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Rumour Vicarious Visions was working on an open-world 3D Donkey Kong game called 'Donkey Kong Freedom' for Nintendo Switch back in 2016

We knew this for a while in the DK fandom, but here's what Nate had added back then in the community thread

NateDrake said:
Welcome to hell. The place where you can type one thing, someone will report it differently, it'll spread, and you are now held responsible for setting an expectation you never said.

The amount of conflation being done in these reports is astounding, honestly. Speculation/opinion is being reported as fact. Information that was never said is being reported or assumed.

The simple facts that the reports should have gotten right are: VV worked on a DK game. It's dead now. Nintendo is doing a DK project.
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NateDrake said:
Honestly, this style of misreporting makes me wish the VV project remained unknown to the public -- at least, until the time was right, NDA expired, and the developers could openly discuss specifics without fear. Discussion was being had amongst people for a long while, no one felt the need to share specifics since the project was dead, the curiosity factor of what could have been was discussed for a while, the future of the series and such.

Now, we have bad information spreading & conflation. And the victim will be the Nintendo DK game. People are going to set an unreal expectation due to the stories based on some truths and based on misinformation and then get mad if (or when) the new DK game isn't what they wanted/expected.

On the matter of the claim of seeing footage, I side with you. I'm skeptical of the claim, as there were no specifics mentioned from the footage that differed from the concept already discussed. Speculating the DK game from Nintendo could be a launch title for Switch 2 making headline is just poor form of the outlets reporting things, as well.
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All of this info is 100% legit; the only reason we know any of this is because of leaks from former Vicarious/Retro employees. Information dried up as soon as the project was moved over to EPD. Since then, anything could have happened; EPD could have scrapped what Vicarious was working on and decided to make a new 2D game instead, but as I said in my original post, I find that unlikely.

I just want my monkey back.
 
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Stilt Village said:
It's not directly relevant since he doesn't really share any insider information as far as I know, but I believe there is someone on the DK Vine forum whose brother works at Retro, and he seems aware of some of the goings on there. Assuming he does know the truth, I'm not sure he would confirm or deny anything about these rumors though, he tries to be very very mum on the subject.
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... This is too close to our favorite uncle who works at Nintendo :p
I mean, it is possible, but what a huge coincidence.

Stilt Village said:
This article is actually the first time I remember hearing about David Wise being attached to the "can you dig it?" project. I also think it's interesting that the article doesn't mention the supposed second scrapped Retro project and the mysterious robot hand from the Reggie postcard at all. Was that rumor covering the timeline of what Retro has been doing between Tropical Freeze and Metroid Prime 4 from someone else? I can't keep track.
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I don't remember if it was due to LinkedIn, some interview, or Wise seen at Retro's, but "David Wise is once again working with Retro" was public knowledge in the Wii U era.

Stilt Village said:
This is just based on changes in merchandise branding and comments from the Mario + Rabbids guys I think, no actual leaks here. Though the rumor of EPD developing a Donkey Kong game has also been around for ages and I have no idea if it had any actual basis or was originally related to anything DK Vine said.
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The basis is that EPD8 recruited for two projects, a 3D game and a 2D one. The 2D game is rumored to be Donkey Kong.
Superstarxalien said:
the throughline here would be that nintendo told vicarious visions about this, and the insider, most likely from or related to the staff working on the game, told DK Vine about it
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It's plausible. "Don't worry, we will take DK in-house. We have young members who grew up with DKC. They'll make the character justice. By the way, do you want to work on AR Mario Kart?"
 
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TheMindOfThomas said:
He similarly expressed concern over DK using a shotgun in DK64, after which Rare came up with the coconut gun (that fires in spurts). That was a change rooted not in gameplay, but in the character.

Even if this whole story is untrue, Miyamoto being concerned about that seems extremely in character if you ask me.
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I admit the Miyamoto comment is splitting hairs (as I mentioned in a previous post) but that is also a suggestion with potential gameplay ramifications that led to gameplay changes (the gun shooting a coconut is used in puzzles/switches for example).

Upon seeing this, Miyamoto did not emit an outraged shriek and call for the game to be canceled immediately. Instead, he began to draw on a piece of paper. In that moment, he produced the coconut gun. “It had leaves on it, and he handed it to me,” said Andreas. “I looked at it and said ‘Oh yeah, that’s cool, we’ll put that in,’ and the coconut gun was put in after that.”
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The origin of the change (be it character traits or gameplay) is up to debate, but to me that is a man handing a team a concept to provoke innovation in gameplay design. It's the same thing with Miyamoto's suggestion for Samus to have a bug head, it was not for cosmetic or character reasons:

“Mike Wikan likes to tell a story about Mr. Miyamoto asking us during the early design phases of Prime 1, ‘What would it be like if Samus had a bug’s head?'” – Brian Walker, Senior Producer

“And at the time, I remember going back to our office and saying, ‘Switching heads? What does that have to do with Metroid?'” – Mike Wikan, Senior Designer
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“He wasn’t asking if she had the head of a fly…” – Walker

“…He was talking about the mechanic of altered perception as a whole.” – Wikan

“And from that, the visor system came to be, where Samus could see different things with different visors and use that as a puzzle-solving element.” – Walker
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But instead to help create innovation in gameplay.

