Donkey Kong Country^[a] is a 1994 side-scrolling 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 King K. Rool and his Kremling henchmen. The game features 40 levels in which the player collects items, defeats enemies and bosses, and finds secrets on their journey to stop K. Rool. It also features multiplayer game modes in which two players can work together cooperatively or race against each other.

Development began after Rare purchased Silicon Graphics (SGI) workstations to render 3D models. Nintendo became interested in Rare's work and acquired 49 per cent of the company, tasking them with reviving the then-dormant Donkey Kong franchise. Rare assembled a team of 12 developers to work on Donkey Kong Country over 18 months. It was the first Donkey Kong game that was neither produced nor directed by franchise creator Shigeru Miyamoto, though he was still involved with the project. The soundtrack, primarily composed by David Wise, mixes natural environmental sounds with prominent melodic and percussive accompaniments.

Donkey Kong Country was released in November 1994, following an aggressive marketing campaign that advertised the game's graphics technology. It received acclaim and sold over nine million copies worldwide, making it the third-bestselling SNES game. Critics hailed its visuals as groundbreaking, and praised the gameplay for its depth and replay value. Donkey Kong Country was the recipient of numerous year-end accolades. Although some retrospective critics have called it overrated, Donkey Kong Country is frequently cited as one of the greatest video games of all time. The game has been ported to a variety of platforms, including the Game Boy Color (2000), Game Boy Advance (2003), and the Virtual Console service for the Wii (2006), Wii U (2015), and Nintendo 3DS (2016). It was also rereleased on the Super NES Classic Edition dedicated console in 2017.

The success of Donkey Kong Country is considered a key factor in maintaining the SNES's popularity at a time when players were moving on to technologically superior consoles, such as Sony's PlayStation. It also helped establish Rare as one of the video game industry's leading developers and re-establish Donkey Kong as a cultural icon. Rare developed 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). After a 14-year hiatus, during which Rare was acquired by 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.

Gameplay

Donkey Kong Country is a side-scrolling platform game in which the player must complete 40 levels^[2] to recover the Kongs' banana hoard, which has been stolen by the crocodilian Kremlings. The game features both single-player and multiplayer game modes. In single-player, the player controls one of two characters: the gorilla Donkey Kong or his chimpanzee nephew Diddy Kong, switching between the two as necessary. Donkey is stronger and can defeat enemies more easily, while Diddy is faster and more agile. Both playable Kongs can walk, run, jump, pick up and throw objects, and roll, while Donkey can slap the terrain to defeat enemies or find items.

As the player starts the game, they are placed in a world map that tracks their progress and provides access to levels. Each level on the map is marked with an icon: unfinished levels are marked by Kremlings, while friendly areas are marked by members of the Kong family. Levels consist of varying tasks such as jumping between platforms, swimming, riding in mine carts, launching out of barrel cannons, or swinging from vine to vine. The player must reach the end of the level while avoiding hazards, such as Kremling enemies and bottomless pits. They collect items such as bananas, golden letters that spell out K–O–N–G, extra life balloons, and golden animal tokens that lead to bonus stages. There are also secret paths that lead to bonus games where the player can earn additional lives or other items, as well as gain possible shortcuts through the level.

In certain levels, the player can gain assistance from various animals found by breaking open crates. Animals provide boons such as extra speed or jump height. Each animal can be found in an appropriately themed level: for example, Enguarde, a swordfish that can defeat enemies with its bill, can only be found underwater, while Squawks, a parrot that carries a lantern, is found in one cave level. The player can use the animal for the entirety of the level unless they are hit by an enemy. If the player is hit by an enemy without an animal, the leading Kong runs off, and the player takes control of the other. They will only be able to control that Kong unless they free the other Kong from a barrel. If the player is hit with only one Kong, they lose a life, and if the player loses all lives they receive a game over.

