Donkey Kong Country

Overview

Donkey Kong Country, known in Japan as Super Donkey Kong, is a 1994 platform game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It follows the gorilla Donkey Kong and his nephew Diddy Kong as they set out to recover their stolen banana hoard from 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, 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 reboot 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 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 was highly anticipated and backed by a large 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 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.

Official trailer

TV commercial (USA). Watch on YouTube

Gameplay

Game Boy Color Longplay [091] Donkey Kong Country, World-of-Longplays. Watch on YouTube

Screenshots

Game details

Genres

Platform

Developer

Rare

Publisher

Nintendo

Series

Donkey Kong Country

Platforms

Game Boy Color

Age rating

ESRB E

Modes

Single player

Yes

Local multiplayer

No

Online multiplayer

No

Co op

No

Age ratings

ESRB

E

PEGI

3

Release dates

Editions

Check out the store

Space and patches

Update patchNo patch

DLC

No DLC. Game Boy Color games had no downloadable content.

Playable today

Playable offline todayYes

No online features; every mode works today on any Game Boy Color or Game Boy Advance. The minigame multiplayer needs a link cable.

Online

Plays offlineYes

Reception

Aggregates

Outlet	Platform	Score	Scale
MobyGames	Game Boy Color	85	100

Critics

Outlet	Score	Scale
GameSpot	9.1	10
IGN	9	10
GamesMaster	91	100
Power Unlimited	96	100

Staff and cast

Staff

Role	Name
Developer	Rare
Publisher	Nintendo

Notes for collectors

• Rare built it alongside the Game Boy Color Perfect Dark, reusing graphics and sound from the Donkey Kong Land games.
• Mostly the same game as the Super Nintendo original, with one level redesigned and one added.
• Adds two bonus minigames with link cable multiplayer, and prints pictures on the Game Boy Printer.
• A runner-up for GameSpot's best Game Boy Color game of the year.
• Sold 2.19 million copies worldwide.

Credits

Publisher

Nintendo

Developer

Rare

Released

2000-11-20

Age rating

ESRB E

Region

US