• Hey everyone, staff have documented a list of banned content and subject matter that we feel are not consistent with site values, and don't make sense to host discussion of on Famiboards. This list (and the relevant reasoning per item) is viewable here.
  • Do you have audio editing experience and want to help out with the Famiboards Discussion Club Podcast? If so, we're looking for help and would love to have you on the team! Just let us know in the Podcast Thread if you are interested!

Discussion What was the original source of the 2D Donkey Kong rumor?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Reader mode
MondoMega said:
Speaking as a member of staff instead of a DK fan here;

The earlier discussions about a potential Donkey Kong Speculation ST have not gone unnoticed, and I would personally be happy to facilitate such a thread if the DK community that have gathered in here want it. Seeing as this thread has remained active for weeks now, while similar one-off threads don't typically last quite as long, it appears warranted. This thread would be locked following the opening of the new ST, but i'll be sure to include a link to the past discussions in the shiny new OP.
Click to expand...
If you suggest this as the best course of action then you have my endorsement
 
Finally a DK ST

Donkey_Kong_Country_Tropical_Freeze_-_Funky_Kong.png
 
0
Chill_Phil said:
The canceled Retro Studios New IP (2014-2018) was a very casual rhythm based game. It took heavy inspiration from Disney princess musicals such as Frozen. It was to appear at E3 2015 but Nintendo yanked it last minute and was largely unsatisfied with it

David Wise was scoring the game. He was very heavily involved. The 2015 rumors that David Wise was working with Nintendo were for the new Retro Studios IP

Many speculated that the robot hand blocked off by the statue on Reggie Fils-Aime's farewell card was from the new IP, it wasn't though. That robot was just the Regginator. A mere inside joke Regginator reference lol
Click to expand...
I remember someone on ResetEra told us this. How Retro is so bad at new IP’s?
 
Dark Cloud said:
I remember someone on ResetEra told us this. How Retro is so bad at new IP’s?
Click to expand...
The answer is, they aren't.

iirc when Retro Studios originally opened, most of the team brought on either never worked on a game before, or had almost no coding experience and were mostly graphics designers. On top of that, they were mismanaged by the studio founder. And while new studios usually go through a few new IP ideas before centering on one project, Retro Studios is sort of unlucky in that these projects are pretty well documented, almost to infamy.

In other words as far as Retro as an actual game developer is concerned, they pretty much have a batting average of one miss, the music RPG. It's kind of weird to be like "why is Retro so bad at making new IP" and include their earlier output, might as well say why are they bad game developers at that point.
 
On the topic of an ST, I wonder if it should just be a general ST for DK? That could drive discussion about the older games while also letting people speculate about future releases. Maybe that's not the way to go, though.
 
Chill_Phil said:
The canceled Retro Studios New IP (2014-2018) was a very casual rhythm based game. It took heavy inspiration from Disney princess musicals such as Frozen. It was to appear at E3 2015 but Nintendo yanked it last minute and was largely unsatisfied with it

David Wise was scoring the game. He was very heavily involved. The 2015 rumors that David Wise was working with Nintendo were for the new Retro Studios IP

Many speculated that the robot hand blocked off by the statue on Reggie Fils-Aime's farewell card was from the new IP, it wasn't though. That robot was just the Regginator. A mere inside joke Regginator reference lol
Click to expand...
KremlingKuthroat said:
From what I've heard, that cancelled Retro game was horrendous. Trust me. You should be glad they cancelled it lol. I don't wanna give away any details other than that though since I promised I wouldn't talk much about it in public but a couple people tipped me off about it. Retro kinda wasted 5 years unable to get anything off the ground until porting TF to Switch and MP Remastered.

And for those of you curious, it wasn't Star Fox Grand Prix lol
Click to expand...
Do you know if the game started as an existing IP, or was it always meant to be a new IP?
 
Gingerbread Man said:
Do you know if the game started as an existing IP, or was it always meant to be a new IP?
Click to expand...
That game was set to be an original ip. Retro definitely wanted to move on from DK and Metroid at that time at the very least. We know of the Star Fox Armada pitch around the time Tropical Freeze wrapped up development, but that never got off the ground from what is known and definitely wasn't the rhythm game.
 
AngryAlchemist said:
On the topic of an ST, I wonder if it should just be a general ST for DK? That could drive discussion about the older games while also letting people speculate about future releases. Maybe that's not the way to go, though.
Click to expand...

