147-427: DKC may refer to: Donkey Kong Country [ edit ] Donkey Kong Country , a video game Donkey Kong Country (TV series) , a television series based on the video game Other uses [ edit ] Dyskeratosis congenita , a genetic disease Dyskerin , a gene also known as DKC1 DKC (company) , a public relations company Topics referred to by
294-521: A Donkey Kong Country promotional trailer. Beanland said Tim Stamper liked it and wanted to include it in the game, so Wise adopted it. Lincoln unveiled Donkey Kong Country at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago , which took place from 23 to 25 June 1994. The unveiling was the finale of Nintendo's conference and did not reveal that Donkey Kong Country was a SNES game until the end of
441-498: A boss fight with a large enemy. Donkey and Diddy can defeat enemies by jumping on, rolling into, or throwing barrels at them. If hit by an obstacle, one of the Kongs runs off and the player automatically takes control of the other. They will only be able to control that Kong unless they free the other Kong from a barrel. In certain levels, the player can free an animal that provides the Kongs with special abilities, similar to Yoshi from
588-536: A console war with Sega , whose Mega Drive competed with the SNES. Nintendo wanted a game to compete with Sega's Aladdin (1993), which featured graphics by Disney animators, when Nintendo of America chairman Howard Lincoln learned of Rare's SGI experiments during a trip to Europe. After impressing Nintendo with a demonstration of Brute Force , Tim Stamper—inspired by Mortal Kombat 's use of digitised footage in place of hand-drawn art—suggested developing
735-425: A spider monkey and made him agile to give him distinct moves. Nintendo considered the redesign too great a departure and asked it to be reworked or presented as a new character. Mayles felt the redesign suited the updated Donkey Kong universe, so he chose to make it a new character. Naming the character was a challenge, and Rare dropped their preferred "Dinky Kong" due to legal problems. Rare staff spent hours at
882-449: A 16-bit game. EGM said that the graphical quality prompted questions about the purpose of 32- and 64-bit hardware. Total! said the character animations surpassed those of a Disney film and applauded the parallax scrolling . Several critics said the graphics were the best on available hardware, with Entertainment Weekly writing that they were comparable to matte paintings . The soundtrack and audio were also lauded. Total! said
1029-518: A 1992 interview, he said "the important thing is that it feels good when you're playing it" and "that quality is not determined by the story, but by the controls, the sound, and the rhythm and pacing". However, he requires a "compatibility [between] the story and gameplay [because] a good story can smooth over that discrepancy and make it all feel natural". His use of real-time rendered cinematics (not prerendered video) serves both his own rapidly interactive development process with no rendering delays, and
1176-452: A British studio founded by Tim and Chris Stamper , purchased Silicon Graphics workstations to render 3D models . Nintendo sought a game to compete with Sega 's Aladdin (1993) and commissioned Rare to revive the dormant Donkey Kong franchise. Rare assembled 12 developers to work on Donkey Kong Country over 18 months. Donkey Kong Country was inspired by the Super Mario series and
1323-440: A career as a manga artist, until developing an interest in video games. With the help of his father, he joined Nintendo in 1977 after impressing the president, Hiroshi Yamauchi , with his toys. He helped create art for the arcade game Sheriff , and was later tasked with designing a new arcade game, leading to the 1981 game Donkey Kong . Miyamoto's games Super Mario Bros. (1985) and The Legend of Zelda (1986) helped
1470-402: A career in video games. He was influenced by manga's classic kishōtenketsu narrative structure, as well as Western genre television shows . He was inspired to enter the video game industry by the 1978 arcade hit Space Invaders . I feel that I have been very lucky to be a game designer since the dawn of the industry. I am not an engineer, but I have had the opportunities to learn
1617-462: A cave, and, after days of hesitation, went inside. His expeditions into the Kyoto countryside inspired his later work, particularly The Legend of Zelda , a seminal video game. In the early 1970s, Miyamoto graduated from Kanazawa Municipal College of Industrial Arts with a degree in industrial design. He had a love for manga and initially hoped to become a professional manga artist before considering
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#17328513588651764-633: A collectible that would evade the player by running or hiding, served as the basis for the Jinjos in Rare's subsequent game Banjo-Kazooie (1998). Reviewing Donkey Kong Country for release, Nintendo directed Rare to reduce the difficulty to appeal to a broad audience, reasoning that the secrets would provide sufficient challenge for hardcore gamers. At this point, Miyamoto made some last-minute suggestions, such as Donkey Kong's terrain slap, that were incorporated. Nintendo's Kensuke Tanabe flew to Twycross to localise
1911-552: A direct competitor to Sega's Mega-CD and 32X platforms to remind players it was not for next-generation hardware. Nintendo sent a promotional VHS tape, Donkey Kong Country: Exposed , to subscribers of the magazine Nintendo Power . Exposed , hosted by comedian Josh Wolf , provides a "behind-the-scenes" glimpse of the Treehouse, the Nintendo of America division where games are tested. Nintendo World Report wrote that Exposed
2058-564: A finished game, and according to product manager Dan Owsen , 20 people worked on it in total. It cost an estimated US$ 1 million to produce, and Rare said that it had the most man hours ever invested in a video game at the time, 22 years. The team worked 12–16-hours every day of the week. Gunn said that the team was under significant pressure from the Stampers and to finish the game in time for Thanksgiving due to Nintendo's competition with Sega. The stages were painstakingly arranged so that
2205-595: A kidnapped Donkey Kong from K. Rool and introduces Diddy's girlfriend Dixie Kong . Diddy's Kong Quest was designed to be less linear and more challenging, with a theme reflecting Gregg Mayles' fascination with pirates. Like its predecessor, Diddy's Kong Quest was a major critical and commercial success. Other teams at Rare used Donkey Kong Country 's technology in the fighting game Killer Instinct and Donkey Kong Land , Donkey Kong Land 2 (1996) and Donkey Kong Land III (1997), which attempted to replicate Donkey Kong Country 's visuals and gameplay on
2352-455: A lake. It was quite a surprise for me to stumble upon it. When I traveled around the country without a map, trying to find my way, stumbling on amazing things as I went, I realized how it felt to go on an adventure like this." He recreated his memories of becoming lost amid the maze of sliding doors in his family home in Zelda ' s labyrinthine dungeons. In February 1986, Nintendo released it as
2499-417: A larger world map rather than the bird's eye view of the previous title. The game incorporates a strategic combat system and more RPG elements, including an experience points (EXP) system, magic spells , and more interaction with non-player characters (NPCs). Link has extra lives; no other game in the series includes this feature. The Adventure of Link plays out in a two-mode dynamic. The overworld ,
2646-673: A launch game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System . Miyamoto worked through various games on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, one of them Star Fox . For the game, programmer Jez San convinced Nintendo to develop an upgrade for the Super Nintendo, allowing it to handle three-dimensional graphics better: the Super FX chip. Using this new hardware, Miyamoto and Katsuya Eguchi designed
2793-456: A linear approach, with the player traversing the stage by running, jumping, and dodging or defeating enemies. It was a culmination of Miyamoto's gameplay concepts and technical knowledge drawn from his experiences of designing Donkey Kong , Mario Bros , Devil World (1984), the side-scrolling racing game Excitebike (1984), and the 1985 NES port of side-scrolling beat 'em up Kung-Fu Master (1984). This culminated in his concept of
