Tag: Donkey Kong - Page 4
News Former Rare Devs Playtonic Want Donkey Kong Country Villain K. Rool In Super Smash Bros.
"Let's get another of our artists' beautiful children into the fight"
Nintendo has opened up voting to see which characters its fans want to see in Super Smash Bros., and this has predictably led to some rather outlandish recommendations. UK studio Playtonic - made up of former Rare developers - has thrown its hat into the ring by suggesting fans...
Video New Pixels Movie Trailer Passes One Million Views in Less Than a Day
"It's just a barrel, how bad can it hurt?"
Pixels is set to be a comedy blockbuster this Summer, and has naturally got fans of gaming - particularly those with a fondness for retro - rather excited. With a big-hitting cast - albeit including the marmite-esque Adam Sandler - it'll be heavily publicised by Sony Pictures as the film to see in a few...
Video Nintendo Star Makes Brief Cameo Appearance in Pixels Movie Teaser
The one that started it all...
Nintendo has recently shared a very short teaser for Sony's upcoming Pixels movie across its social networking accounts, and have asked the audience as to which big N icon they could spot. Looking across all the comments, many seem to think it's Pac-Man due to his obvious appearance towards the end of the snippet...
Preview Puzzling Our Way through Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars
Tips go in the jar, mate
Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars is just a few days away for North American fans, and those in Europe will only have to wait a little bit longer to get their hands on it. With the release date rapidly approaching, we've put together a short video to show you what you can expect to see in the game when it hits the 3DS and...
News Complete First Season Of Donkey Kong Country TV Series Coming To DVD This May
"I'M GONNA BE A STAR!!!"
Did you know that our dear old ape Donkey Kong has a nigh-on angelic singing voice? Anyone who watched the absolutely bizarre television series from the 90's will know all about it, and now the non-believers will finally get a chance to hear it for themselves in full. Yes, in an announcement that will either delight,...
News Nintendo España Appears to Confirm Super Mario amiibo for Rosalina, Donkey Kong and Wario
Picking up on previous speculation in Japan
Update: Nintendo España has, unsurprisingly, now informed Nintenderos that this press release was in error; we've also received a similar message after enquiring on this with Nintendo UK. As suggested below there have been instances like this out of Nintendo's Spanish divisions in the recent past, so...
Video Donkey Kong Country Returns...To Wii U
It's on like Donkey Kong. Again.
The second Wii re-release has arrived on the European eShop, and it's a doozy. Are you ready for Donkey Kong Country Returns? As we have come to expect from Retro Studios, they knocked it out of the park with a game that apes (pun intended) the original SNES trilogies' gameplay, but is it worth revisiting on Wii U?...
Review DK: King of Swing (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Shouldering the effort
Between 1999's Donkey Kong 64 and 2010's Donkey Kong Country Returns, Nintendo's great ape served a cool-off period of sorts when it came to straight-up platforming adventures. He had no huge releases to his name, but that didn't mean he was on the backburner entirely. The 2000s were a time to utilise Donkey Kong as a...
News Donkey Kong Land Rated And Ready For North American 3DS Virtual Console Release
Monkey business
After a successful 3DS Virtual Console début in both Japan and Europe earlier this year, the 1995 Game Boy title Donkey Kong Land is finally on its way to North America. Evidence of the anticipated re-release has appeared via the ESRB. Released a year after the success of the Super Nintendo original, Donkey Kong Land has the Kongs...
News Actor Is Suing Nintendo After Suffering Heart Problems In A Sweltering Donkey Kong Suit
Legal teams are going bananas
When actor Parker Mills stepped into a Donkey Kong costume to promote the launch of Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D at the Los Angeles Zoo last year, he most likely assumed the job would be a piece of cake — after all, what's better than being the mighty Kong for a day, right? However, Mills ended up earning more than...
Anniversary 20 Years Ago Today, Rare Resurrected The Donkey Kong Brand
Donkey Kong Country is now two decades old
Donkey Kong is Nintendo's first major star, having made his début in the arcade game that effectively turned the company into the global monster it is today. However, when Mario decided to become Super on the NES and take his place as Nintendo's number one mascot, DK was bumped down the pecking order and...
Review Donkey Kong Land III (3DS eShop / GB)
Marvellous Monkeys
In 1997 the fifth generation of video games was well underway (even Europe and Oceania had the N64 by then), but the trusty Game Boy was still the place to go for portable gaming joy. Having successfully brought monkey platforming action to the handheld twice already, Rare produced a third game — the imaginatively titled Donkey...
