Following details of a cancelled Donkey Kong project at the now-defunct development studio Vicarious Visions, supposed concept art has now surfaced online.
Known online as 'Donkey Kong Freedom' (though an extensive video from Did You Know Gaming claims that this was never the working title for the project), the game was designed to be open-world, allowing DK to 'grind' across vines with a heavy focus on traversal and fluidity.
The below image has now been shared online and was supposedly sourced from a hard drive containing promotional assets from Vicarious Visions.
Vicarious Visions was under the Activision Blizzard umbrella at the time (and still is, mind you, albeit now under the name 'Blizzard Albany'), and it was supposedly Activision who ultimately canned the project, despite involvement and support from Nintendo.
Sales of the Skylanders franchise were in rapid decline, and so Activision decided to pivot away from single-player experiences, ditching the Donkey Kong project completely.
Donkey Kong is in somewhat of a healthy state now, however, with a new title in the form of Donkey Kong Country Returns HD making its way to the Switch on 16th January 2025.
What do you make of this Donkey Kong concept art? Are you disppointing that this project never came to fruition? Let us know with a comment.
[source reddit.com]
Comments 33
Just as well. BOTW soon proved that vast open world is not the end all be all for gaming. It would've paled in comparison to Tropical Freeze.
DKCRHD comes out in 2025, not 2024. (I read that and thought, wow! How did I miss it?)
It's almost criminal that we never got a new Donkey Kong on Switch. If it is the case that Retro had to stop working on a new game to work on MP4, I'll take that, as it'll surely reappear on the next console, looking even better.
@Dr_Corndog Oh gosh, sorry! Fixed.
Pretty cool concept art, too bad (even though not surprising at all) that the Vicarious Visions DK game got canned by Activision!
Oh well, fingers crossed we'll see a new DK game on Switch's successor sooner rather than later - personally would prefer a 3D one, but definitely wouldn't mind a 2D one as well (I should play the other games in the series in the meanwhile, but that's besides the point and hopefully I'll be able to start doing so when Returns comes out next year)!
A daily reminder that Bobby Kotick is a bitch ass *****
And now we know the extent of the swear filter.
Not sure how I'd feel for a fully 3D DK game as the ones I played were the side scrolling ones and never DK64. That said is DK64 any good?
(Yeah I know, that's blasphemy considering my profile pic)
@Zeebor15 did he piss on your wife?
(For the nlife staff I'm referencing a youtube vid and I don't mean this as an attack on zeebor)
@PikminMarioKirby I remain pretty convinced that the next 3D Mario will be a sort of Mario/DK collaboration.
@Olliemar28 you know, I had that idea for a follow-up of the Mario movie: Mario/the Mushroom Kingdom returning the favor to the Kongs, who are now dealing with King K. Rool.
I suppose that could work for a game as well.
I still want that DK racing game with the animal buddies.
@Olliemar28 people were saying that a while ago, I'd actually really like that! Maybe we can get Fire DK in the game (like in the movie!). Maybe eventually we'd get a side game with Luigi and Diddy Kong XD
I've also been really wanting a new 3D DK game for the past few years. I've followed Vicarious Visions ever since their amazing Tony Hawk ports for the GBA and think they could have done something really fun. However, I think a 3D DK game would be better suited to the Kirby and the Forgotten Land style of open stages, not open world. I would really dig that.
@Arkay
I think Donkey Kong 64 is very good.
Almost everyone else in the world thinks it's terrible.
Is that not the art from that Skylanders and Donkey Kong crossover? I used to have the figure but I sold it. It worked as an amiibo and a skylander!
Edit: nvm the reddit post loaded lol I was talking about the thumbnail
Ouch. Sounds like that was meant to be a major title in the Nintendo lineup and a promising one at that.
That first concept art made me think Diddy Kong Racing, of course, and I still hold out hope for a spiritual successor showing up somewhere from Nintendo. Just don't know where it would fit.
This could have been partially it... Mario Kart 9 needs a differentiator. Would love an co-op adventure mode, there.
I mean, I'll just take Diddy Kong Racing added to the Online service, for now. But nope, not yet.
That looks more like concept art for the DK Skylander than anything "else".
"Donkey Kong is in somewhat of a healthy state now, however, with a new title in the form of Donkey Kong Country Returns HD making its way to the Switch on 16th January 2025."
>Healthy state
>New title
>HD remake
Yeeeaaaahhhh no, not having a new title in a decade is not what I'd call a "healthy state".
@Bolt_Strike
Who was even asking for yet another remake of Returns?
Serious Activision logic there “sales for skylanders were in serious decline, so they decided to drop DK altogether.”
Get out of here!!!
Vicarious Visions made the amazing SpongeBob GBA games, so that's definitely a shame.
This could of been amazing, surely Retro studios or Nintendo have something new on the Donkey Kong front for Switch 2.
I always love it when any type of video game concept art gets released because it's just so interesting to look at honestly....
@Uncle_Franklin me, I wanted that
Concept art reminds me of Yooka-Laylee.
A healthy state? Based on the release of Donkey Kong Country Returns HD next year? Good grief. The switch has had a handful of decent first party games, but the sheer volume of remasters/ports has been pretty staggering.
@Sylamp
Good Lord.
I just remembered that there were, I believe, DK and Bowser Skylanders/Amiibo figures you could use with the Skylanders game. This must have been Vicarious Vision's test run with the character to show they understood the feel of the character and series.
I'm glad whatever this is didn't manifest. The deviation to a Mayan vibe was fine for Returns but it doesn't need revisited, it holds none of the charm of the OT or Tropical Freeze. I hope I'm not alone in hoping they try harder to recapture/modernize the SNES vibe in the future considering so few games come close to having that magic in the decades since.
@luke88 I mean I'd say there's plenty of good, original 1st party games for the Switch in general, it's just DK in particular that's lacking. DK is probably one of the biggest IPs to not get an original new entry on the Switch, second only to Mario Kart (who keeps buying 8D anyway and delaying a legit 9? Doesn't everyone on the planet already have 8D by now?). But most of the other IPs, even if they do have several ports here and there you can point to at least one, maybe even two entries that are something new and original. DK's situation is more the exception than the rule.
@Olliemar28 Rumour has it that the Odyssey team is working on a DK game.
"Donkey Kong is in somewhat of a healthy state now". Err no it isn't? We Are now just 3 months short of ELEVEN years without a new Donkey Kong game.
Returns and Tropical Freeze are awesome games but they are both from over a decade ago.
Single handedly Nintendo's greatest failure in the Switch era. Worse than even Labo, or that AR Mario Kart that was fun for approximately 43 seconds.
The complete and utter mismanagement of Retro Studios. And it's sad, because we'll likely not see any other "Western studios" given a chance in the wake of Retro's complete and utter lack of any output for over a decade. Consider how much money Retro have poured into a fire over the eleven years since they released a game... all those staff wages, all those exec bonuses, rents, utilities...
Yea. Donkey Kong hasn't been in a worse place than it is today. Ever.
What are they smoking? Healthy state? Old ports is “healthy” for franchise that had no new game since what? A decade?
You know what an actual series that got more healthy lately? Metroid. They actually got a new 2D Metroid after years of nothing with Dread (which was greatly received) and soon even a new prime game on top of that while still getting ports.
A port coming out for the...<checks notes>...third time? That's what we consider "healthy state"? Sorry, but no.
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...