I’d be all for a DK ST. It seems like there are a lot of Nintendo series with their own ST’s, might as well give DK one too. But I’m up for whatever the ST turns out to be.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Gingerbread Man said:
Do you know if the game started as an existing IP, or was it always meant to be a new IP?
Click to expand...
There was a bit of a company wide disagreement on where to go after Tropical Freeze Wii U. Retro toyed with the idea of the Sheik game, then when Tanabe left, it was the brand new original IP

I will say that several fans have this notion that Retro needs to be this darker, grittier, edgy studio that only makes more mature themed games, so this very casual audience rhythm game would have been very very divisive amongst those Retro Studios expectations. Hardcore fans would have exploded in anger.

Those who took a dump on Tropical Freeze reveal in 2013 for not being "edgy/mature" enough for Retro to be developing would have been begging them to go back to DKC if they ever saw the new IP years later, heh
 
Chill_Phil said:
There was a bit of a company wide disagreement on where to go after Tropical Freeze Wii U. Retro toyed with the idea of the Sheik game, then when Tanabe left, it was the brand new original IP

I will say that several fans have this notion that Retro needs to be this darker, grittier, edgy studio that only makes more mature themed games, so this very casual audience rhythm game would have been very very divisive amongst those Retro Studios expectations.

Those who took a dump on Tropical Freeze reveal in 2013 for not being "edgy/mature" enough for Retro to be developing would have been begging them to go back to DKC if they ever saw the new IP years later, heh
Click to expand...

Wasn't the Sheik game something that was pitched during the Wii era, not the Wii U era? Also, what do you mean by "Tanabe left"? He works with Nintendo EPD, Retro is just one of the subsidiaries he oversees. He didn't work AT Retro, and he's still with Nintendo EPD today. Are you trying to say that Tanabe decided to completely leave Retro to their own devices and create a game without Nintendo's oversight at all?
 
Clov said:
Wasn't the Sheik game something that was pitched during the Wii era, not the Wii U era? Also, what do you mean by "Tanabe left"? He works with Nintendo EPD, Retro is just one of the subsidiaries he oversees. He didn't work AT Retro, and he's still with Nintendo EPD today. Are you trying to say that Tanabe decided to completely leave Retro to their own devices and create a game without Nintendo's oversight at all?
Click to expand...
There was a falling out between Retro Studios and Kensuke Tanabe due to him being a bit of a control freak. He was pushed out of the studio and went on to form the Metroid Prime 4 Bandai Namco Singapore team as an act of vengeance against Retro.

But when both the new IP and Metroid Prime 4 original dev failed miserably, Retro was assigned to restart development and forced Kensuke Tanabe back to return to Retro Studios once again.

As far as the Sheik game goes I do believe it was introduced in the Wii era and not Wii U, yes, but it's likely they revisited the concept of it even if it wasn't in place. They toyed with a lot of ideas, one even being a Donkey Kong Junior game (but that was very quickly shut down by themselves, merely an idea on paper)
 
Remember the robot hand from Reggie Fils-Aime's retirement card that several were speculating was from Retro Studios new IP? That wasn't a character from that, it was the Regginator, merely the Regginator's hand lol
 
Chill_Phil said:
There was a falling out between Retro Studios and Kensuke Tanabe due to him being a bit of a control freak. He was pushed out of the studio and went on to form the Metroid Prime 4 Bandai Namco Singapore team as an act of vengeance against Retro.

But when both the new IP and Metroid Prime 4 original dev failed miserably, Retro was assigned to restart development and forced Kensuke Tanabe back to return to Retro Studios once again.

As far as the Sheik game goes I do believe it was introduced in the Wii era and not Wii U, yes, but it's likely they revisited the concept of it even if it wasn't in place. They toyed with a lot of ideas, one even being a Donkey Kong Junior game (but that was very quickly shut down by themselves, merely an idea on paper)
Click to expand...
Dante Kong said:
That game was set to be an original ip. Retro definitely wanted to move on from DK and Metroid at that time at the very least. We know of the Star Fox Armada pitch around the time Tropical Freeze wrapped up development, but that never got off the ground from what is known and definitely wasn't the rhythm game.
Click to expand...

Interesting. What you claim perfectly aligns with what @LiamRobertson said several years ago (Tanabe having a falling out with Retro), and Tanabe himself, in one interview, said he "didn't know" what Retro was up to.

The only inconsistency is with what Belmont said on Era about Retro's cancelled game (after Prime Remaster, it's safe to take Belmont's word as accurate).
[Retro's cancelled games] was an adventure game that started out as existing IP then morphed into new IP but just ultimately didn't work out. Hopefully someday someone who's better acquainted with it can fill us in on more.
Click to expand...
 
Chill_Phil said:
There was a falling out between Retro Studios and Kensuke Tanabe due to him being a bit of a control freak. He was pushed out of the studio and went on to form the Metroid Prime 4 Bandai Namco Singapore team as an act of vengeance against Retro.