2940-547: A major role in the development of the Wii , a console that popularized motion control gaming, and its launch game Wii Sports , which helped show the capability of the new control scheme. Miyamoto went on to produce other titles in the Wii series , including Wii Fit . His inspiration for Wii Fit was to encourage conversation and family bonding. At E3 2004 , Miyamoto unveiled The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess , appearing dressed as
3087-427: A movie maker, but rather that my strength lies in my pioneering spirit to make use of technology to create the best, interactive commodities possible, and use that interactivity to give users a game they can enjoy and play comfortably. Miyamoto, and Nintendo as a whole, do not use focus groups. Instead, Miyamoto figures out if a game is fun for himself. He says that if he enjoys it, others will too. He elaborates, citing
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#17328513588653234-445: A peewee". Electronic Gaming Monthly ( EGM ) called Donkey Kong Country "one of the few games that is actually as good as the hype", and Total! declared it the best game of 1994. GameFan said that Donkey Kong Country set a new quality standard that many developers would attempt to imitate. The visuals were considered the best aspect. Reviewers considered them a major technological achievement, their detail unprecedented for
3381-507: A platform game that used pre-rendered graphics. Nintendo granted the Stampers permission to use the Donkey Kong intellectual property . The franchise had been largely dormant since the unsuccessful Donkey Kong 3 (1983), so Nintendo figured that licensing it posed minimal risk. Some sources indicate that the Stampers obtained the licence after Nintendo offered them their catalogue of characters and they chose Donkey Kong. Conversely,
3528-534: A platformer set in an expansive world that would have the player "strategize while scrolling sideways" over long distances, have aboveground and underground levels, and have colorful backgrounds rather than black backgrounds. By contrast, Miyamoto employed nonlinear gameplay in The Legend of Zelda , forcing the player to think their way through riddles and puzzles. The world was expansive and seemingly endless, offering "an array of choice and depth never seen before in
3675-679: A port of Donkey Kong Country for Nintendo's Game Boy Color (GBC) handheld console. It was released in North America on 4 November 2000, in Europe on 17 November, and in Japan on 21 January 2001. The port was developed alongside the GBC version of Perfect Dark and many assets, including graphics and audio, were re-used from the Donkey Kong Land games. Aside from graphical and sound-related downgrades due to
3822-476: A pre-order bonus, and partnered with Kellogg's for a promotional campaign in which the packaging for Kellogg's breakfast cereals featured Donkey Kong Country character art and announced a prize giveaway. The campaign ran from November 1994 to April 1995. Fleetway Publications published a promotional comic in the UK in 1995. By October 1994, Nintendo was still in fierce competition with Sega and its popular Sonic
3969-402: A rapid and malleable development process with small teams, as when he directed substantial changes to the overall game scenario in the final months of the development of Ocarina of Time . He said, "The reason behind using such a simple process, as I am sure you have all experienced in the workshop, is that there is a total limit on team energy. There is a limit to the work a team can do, and there
4116-436: A set piece (such as swinging ropes), create every variation they could think of, drew them on Post-it Notes, and pieced them together. Rare featured barrels as a primary game mechanic to pay homage to the original arcade game, and included hidden collectibles like coins and balloons to add depth. Diddy Kong originated from Rare's search for a game mechanic akin to Super Mario 's power-up system in that he would serve as
4263-449: A smaller team required only 18 months to finish Majora's Mask . Miyamoto worked on a variety of Mario series spin-offs for the Nintendo 64, including Mario Kart 64 and Mario Party . Miyamoto produced various games for the GameCube , including the launch game Luigi's Mansion . The game was first revealed at Nintendo Space World 2000 as a technical demo designed to show off
4410-532: A team consisting of a partnership between Nintendo and Square ; it took nearly a year to develop the graphics. The story takes place in a newly rendered Mushroom Kingdom based on the Super Mario Bros. series . Miyamoto also created The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the third entry in the series. Dropping the side-scrolling elements of its predecessor, A Link to
4557-417: A video game." With The Legend of Zelda , Miyamoto sought to make an in-game world that players would identify with, a "miniature garden that they can put inside their drawer." He drew his inspiration from his experiences as a boy around Kyoto , where he explored nearby fields, woods, and caves; each Zelda game embodies this sense of exploration. "When I was a child," Miyamoto said, "I went hiking and found
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4704-552: A whole. Additionally, The Adventure of Link was one of the first games to combine role-playing video game and platforming elements to a considerable degree. Soon after, Super Mario Bros. 3 was developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development ; the game took more than two years to complete. The game offers numerous modifications on the original Super Mario Bros. , ranging from costumes with different abilities to new enemies. Bowser's children were designed to be unique in appearance and personality; Miyamoto based
4851-527: Is "regarded by many as possibly the most important game designer of all time." GameTrailers called him "the most influential game creator in history." Miyamoto has significantly influenced various aspects of the medium. The Daily Telegraph credited him with creating "some of the most innovative, ground breaking and successful work in his field." Many of Miyamoto's works have pioneered new video game concepts or refined existing ones. Miyamoto's games have received outstanding critical praise, some being considered
4998-455: Is a limit to my own energy. We opted not to use that limited time and energy on pre-rendered images for use in cinema scenes, but rather on tests on other inter-active elements and polishing up the game". For these reasons, he opposes prerendered cutscenes. Of Ocarina of Time , he says "we were able to make use of truly cinematic methods with our camera work without relying on [prerendered video]." Miyamoto has occasionally been critical of
5145-464: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Donkey Kong Country Donkey Kong Country is a 1994 platform game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It is a reboot of Nintendo's Donkey Kong franchise and follows the gorilla Donkey Kong and his nephew Diddy Kong as they set out to recover their stolen banana hoard from
5292-480: Is the third-bestselling SNES game and the bestselling Donkey Kong game. Donkey Kong Country received critical acclaim and was lauded as a paradigm shift that set new standards for video games. Diehard GameFan and Total! said it changed expectations for 16-bit and platform games, and Entertainment Weekly wrote it "is to most 16-bit games what most 16-bit games are to their Atari forebears. Once you've played it, everything else before it seems like
5439-570: The Los Angeles Times , Nintendo spent US$ 16 million on marketing Donkey Kong Country in America alone; at the time, major games typically had an average marketing budget of US$ 5 million. Marketing materials emphasised the revolutionary graphics—often noting that Rare's SGI workstations had been used to create the Jurassic Park (1993) film's dinosaurs —and positioned Donkey Kong Country as
