If there's one series we would love to see make a return, it's gotta be Donkey Kong Country. The last mainline outing was the release of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze on the Wii U in 2014, and it was then enhanced for the Switch in 2018.
So, who is willing to help out on a new Donkey Kong Country game? The legendary video game composer David Wise - perhaps best known for his time at Rare - said he would be happy to return when recently asked by Comicbook.com if he would like to compose for the series again. Here's exactly what he had to say:
"I’d obviously be delighted to be involved again if ever the opportunity were to come up in the future."
The last Donkey Kong game David was obviously involved with was Tropical Freeze, and since then he has composed music for games like Snake Pass, Yooka-Laylee, and the sequel, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair.
Based on the above response, does this mean there is no follow-up to Tropical Freeze currently in the works? It wouldn't be all that surprising considering how busy Retro Studios is with the development of Metroid Prime 4 right now. In saying this, we will add that Tropical Freeze's lead designer, Stephen Dupree, returned to Retro at the start of 2020 as a principal game designer.
In the same interview, David spoke a little about the "freedom and creative expression" Nintendo gave him when he was working on projects like Donkey Kong Country:
"There is always welcome guidance from Nintendo. There is also a huge amount of freedom and creative expression. I have consistently found that Nintendo are very happy to let creativity breathe and flourish, especially for first drafts, and then possibly suggest changes or give ideas to reflect the development of the rest of the game."
Would you like to see this veteran composer return to the Donkey Kong Country series one day? Are you eager to see DK make a mainline comeback in the near future? Share your thoughts down below.
[source comicbook.com, via gonintendo.com]
Comments 39
I'd be on board for it! DKC is at its best when David Wise is the composer!
I hope David Wise comes back, it's not Donkey Kong Country without him. Plus, King K. Rool needs to return to his home series.
Im so ready for a new game with Donkey and friends.
Loved the last one on wiiU!
We'd all be delighted to hear another one of his stellar soundtracks. Tropical Freeze is in my top 3 game soundtracks of all time, and his work on the first Country, 2, heck, even the GBA version of 3...fantastic.
And I would be delighted to play another DKC-game. Boy, we haven't got one since Tropical Freeze.
DKC definitely has some of the best music in gaming history, so obviously no-one would be against him composing more music for this amazing series! I also agree that King K. Rool has to come back!
Not only KKR, all of the other Kongs, the Animal Buddies, and Zingers as well.
Nintendo has already made/announced games for their bigger franchises, so I don't think that a new DKC is too far off.
DKC2 is one of my favourite OSTs ever along with the first one, some truly great tracks on there. It wouldn’t be the same without him.
Well this is depressing! It means no DKC is in development, at least not with David, that means it will be more than a decade since last DKC..Sad sad news article..
We don't need another DK. What the Switch needs is more indie pixel platformers and 2D sidescrollers.
Tropical Freeze is my favourite platformer!
I would like Donkey to return!
I actually liked Evelyn Fischer’s soundtrack for DKC3 on SNES as it was a mix of her and Wise.
@Yanina why not both with more DKC AND pixelated side scrolling adventures? The DKC line of games are some of the best in history and should continue onward to this day.
@DoktorTotenKopf It was a joke of course. Späßle gmacht!
So this means he currently isn't
@Yanina Oh! Sehr gut! 😅
Someone say something negative so I can make a pun out of a-peel.
This article is very Cruelly teasing us Donkey Kong fans! Obviously the man wants to continue working on the beloved series. Hopefully he is and he’s lying here but I doubt it .
Imagine...
A new game set among the ruins on DK Island. Following a trail of bananas that have been squashed, sliced, split, and otherwise violated, the Kongs find an elaborately shaped underground portal that leads to a jewel-bedecked primate skeleton. Yes, the crossover potential with BOTW 2 is obvious, but the goal here is to build out the lore of DKC, which can and should easily rival that of Dark Souls.
One of the boss setpieces would involve a swarm of cageberries - those most attractive and charming of all DK's foes - collectively controlled by a malign intelligence, swiftly filling in a basin and threatening to drown the Kongs. Somewhat like Captain Kirk being drowned by tribbles - only terrifying this time, and without Shatner's poor acting.
Retro Studios, have your people call my people.
I’m kinda bummed right now.
I was really hoping a new game was already in the works!
Retro should have him compose a synthwave track for Metroid Prime 4.
I'm in for a new DKC Returns. But honestly there are tons of great sidescroller on the indie scene. And I prefer that Retro Studios work on a 3D Metroid instead. They are already late to ship Metroid Prime 4,so yeah...
Nintendo can always choose another studio for the development though, Playtonic would be an amazing pick for exemple.
David Wise is the unsung hero in the Donkey Kong games. Tropical Freeze had such an excellent soundtrack.
The soundtrack in Snakepass is also amazing too.
@harouhiko It's a great platformer but it still competes for me with Rayman legends. or maybe I'll let them share a 1st spot together.
@antonio2244 Not necessarily. He'd be under an NDA and wouldn't be allowed to speak on it if it was actually in development. After the reception of the Tropical Freeze OST and his prior work on the series, I highly doubt a new DKC game would be made without trying as hard as possible to have Wise work on the music.
I would be delighted to have another DKC.
They need to listen and bring back the Kremlings, it has been too long since they have had their day!
@Averagewriter What was wrong with rolling in the original? The only thing I didn't like were the motion controls. Those are gone now.
DKCTF music is soooooo good. Please papa give me more tunes.
I can't get enough RETRO!!! The Prime & Return games that Retro has worked on are all fantastic games. I played through all of them.
It's bittersweet that they're working on Prime 4 at the moment because on one hand I can't wait to get Prime 4 but it also means that we won't be getting another DKCR from them anytime soon.
DKCR:TF had some of the best video game music ever in my opinion.
I've just been replaying TF the last couple weeks. It would be great to get a follow up, but high selling games is what motivates them to make sequels. Unfortunately, Tropical Freeze can't seem to catch a break with a wider audience. At the moment, it seems like the Switch version sold less than the Wii U version, so that's not a good sign.
What is it about this game that keeps it from bigger sales? We all blamed the Wii U before, but since it didn't do any better on Switch, what's the reason? Does the title put people off? "Sounds like it's full of snow and ice levels, those aren't my favorites". Well, that sure isn't the case, plenty of variety to the levels.
Donkey Kong Country Returns did much better, but TF improved on it. But the problem is Returns was on Wii, so it had a much bigger install base. So, another game in the series would be welcome, but I don't know if Nintendo would find it worth doing after the lukewarm response to the Switch version.
DKC is dead. 99% of all the Nintendo franchises is dead. Nintendo looks a bit like the new Konami. A bunch of w.....s, the lot of them!
@Averagewriter In Tropical freeze, if you have a partner, you can roll indefinitely just by holding the roll button (or maybe mashing, can't remember exactly).
They need to give dkc the sonic mania treatment!!!!
Never played tropical freeze because of the hearts, the original dk country didn't have hearts and we did just fine, no more dk games please unless it's a dk64 reboot.
That must be a rhetorical question! YES! David Wise is obviously the best composer alongside Koji Kondo! David-san is the only one who should be composing for Donkey Kong Country! I met him last year here in Sweden and he was very humble and polite. It was one of the best days of my life!
Loved the two games. Surely a trilogy makes sense?
And of course TF's audio was so nice. High quality video game experience all round.
if there's one more dkc game to round out the dkc returns trilogy i would die a happy man but if metroid fans keep whining about how they're not getting any games they're won't probably be another dkc game at least they got a trilogy from retro...
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