Editing Donkey Kong (universe)
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The hiatus for Donkey Kong was definitively ended later that year, however, thanks to the efforts of the British game developer [[Rare Ltd.|Rareware]]. Rare sought out a partnership with Nintendo as a second-party developer and appealed to them with their work at Silicon Graphics using pre-rendered three-dimensional sprites. Nintendo acquired 25% of Rare's stake (which gradually grew to 49%) and commissioned Rare to develop a new game centered on Donkey Kong using this technology. Rare would go on to release ''{{s|mariowiki|Donkey Kong Country}}'' for the SNES in November 1994. This game was a bold reinvention of the ''Donkey Kong'' universe; a 2D sidescrolling platformer that received widespread critical acclaim and became the third best-selling SNES game in the system's lifespan. It was also groundbreaking for being one of the first games on a home console to utilize pre-rendered 3D graphics, in addition to a widely praised score by British composer David Wise. Rare debuted the familiar modern-day incarnation of Donkey Kong with this game, which included his trademark red necktie (which was actually introduced in the aforementioned Game Boy ''Donkey Kong''), and introduced a full supporting cast of expressive side-characters, animal buddies, and enemies all created by Rare during their affiliation with Nintendo. The most well-known of these new side characters is [[Diddy Kong]], Donkey Kong's "little buddy" and partner. Originally intended to be a redesign of Donkey Kong Jr., the character came into his own after Nintendo expressed concern with how drastically different his design had become. Together, the Kongs must traverse their new homeland, Donkey Kong Island, and retrieve their stolen banana board from the clutches of the Kremling leader, [[King K. Rool]]. | The hiatus for Donkey Kong was definitively ended later that year, however, thanks to the efforts of the British game developer [[Rare Ltd.|Rareware]]. Rare sought out a partnership with Nintendo as a second-party developer and appealed to them with their work at Silicon Graphics using pre-rendered three-dimensional sprites. Nintendo acquired 25% of Rare's stake (which gradually grew to 49%) and commissioned Rare to develop a new game centered on Donkey Kong using this technology. Rare would go on to release ''{{s|mariowiki|Donkey Kong Country}}'' for the SNES in November 1994. This game was a bold reinvention of the ''Donkey Kong'' universe; a 2D sidescrolling platformer that received widespread critical acclaim and became the third best-selling SNES game in the system's lifespan. It was also groundbreaking for being one of the first games on a home console to utilize pre-rendered 3D graphics, in addition to a widely praised score by British composer David Wise. Rare debuted the familiar modern-day incarnation of Donkey Kong with this game, which included his trademark red necktie (which was actually introduced in the aforementioned Game Boy ''Donkey Kong''), and introduced a full supporting cast of expressive side-characters, animal buddies, and enemies all created by Rare during their affiliation with Nintendo. The most well-known of these new side characters is [[Diddy Kong]], Donkey Kong's "little buddy" and partner. Originally intended to be a redesign of Donkey Kong Jr., the character came into his own after Nintendo expressed concern with how drastically different his design had become. Together, the Kongs must traverse their new homeland, Donkey Kong Island, and retrieve their stolen banana board from the clutches of the Kremling leader, [[King K. Rool]]. | ||
Some retrospectives express doubt on whether the success of ''Donkey Kong Country'' necessarily reflected the actual quality of the gameplay itself, but regardless Rare essentially became the sole shepherds of the Donkey Kong franchise during the rest of the 1990s, which included two sequels on the SNES: ''{{s|mariowiki|Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest}}'' in 1995, starring Diddy Kong and his newly introduced girlfriend {{s|mariowiki|Dixie Kong}}, and ''{{s|mariowiki|Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!}}'' in 1996, starring Dixie Kong and a gorilla toddler named {{s|mariowiki|Kiddy Kong}}, both of which were reviewed as improvements. All three ''Country'' games were each accompanied by their respective Game Boy counterparts, the ''{{s|mariowiki|Donkey Kong Land}}'' games. This was a subseries of interquels translating the pre-rendered visuals of the SNES titles onto the original Game Boy. Moving into the [[Nintendo 64]] era, Rare would first develop ''{{s|mariowiki|Diddy Kong Racing}}'' in 1997; the game was retooled from an N64 reboot of the ''R.C. Pro-Am'' series and featured a host of original characters starring alongside Diddy Kong, some of which would later headline their own video game series. Following this, Rare released the first fully-3D ''Donkey Kong'' title, ''{{s|mariowiki|Donkey Kong 64}}'' in 1999, a game cut from a similar cloth to their previous work on {{uv|Banjo-Kazooie}}. Meanwhile, Donkey Kong's thoroughly established resurgence in the Nintendo lineup guaranteed he would forever appear in either starring or side-roles not only in future ''Mario'' spinoffs, but in the Nintendo crossover series ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]'' However, in