5586-426: The Super Mario series. Buddies include Rambi, a rhino that can charge into enemies and find hidden entrances; Enguarde, a swordfish that can defeat enemies with its bill; Squawks, a parrot that carries a lantern; Expresso, an ostrich that flies; and Winky, a frog that can jump high. Each level contains collectible bananas, letters that spell out K–O–N–G, balloons, and animal tokens. These items can be found within
5733-556: The 4th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards , the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated it for the " Console Family " award. It sold 2.19 million copies worldwide. Shigeru Miyamoto Shigeru Miyamoto ( Japanese : 宮本 茂 , Hepburn : Miyamoto Shigeru , born November 16, 1952) is a Japanese video game designer , producer and game director at Nintendo , where he serves as one of its representative directors as an executive since 2002. Widely regarded as one of
5880-463: The Black Friday shopping season. It was released in the UK on 18 November, in North America on 21 November, in Europe on 24 November, and in Japan on 26 November. In Japan, the game was released under the title Super Donkey Kong . Donkey Kong Country set the record for the fastest-selling video game at the time: it sold over 500,000 copies within a week, and sales reached one million copies in
6027-657: The Chrysler Neon , and it became the first game to win the Favourite Video Game Kids' Choice Award at the 1995 Kids' Choice Awards . In April 1995, following Donkey Kong Country 's success, Nintendo purchased a 25% minority stake in Rare, which increased to 49% over time. Rare was the first non-Japanese studio to enter such a relationship with Nintendo, making them a second-party developer ; Nintendo published Rare's subsequent games and allowed them to expand their staff from 84 to over 250 and move out of
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6174-566: The Korg Wavestation synthesiser. He wrote lyrics for each melody, though The New York Times noted "no one is really meant to hear them". Since Donkey Kong Country featured advanced pre-rendered graphics, Wise wanted to push the limits to create "equally impressive" music and make the most of the limited memory he was working with. Wise found Donkey Kong "a little more brutal" than Mario , so departed from Super Mario 's Latin and calypso -inspired sound. He wanted to compose in
6321-633: The Kremlings , steal the Kongs ' banana hoard. The gorilla Donkey Kong and his nephew Diddy Kong set out to reclaim the hoard and defeat the Kremlings. Donkey and Diddy serve as the player characters of the single-player game; they run alongside each other and the player can swap between them at will. Donkey is stronger and can defeat enemies more easily; Diddy is faster and more agile. Both can walk, run, jump, pick up and throw objects, and roll; Donkey can slap
6468-479: The Mario franchise by Illumination . Miyamoto was heavily involved with the design and construction of Super Nintendo World , a themed area featured at Universal Studios Japan and Universal Studios Hollywood and under construction at Universal Studios Singapore and Universal Epic Universe . Miyamoto oversaw the design and construction of the land and its attractions and acted as Nintendo's public representative on
6615-576: The Nintendo 64 game Donkey Kong 64 (1999). After a hiatus, during which Rare was acquired by the Nintendo competitor Microsoft , Retro Studios revived the series with Donkey Kong Country Returns (2010) for the Wii and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (2014) for the Wii U . Donkey Kong Country is a side-scrolling platform game . A reboot of the Donkey Kong franchise, its story begins when King K. Rool and his army of crocodiles,
6762-608: The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) hardware for six months. Rare demonstrated it was possible to reverse-engineer the NES and showed several tech demos to Nintendo executive Minoru Arakawa ; impressed, Arakawa granted Rare a Nintendo developer licence. Rare developed more than 60 NES games, including the Battletoads series and ports of games such as Marble Madness . When Nintendo released their next console,
6909-484: The Nintendo Entertainment System dominate the console game market. His games have been flagships of every Nintendo video game console , from the arcade machines of the late 1970s to the present day. He managed Nintendo's Entertainment Analysis & Development software division, which developed many Nintendo games, and he played an important role in the creation of other influential games such as Pokémon Red and Blue (1996) and Metroid Prime (2002). Following
7056-399: The Nintendo Entertainment System ), Miyamoto made two of the most popular titles for the console and in the history of video games as a whole: Super Mario Bros. (a sequel to Mario Bros. ) and The Legend of Zelda (an entirely original title). In both games, Miyamoto decided to focus more on gameplay than on high scores, unlike many games of the time. Super Mario Bros. largely took
7203-549: The Star Fox game with an early implementation of three-dimensional graphics. Miyamoto produced two major Mario games for the system. The first, Super Mario World , was a launch game. It features an overworld as in Super Mario Bros. 3 and introduces a new character, Yoshi, who appears in many other Nintendo games. The second Mario game for the system, Super Mario RPG , went in a somewhat different direction. Miyamoto led
7350-799: The Star Fox , Donkey Kong , F-Zero , and The Legend of Zelda series on both the GameCube and the Game Boy Advance systems. With the help of Hideo Kojima , he guided the developers of Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes . He helped with many games on the Nintendo DS, including the remake of Super Mario 64 , titled Super Mario 64 DS , and the new game Nintendogs , a new franchise based on his own experiences with dogs. At E3 2005, Miyamoto showed off Nintendogs with Tina Wood , where he promised to show her "a few more tricks" backstage. Miyamoto played
7497-479: The Super Mario series, particularly Super Mario World (1990). Some considered Donkey Kong Country an improvement upon the Mario formula. GameFan said it would be a worthy successor to Super Mario World even without the graphics and Total! wrote that it took Mario 's best elements, increased the speed, and presented them better. Next Generation felt the gameplay, though good, did not meet
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#17328513588657644-466: The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), in 1991, Rare decided to limit their output. Around 1992, Rare invested their NES profit in Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI) Challenge workstations with Alias rendering software to render 3D models . It was a significant risk, as each workstation cost £80,000. The move made Rare the most technologically advanced UK developer and situated them high in
7791-496: The cooperative "Team" mode, they play as a tag team. In 1985, the British game developers Tim and Chris Stamper established Rare Ltd. The brothers previously founded the British computer game studio Ultimate Play the Game and founded Rare to focus on the burgeoning Japanese console market. After Nintendo rejected their efforts to form a partnership in 1983, Chris Stamper studied
7938-460: The fifth generation of video game consoles . It is considered one of the greatest video games of all time and has been ported to platforms such as the Game Boy Color , Game Boy Advance , and digital distribution services. Rare followed it with two sequels for the SNES, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (1995) and Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! (1996), and
8085-411: The role-playing game (RPG) genre. In a 1992 interview, when asked whether Zelda is an RPG series, he declined but classified it as "a real-time adventure"; he said he was "not interested in [games] decided by stats and numbers [but in preserving] as much of that 'live' feeling as possible", which he said " action games are better suited in conveying". In 2003, he described his "fundamental dislike" of
8232-410: The 15 most influential games of all time, for being an early example of open world , nonlinear gameplay , and for its introduction of battery backup saving , laying the foundations for later action-adventure games like Metroid and role-playing video games like Final Fantasy , while influencing most modern games in general. In 2009, Game Informer called The Legend of Zelda "no less than