Each section of the map has one boss at the end, which must be defeated to travel back to the main map screen of the whole island. It is possible to access previous world maps without defeating the boss by finding Funky Kong and borrowing his barrel plane. Players use this ability to select the world from the main screen, then the level within it. Other friendly Kongs appear throughout the world map: Cranky Kong provides tips and fourth wall-breaking humour, whilst Candy Kong saves the player's progress. Multiplayer modes include the competitive "Contest" mode or the cooperative "Team" mode.^[2] In Contest, each player controls a different set of Kongs and take turns playing each level as quickly as possible; the objective is to complete the most levels in the fastest time. In Team mode, each player takes the role of one of the two Kongs and play as a tag team.

Plot

Donkey Kong Country is a reboot of the Donkey Kong franchise,^[3] set long after the events of Donkey Kong (1981) and Donkey Kong Jr. (1982). The original Donkey Kong grows old, moves to Donkey Kong Island, and takes on the moniker Cranky Kong, passing the "Donkey Kong" mantle down to his grandson.^[4] One day, the Kremlings, led by King K. Rool, invade Donkey Kong Island and steal the Kongs' hoard of bananas. Donkey, alongside his nephew Diddy, sets out on a journey to reclaim the banana hoard and defeat the Kremlings.

The two Kongs travel throughout Donkey Kong Island, battling the Kremlings and their henchmen, before reaching K. Rool's pirate ship, the Gang-Plank Galleon. The two take on K. Rool and seemingly defeat him, initiating a mock credits roll claiming that the Kremlings developed the game, but K. Rool then gets back up to continue the fight.^[5] However, the Kongs persevere, defeat K. Rool, and reclaim the banana hoard.

Development

Background and conception

Prior to Donkey Kong Country, Nintendo's Donkey Kong franchise had been largely dormant since the unsuccessful release of Donkey Kong 3 in 1983. The 1987 Official Nintendo Player's Guide advertised a revival for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), The Return of Donkey Kong, that was never released.^[6] Aside from occasional cameo appearances in other games and a 1994 reimagining of the original Donkey Kong for Nintendo's handheld game console, the Game Boy, the Donkey Kong character had not been seen in video games for nearly a decade. Journalist Jeremy Parish, writing for USGamer, described this as "quite an ignominious twist for a character who had once been one of the medium's most recognizable faces".^[7]

In 1985, brothers Tim and Chris Stamper, British developers who previously founded the British computer game studio Ultimate Play the Game, established Rare to focus on the burgeoning Japanese video game console market.^[8] Nintendo had rebuffed the brothers' efforts for a partnership in 1983, which led Chris Stamper to study the NES hardware for six months.^[9] Nintendo had claimed it was impossible to reverse engineer the NES, but Rare managed to do so, prepared several tech demos and showed them to Nintendo executive Minoru Arakawa in Kyoto. Impressed, Nintendo granted Rare an unlimited budget.^[10] Rare went on to develop around 60 NES games, which included the Battletoads series and ports of games such as 1982's Marble Madness. Rare's NES output generated enormous profits, but demonstrated little creativity.^[10]

When the NES's successor, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), was released in 1991, Rare decided to limit its output and invested its NES profit in Silicon Graphics (SGI) workstations to render 3D models.^[10] Rare took significant financial risks in purchasing the SGI workstations, as they cost £80,000 each.^[11] The move made Rare the most technologically advanced developer in the UK and situated it high in the international market.^[10] Rare began developing a boxing video game, Brute Force, using PowerAnimator. At the time, Nintendo wanted a game to compete with Sega's Aladdin (1993), which featured graphics by Disney animators, so Rare informed Nintendo of its SGI experiments.^[12] Nintendo was stunned by Brute Force^[12] and bought a 25 per cent stake in the company that gradually increased to 49 per cent—making Rare a second-party developer and leading to the development of Donkey Kong Country.^[10] According to character designer Kevin Bayliss, after a meeting, Tim Stamper informed him that Nintendo wanted to revive Donkey Kong for a modern-day audience.^[12]

