
Donkey Kong Country turned 25 yesterday, an event which is sure to have made many of us feel very old indeed. To celebrate the anniversary, Playtonic's Steve Mayles – who worked on the game during his tenure at Rare – has posted a special piece of artwork showcasing the game's heroes:
Mayles also shared some amusing photos of himself wearing an iconic item of clothing from his Rare / Nintendo days:
Not to be outdone, Mayles' brother Gregg – who is still working at Rare – offered up some items from his own personal DKC archive:
And finally, Playtonic's Chris Sutherland – another ex-Rare staffer who worked on the title – gave us a wee glimpse of what it was like to work at Rare's old Manor House HQ:
Don't forget, we ran an exclusive 'making of' feature for Donkey Kong Country a while back which is still worth a read. Oh, and if you're a fan of the game and haven't picked up the amazing Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair, what's wrong with you?
[source twitter.com]
Comments 22
Where is Donkey Kong Country Returns Three?
Nintendo needs to take this off the web!!!
Oh man, my heart skipped a beat before I read the title of the article
Great memories of this game, I remember myself and my cousin getting DKC on release day, even the boxart blew me away....and the free CD too.
A era in gaming that’ll never be repeated, the golden age when games could still properly wow you, before everything was plastered on the internet, just grateful I was around back then to experience it first hand.
Kong, Diddy, Rambi, Enguarde, groundbreaking graphics and that soundtrack.......video game perfection.
Man i wish rare whas still on board
Not bothered about the artwork really, just want another Donkey Kong game. Want it more like the SNES games though.
Now we need SNES games on Switch and a new Donkey Kong Country game on Switch!
Or just come to some sort of licensing agreement and put DKC 1,2 and 3 on the SNES emulator on Switch.
Edit - In fact, weren't they on Wii U anyway? My point stands.
I wonder who will be in charge of Donkey Kong while Retro is developing Metroid Prime 4? After all, Donkey Kong sells enough to continue having sequels.
@Rodan2000 Games can still wow you if you allow yourself to avoid most of the memes and news.
Red Dead Redemption 2 on PC wowed me plenty and Resident Evil 2 remake blew me away.
I just avoided most news and streams don't let FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) marketing get to you, life is too short to keep chasing after everything.
But yeah DKC the original still is special, all the sequels are great games and while the Retro ones do their own thing and doing it outstandingly well, This game feels fresh, it's simple clean platforming fun.
1994 was a great year for videogames, releases like Final Fantasy VI, Earthworm Jim, Super metroid, and even Rare's own Killer Instinct and many others released on the SNES with great competitors on other platforms like Sonic3 & knuckles on megadrive/genesis, System Shock and Doom II on pc, This game still managed to impress and stand out among a year full of legendary titles.
The cheesy... or should I say, bananas, marketing campaign that came with a VHS (remember those) with a behind the scenes footages with more 90's 'tude! than a rerun of Saved by the bell and Fresh prince of bell-air combined also gave this games a lasting impression.
Check out the GameXplain and Boundry break tribute videos on Youtube, not getting payed for this but these channels deserve our time imo.
I didn't see any activity from Nintendo themselves for DKC's birthday. Would have been great to announce the re-release of the DKC trilogy and DK64, but alas...
My older brother's favorite character in the Donkey Kong games is Funky Kong.
@Diddy64 Maybe Nintendo will recruit Playtonic for the next DK title.
@Rodan2000
> the golden age when games could still properly wow you, before everything was plastered on the internet
I hear you. These days there's spoilers plastered everywhere even before the game is out, from guides to final boss, endings, etc.
But I learned with BotW you can do something about it. I completely avoided absolutely everything that was not an official trailer from NOA before release, because sometimes the Japanese trailers have extra details (apparently aren't as bothered by spoilers). For example, a Nintendo Japan trailer showed the dragons before the release. I had such an amazing experience because I went in as blind as possible that each of these things was a surprise; I now do the same for every game I'm really excited about.
That is an awesome piece of artwork, I would love to be able to hang that on my wall as a painting! The DKC series has a special place in my heart.
I wish Nintendo had so much love for DKC like the fans and ex-developers. I was hoping to get a new DKC at DKC 25th anniversary, but sadly it didn't happen. Probably because they have to focus on Pokémon Sword and Shield right now.
am i the only one who saw a creepily realistic pac man design as donkey kongs mouth? also, great art!
I feel like I was born to miss this boat to develop games.
Aww what funny cute artwork
@The-Chosen-one I was just about to post the same comment.
I also wish the ultimate games would come to the switch, but with a few quality of life additions a remake of Underwurlde would make me very happy.
@KIRO
Exactly,
If Killer instinct was still on Nintendo, or banjo kazooie, perfect dark, Conker etc etc hahah man the joy that it would add on my face 😂
It can still happen if Microsoft allowed it. Would be free advertising and lots of money for them.
Dont see it happen tho, but a person can dream haha.
Beautiful artwork.
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