General Donkey Kong Thread

My favorite part is how they chose to interpret "But this Kong's one hell of a guy!"

So I just recently finished DKCR on the 3DS. While I overall enjoyed the experience, I won't lie, the difficulty spike on World 8 completely soured the last leg of the game for me. I fucking hate the Rocket Barrel, and I hate that Retro decided to put an extended Rocket Barrel sequence before the Final Boss.

I discovered a week ago that Tiny Kong is a whole head taller than Diddy in Donkey Kong 64, meaning she has always been taller than Dixie, not just since her redesign. I did it by comparing their heights in the multiplayer mode.

Diddy and Dixie don't ever stand upright though...

This Kong has a stretched-out jetpack on.

This reminds me that someday I should man up and beat Crowded Cavern instead of having a friend do this one for me (I managed to finish all other rocket barrel stages on DKCR 3D).

Anyone think that the Switch will be the console where Retro finishes their DKC series as a trilogy?

They need to bring back the Kremlings for this hypothetical finale, though.

Rumors say that they're not working on a DK or Metroid game. Of course rule number 1 of Retro is that nobody knows what they're doing, so it's possible. I'm inclined to say that they aren't though since I don't think there's that much more they can do with the series. If they are working on DK, I'd guess it's a 3D game.

Hopefullly a more compelling one than DK 64 was.

What, bringing back DK's classic enemies when they've been introducing new ones isn't enough?

I'm all for a sequel or Spiritual Successor to Donkey Kong 64, but I really hope Retro makes another 2D Donkey Kong Country first (and brings back the Kremlings, needless to say). That being said, I don't expect it'll come out for a couple of years, or maybe not until the tail end of the current console generation. That's when Donkey Kong console games usually come out; Tropical Freeze was an anomaly.

Do you think that's exciting enough to carry a game? I don't know, maybe it is. Nostalgia is a powerful drug. What I do know is that Retro's sequels have suffered from appearing to be samey (whether they are or not), so they don't sell nearly as well as the first iteration.

edited 16th Jan '17 8:40:41 PM by Sterok

@Sterok: Not alone, but I'm sure they can come up with more level ideas and environments as well as new mechanics alongside reintroducing the Kremlings.

No one exactly asked for Dixie and Cranky giving Donkey new jumping abilities alongside Diddy, but that worked out.

The thing is, I don't think Retro should need some crazy new gimmick to justify making another 2D Donkey Kong. Not every game needs to reinvent the wheel; it's okay for some to get by on the strength of their core mechanics (and the appeal of their characters and setting).

Besides, there have only been five Donkey Kong Country games in the twenty-year history of the series; it's not like anything is getting stale.

edited 16th Jan '17 8:49:50 PM by ThriceCharming

After what happened to New Super Mario Bros., I believe the important thing is for the next game to feel exciting. I don't think Dixie and Cranky were exciting enough unfortunately, so a lot of people were down on Tropical Freeze for just being more of the same even though it was excellent.

To be fair, that was how I felt at first about Tropical Freeze as well. It's been long enough since that I want to play it (if only for David Wise's glorious music), but the prospect didn't get me super excited at first.

On the other hand, I was super excited for Tropical Freeze. It was easily the highlight of E3 2013 for me, and now that I've played it, it's one of my all-time favorite games.

I think people were only rough on it because it wasn't Metroid Prime 4, to be honest. Other M disappointed, so the fandom was counting on Retro to make Metroid respectable again. And for all the bad press Tropical Freeze got early on, there was a noticeable turnaround once people actually got their hands on it.

I have some ideas for the next 2D Donkey Kong, by the by. I think they should bring back two other classic Kongs: Kiddy and Lanky. Kiddy could give Donkey Kong a Mario-style ground pound and Lanky, being rubbery, could stretch himself into a parachute to make Donkey Kong float slowly downward, like Dixie in the original Country games or Flurl in Jungle Beat.

Oh, and bring back King K. Rool and Enguarde, of course, but that's a no-brainer.

If Retro(or anyone else, really) does do a 3D DK game, I'd like to see it be more linear. Think Super Mario 3D World/Crash Bandicoot.

Wario World, maybe? It even has bonus rooms and prizes to be earned therein.

Here's something else to consider: can the Donkey Kong Country buddy system (i.e. play as two Kongs at once) work in 3D?

Ok so, there was a recent thread where someone mentioned how TVT apparently says that DK 64 killed the collect-a-thon platformer or something, and while I don't agree with that statement (more on that below) I do think it is interesting to think about just what happened to collect-a-thons that eroded their popularity.

I don't really think any one piece of media can kill a genre singlehandedly, it would have had to be wearing thin at least a while beforehand. I think the idea that a person could play DK 64 after playing a bunch of other platformers and getting burnt out on the genre due to its excess is plausible, and probably where that idea comes from, but it's not really the same thing.

I think they mostly just died out because a lot of the industry began to focus on another big thing (probably FPS's around that time I guess) that was gaining steam, what with the success of stuff like Goldeneye and Halo. Notably starting with the Playstation the gaming industry was starting to do a lot more risqué content and trying to get more mainstream and older audiences into videogames, and collect-a-thons are generally associated with colorful and cartoony worlds and characters that didn't exactly fit with the image that a lot of people in the AAA gaming industry wanted to chase after.

Donkey Kong 64 is such an odd duck to me. I'm a huge fan of both the Donkey Kong Country and Banjo-Kazooie games, and yet I get little to no enjoyment from DK64. I don't think an excess of collectibles is the reason, either.

Having recently played Mirror's Edge Catalyst, I can safely say there are still at least a few platformer collect-a-thons out there. It's just that games nowadays don't tend to make them essential for completing the game any more.

edited 26th Mar '17 12:05:20 AM by KnownUnknown

I agree with you, something about it just feels...bland? Underwhelming? It just makes me wish I was playing Banjo instead.

I do think there is an excess of collectables though.

I don't mind having a ton of collectibles, but I do think it was a bad move to make so many of them mandatory for game completion.

Especially the Rareware and Nintendo Coins.