According to IGN and Nintendo Life, Donkey Kong Country's development began after Nintendo offered Rare its catalogue of characters to create a game using the SGI technology, and the Stampers chose Donkey Kong.^[10][11] Conversely, lead designer Gregg Mayles recalled that it was Nintendo that requested a Donkey Kong game. Donkey Kong Country was the first Donkey Kong game that was neither directed nor produced by franchise creator Shigeru Miyamoto,^[2] who was working on Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (1995) at the time.^[13] Despite this, Miyamoto was still involved with the project; according to Rare, he provided "certain key pieces of input".^[14] Nintendo has a reputation for being proactive to protect its intellectual properties but was relatively uninvolved with Donkey Kong Country, leaving most of the work to Rare.^[15] Tim Stamper and Gregg Mayles were the only Rare employees who had significant ties to Nintendo during the project.^[12]

Characters and scenario

Bayliss was in charge of redesigning Donkey Kong for Donkey Kong Country, and wanted the new design to be "simplified" and "compact".^[12] The character's features were enlarged to make them clearer, while his eyes were taken from Bayliss' Battletoad designs. Gregg Mayles' brother Steve Mayles also contributed to the design—specifically his mouth, which formed the basis for the other character designs.^[12] The red tie was a design choice suggested by Miyamoto in an illustration he faxed Rare.^[12][15] To develop Donkey Kong's movements, Rare staff spent hours at the nearby Twycross Zoo watching and videotaping gorillas. They found that on the rare occasions when the gorillas moved, their movements were "completely unsuitable for a fast-paced videogame [sic]", and chose to use other animals' movements as a base.^[15] Donkey Kong's animations in the final game were loosely based on a horse's gallop.^[15]

Gregg Mayles originally created Diddy Kong as a redesign of Donkey Kong Jr., whose original design, Rare felt, was outdated.^[12][15] However, Nintendo considered the redesign too great a departure from the original one, and asked that Rare either present it as a new character or rework it to match Donkey Kong Jr.'s original appearance.^[15] Mayles felt the redesign perfectly suited the updated Donkey Kong universe, so he chose the former.^[15] Naming the character was a challenge;^[15] Mayles settled on "Dinky Kong", but renamed him Diddy due to a copyright issue with a toy car product that used the name Dinky.^[12] The tag-team gameplay was inspired by the Super Mario series' power-up system; Gregg 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 in the game".^[15]

The animal companions, such as Rambi the Rhino (who was Rare's "take on a horse"), were an extension of the tag-team concept.^[12] A number of animal companions were created but did not appear in the finished product. One, an owl who provided tips, was retooled into Cranky Kong. Cranky, who Rare considered the Donkey Kong character from the arcade games, was intended to be a character who "hark[ened] back to the old times", while his "very dry, sarcastic sense of humour" was influenced by Rare's British background.^[12] The team avoided mentioning that Cranky was the original Donkey Kong in the game and its marketing materials because they feared that Nintendo would disapprove of the change.^[12][16] Steve Mayles created Funky Kong by taking Donkey Kong's model and adding teeth, sunglasses and a bandanna.^[17]

As the Donkey Kong franchise did not have much of an established universe, the team had to create their own villains.^[12] King K. Rool and the Kremlings were originally created for Jonny Blastoff and the Kremling Armada, a cancelled point and click adventure game Rare planned to develop for Macintosh computers. When development of Donkey Kong Country began, Steve Mayles reworked the Kremling designs to fit in the Donkey Kong universe. The Kremlings were originally going to use realistic weapons, such as guns, but Rare decided against this idea because it conflicted with the game's lighthearted tone. Gregg Mayles also noted that he enjoys villains who seem somewhat incompetent.^[12]

Production

Donkey Kong Country was developed over the course of 18 months.^[11] Rare assembled a team of 12 people to work on the game, and according to product manager Dan Owsen, 20 people worked on Donkey Kong Country throughout the development cycle.^[15][18] The first demo was playable by November 1993.^[12] According to Rare, at the time Donkey Kong Country "boast[ed] the most man hours ever invested in a single video game (a total of 22 years shared out across the development team)".^[14] In 2019, Gregg Mayles stated that the amount of hours the team put into Donkey Kong Country would be impossible in the modern video game industry.^[12] He noted that game development was more of a hobby at the time.^[12]