Review Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (Wii U eShop / SNES)
The ape escape
Rare managed to do something incredible with Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong-Quest; it took the well refined gameplay and style of the first Donkey Kong Country game and made it even better. This second entry in the series features gameplay almost identical to its predecessor’s, but this time everything’s been streamlined...
Video Did You Know Gaming Tackles Donkey Kong Once Again
The Rare years
Rare's Donkey Kong titles have recently been making their way onto the Wii U eShop in Europe — and hopefully will do so soon in North America — making it a good time to look back on the franchise. Whether that timing was part of its consideration or not, we do have Did You Know Gaming returning to the DK IP in its latest video...
Review Donkey Kong Country (Wii U eShop / SNES)
Hasn't aged a day
Back in 1994, before 3D games had taken off, a little UK-based games developer called Rare decided that if it couldn’t have good looking 3D models in a game, it'd have to get creative. Donkey Kong Country used a pioneering new technique for the time that took images of pre-rendered three dimensional models and turned these...
Review Donkey Kong Land 2 (3DS eShop / GB)
Diddy's 8-Bit Quest
The success of Donkey Kong Country inevitably saw a sequel released. Likewise when Donkey Kong Land proved a similar platforming experience was possible on the Game Boy, it was a no-brainer that Rare would release a second handheld adventure. This time Donkey Kong has gone and gotten himself captured, and so it's up to Diddy and...
News New Music and Voice Samples Discovered in the Donkey Kong Arcade
A few decades on, there's still more to find
The Donkey Kong arcade was a key turning point for Nintendo as a company, as it brought Shigeru Miyamoto to the fore and helped to demonstrate to Hiroshi Yamauchi and his management that the video game business could be lucrative for the company. It's so iconic that a small band of gamers still compete...
Review Donkey Kong Land (3DS eShop / GB)
Mobile monkey magic
Donkey Kong Country was a fun and popular platformer for the SNES, but not everyone thought it was great. Some people (possibly Mega Drive / Genesis owners) said the game was in fact quite poor and any fans were deluded fools drawn to it for reasons other than gameplay – or, as Cranky Kong says, “put a few fancy graphics and...
Review Donkey Kong: Original Edition (3DS eShop / NES)
Whole once again
The legendary arcade title Donkey Kong is slightly infamous for receiving a rather botched NES conversion. Lacking several screens, animations and even an entire stage, it wasn't exactly one of Nintendo's finer porting jobs, especially when other home versions by different companies did manage to include all of the original content...
News You Need To See This Amazing Hand-Sculpted Donkey Kong GBA SP Case Mod
Good luck trying to play a game on it, though
If you follow the hardware modding community then the name Vadu Amka will be instantly familiar to you. A seasoned pro when it comes to taking existing systems and making them even more attractive, Amka has recently released another new creation: a Game Boy Advance SP which is based on the model used in...
Weirdness Modder Recreates Donkey Kong Country In Doom Engine
Scary in a different way!
Rare’s Donkey Kong Country was a huge feat in itself when it was released on the Super Nintendo in 1994. Now imagine recreating the iconic jungle-based platformer within an entirely different game engine from around the same era. Enter Doom, and insert the reminder here of just how crazy modders of the classic...
News Robbie Lakeman Sets A New Donkey Kong World Record To Dethrone Hank Chien
We have a new King of Kong
When Hank Chien set a new world record on Donkey Kong back in 2011 — and then went on to break his own score another two times — many believed he could never be beaten. Chien's battle with Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe — the duo immortalised in the movie
Review Donkey Kong Jr. Math (Wii U eShop / NES)
Summin' it
In among the Excitebikes, Super Mario Bros., and Ice Climbers of the NES’s North American launch sat Donkey Kong Jr. Math, an edutainment title seemingly designed so that hopeful tots could point to it on the shelf and Trojan-horse Nintendo’s new Duck Hunt-playing powerhouse into the family home, parents unsuspecting, under the guise...
News Coleco Mini Arcades Set to Sit Proudly On Shelves Once Again
Fingers crossed for the Donkey Kong version
Just recently we shared the news that Coleco wants to bring back its version of Donkey Kong, with the planned ColecoVision Flashback in the works and the company hoping to re-release the version of the DK arcade title that graced the original console. When we say 'company', it's worth observing that the...