8379-490: The 1960s. Through a mutual friend, Miyamoto's father arranged an interview with Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi . After showing some of his toy creations, he was hired in 1977 as an apprentice in the planning department. Miyamoto helped create the art for the coin-operated arcade game , Sheriff . He first helped the company develop a game after the 1980 release Radar Scope . The game achieved moderate success in Japan, but by 1981, Nintendo's efforts to break it into
8526-616: The American cabinet art and used in promotional materials. The staff also pushed for an English name, and thus it received the title Donkey Kong . Donkey Kong was a success, leading Miyamoto to work on sequels such as Donkey Kong Jr. in 1982, and Donkey Kong 3 in 1983. In January 1983, the 1982 Arcade Awards gave Donkey Kong the Best Single-player video game award and the Certificate of Merit as runner-up for Coin-Op Game of
8673-548: The GBC's weaker 8-bit hardware, the port is mostly identical to the original release. One level was redesigned and another was added. It also adds bonus modes, including two minigames that supplement the main quest and support multiplayer via the Game Link Cable , as well as Game Boy Printer support. The GBC version was a runner-up for GameSpot ' s annual Best Game Boy Color Game and Best Platform Game awards, and during
8820-554: The Hedgehog franchise. Donkey Kong Country was released a month after Sonic & Knuckles for the Mega Drive. The Los Angeles Times characterised the coinciding releases as a battle; both featured company mascots, boasted " Hollywood -sized" marketing budgets, and advertised revolutionary technological advances ( lock-on technology for Sonic & Knuckles and 3D-rendered graphics for Donkey Kong Country ). Donkey Kong Country
8967-496: The North American video game market had failed, leaving them with a large number of unsold units and on the verge of financial collapse. Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi decided to convert unsold Radar Scope units into a new arcade game. He tasked Miyamoto with the conversion, about which Miyamoto has said self-deprecatingly that "no one else was available" to do the work. Nintendo's head engineer, Gunpei Yokoi , supervised
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#17328513588659114-581: The Past introduced to the series elements that are still commonplace today, such as the concept of an alternate or parallel world, the Master Sword , and other new weapons and items. Shigeru Miyamoto mentored Satoshi Tajiri , guiding him during the creation process of Pocket Monsters: Red and Green (released in English as Pokémon Red and Blue ), the initial video games in the Pokémon series. He also acted as
9261-658: The RPG gameplay system, he has occasionally praised certain aspects of RPGs, such as Yuji Horii 's writing in the Dragon Quest series, the "interactive cinematic approach" of the Final Fantasy series, and Shigesato Itoi 's dialogue in the Mother series. Time called Miyamoto "the Spielberg of video games" and "the father of modern video games," while The Daily Telegraph says he
9408-498: The RPG genre: "I think that with an RPG you are completely bound hand and foot, and can't move. But gradually you become able to move your hands and legs... you become slightly untied. And in the end, you feel powerful. So what you get out of an RPG is a feeling of happiness. But I don't think they're something that's fundamentally fun to play. With a game like that, anyone can become really good at it. With Mario though, if you're not good at it, you may never get good." While critical of
9555-627: The US alone in two weeks. In its second week on sale in the US, the game grossed US$ 15 million, outpacing the week's highest-grossing film ( The Santa Clause , US$ 11.5 million) and album ( Miracles: The Holiday Album , US$ 5.2 million). In the UK, it was the top-selling SNES game in November 1994. Donkey Kong Country sold six million copies worldwide in its first holiday season, grossing $ 400 million in worldwide sales revenue. Cumulative sales reached 9.3 million copies. Based on available sales figures, it
9702-443: The US if it matched sales projections. Nintendo anticipated that it would sell two million copies in a month, an expectation that Main acknowledged was unprecedented but was "based on the off-the-chart reactions we've received from game players and retailers". USGamer noted that Nintendo, at the time of Donkey Kong Country 's release, faced difficulty to keep the SNES profitable. The fifth generation of video game consoles
9849-541: The Year awards. For EGM 's Best and Worst of 1994, it won Game of the Year, Best SNES Game, and Best Animation; Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong won Best Game Duo. It also received Video Games: The Ultimate Gaming Magazine 's awards for Game of the Year, Best SNES Game, Best Action Game, and Best Graphics. Donkey Kong Country was the only video game included in Time 's Best Products of 1994 list, coming in second behind
9996-438: The Year. In his next game, he gave Mario a brother: Luigi . He named the new game Mario Bros. Yokoi convinced Miyamoto to give Mario some superhuman abilities, namely the ability to fall from any height unharmed. Mario's appearance in Donkey Kong —overalls, a hat, and a thick mustache—led Miyamoto to change aspects of the game to make Mario look like a plumber rather than a carpenter. Miyamoto felt that New York City provided
10143-489: The aged incarnation (or father) of Donkey Kong from the original Donkey Kong (1981), provides tips and fourth wall -breaking humour; and Candy Kong saves the player's progress . The player can increase their completion percentage by finding bonus stages. Reaching the maximum 101 per cent results in a different ending. The game also features two multiplayer game modes . In the competitive "Contest" mode, players take turns playing each level as quickly as possible. In
10290-421: The area where the majority of the action occurs in other The Legend of Zelda games, is still from a top-down perspective , but it now serves as a hub to the other areas. Whenever Link enters a new area such as a town, the game switches to a side-scrolling view. These separate methods of traveling and entering combat are one of many aspects adapted from the role-playing genre. The game was highly successful at
10437-600: The best setting for the game, with its "labyrinthine subterranean network of sewage pipes". To date, games in the Mario Bros. franchise have been released for more than a dozen platforms. Shortly after, Miyamoto also worked the character sprites and game design for the Baseball , Tennis , and Golf games on the NES. As Nintendo released its first home video game console, the Family Computer (rereleased in North America as
10584-485: The characters on seven of his programmers as a tribute to their work on the game. The Koopalings' names were later altered to mimic names of well-known, Western musicians in the English localization . In a first for the Mario series, the player navigates via two game screens: an overworld map and a level playfield. The overworld map displays an overhead representation of the current world and has several paths leading from
10731-595: The conception of the Pokémon series as an example, "And that's the point – Not to make something sell, something very popular, but to love something, and make something that we creators can love. It's the very core feeling we should have in making games." Miyamoto wants players to experience kyokan ; he wants "the players to feel about the game what the developers felt themselves." He then tests it with friends and family. He encourages younger developers to consider people who are new to gaming, for example by having them switch their dominant hand with their other hand to feel
10878-459: The consoles themselves. They described Miyamoto as Nintendo's "guiding spirit, its meal ticket, and its playful public face," noting that Nintendo might not exist without him. The Daily Telegraph similarly attributed Nintendo's success to Miyamoto more than any other person. Next Generation listed him in their "75 Most Important People in the Games Industry of 1995", elaborating that, "He's
