Donkey Kong Country

Donkey Kong Country
Developer	Rare
Publisher	Nintendo
System	Super NES, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Virtual Console (Wii, Wii U, New 3DS)
Release Date	Super NES EU November 24, 1994 US November 25, 1994 JP November 26, 1994 Game Boy Color US November 4, 2000 EU November 17, 2000 JP January 21, 2001 Game Boy Advance EU June 6, 2003 NA June 9, 2003 JP December 12, 2003 Wii Virtual Console AU December 7, 2006 EU December 8, 2006 JP December 12, 2006 US February 19, 2007 Wii U Virtual Console EU October 16, 2014 JP November 26, 2014 US February 25, 2015 3DS Virtual Console JP March 4, 2016 US/PAL March 24, 2016
Gallery	GH Gallery
Rating	ESRB: E

Donkey Kong Country is a sidescrolling Donkey Kong adventure game released for the Super NES in 1994. Developed by Rare, it revived the Donkey Kong series with a new platforming experience that was considered a revolutionary game at it's time, mostly due to its prerendered 3D graphics. This spawned a new platforming series featuring a new version of Donkey Kong.

Story

King K. Rool and the Kremlings have stolen Donkey Kong's banana hoard. With the help of his hero trainee, Diddy Kong, Donkey Kong travels across Donkey Kong Island to defeat the attacking Kremlings and recover his bananas.

Gameplay

Though mostly a typical platformer, Donkey Kong Country had several unique features. The one that stands out most is the player being given two characters: Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong. Donkey Kong was the stronger of the two while Diddy Kong was quicker and more agile.

As well as two main characters, there were also a variety of animal helpers as well. Among them were Rambi the Rhino, Expresso the Ostrich, Enguarde the Swordfish, Winky the Frog, and Squawks the Parrot. Each had unique abilities to help the player through the level. Each world also had several businesses run by members of Donkey Kong's family; Cranky Kong had a cabin where he ranted about the "good old days" of video gaming and gave the player a 1-Up Balloon if they endured his speech, Candy Kong ran a save station where the game could be saved, and Funky Kong ran Funky's Flights, which the player could use to leave the current world for any world they had already beaten.

The game was made up of six worlds. The goal of each level was simply to reach the end while gathering as many bananas and KONG letters as they could (which often earned 1-Ups). Enemies blocked the way, but could be defeated by jumping on them, throwing barrels at them, or rolling into them. Most levels had hidden bonus areas, and there were also special bonus areas featuring the animal buddies that could be reached by collecting animal tokens, and all of this was needed to reach 100 percent in the game.

Continuity Notes

• The game has several callbacks to the arcade Donkey Kong. Additionally, Cranky Kong is referred to as having been the original Donkey Kong who battled Mario in "several of his own games" (the Donkey Kong arcade series, even though he instead fought Stanley in Donkey Kong 3), with the implication that this Donkey Kong is his son (an adult Donkey Kong Jr.) or grandson. The instruction manual clearly states that the Donkey Kong featured from Country onwards is "a totally new character" who is a "relative of the classic arcade character", although some later games would be inconsistent about this point.
• As part of the debate over whether Donkey Kong is Cranky Kong's son or grandson, in the instruction manual Cranky is referred to as his granddad and "his old pappy" (which could mean father or grandfather, but most usually refers to a grandfather).

Legacy

The game was wildly popular and spawned a new franchise. Rare would make a number of follow-ups until they left Nintendo, and years after that, the Country style was revived in a new form with Donkey Kong Country Returns on the Nintendo Wii.

This was also the first Donkey Kong game that Shigeru Miyamoto was not in charge of, and he became infamous for a quote attributed to him saying "Donkey Kong Country proves that players will put up with mediocre gameplay as long as the art is good." He later apologized for that statement, saying he spoke harshly due to Nintendo pressuring him to make Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island more like Donkey Kong Country, although he later elaborated that he had not made that comment at all, and that he was close to as well as supportive of Rare during their development of Donkey Kong Country.

Ports and Remakes

• Donkey Kong Country: Competition Cartridge was also for the Super NES. It contained a shortened version of the game that was used for competitions. Only 2,500 copies were made.
• In 2000, the game was ported to the Game Boy Color. Although the graphics were less advanced than the original game, there were some new additions to this version such as a new level of Chimp Caverns and an extension of the Winky's Walkway level. Cranky and Funky Kong now hosted shooting and fishing minigames respectively in place of their original functions, with the player now being able to save and travel between worlds freely.
• In 2003, the game was released on the Game Boy Advance. This version was closer to the original in terms of quality and featured alterations to some of the bosses to make them harder. Candy Kong now ran her own dancing minigame due to the ability to save at the pause screen, and photographs were hidden throughout the game that had to be collected for a scrapbook.
• In 2006, Donkey Kong Country was made available for download on the Wii's Virtual Console. It also was released for the Wii U Virtual Console in 2014 (2015 for America) and for the 3DS Virtual Console (for New 3DS only) in 2016.
• It was among the games included in the Super NES Classic Edition when it was released in 2017.
• In July 2020, it was added to the library of Super NES games that were made available to play on the Nintendo Switch for subscribers of the Nintendo Switch Online service. This version included two player and online options.

Sequels

The next game in the Donkey Kong Country series was Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest. At the same time, the first game was also accompanied by Donkey Kong Land, a companion game for the Game Boy that acted as a midquel.

See Also

• Enemies in Donkey Kong Country
• Worlds and Stages in Donkey Kong Country