But when both the new IP and Metroid Prime 4 original dev floundered. Retro was assigned to restart development and forced Kensuke Tanabe back to return to Retro Studios once again.

As far as the Sheik game goes I do believe it was introduced in the Wii era and not Wii U, yes, but it's likely they revisited the concept of it even if it wasn't in place. They toyed with a lot of ideas, one even being a Donkey Kong Junior game (but that was very quickly shut down by themselves, merely an idea on paper)
Click to expand...

...what?

None of this makes any sense at all. Retro pushed out the person in charge of managing them, a producer from Nintendo's main development branch... how? They just told him, "Take a hike, I'm the boss now!"? Who at Retro has the authority to do such a thing?

Tanabe went, by himself, to Namco, and told them to create a team in Singapore to create Metroid Prime 4... as revenge? Not because he wanted to make a new Metroid Prime game and Retro was busy, but as revenge specifically? Presumably for somehow being... removed from overseeing Retro, by Retro. What? Where is ANY of this coming from?

But then after it didn't work out, Retro FORCED Tanabe to return. Even though they apparently couldn't stand each other. Again, where is Retro getting the authority to do any of this on their own? Who at Nintendo was even overseeing Retro during this period that they "forced" Tanabe out?

I can't help but wonder where your source is getting any of this from. Your source needs to be extremely familiar with Retro, and familiar enough with Tanabe to understand his personal feelings on business matters. This reads as more bad fan fiction. Reminds me a lot of the "Miyamoto HATED DKC, because it did better than Yoshi's Island!" nonsense that went around for years.
 
Gingerbread Man said:
Interesting. What you claim perfectly aligns with what @LiamRobertson said several years ago (Tanabe having a falling out with Retro), and Tanabe himself, in one interview, said he "didn't know" what Retro was up to.

The only inconsistency is with what Belmont said on Era about Retro's cancelled game (after Prime Remaster, it's safe to take Belmont's word as accurate).
Click to expand...
What I was informed about with Retro's cancelled new IP was that before they had the new characters rendered and modeled, they temporarily used some of the Kongs existing models from TF as dummy placeholder fill-ins until they had the brand new cast filled in. And it was a 3D game so they had modeled Kongs interacting in a 3D environment for a brief period

I'm personally glad that never got leaked, or there would have been this complete misunderstanding and confusion with fans assuming Retro was doing a 3D DK, when they were not doing that at all. The Kong models were only used for temporary placement filler for the new characters of the original IP
 
Clov said:
...what?

None of this makes any sense at all. Retro pushed out the person in charge of managing them, a producer from Nintendo's main development branch... how? They just told him, "Take a hike, I'm the boss now!"? Who at Retro has the authority to do such a thing?

Tanabe went, by himself, to Namco, and told them to create a team in Singapore to create Metroid Prime 4... as revenge? Not because he wanted to make a new Metroid Prime game and Retro was busy, but as revenge specifically? Presumably for somehow being... removed from overseeing Retro, by Retro. What? Where is ANY of this coming from?

But then after it didn't work out, Retro FORCED Tanabe to return. Even though they apparently couldn't stand each other. Again, where is Retro getting the authority to do any of this on their own? Who at Nintendo was even overseeing Retro during this period that they "forced" Tanabe out?

I can't help but wonder where your source is getting any of this from. Your source needs to be extremely familiar with Retro, and familiar enough with Tanabe to understand his personal feelings on business matters. This reads as more bad fan fiction. Reminds me a lot of the "Miyamoto HATED DKC, because it did better than Yoshi's Island!" nonsense that went around for years.
Click to expand...
The rumors of the falling out were true. Kensuke Tanabe's temper was compared to that of Gordon Ramsay. So for a few years, he was not present at the studio due to the drama. Other departments heads such as Shinya Takahashi oversaw Retro and had them under his behest during this time.
 
Chill_Phil said:
The rumors of the falling out were true. Kensuke Tanabe's temper was compared to that of Gordon Ramsay. So for a few years, he was not present at the studio due to the drama. Other departments heads such as Shinya Takahashi oversaw Retro and had them under his behest during this time.
Click to expand...

This doesn't answer any of my questions, and sounds extremely silly.
 
0
Our new Donkey Kong Community ST has been opened! This thread will be locked shortly, so feel free to move any current discussions over there if necessary.

famiboards.com

Donkey Kong Community |ST| No Country For Old Kongs

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...
famiboards.com famiboards.com
 
Reader mode
Status
Not open for further replies.


Back
Top Bottom