11025-415: The crocodile King K. Rool and his army, the Kremlings . The player traverses 40 side-scrolling levels as they jump between platforms and avoid obstacles. They collect items, ride minecarts and animals, defeat enemies and bosses , and find secret bonus stages . In multiplayer modes, two players work cooperatively or race. After developing Nintendo Entertainment System games in the 1980s, Rare,
11172-422: The cutting-edge SGI workstations was difficult; Gregg Mayles' brother Steve said they had a steep learning curve. The game was Rare's first to require multiple programmers, and they worked with little guidance. To help, Nintendo provided Rare with research material regarding apes, barrels, and caves. The pre-rendered graphics allowed for variety and detail uncommon at the time, and Tim Stamper constantly pushed
11319-542: The death of Nintendo president Satoru Iwata in July 2015, Miyamoto became acting president alongside Genyo Takeda until he was formally appointed "Creative Fellow" a few months later. Miyamoto was born on November 16, 1952, in the Japanese town of Sonobe , Kyoto Prefecture . His parents were of "modest means", and his father taught English . From an early age, Miyamoto explored the natural areas around his home. He discovered
11466-598: The design of the Nintendo 64 controller in tandem with that of Super Mario 64 . Using what he had learned about the Nintendo 64 from developing Super Mario 64 and Star Fox 64 , Miyamoto produced his next game, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time , leading a team of several directors. Its engine was based on that of Super Mario 64 but was so heavily modified as to be a somewhat different engine. Individual parts of Ocarina of Time were handled by multiple directors—a new strategy for Nintendo EAD. However, when things progressed slower than expected, Miyamoto returned to
11613-414: The development team with a more central role assisted in public by interpreter Bill Trinen . The team was new to 3D games, but assistant director Makoto Miyanaga recalls a sense of "passion for creating something new and unprecedented". Miyamoto went on to produce a sequel to Ocarina of Time , known as The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask . By reusing the game engine and graphics from Ocarina of Time ,
11760-461: The environments and includes music from levels set in Africa-inspired jungles, caverns, oceanic reefs, frozen landscapes, and industrial factories. Wise cited Koji Kondo 's music for the Super Mario and Legend of Zelda games, Tim and Geoff Follin's music for Plok! (1993), and 1980s synthesiser film soundtracks, rock, and dance music as influences, and wanted to imitate the sound of
11907-518: The experience of an unfamiliar game. Miyamoto's philosophy does not focus on hyper-realistic graphics, although he realizes they have their place. He is more focused on the game mechanics, such as the choices and challenges in the game. Similar to how manga artists subverted their genre, Miyamoto hopes to subvert some of the basic principles he had popularized in his early games, retaining some elements but eliminating others. His game design philosophy typically prioritizes gameplay over storytelling. In
12054-516: The farmhouse to an advanced development site elsewhere in Twycross. Rare was one of the first developers to receive Nintendo 64 software development kits and decided to start spending more time developing fewer games. Nintendo and Rare's partnership produced acclaimed Nintendo 64 games such as GoldenEye 007 (1997), Banjo-Kazooie (1998), Perfect Dark (2000), and Conker's Bad Fur Day (2001). A proposed Game Boy port of Donkey Kong Country
12201-516: The final design's eyes came from those of the Battletoads . Miyamoto provided some suggestions, including the red tie, but left the design's specifics to Bayliss. Because Donkey Kong did not have much of an established universe, Rare was free to expand it with new characters. Mayles conceived Diddy as a redesign of Donkey Kong Jr. Unlike the original Donkey Kong Jr., Rare did not want Diddy to share his build with Donkey Kong, so they based him on
12348-636: The first level's track. Miyamoto was impressed, and Wise was enlisted to produce the final score. Before composing, Wise was shown the graphics and given an opportunity to play the level they would appear in, which gave him a sense of the music he would compose. He chose samples and optimised the music to work on the SNES's SPC700 sound chip. Wise worked separately from the team in a former cattle shed, visited occasionally by Tim Stamper. Donkey Kong Country features atmospheric music that mixes natural environmental sounds with prominent melodic and percussive accompaniments. Its soundtrack attempts to evoke
12495-483: The first titles in the series to implement touch screen controls. Miyamoto produced three major Mario titles for Wii from 2007 to 2010: Super Mario Galaxy , New Super Mario Bros. Wii , and Super Mario Galaxy 2 . Unlike in the 2000s in which he was involved on many projects as producer, Miyamoto's activities in development were less pronounced in that decade with Miyamoto only producing Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon and Star Fox Zero . Otherwise, Miyamoto
12642-456: The game by splitting them into tiles as "the bane of the project". Models took hours to render, so the team would leave the computers running overnight. Sometimes, artists would shut down other artists' computers in the middle of the process so they could render their own models. The SGI machines required a massive air conditioning unit to prevent overheating, while the team worked in the summer heat without relief. Programmer Chris Sutherland
12789-553: The game is much more difficult than its predecessor. Nintendo of America disliked Super Mario Bros. 2 , which they found to be frustratingly difficult and otherwise little more than a modification of Super Mario Bros. Rather than risk the franchise's popularity, they canceled its stateside release and looked for an alternative. They realized they already had one option in Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic (Dream Factory: Heart-Pounding Panic), also designed by Miyamoto. This game
12936-478: The game unplayable. Early in development, Mayles and other developers presented a demo to Nintendo staff in Japan. One in attendance, the Game Boy creator Gunpei Yokoi , felt the game "looked too 3D", but Mayles said Donkey Kong 's creator, Shigeru Miyamoto , was supportive and gave Rare his approval. Donkey Kong Country was the first Donkey Kong game that was neither directed nor produced by Miyamoto, who
13083-455: The game with Rare. Kevin Bayliss was in charge of redesigning Donkey Kong. He wanted a character that looked believable and could perform animations like pounding his chest. His initial design was blocky and muscular to make Donkey Kong easy to animate, but it became more cartoonish when Nintendo faxed reference material. Some of Bayliss' designs were in the style of his Battletoads work, and
13230-566: The graphical capabilities of the GameCube. Miyamoto made an original short demo of the game concepts, and Nintendo decided to turn it into a full game. Luigi's Mansion was later shown at E3 2001 with the GameCube console. Miyamoto continued to make additional Mario spinoffs in these years. He also produced the 3D game series Metroid Prime , after the original designer Yokoi, a friend and mentor of Miyamoto's, died. In this time he developed Pikmin and its sequel Pikmin 2 , based on his experiences gardening. He also worked on new games for
13377-478: The greatest game of all time" on their list of "The Top 200 Games of All Time", saying that it was "ahead of its time by years if not decades". At the time of the release of Star Fox , the use of filled, three-dimensional polygons in a console game was very unusual, apart from a handful of earlier titles. Due to its success, Star Fox has become a Nintendo franchise, with five more games and numerous appearances by its characters in other Nintendo games such as