The level design was heavily influenced by that of Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988). Gregg Mayles said: "For me, Super Mario Bros. 3 was the ultimate pinnacle for 2D platform games. We wanted the same kind of structure, but we also wanted it to be extremely flowing – where a skilled player could move effortlessly through the levels at great speed".^[15] As such, objects such as enemies, swinging ropes and barrel cannons were carefully placed so players could continually move through a level as if they were walking up steps. Levels were designed using Post-it Notes that the team pieced together. Gregg Mayles noted that the Post-it Notes kept design "fluid" and made it easy to scrap mistakes.^[12] The team began designing levels by establishing a predominant feature (e.g. swinging ropes), before determining the uses of said feature. As Gregg Mayles said, "it was kind of done by getting the framework in place first, and then filling the gaps in later".^[12]

The player character's abilities, such as attacks, changed considerably during development. Gregg Mayles said that the team wanted moves that would be "iconic".^[12] Because he wanted the game to be fast-paced, the moves needed to suit fast gameplay. The team eventually settled on the roll, but Gregg Mayles recalled that they considered at least six different attacks, such as a slide. One move, in which Donkey Kong smashed his fist on an enemy's head to leap, was cut because it interrupted the game's flow. Cutting moves became so common that whenever the team did, Steve Mayles would play the Queen song "Another One Bites the Dust" on a CD.^[12]

Donkey Kong Country was one of the first games for a mainstream home video game console to use pre-rendered 3D graphics,^[11] a technique used in the earlier 1993 Finnish game Stardust for the Amiga.^[18] Rare developed a compression technique that allowed the team to incorporate more detail and animation for each sprite for a given memory footprint than had been previously achieved on the SNES, which better preserves the pre-rendered graphics. Nintendo and Rare called the technique for creating the game's graphics Advanced Computer Modelling (ACM).^[15] Programmer Chris Sutherland said there was concern that it would be impossible to compress the SGI-rendered models, which used millions of colors, into 15-color SNES sprites. A single SGI screen took up more memory than an entire 32 MB SNES cartridge; Gregg Mayles compared it to turning a million-piece jigsaw puzzle into a 1,000 piece one.^[12] He described transferring the backgrounds into the game as "the bane of the project".^[15]

Adapting to the then-cutting-edge SGI workstations was a tense challenge;^[11] Steve Mayles said they had "a really steep learning curve".^[12] Three programmers handled using the machines with little knowledge of what they could accomplish besides a massive user guide that "wasn't written from an artist point of view".^[12] A single model took "ages" to render; the team would often go home at 11PM, and by the next morning the images they were rendering at the time may have completed. The SGI machines required a massive air conditioning unit to prevent overheating, whilst the team worked in the summer heat without relief.^[11] A popular rumour suggested that Rare was investigated by the Ministry of Defence for the amount of advanced workstations the studio had; although Gregg Mayles said this was false, Rare did receive complaints regarding the amount of power the SGI hardware used. The Rare farmhouse also frequently lost power.^[12]

A few weeks into development, Rare, at the point when the team had established how the game would look, presented a demo to Nintendo in Japan. Rare's audience included Miyamoto, Game Boy creator Gunpei Yokoi, and future Nintendo president Genyo Takeda. According to Gregg Mayles, Nintendo was impressed, though Yokoi said that he was concerned the game was "too 3D" to be playable. Mayles attributed this to the "shock" Yokoi felt by seeing such advanced graphics.^[12] Upon reviewing the initial product, Nintendo directed Rare to significantly reduce the difficulty because it wanted the game to appeal to a broad audience; Nintendo thought the numerous secrets would provide sufficient challenge to hardcore gamers. At this point, Miyamoto made some last-minute suggestions, such as Donkey Kong's "hand-slap" move, that were incorporated into the final game.^[18]

