Lovely stuff

The art style in Donkey Kong Country Returns is pitch-perfect, showing respect to the gorilla's history and containing countless tiny references to his previous outings as well as other Retro Studios titles.

The concept art that went into producing this unique art style is every bit as impressive as you'd expect, particularly the radically different design for DK himself; without his red tie he'd be unrecognisable from his final form, but the art itself completely captures the spirit of the game that will be familiar to players.

These pieces are just a few picked from the gallery available over at ConceptArt.org, so be sure to check out some of the other pictures available there and be impressed by the game's arty origins.

[source conceptart.org]