13524-410: The greatest games of all time. Miyamoto's games have also sold very well, becoming some of the bestselling games on Nintendo consoles and of all time. As of 1999, his games had sold 250 million units and grossed billions of dollars. Calling him one of the few "video-game auteurs ," The New Yorker credited Miyamoto's role in creating the franchises that drove console sales, as well as designing
13671-506: The handheld Game Boy. Following Diddy's Kong Quest , the Donkey Kong Country team split in two: one half began working on Project Dream , a role-playing game that used the Donkey Kong Country technology, and the other on Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! (1996). Rare followed Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! with Donkey Kong 64 (1999), the first Donkey Kong game to feature 3D gameplay. In 2002, Rare
13818-443: The hero across the screen but this proved too difficult to program. Miyamoto next thought of using sloped platforms and ladders for travel, with barrels for obstacles. When he asked that the game have multiple stages, the four-man programming team complained that he was essentially asking them to make the game repeat, but the team eventually successfully programmed the game. When the game was sent to Nintendo of America for testing,
13965-450: The international market. Though they had purchased the workstations to produce games for the Nintendo 64 , which was in development at the time, Rare discovered it was possible to use them with the 16-bit SNES. Rare tested the SGI technology with Battletoads Arcade (1994) and began developing a boxing game, Brute Force , using PowerAnimator . Around this time, Nintendo was embroiled in
14112-479: The internet service CompuServe . The campaign included downloadable video samples of the game, a trivia contest in which 800 people participated, and an hour-long online chat conference attended by 80 people, in which Lincoln, Arakawa, and vice-president of marketing Peter Main answered questions. Nintendo's CompuServe promotion marked an early instance of a major video game company using the internet to promote its products. Nintendo gave away Donkey Kong T-shirts as
14259-411: The land, hosting several promotional materials including a December 2020 Nintendo Direct in which he gave a tour of parts of the land. People have paid me a lot of lip service, calling me a genius story teller or a talented animator, and have gone so far as to suggest that I try my hand at movies, since my style of game design is, in their words, quite similar to making movies. But I feel that I am not
14406-495: The launch game for the Nintendo Entertainment System 's new Disk System peripheral. Miyamoto worked on various other different games for the Nintendo Entertainment System, including Ice Climber and Kid Icarus . He also worked on sequels to both Super Mario Bros and The Legend of Zelda . Super Mario Bros. 2 , released only in Japan at the time, reuses gameplay elements from Super Mario Bros. , though
14553-478: The lead designer Gregg Mayles recalled that it was Nintendo that requested a Donkey Kong game. According to Mayles, Nintendo codenamed the project "Country" (based on Rare's location in Twycross ), leading to the title Donkey Kong Country . Rare assembled a team of 12, the largest in their history at that point, and development began. Nintendo was sceptical of Rare's approach to graphics, concerned it would make
14700-558: The main level or by discovering hidden bonus stages , where they are earned via solving puzzles. The player starts with six lives . Collecting 100 bananas, all the K–O–N–G letters, a balloon, or three of the same animal token grants extra lives . The player can visit other members of the Kong family from the world map. Funky Kong operates a flight service allowing the player to travel across different areas of Donkey Kong Island; Cranky Kong ,
14847-515: The most accomplished and influential designers in video games, he is the creator of some of the most acclaimed and best-selling game franchises of all time, including Mario , The Legend of Zelda , Donkey Kong , Star Fox and Pikmin . More than 1 billion copies of games featuring franchises created by Miyamoto have been sold. Born in Sonobe, Kyoto , Miyamoto graduated from Kanazawa Municipal College of Industrial Arts . He originally sought
14994-554: The most successful game developer in history. He has a unique and brilliant mind as well as an unparalleled grasp of what gamers want to play." Miyamoto's first major arcade hit Donkey Kong was highly influential. It spawned a number of other games with a mix of running, jumping, and vertical traversal. Particularly novel, the vertical genre was initially referred to as " Donkey Kong -type" or " Kong -style", before finalizing as "platform". Earlier games either use storytelling or cutscenes , but Donkey Kong combines both to introduce
15141-553: The music built atmosphere, Top Secret wrote the "captivating" soundtrack asserted itself as a masterpiece in its own right, and EGM and Entertainment Weekly said the audio quality was unprecedented for the SNES and on par with a CD's. Reviewers praised the gameplay for its variety and depth; Entertainment Weekly appreciated that it did not build upon the original arcade game's design. Total! described Donkey Kong Country as addictive, accessible and exciting, with humour, imagination, puzzles and secrets, that proved there
15288-544: The music that plays in the underwater levels, took five weeks to compose. Wise was inspired by a recent breakup, which made him feel as if he was drowning. He considers the track his favourite and the game's biggest technological accomplishment in regards to the audio. The boss theme was inspired by the Nine Inch Nails song " March of the Pigs " (1994), and K. Rool's theme was influenced by sea shanties , barrel organ music, and
15435-403: The nearby Twycross Zoo recording gorillas for reference, which they described as "a complete waste of time". They found their movements unsuitable for a fast game and their noises too quiet to be captured by a microphone, so they based Donkey Kong's running animation on a horse's gallop and had programmer Mark Betteridge provide Donkey and Diddy's voice clips. Rare positioned Cranky Kong as
15582-559: The original Donkey Kong character from the arcade games but avoided mentioning this in the game and marketing materials out of fear that Nintendo would disapprove of the idea, though it was mentioned in the instruction manual. The antagonists, the Kremlings, were recycled from a cancelled Rare game, and their name is a play on the Moscow Kremlin . Rare's initial story was extensive and spanned 15 pages, but Nintendo had it condensed to fit into an instruction manual . Donkey Kong Country
15729-624: The pet of the main character, "a funny, hang-loose kind of guy". Miyamoto also named " Beauty and the Beast " and the 1933 film King Kong as influences. Miyamoto had high hopes for his new project, but lacked the technical skills to program it himself; instead, he conceived the game's concepts, then consulted technicians on whether they were possible. He wanted to make the characters different sizes, move in different manners, and react in various ways. However, Yokoi viewed Miyamoto's original design as too complex. Yokoi suggested using see-saws to catapult
15876-403: The player could "go first time" past obstacles ([i.e.] if there was a swinging rope then when it came on screen it was swinging towards you so you could jump onto it straight away)... If you time everything correctly, you can get through the level efficiently and impressively. Gregg Mayles Rare drew inspiration from the Super Mario series, Mayles citing Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988) as
16023-421: The player's health . Mayles said: "We thought a second character could perform this function, look visually impressive, and give the player a feeling that they were not alone". Donkey Kong Country did not have much scrapped content; Gunn said he only regretted that Donkey Kong walks across dotted lines instead of paths on the world map, which could not be implemented due to time constraints. One scrapped idea,