Audio

David Wise composed most of the music for Donkey Kong Country, with Eveline Fischer also contributing. One track, composed for Killer Instinct by Robin Beanland, was adopted and arranged by Wise for use as Funky Kong’s theme. Wise started composing for the game as a freelance musician; he has said that he originally assumed the music he composed for the game would later be replaced with compositions by a Japanese composer, because he understood the importance of the Donkey Kong licence to Nintendo. Rare later asked Wise to record three jungle demo tunes that were merged to become the "DK Jungle Swing", the first level track in the game. Wise said, "I guess someone thought the music was suitable, as they offered me a full time position at Rare".^[19]

Donkey Kong Country is known for its atmospheric music that mixes natural environmental sounds with prominent melodic and percussive accompaniments. It features a wide variety of musical styles that attempt to evoke the environments in which they appear.^[20] The music varies throughout the game and includes music from levels set in Africa-inspired jungles, caverns, oceanic reefs, frozen landscapes, and industrial factories.^[21] Wise cited Koji Kondo's music for the Mario and Zelda games, Tim and Geoff Follin's music for Plok, synthesizer-based film soundtracks released in the 1980s, and early-to-mid-1990s rock and dance music as influences on the soundtrack for Donkey Kong Country.^[19] Wise wanted to imitate the sound of the Korg Wavestation synthesiser.^[20]

Wise faced numerous challenges due to the technological restraints of the SNES, such as being unable to directly use a keyboard. As such, Wise composed a "rough" track using the keyboard before transcribing the track in hexadecimal to input in MIDI. Wise had to keep music consistent across the SNES's eight sound channels, noting that if there "was two minutes of music on one of these channels, there had to be exactly two minutes on the other seven channels".^[12] Wise noted this was a challenging, time-consuming process.^[12] Composing Donkey Kong Country helped Wise establish his musical style. Wise noted that when he composed video game music in the 1980s, he was limited by the NES's technological restrictions. When he heard Nintendo's composers create music around the NES's limitations, it encouraged him to go back and refine. Such restrictions helped him understand the importance of a console's sound channels and what would be important to do when composing video game music, so these lessons helped him when he worked on Donkey Kong Country.^[12]

A soundtrack CD, DK Jamz, was released via news media and retailers in November 1994 as a promotional item.^[22] A standalone release came in 1995.^[23] DK Jamz was one of the earliest video game soundtrack albums that was released in the United States, a practice uncommon at the time.^[24]

Release

Nintendo published Donkey Kong Country for the SNES in November 1994. The North American release came first on 21 November, followed by the European release on 24 November and the Japanese release on 26 November.^[25] In Japan, the game was released under the title Super Donkey Kong.^[26] According to Rare, the game released two weeks ahead of schedule.^[14] Donkey Kong Country was released around the same time as Sega's Sonic & Knuckles for the SNES's chief competitor, the Sega Mega Drive. The Los Angeles Times called the coinciding releases a "battle" as both advertised revolutionary technological advances (lock-on technology for Sonic & Knuckles and 3D-rendered graphics for Donkey Kong Country).^[27]

Marketing

Nintendo of America chairman Howard Lincoln unveiled Donkey Kong Country at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago, which lasted from 23 June to 25 June 1994.^[28] The unveiling showcased various gameplay sequences and did not reveal that Donkey Kong Country was an SNES game until the end of the presentation, fooling the audience into believing that it was supposed to be for Nintendo's then-upcoming Nintendo 64. Steve Mayles considered the shock that the audience felt after learning it would release for the SNES the "proudest moment in my game-making career".^[12] Donkey Kong Country was backed by an exceptionally large marketing campaign. According to the Los Angeles Times, Nintendo spent US$16 million on Donkey Kong Country marketing in America alone; at the time, significant game releases typically had a much smaller average marketing budget of US$5 million.^[27]

Nintendo sent a promotional VHS tape, Donkey Kong Country: Exposed, to subscribers of Nintendo Power magazine.^[2][29] Exposed, hosted by comedian Josh Wolf, provides a "behind-the-scenes" glimpse of the Treehouse, the Nintendo of America division where games are tested.^[2][29] Nintendo World Report's Justin Berube wrote that Exposed was "probably the first time most people outside of Nintendo learned about the [Treehouse]" and "allowed players to see a game in action at home before it was released... the path to learning about upcoming games was no longer confined to magazines."^[29] Exposed also features gameplay tips and interviews.^[2][29] It concludes with a segment reminding viewers that the game is available only on the 16-bit SNES, not on rival 32-bit and CD-ROM-based consoles (such as Sega's Mega-CD and 32X) that boasted superior processing power.^[29]

