it's getting put on their console. Them holding on to these games to have big hitters still available to release years later makes way more sense. Though a krool thing to do considering the DK drought they've been putting us through for 6 years now (10 if you don't think a port or dlc for a Mario game counts).
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I mean even DK64 was not on the Wii VC. DKC1-3 were even infamously pulled from the Wii VC and didn't come back until 2015.

Someone made a thread last year noting how always late to the table DK games are to NSO: https://famiboards.com/threads/why-...g-games-always-late-to-the-party-on-nso.5405/

Granted DK94 and DK King of Swing are bit of a question mark there, but the others are pretty obvious: Mario vs. DK was getting a flashy HD remake, and regards to the Country/Land games, despite owning them, Nintendo still has to talk it out with Microsoft and Rare every time they want to re-release them, because of the logos and all that. It's something that was noted when Phil Spencer was talking about Banjo getting to Smash back in 2019:

kotaku.com

Xbox Boss Phil Spencer Says Banjo In Smash Was An Easy Deal To Make

Nintendo’s penultimate E3 announcement today involved the addition of a Microsoft-owned character to Smash Bros. This kind of company crossover between two platform holders might seem extraordinary, but Xbox boss Phil Spencer said that it was actually a pretty easy deal.
kotaku.com kotaku.com

Spencer noted that Microsoft has worked with Nintendo for a long time, publishing games on 3DS and Switch, and letting classic Rare games like the Donkey Kong Country series show up on Nintendo back-catalogue services. “The licensing relationships between the two companies, they’re there and are kind of ongoing,” he said. “The reason it’s not some interesting, deep conversation is because with us owning Rare and the history between those two things, there are a lot of conversations over the years about, ‘Hey, we want to do “X” is that okay?’”
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Dinoman96 said:
I mean even DK64 was not on the Wii VC. DKC1-3 were even infamously pulled from the Wii VC and didn't come back until 2015.

Someone made a thread last year noting how always late to the table DK games are to NSO: https://famiboards.com/threads/why-...g-games-always-late-to-the-party-on-nso.5405/

Granted DK94 and DK King of Swing are bit of a question mark there, but the others are pretty obvious: Mario vs. DK was getting a flashy HD remake, and regards to the Country/Land games, despite owning them, Nintendo still has to talk it out with Microsoft and Rare every time they want to re-release them, because of the logos and all that. It's something that was noted when Phil Spencer was talking about Banjo getting to Smash back in 2019:

kotaku.com

Xbox Boss Phil Spencer Says Banjo In Smash Was An Easy Deal To Make

Nintendo’s penultimate E3 announcement today involved the addition of a Microsoft-owned character to Smash Bros. This kind of company crossover between two platform holders might seem extraordinary, but Xbox boss Phil Spencer said that it was actually a pretty easy deal.
kotaku.com kotaku.com
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I'm not saying that there isn't a legal obstacle when it comes to Rare-made DK games, I'm saying that there's no way said obstacle is the reason DK64 isn't on NSO yet.
GoldenEye shuts this notion down completely.
 
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My excitement leading up to DK64’s release had no limits. I literally memorized a full 3-page preview of the game in EGM magazine and would recite it to my brother every night before bed leading up to the game’s release. And when the game came out I had such a blast. And not just with the campaign, but the multiplayer too!

My siblings and I would have a ton of fun battling it out in the Arena in particular. And competing for high scores with the Rambi and Enguarde mini-games. Going to be fun reliving that with friends online once it comes to NSO. Heck, maybe we should have some DK64 multiplayer sessions here on Fami! Would be awesome!
 
Drybones2015 said:
I'd be more inclined to believe legal issues to be the case if it wasn't for the fact that the Wii U N64 VC launched with DK64 and Microsoft has more Rare games on the Switch N64 app than Nintendo does. Diddy Kong Racing may be another story, but if Nintendo wants DK64 on their console, it's getting put on their console. Them holding on to these games to have big hitters still available to release years later makes way more sense. Though a krool thing to do considering the DK drought they've been putting us through for 6 years now (10 if you don't think a port or dlc for a Mario game counts).
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It's for sure 10 years in my mind as of next Tuesday. I think this must be the year...
 
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3dba7194c1f531d1b793b6d44865b246.jpg
af46fbbf30656829015a41fd65574bdeb61eb75e.png
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I love the official Nintendo renders from dk 64, there’s something so evocative about the art. Like you know it’s early cg renders, and stuff is more impressive now, but it has a vibe. Not sure how explain it.