16170-480: The player's interaction with the game's continuity. He prefers to change his games right until they are finalized, and to make "something unique and unprecedented". He prefers the game to be interactively fun rather than have elaborate film sequences, stating in 1999, "I will never make movie-like games"; therefore, the more than 90 total minutes of short cutscenes interspersed throughout Ocarina of Time deliver more interactive cinematic qualities. His vision mandates
16317-411: The presentation, fooling the audience into believing that it was for the upcoming Nintendo 64. Gregg Mayles recalled the audience was stunned in silence before bursting into applause. As one of the flagship games of Nintendo's Play It Loud! promotion, Donkey Kong Country was backed by an exceptionally large marketing campaign—"marketing blitzkrieg ", as Hardcore Gaming 101 put it. According to
16464-444: The primary influence on the level design . Mayles wanted to make a game that was accessible but would flow seamlessly for a skilled player; as such, objects were placed so well-timed players could continually move through a level. Mayles noted that although the concept of speedrunning did not exist at the time, "the way the game was designed definitely supports it". The team designed levels using Post-it Notes ; they would conceive
16611-399: The principles of game [design] from scratch, over a long period of time. And because I am so pioneering and trying to keep at the forefront, I have grown accustomed to first creating the very tools necessary for game creation. In the 1970s, Nintendo was a relatively small Japanese company that sold playing cards and other novelties, although it had started to branch out into toys and games in
16758-422: The producer for these games and worked on social gameplay concepts such as trading. Pokémon would go on to be one of the most popular entertainment franchises in the world, spanning video games, anime, and various other merchandise. Miyamoto made several games for the Nintendo 64, mostly from his previous franchises. His first game on the new system, and one of its launch games, is Super Mario 64 , for which he
16905-446: The project. Miyamoto imagined many characters and plot concepts, but eventually settled on a love triangle between a gorilla, a carpenter, and a woman. He meant to mirror the rivalry between comic characters Bluto and Popeye for the woman Olive Oyl , although Nintendo's original intentions to gain rights to Popeye failed. Bluto evolved into an ape, a form Miyamoto claimed was "nothing too evil or repulsive". This ape would be
17052-547: The protagonist Link with a sword and shield. Also released for the GameCube, the game was among the Wii's launch games and the first in the Zelda series to implement motion controls. He also helped with The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword , which featured more accurate motion controls. He also produced two Zelda titles for the Nintendo DS , The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks . These were
17199-416: The role of the company's president. He was also appointed the position of "Creative Fellow" at the same time, providing expert advice to Kimishima as a "support network" alongside Takeda. In his capacity as Creative Fellow, he provides feedback and guidance to game directors during development. In 2018, it was announced that Miyamoto would be working as a producer on The Super Mario Bros. Movie based on
17346-453: The sales manager disapproved of its vast differentiation from the maze and shooter games common at the time. When American staffers began naming the characters, they settled on "Pauline" for the woman, after Polly James, wife of Nintendo's Redmond, Washington , warehouse manager, Don James . The playable character, initially "Jumpman", was eventually named for Mario Segale , the warehouse landlord. These character names were printed on
17493-403: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title DKC . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=DKC&oldid=1148315845 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
17640-499: The staff was relieved upon learning that the player character was Uniracer 's only element that was pre-rendered. The artists began by modelling the characters in NURBS using PowerAnimator and adding textures . They then created the animations and rendered them frame by frame before compressing them for the game. The ACM process was handled by a designated computer that had a proprietary utility similar to Deluxe Paint . Adapting to
17787-499: The standard for all future videogames". G4 noted its revolutionary gameplay and its role in "almost single-handedly" rescuing the video game industry after the North American video game crash of 1983 . The game also popularized the side-scrolling video game genre. The New Yorker described Mario as the first folk hero of video games, with as much influence as Mickey Mouse . GameSpot featured The Legend of Zelda as one of
17934-458: The standards of previous SNES games such as the Mario and Legend of Zelda series and prevented it from being a "typical Nintendo blockbuster". CVG wrote that Donkey Kong Country was the only SNES game that matched Super Mario World , but that it would be a conventional platformer without its graphics. It warned that experienced players may find the game, designed for a broad audience, unoriginal. Donkey Kong Country received many Game of
18081-536: The style of 1940s jazz , seeking to imitate the Glenn Miller Orchestra in the "DK Island Swing", but was restricted by the SPC700's limitations; he "used a lot of small samples and made [the soundtrack] very synthesised" to work around them. His colleague Grant Kirkhope said that Wise's familiarity with the SNES hardware meant he could "make it do things that people hadn't heard before". " Aquatic Ambience ",
18228-409: The team to go further and incorporate weather and lighting effects. The ACM process pushed the SNES hardware to its limits; Betteridge said Rare wanted to do everything they could with the hardware similar to what they had done with the NES game Battletoads (1991). A single SGI screen took up more memory than an entire SNES cartridge, and Gregg Mayles described transferring the backgrounds into
18375-541: The terrain to defeat enemies or find items. The player begins in a world map that tracks their progress and provides access to the 40 levels . The player attempts to complete each level while traversing the environment, jumping between platforms, and avoiding enemy and inanimate obstacles. Level themes include jungles, underwater reefs, caves, mines, mountains, and factories. Some feature unique game mechanics , such as rideable minecarts , blasting out of cannons resembling barrels, and swinging ropes. Each area ends with
18522-465: The time, and introduced elements such as Link's "magic meter" and the Dark Link character that would become commonplace in future Zelda games, although the role-playing elements such as experience points and the platform-style side-scrolling and multiple lives were never used again in the official series. The game is also looked upon as one of the most difficult games in the Zelda series and 8-bit gaming as
18669-423: The time. With 9.3 million copies sold worldwide, it is the third-bestselling SNES game and the bestselling Donkey Kong game. Following the success, Nintendo purchased a large minority stake in Rare, which became a prominent second-party developer for Nintendo during the late 1990s. Donkey Kong Country re-established Donkey Kong as a popular Nintendo franchise and helped maintain the SNES's popularity into
18816-411: The use of cutscenes to visually advance a complete story. It has multiple, distinct levels that progress the storyline. Computer and Video Games called Donkey Kong "the most momentous" release of 1981 . Miyamoto's best known and most influential game, Super Mario Bros. , "depending on your point of view, created an industry or resuscitated a comatose one". The Daily Telegraph said it "set
18963-424: The work of Iron Maiden . For the title screen theme, Wise remixed Nintendo's original Donkey Kong theme to demonstrate Donkey Kong's evolution. Wise said his primary focus was to make the most of the SPC700, and he input the music by hand to save memory. He noted the process was easier than composing for the NES due to the larger number of sound channels. Eveline Novakovic contributed seven tracks, including