In October 1994, Nintendo of America held an online promotional campaign through 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, president Minoru 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.^[30] Nintendo of America also 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 the game's release in November 1994 until April 1995.^[31]

Nintendo's emphasis on Donkey Kong Country's SGI-rendered visuals built anticipation for the release.^[32] The Exposed VHS tape also contributed significantly to the hype^[33] and Nintendo would repeat the strategy with future releases such as Star Fox 64 (1997).^[29] Nintendo anticipated to sell approximately two million Donkey Kong Country units in one month; Main acknowledged this was an unprecedented expectation but said "it's based on the off-the-chart reactions we've received from game players and retailers. It's something they haven't seen enough of, in terms of breakthrough components, that advances the state of game-play, visuals and audio".^[27]

Rereleases

An alternate, competition-oriented version of Donkey Kong Country was sold through Blockbuster Video. Its changes include a time limit for the playable levels and a scoring system. It was later distributed in limited quantities through Nintendo Power. The competition version of Donkey Kong Country is the rarest licenced SNES game, with only 2,500 cartridges known to exist.^[34]

In 2000, Rare developed a port of Donkey Kong Country for Nintendo's Game Boy Color (GBC) handheld console. The port was developed alongside the GBC version of Perfect Dark^[35] and many assets, including graphics and audio, were re-used from Rare's Game Boy Donkey Kong games.^[34] Aside from graphical and sound-related downgrades due to the GBC's weaker 8-bit hardware, the port is mostly identical to the original release.^[36] One level was redesigned while another was added.^[34] 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.^[37][36]

Although Rare was acquired by Nintendo competitor Microsoft in 2002, the studio continued to produce games for Nintendo's Game Boy Advance (GBA) since Microsoft did not have a competing handheld.^[10] As such, it developed a version of Donkey Kong Country for the GBA, released in the West in June 2003 and in Japan the following December^[38] as part of Nintendo's line of SNES rereleases for the GBA.^[39] According to Tim Stamper, the GBA Donkey Kong Country was developed from scratch—using SNES emulators to rip the artwork—because the original materials were stored on floppy disks with outdated file formats.^[40] The GBA version adds a new animated introductory cutscene,^[41] redesigned user interfaces and world maps,^[34] the ability to save progress anywhere, minigames, and a time trial mode.^[41] However, it features downgraded graphics and sound.^[34][41]

The SNES version of Donkey Kong Country has been digitally rereleased for later Nintendo consoles via Nintendo's Virtual Console service. It was released for the Wii Virtual Console in Japan and Europe in December 2006, and in North America in February 2007.^[42] In September 2012, the game was delisted from the Virtual Console catalogue; the exact reason is unknown, though Kotaku's Jason Schreier noted it may have been related to licencing issues with Rare.^[43] Donkey Kong Country returned to the Wii U's Virtual Console in February 2015^[44] and was added to the New Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console in March 2016.^[45] It was also included in the Super NES Classic Edition, a dedicated console Nintendo released in September 2017.^[46]

Reception

Donkey Kong Country was very successful upon release in November 1994. Within a month of its launch in the United States, its sales reached nearly 500,000 copies.^[69] According to some critics, the game "saved" the SNES, which faced growing competition from more technically proficient consoles like the Sega CD and the PlayStation.^[56] At review aggregator GameRankings, the SNES version received an 89% score, the Game Boy Color version 90%, and the Game Boy Advance version 79%.^[47][48][49]