Same with all official renders during this era of Nintendo. I would hang ads like this in my room
 
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Beanstar40 said:
donkeykong64.large.jpg
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an I just say, I love the official Nintendo renders from dk 64, there’s something so evocative about the art. Like you know it’s early cg renders, and stuff is more impressive now, but it has a vibe. Not sure how explain it.

Same with all official renders during this era of Nintendo. I would hang ads like this in my room
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... You don't suppose Donkey Kong has been missing for so long because they've been perfecting an art direction evocative of this?
 
Beanstar40 said:
donkeykong64.large.jpg
b9e1e688fd69860b45650bc7d1ad41be41b39fca.jpg



an I just say, I love the official Nintendo renders from dk 64, there’s something so evocative about the art. Like you know it’s early cg renders, and stuff is more impressive now, but it has a vibe. Not sure how explain it.

Same with all official renders during this era of Nintendo. I would hang ads like this in my room
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To be fair, it took Nintendo over a decade to actually surpass this.

800px-Donkey_Kong_-_DK_Jungle_Climber.png

Sterile, sickly lighting and a visibly low poly count. Vastly worse fur tech.

800px-MPS_Donkey_Kong_Artwork.png

It's debatable whether this actually looks nicer than every older render (I find the proportions a little awkward and I prefer the way the fur looks in Tropical Freeze renders even though this is newer). But the technological upgrade over the 90's renders is finally consistently there as of like 2020. Returns is the absolute earliest I think anything has an argument for a nicer looking promo Donkey Kong than DKC2 or 64.

We're still kind of starved for good renders of these characters, to be honest. Like, if I wanted a good Dixie render, my options are the one Tropical Freeze render or I legit have to go back to circa 1995 or 1996. For K. Rool, Smash Ultimate was his first good render because Rare barely upgraded him from the lumpy potato model he had in the original DKC.
 
I think the Mario vs. Donkey Kong sequels may have been coincidence, because they were churning those out pretty regularly for a while, not to mention they're not really "arcade Donkey Kong" games like the others. But having DK94 and Mario vs. Donkey Kong made alongside Country and Jungle beat, even if not the exact release timing, was probably intentional on the part of Nintendo. I wouldn't be surprised if the remake was a similar scenario (but I also wouldn't have been surprised if there was a Donkey Kong game this year already, all sentiments of "it's been so long that it's going to feel unreal no matter when it comes" aside).
 
Stilt Village said:
800px-MPS_Donkey_Kong_Artwork.png
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Man I do not like this DK render, it feels like he's staring into my soul with an emotion I cannot fully read.

I will say though, something I feel like is important for discussing current DK renders. It seems like he got an updated model for renders AGAIN for the MvsDK Switch remake.

MvDK_NS_DK_Bag.png

The way they do fur seems to be a little different, but that could just be cause of NST doing these renders. Most importantly I feel, that shows this might be a new model is the fact his hair tuft is actually modeled to be, well, hair sticking up. Instead of the twisted, perfect cones of hair it's been forever.
(2020 render for better comparison)

DK_Looking.png

Regardless of if this is really a new model though, I will say.
Certainly better than some of NST's previous attempts at doing DK renders.
MDK_MOTM_Pauline_Donkey_Kong_Hot_Air_Balloon.png
 
Drybones2015 said:
My theory until disproven is that DK64 runs like garbage on the Switch Online software and Nintendo is being forced to completely remake it....
Well, more of a pipe dream, really.
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It not being on NSO just confirms to me that it's being worked on as a remake.

By confirms I also mean a pipe dream
 
Unironically, I sometimes wonder why exactly we don't get pre-rendered games like Donkey Kong Country anymore. For something like a sidescroller with set camera angles, which applies even to Tropical Freeze, it seems purely superior to 3D in terms of performance and potential graphics quality. Like they did in 1994, you could create things the console could never possibly handle in real time, and essentially construct a piecemeal video of them to play back and have it look like witchcraft, albeit now in far higher resolution and with more than a handful of frames for animations. Pre-rendered graphics aren't even entirely dead on Switch! The Mario Maker games still use pre-rendered sprites of the enemies in NSMBU style for performance reasons, and they're nearly indistinguishable from the original models they're snapshots of.

All this leaves me to wonder if it's really just a matter of no one else wanting to invest in this weird, specific way of making games that was really only ever used by Rare to this extent with any success. I mean, it's not like Nintendo doesn't have the means to make models in higher quality than the Switch could ever hope to run nowadays, as demonstrated by the Donkey Kongs above, but I doubt they're set up to make a whole game like that. It's also likely expensive? Maybe not inherently, after all once the initial investment in the computers was made, Rare made each DKC game in like a year with around 30 people, but it follows that a higher fidelity game is likely to cost more.

chocolate_supra said:
That looks like a Simpsons character
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