19110-575: The world map theme, as her first SNES project. Novakovic was inexperienced with the SNES hardware and Wise helped teach her as they worked together. She attempted to provide the levels a sense of purpose and drew inspiration from film composers like Alan Silvestri and Klaus Doldinger . Funky Kong's theme was originally written by Robin Beanland . According to Beanland, the track was intended for an internal progress video about another Rare game, Killer Instinct (1994), before Nintendo decided to use it in
19257-508: The world's entrance to a castle. Moving the on-screen character to a certain tile will allow access to that level's playfield, a linear stage populated with obstacles and enemies. The majority of the game takes place in these levels. A merger between Nintendo's various internal research and development teams led to the creation of Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development (Nintendo EAD), which Miyamoto eventually headed. Nintendo EAD had approximately fifteen months to develop F-Zero ,
19404-416: Was "probably the first time most people outside of Nintendo learned about the [Treehouse]" and the promotion allowed players to see the game for themself at home, rather than having to learn about it secondhand from a magazine. Exposed also features gameplay tips and interviews with localisers, playtesters , and Tim Stamper. In October 1994, Nintendo of America held an online promotional campaign through
19551-472: Was acquired by Nintendo's competitor Microsoft and the Donkey Kong rights reverted to Nintendo. A soundtrack CD, DK Jamz , was released in North America via news media and retailers in November 1994, with a standalone release in 1995. It was one of the earliest video game soundtrack albums released in the United States. The Japanese soundtrack CD, Super Donkey Kong Game Music CD ~ Jungle Fantasy ,
19698-459: Was credited as General Producer, Executive Producer and Supervisor for most projects, which are positions with much less involvement in comparison to a producer. Following the death of Nintendo president Satoru Iwata in July 2015, Miyamoto was appointed as an acting Representative Director, alongside Genyo Takeda . He was relieved of this position in September 2015 when Tatsumi Kimishima assumed
19845-423: Was highly anticipated and backed by a major marketing campaign that cost $ 16 million in America alone. It was released in November 1994 to acclaim; critics hailed its visuals as groundbreaking and praised its gameplay and music. Its quality and design were favourably compared to the Super Mario series. Donkey Kong Country received several year-end accolades and set the record for the fastest-selling video game at
19992-428: Was highly anticipated. Hardcore Gaming 101 wrote: "It was everywhere. You couldn't escape it. It was on the cover of every magazine. It was on gigantic, imposing displays and marquees at Wal-Mart and Babbages ... For kids of the era, November 20th seemed like the eve of a revolution". The Exposed VHS tape contributed significantly to the hype. Donkey Kong Country was expected to gross at least US$ 140 million in
20139-495: Was on the horizon, the 32-bit prowess of Sony 's PlayStation and the Sega Saturn far exceeding the SNES's capabilities. The Nintendo 64 was not due for release until 1996, so Donkey Kong Country , wrote USGamer , served as Nintendo's "bluff" to make it seem that the SNES could hold its ground against next-generation hardware. Donkey Kong Country was released worldwide in November 1994, two weeks ahead of schedule and around
20286-488: Was one of the first home console games to feature pre-rendered graphics, achieved through a compression technique that converted 3D models into SNES sprites with little loss of detail. It was the first Donkey Kong game neither produced nor directed by the franchise's creator Shigeru Miyamoto , though he contributed design ideas. Following its announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show in June 1994, Donkey Kong Country
20433-607: Was one of the first games for a mainstream home video game console to use pre-rendered 3D graphics, a technique used in the earlier 1993 Finnish game Stardust for the Amiga . Rare developed a compression technique to incorporate more detail and animation for each sprite for a given memory footprint, which better preserved the pre-rendered graphics. Nintendo and Rare called the technique Advanced Computer Modelling (ACM). Rare briefly feared competition from DMA Design 's Uniracers (1994), which also featured pre-rendered graphics, but
20580-646: Was released in January 1995. In addition to the game music, it features seven rearrangements by Yoshiyuki Ito, who previously composed rearrangements for Nintendo's Zelda and Metroid soundtrack releases. The soundtrack was rereleased through the Donkey Kong Country Trilogy compilation album in November 1996 and via Nintendo Music , Nintendo's music streaming service , when it launched in October 2024. A competition-oriented version of Donkey Kong Country
20727-436: Was repurposed as a separate game, Donkey Kong Land (1995), after the programmer Paul Machacek convinced Rare that it would be a better use of resources and expand the potential audience. Rare began developing concepts for a Donkey Kong Country sequel during production, and Nintendo green-lit the project immediately after the success. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest , released in 1995, features Diddy rescuing
20874-419: Was responsible for implementing the graphics and found reducing the characters' frames of animation challenging. David Wise composed most of the soundtrack. Wise initially worked as a freelancer and assumed his music would be replaced by Koji Kondo because of the importance of Donkey Kong to Nintendo. Rare asked Wise to record three jungle demo tunes that were merged to become the "DK Island Swing",
21021-471: Was reworked and released as Super Mario Bros. 2 (not to be confused with the Japanese game of the same name) in North America and Europe. The Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 was eventually released in North America as Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels . The successor to The Legend of Zelda , Zelda II: The Adventure of Link , bears little resemblance to the first game in the series. The Adventure of Link features side-scrolling areas within
21168-521: Was sold through Blockbuster Video . Its changes include a time limit for the playable levels and a scoring system, which had been used in the Nintendo PowerFest '94 and Blockbuster World Video Game Championships II competitions. It was later distributed in limited quantities through Nintendo Power . The competition version of Donkey Kong Country is the rarest licensed SNES game; only 2,500 cartridges are known to exist. In 2000, Rare developed
21315-473: Was still potential in the platform game genre. EGM and GameFan wrote that the game was lengthy and offered plenty of technique, and GamePro commended the replay value that searching for bonus stages provided. EGM and GamePro found searching for bonus stages was challenging, though GamePro said it was easy to "breeze through the game" without them and criticised the boss fights as simplistic. Critics frequently compared Donkey Kong Country to
21462-426: Was the principal director. In developing the game, he began with character design and the camera system . Miyamoto and the other designers were initially unsure of which direction the game should take, and spent months to select an appropriate camera view and layout. The original concept involved a fixed path much like an isometric-type game , before the choice was made to settle on a free-roaming 3D design. He guided
21609-498: Was working on Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (1995). Miyamoto was still involved with the project and Rare said he provided crucial input. Nintendo is usually highly protective of their intellectual properties, but was relatively uninvolved with Donkey Kong Country , leaving most of the work to Rare. Programmer Brendan Gunn noted that the Stampers worked to shield the team from outside influence. Rare spent 18 months developing Donkey Kong Country from an initial concept to
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