Random: Ex-Rare Dev Explains The Origin Of Donkey Kong Country's Name

and I am proud to say the office where this was born is only about 20 minutes from me

And Japan were boring and went with "Super Donkey Kong". 😕

Currently playing this on my 3DS. Nintendo got a lot more classics out of Rare than Microsoft have since buying them over 20 years ago.

Interesting!

Tune in next time for someone explaining why we haven't had a new Donkey Kong game in 10 years.

@Mauzuri Agreed! I do like Kirby, I don't like Fire Emblem - either way, both of those franchises simply have too many games on Switch. Meanwhile Donkey Kong is literally rotting on the scrap heap.

@Mauzuri Yeah Nintendo are really ignoring Mario at the moment…..

At this point, I can't see the naming convention as anything else! I love me some Donkey Kong Country!

Oh, so according to this, the game and the CGI series should be known in Spanish as "El Campo de Donkey Kong".

I kind of wanna see that, maybe as a Harvest Moon-esque game where you defend your crops from the Kremlings.

It must have been nice, working in the office in the countryside, occasionally looking at the rice pads and wooden houses in the distance, with rolling hills painted gold and red by the yellowing leaves of trees. Such a serene background occasionally put into motion by a minitruck lazily sliding along the narrow road, accompanied only by the last concerts of cicadas.

@RadioShadow The Game Boy games went in a more confusing direction.
The first game launched in Japan as Super Donkey Kong GB.
Then they decided to use the western franchise title after, naming the second game "Donkey Kong Land". I heard the monochrome version of the third game (unreleased in Japan) was to be called "Donkey Kong Land 2". But of course Japan's released version (the exclusive colorized version published three years later) I recall was Donkey Kong 2000 - Dixie and Dinkie. And then the Japanese version of the GBC port of Donkey Kong Country became Donkey Kong 2001.

@Mauzuri Well Pokemon is kinda it's own thing so no point comparing them. They're gonna do what they're gonna do regardless.

But Mario vs Kirby on Switch?
Kirby has had 2 original full titles with All-Star Allies and Forgotten Kingdom.
Mario has had 1 with Odyssey.

Kirby has had 3 download only spin-offs with Dream Buffet, Fighters 2 and Super Kirby Clash.
Mario has had 3 full retail spin-offs with Golf, Tennis and Strikers.

Kirby has had one remake with Return to Dreamland Deluxe.
Mario had had 2 with 3D World + Bowser's Fury and 3D All-Stars (which was technically 3 bundled together).

So if you ignore that 3D All-Stars is 3 games, and you don't include Mario Kart in the spin-offs for Mario (of which there are 2 for Switch (MK8D, MKL:HC) and a mobile game), they actually even out with 6 entries each. But if you don't ignore those Mario things then Mario has 10 + a mobile game.

Fire Emblem has had like 2 an a spin-off?

I get it, I'd love a new Mario platformer, I think it's due. But obviously they're focusing on the movie right now and not muddying the waters. But the notion of Mario being ignored, even in a purely games sense, is way off-base.

@Mauzuri oh yeah DK needs more love! But if I’m honest if it’s a case of “that’s Retro’s thing” and right now they’re preoccupied with Metroid… I’d kinda prefer Metroid right now.

Maybe they’ll hand it to someone else like Next Level or Good Feel? I think they could both do a good job of it. What are Grezzo up to these days? There’s a lot of studios who we have no idea what they’re working on so there’s hope that it could be in the works already.

I never really thought about it before , but it also fits with the naming convention of a lot of the Mario games: Mario Land / World /Galaxy.

@ComfyAko Yes, probably. That said, Rare is English.
(I think.)

I love Rare with all my heart.

@RadioShadow Not only that, but Miyamoto-San was openly hurling insults and badmouthing how bad a game this was and gloating how awesome his own original Donkey Kong was. It definitely made Shiggy come off REALLY bad.

The first I heard of it, but that's kind of cool, actually. I'd never really thought much about it tbh, but for some reason, it feels good to know now anyway 😂

@ComfyAko That would've been the case for some Nintendo developers in Japan, but in this case, the countryside would've probably looked mpre like a misty set of low lying hills and patchy woodlands amongst very green grass and gray stone walls, as is typical of a rural Welsh landscape, which is where I believe Rare was located (or somewhere near to it).

@Mauzuri The last DKC game released in like 2014, dude chill. Try being a Portal fan.

@RadioShadow Even though it's called Super Donkey Kong in Japan, the in-game map still name the island as Donkey Kong Country.

@Andy_Witmyer @TeaCatherine

Shoot I forgot it was Rare that made DKC

Patchy woodlands and gray stone walls sound very nice too

@RadioShadow I didn’t know it was Super Donkey Kong in Japan. I actually like that.

However, Donkey Kong Country is iconic at this point. And fits much better than something like Donkey Kong World (a la Super Mario World).

@RadioShadow They could have gone with Donkey Kong Prefecture.

@Ogbert Ignoring him in everything but an actual new Mario video game....

@Chlocean That's Nintendo and Valve. Figure out what works and then wait a decade or so to release a new one. Just think of how long it took to make Half Life 3.

@Mauzuri Please understand that Kirby has a dedicated studio, (Hal Labs), that focus on Kirby games. DK doesn’t really have a dedicated team, neither does F-Zero or Starfox. Metroid looks to have a new studio dedicated to making 2D Metroid games with MercurySteam but who knows how long that will last. Typically devs don’t like working on the same games for so long, Kirby and Xeno being exceptions because the studios share ownership in the IP and can have an incentive to make those games their bread & butter.