Compared to this

Shigeru Miyamoto was very communicative with the team, Donkey Kong being his baby and all. Just as he had with Rare, when he suggested that Donkey Kong slap his hands to the ground to unearth secrets, and with Retro, where he proposed DK's blowing on objects to discover treasure, Miyamoto offered up advice for Vicarious Visions on DK's presentation. Here he was greatly concerned about Donkey Kong getting rope burns on his feet. He told the team that he was worried about DK's bare soles, so the team figured out a workaround: DK would wear banana peels as makeshift shoes whenever he would vine grind. Miyamoto loved it and it became a key component of the game's visual identity.
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The vine grinding itself is actually a unique gameplay addition to the series. You could argue Miyamoto questioning the feet burn is a restrcive suggestion. And the banana slippers are not a gameplay solution. The article even clarifies it as a major visual identifer.

I don't know, maybe something was lost in translation (if true). If it said Miyamoto suggested for DK not to use the vines to climb (ala telling Ubisoft not to make a Mario jumping game) and then he drew banana slippers for the feet of DK and handed it to the team, then I would believe it more lol
 
Hmmm, first game that Velan produced was a Nintendo exclusive... Pretty intressting! I really hope, we`ll see more western studios working with Nintendo again. Like in the good old N64 days.
 
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DK vine? Oh no...

Why are people even taking anything these guys say seriously? I am 100% sure this isn't the first time they spread a BS rumor.

It's like all you need these days is to have a Twitter account and make up any rumor on the fly and just say that you've "talked with insiders" and people will eat it up.
 
Professor Chops said:
All of this info is 100% legit; the only reason we know any of this is because of leaks from former Vicarious/Retro employees. Information dried up as soon as the project was moved over to EPD. Since then, anything could have happened; EPD could have scrapped what Vicarious was working on and decided to make a new 2D game instead, but as I said in my original post, I find that unlikely.

I just want my monkey back.
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Quoting for new page.
CyberWolfBia said:
We knew this for a while in the DK fandom, but here's what Nate had added back then in the community thread
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This too.
 
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Romancedawn said:
Unless… God saved us from Kong: Other D.
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Just as an FYI, I merged the two threads on this topic to the more active one since they were created at the same time.
 
Mer.Saloon said:
He's projecting. It's old, but never was proven fake.
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Usually, we have to prove that a piece of information is true, not the other way around. When, for example, Did You Know Gaming? reveals things of this kind, it's always sourced and backed up by evidence.

I'm not saying it's not true or that DK Vine is lying. I just don't know. It's possible that people at VV had discussions with Nintendo, which is plausible given what happened next with Mario Kart AR. Everything else, all the details, I don't know. I hope we'll know more one day.

As for the future, we don't know either. As I've already said on the DK thread, let's see if Princess Peach Showtime isn't the famous 2D project of EPD 8.
 
I love Crash Bandicoot 1 and the remake was really good but... based on how things went when they made their own original game I think we dodged a bullet here.
 
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o with Retro Studios fully occupied and desperately trying to salvage their current project, Nintendo gave Metroid Prime 4 to Bandai Namco and awarded the next Donkey Kong game to Vicarious Visions, SuperChargers having served as their quiet audition.
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A lot of conjecture about Retro and Nintendo that tampers how much trust I put into the rest of the story.
 
The "Mario Kart AR game!" "evidence" is just so bad here for DK Vine, I have to say.

The much more obvious conclusion is that Activision didn't want to do Toys to Life anymore so they left Activision to form a Toys to Life company that Nintendo then hired to do Toys to Life.
 
ItWasMeantToBe19 said:
The "Mario Kart AR game!" "evidence" is just so bad here for DK Vine, I have to say.

The much more obvious conclusion is that Activision didn't want to do Toys to Life anymore so they left Activision to form a Toys to Life company that Nintendo then hired to do Toys to Life.
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So whether they've pitched a project to Nintendo or have a good relationship with Nintendo is one thing, whether we're at an advanced stage is quite another. I think the people from VV and Nintendo have talked. I don't think it's a "let's take Prime 4 away from Bandai Namco" situation at all.
 
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