September of 2002, Nintendo sold 100% of Rare's shares to [[Microsoft]] and left the ''Donkey Kong Country'' brand and characters under Nintendo's full ownership. Several games Rare was planning to develop, including ''{{s|mariowiki|Donkey Kong Racing}}'' for [[Nintendo GameCube]], ''{{s|mariowiki|Diddy Kong Pilot}}'' and ''{{s|mariowiki|Donkey Kong Coconut Crackers}}'' for Game Boy Advance, were either retooled into different original titles or canceled outright, the first of which was unfinished before Rare was bought by Microsoft, while the last two had set release dates but ended up being unpublished. None of the Rare games except ''{{s|lylatwiki|Star Fox Adventures}}'' were showcased at E3 2002. | Some retrospectives express doubt on whether the success of ''Donkey Kong Country'' necessarily reflected the actual quality of the gameplay itself, but regardless Rare essentially became the sole shepherds of the Donkey Kong franchise during the rest of the 1990s, which included two sequels on the SNES: ''{{s|mariowiki|Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest}}'' in 1995, starring Diddy Kong and his newly introduced girlfriend {{s|mariowiki|Dixie Kong}}, and ''{{s|mariowiki|Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!}}'' in 1996, starring Dixie Kong and a gorilla toddler named {{s|mariowiki|Kiddy Kong}}, both of which were reviewed as improvements. All three ''Country'' games were each accompanied by their respective Game Boy counterparts, the ''{{s|mariowiki|Donkey Kong Land}}'' games. This was a subseries of interquels translating the pre-rendered visuals of the SNES titles onto the original Game Boy. Moving into the [[Nintendo 64]] era, Rare would first develop ''{{s|mariowiki|Diddy Kong Racing}}'' in 1997; the game was retooled from an N64 reboot of the ''R.C. Pro-Am'' series and featured a host of original characters starring alongside Diddy Kong, some of which would later headline their own video game series. Following this, Rare released the first fully-3D ''Donkey Kong'' title, ''{{s|mariowiki|Donkey Kong 64}}'' in 1999, a game cut from a similar cloth to their previous work on {{uv|Banjo-Kazooie}}. Meanwhile, Donkey Kong's thoroughly established resurgence in the Nintendo lineup guaranteed he would forever appear in either starring or side-roles not only in future ''Mario'' spinoffs, but in the Nintendo crossover series ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]''. However, in September of 2002, Nintendo sold 100% of Rare's shares to [[Microsoft]] and left the ''Donkey Kong Country'' brand and characters under Nintendo's full ownership. Several games Rare was planning to develop, including ''{{s|mariowiki|Donkey Kong Racing}}'' for [[Nintendo GameCube]], ''{{s|mariowiki|Diddy Kong Pilot}}'' and ''{{s|mariowiki|Donkey Kong Coconut Crackers}}'' for Game Boy Advance, were either retooled into different original titles or canceled outright, the first of which was unfinished before Rare was bought by Microsoft, while the last two had set release dates but ended up being unpublished. None of the Rare games except ''{{s|lylatwiki|Star Fox Adventures}}'' were showcased at E3 2002. | ||
Donkey Kong remained a regular in ''Mario'' games as always, and his contributions have included the full ''{{iw|mariowiki|Mario vs. Donkey Kong|series}}'' series of puzzle games that pay homage to the original ''Donkey Kong'' coin-op's scenario, particularly building on the foundation of the 1994 Game Boy version. The characters and setting originally introduced by Rare and associated with the ''Donkey Kong Country'' brand also made fairly regular appearances in games published by Nintendo, but are largely developed by a variety of second-party developers: Paon developed the Game Boy Advance puzzle game ''{{s|mariowiki|DK: King of Swing}}'' and its Nintendo DS sequel ''{{s|mariowiki|DK: Jungle Climber}}'', as well as the Wii racer ''{{s|mariowiki|Donkey Kong Barrel Blast}}''; [[Namco]], meanwhile, developed all three titles in the ''{{s|mariowiki|Donkey Konga}}'' series of GameCube rhythm games that use a unique bongo drum-themed peripheral for input (a peripheral also used as a controller for the Nintendo-developed GameCube platformer ''{{s|mariowiki|Donkey Kong Jungle Beat}}''). | Donkey Kong remained a regular in ''Mario'' games as always, and his contributions have included the full ''{{iw|mariowiki|Mario vs. Donkey Kong|series}}'' series of puzzle games that pay homage to the original ''Donkey Kong'' coin-op's scenario, particularly building on the foundation of the 1994 Game Boy version. The characters and setting originally introduced by Rare and associated with the ''Donkey Kong Country'' brand also made fairly regular appearances in games published by Nintendo, but are largely developed by a variety of second-party developers: Paon developed the Game Boy Advance puzzle game ''{{s|mariowiki|DK: King of Swing}}'' and its Nintendo DS sequel ''{{s|mariowiki|DK: Jungle Climber}}'', as well as the Wii racer ''{{s|mariowiki|Donkey Kong Barrel Blast}}''; [[Namco]], meanwhile, developed all three titles in the ''{{s|mariowiki|Donkey Konga}}'' series of GameCube rhythm games that use a unique bongo drum-themed peripheral for input (a peripheral also used as a controller for the Nintendo-developed GameCube platformer ''{{s|mariowiki|Donkey Kong Jungle Beat}}''). | ||