The game's novel use of pre-rendered 3D models and visuals were universally lauded among critics, with many citing that its graphics were the first of its kind and helped set it far apart from its contemporaries. Lucas Thomas from IGN and Scott Marriott from AllGame both commended the game's advanced visual techniques and expressed surprise that Nintendo's 16-bit system could deliver such vitality,^[56][51] while GameSpot's Frank Provo felt that Donkey Kong Country's graphical prowess rivalled that of forthcoming 32-bit consoles.^[55] Michel Garnier from Jeuxvideo further complimented the game's captivating use of 3D rendering by saying that it offered a new depth of unprecedented realism.^[58] In retrospect, Nintendo Life's Alex Olney declared that the game's pioneering graphics would survive the test of time, although he thought that its playability could not be measured through visual appeal alone.^[60]

GamePro said the game "has all the elements of a classic; outstanding graphics, involving game play, and lots of hidden stuff".^[70]

Nintendo Power gave a positive review to the Game Boy Color version of the game, saying it was "improved with multiplayer minigames and a GB Printer feature", and that although "the graphics lack the detail of the classic, they're still worth going ape over".^[61]

It was later ranked as the 90th-best game made for a Nintendo system in Nintendo Power's Top 200 Games list in 2006.^[71] Next Generation reviewed the SNES version of the game, and called it "an amazing cart" while noting that the gameplay "falls a hair short of the typical Nintendo blockbuster."^[59]

Donkey Kong creator Shigeru Miyamoto allegedly criticised the game for its mediocre gameplay.^[72] Miyamoto has since addressed these rumours and expressed fondness for the game, stating that he communicated with the Stampers "almost daily" during the game's development.^[73] The game eventually sold a total of nine million copies.^[74] In the United States alone, its Game Boy Advance re-release sold 960,000 copies and earned $26 million by August 2006. Between January 2000 and August 2006, it was the 19th highest-selling game launched for a Nintendo Handheld console in the US.^[75]

Awards

The game was awarded GamePro's best graphic achievement award at the 1994 Consumer Electronics Show.^[76] It won several awards from Electronic Gaming Monthly, including Best SNES Game, Best Animation, Best Game Duo, and Game of the Year, in their 1994 video game awards.^[77] It also received a Nintendo Power Award for Best Overall Game of 1994 and two Kids' Choice awards in 1994 and 1995 for Favorite Video Game.^[78] It is the only video game listed in Time's top ten "Best Products" of 1994;^[79] this achievement is somewhat overshadowed by the game's later inclusion in Time's 2005 list of Top 10 Most Overrated Games of All Time.^[80] The game also rated ninth in GameSpy's 2003 list of the 25 most overrated games of all time.^[81] Although described as "overrated" by some critics, the game has appeared on many best video games of all-time lists.^{[82][83][84][85][86][87]}

Legacy

Donkey Kong Country's financial success was a major factor in keeping sales of the SNES high at a time when the next generation of consoles, including the Sony PlayStation and the Sega Saturn, were being released. The game sold six million units in its first holiday season.^[88] After selling nine million units, Donkey Kong Country became the second-best selling SNES game^[21] and set a record for the fastest-selling video game of all time.^[89] Rare's redesign of the Donkey Kong character has been used in all future Nintendo games featuring him, including his appearances in the Super Smash Bros. series and various Mario spinoff titles.^[90] Donkey Kong Country's popularity spawned two direct sequels for SNES; Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest was released the following year to critical acclaim and Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! debuted the year after that. Microsoft acquired Rare in 2002, so Nintendo has since maintained the series with Donkey Kong Country Returns (2010) for the Wii and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (2014) for the Wii U and the Nintendo Switch. In addition to starring in Donkey Kong Country 2, the character Diddy Kong was popular enough to feature in his spin-off; Diddy Kong Racing was released for the Nintendo 64 in 1997.^[21]

Both contemporary and retrospective critics cohesively asserted that Donkey Kong Country's visual appeal helped increase the lifespan of Nintendo's then-fledgling SNES; Matthew Castle from the Official Nintendo Magazine noted that next-generation graphics to the console just 12 days before the rival PlayStation's Japanese launch, and proved to consumers that an immediate upgrade was unnecessary.^[91] Lucas Thomas from IGN similarly avowed that the game had "saved the SNES" and helped revitalise sales by bringing back many lapsed fans.^[56]