News Coleco Wants to Bring Back Their Version of Donkey Kong
Might also be interested in ColecoVision on Virtual Console
Who's up for a quick history lesson? While Donkey Kong is purely Nintendo's furry, banana-breathed baby, the company originally granted Coleco rights to produce console and tabletop versions of the hit arcade game. Coleco bundled Donkey Kong with their new ColecoVision in 1982, then ported...
News Donkey Kong, Pac-Man And Q*Bert Cast Alongside Game Of Thrones Star Peter Dinklage In Pixels
Based on the web short of the same name
Remember Pixels? It was a short film made by Patrick Jean back in 2010, and showed New York city being invaded by characters from famous retro games. The short is being turned into a fully-fledged movie helmed by Home Alone and Harry Potter director Chris Columbus and starring Peter Dinklage (Game of...
News Patch Fixes Bug in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
Thaws out a progress-stopping problem
Nintendo has made a software update available for Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze today that fixes a game-halting glitch in World 3. According to update notes, the patch will solve an issue some players have faced when completing level 3-3, Frantic Fields and finding no path has opened to the next level,...
News Game Boy Classic Donkey Kong Land Is Coming To The Japanese 3DS Virtual Console
You'll go bananas about this news
Fans of the naked ape wearing only a tie will be pleased to hear the 1995 Game Boy title Donkey Kong Land is being released in Japan on the 3DS Virtual Console early next month. Released a year after the success of the Super Nintendo original, Donkey Kong Land has the Kongs recapturing their banana hoard when...
Video DK Breaks The Ice in These Short Tropical Freeze Animations
For your viewing pleasure
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze has been out for a few weeks now and — as we reported earlier this week — it’s selling quite a few copies as well as assisting Wii U sales. Everyone’s favourite gaming ape is certainly playing his part, seemingly winning the hearts of many that play it. If you can’t seem to...
Weirdness The Makers Of TV Show Resurrection Clearly Want Nintendo On Smartphones
Donkey Kong on your mobile?
The series premiere of ABC's Resurrection went out on Sunday — in North America, at least — and the show's glaring similarity to the hit French TV series Les Revenants wasn't the only eye-opening thing about it. In one scene, a character is seen playing a game on his Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone which happens to...
News Nintendo Canada Unpeels The Making Of Its Tropical Freeze Contest
4835 bananas are frozen in total, breaking DK's heart
To help celebrate the launch of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, you may have heard of Nintendo Canada's pretty extravagant contest, Banana Mania. With everything having wrapped up last month, we're all now able to get a peek behind the scenes and see exactly how it was done. A video
News Senran Kagura Bursts Into The UK Top 40 While Donkey Kong Country Hangs A Little Higher Up
Racy subject matter helps niche fighter gain some sales
Senran Kagura Burst isn't your typical 3DS title — it features large-chested anime girls rather than rotund Italian plumbers — but it has gained quite a bit of attention ahead of its European release. We've seen saucy (and
Month Of Kong What Donkey Kong Country Means To Me
Dave Letcavage on growing up with Kong as company
We know what you're going to say. Our Month of Kong celebration should have ended with the close of February, and we're now two days into March. However, in very much the same way that Nintendo refuses to be tied down by conventional calendars when it comes to plotting The Year of Luigi, we're...
Month Of Kong Whatever Happened To Donkey Kong Racing?
Former Rare man Lee Musgrave talks about a lost GameCube smash hit
E3 2001 was a joyous occasion for Nintendo fans. The GameCube was nearing its release in Japan and North America and Nintendo had a lot to say and show about it. Super Smash Bros. Melee, Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader and Luigi’s Mansion were just some of the games...
Month Of Kong The Making Of Donkey Kong Country
Behind the scenes on the game that spawned a million-selling series
This month has seen the launch of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, a superb platforming romp starring one of Nintendo's most iconic characters and coded by a western development team, Retro Studios. These days, the notion of an American company doing the heavy lifting on one of...
News Donkey Kong Country's Fate Was Determined By A Risky Rare Investment
"The rendering of each 3D model would take ages"
With Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze currently entertaining Wii U owners, it's only natural for those with long memories to cast their minds back to where the franchise began. Donkey Kong Country on the Super NES remains one of the 16-bit system's most iconic games, and sits at the forefront —...
Video Nintendo Minute Shows Off Two Favourite Levels From Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
Tough but fun
With Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze now so close that we can smell the bananas, Nintendo's YouTube show 'Nintendo Minute' has naturally pitched in to show a little more of the game in action, with the co-hosts each picking a favourite level. First up is world 3-3 (Frantic Fields) which includes some heroic charging with Rambi...
Video These UK and US Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze Adverts Are Islands Apart In Tone
Bongo-drumming up interest
By now you might have seen our coverage of the Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze commercial currently airing to promote DK's latest outing, and it's a fun showcase of gameplay and character that definitely paints a charming picture to drum up some anticipation. Today, a UK version of the same trailer has just arrived to...
News Retro Studios Outlines "Symbiotic Relationship" With Nintendo Teams
"We spent a lot of time working on fur as requested by Iwata-san"
With Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze swinging into Western stores this week, eager fans are no doubt continuing their own personal countdowns. Ahead of the release Official Nintendo Magazine has published its interview with Retro Studios CEO Michael Kelbaugh and Nintendo SPD...
Review Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U)
Ain't no business like monkey business
It says much for the level of expectation placed upon Nintendo and Retro Studios that some questioned the decision to revisit the world of Donkey Kong for Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, yet that initial reaction should be pushed aside. Anyone that discounts this title due to the fact it’s not the exact...
News GameChops releases Club Kong: A Modern Jazz Remix of Donkey Kong Music
Sit back, relax and enjoy
In celebration of the 20th anniversary of Donkey Kong Country, video game remix record label GameChops has released a six track remix of music from the game. The album, aptly named Club Kong, is best described as a Donkey Kong electronic jazz club infusion; it comes at a perfect time as Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze...
News Nintendo Canada Announces an Awesome Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze Contest
Where's Rain Man when we need him?
Calling all Canadian Nintendo Lifers! Nintendo of Canada Ltd. is currently running a special contest for Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. The contest, aptly named "Banana Mania," is open only to Canadian residents and offers one Grand Prize and five second place prizes, both including a copy of Retro Studios'...
Month Of Kong Meet Donkey Kong's Extended Family
The gang is all here
As you're probably aware by now, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze hits the Wii U on February 21st. To mark this momentous occasion, we're running a month of Kong-related content on Nintendo Life — the first of which is this intriguing look at the famous simian's extended family. Grab some bananas, set your phone to "do not...
Video A Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze TV Commercial Swings Into North America
"Donkey Kong and friends got your back"
Nintendo of America, for a good while now, has opted to mix real-life actors with CG characters in its commercials, sometimes to excellent effect. A stand-out example was the North American advert for Pikmin 3, but now it's the turn of Donkey Kong and his companions to help out photogenic humans in need. The...
Video Japanese Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze Trailer Swings Into View
The Kongs go bananas when they get the cold shoulder
A new Japanese video showcasing footage from the upcoming Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze has appeared, and it's chock-full of gameplay bits that may help tide fans over until the game's February launch. The video — which may contain spoilers for players who are trying to avoid seeing too...
Preview Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
Dat HD fur
The E3 event can be a strange beast, as the unveiling of a sequel to one of the Wii's finest platformers was met with wails of despair in some corners. A number of fans, including this writer, wanted a fresh project from Retro that was either Metroid or something new, and instead we received Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. It's...
News Nintendo Confirms Rambi's Return in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
Power play
With its release now a little over a month away, Nintendo is starting to gradually reveal more minor pieces of information for Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. At the end of last year we were shown the return of Funky Kong, and now there's confirmation that a favourite from Donkey Kong Country Returns — and from the original Super...
Video YouTube Challenge Winner's Video Blasts Into View
FreddyW (RocketJump) and HAWP collaboration
Back in December Nintendo announced that the HAWPOfficial channel was the winner of its YouTube challenge, in which a number of popular content creators were given the goal of producing videos inspired by Super Mario 3D World or The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD. The winner had the chance to work on a
News Kensuke Tanabe Highlights Potential Return of 3D Donkey Kong Games
Retro Studios used the Metroid Prime engine for Returns on Wii
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze arrives on 21st February, and combines the established skills of Retro Studios with many of the outstanding foundations laid down in Donkey Kong Country Returns on Wii. It may not be the game or franchise that some of the most vocal of Nintendo fans...
Review Donkey Kong 3 (3DS eShop / NES)
Third time's the swarm
Nintendo has a bit of a tradition of mixing things up for game number three. Super Mario Bros. 3 added a world map and the famous Tanooki Suit, Super Mario Land 3 nonchalantly swapped Mario for his arch-rival Wario, and Starfy's third adventure saw him graciously sharing the spotlight with his little sister. It should come as...
