Fungi Forums
Video Games => Mario Chat => Topic started by: CreamCat on May 26, 2006, 06:40:16 PM
-
I know alot of people (such as myself) absoultley adore what Rare has done with Donkey Kong, while others much rather like how Nintendo has handled the Donkey Kong license. I'm curious as to know, how many people here think Rareware actually ruined the Donkey Kong series.
-
How about "No, both companies did a good job" ?
-
Ruined is a bit harsh, but I do hate how Donkey Kong Country themes and characters have become the default version of DK. Rare's Donkey Kong games had very little to do with Donkey Kong at all (the title character didn't even really feature in Country/Land 2 and 3 for crying out loud) and essentially trying to cut Donkey Kong Jr. out of the series was a bad move.
On their own merits, Rare's DK games weren't even that good. Their success was almost solely due to the rendered graphics, which were technically impressive at the time, but haven't aged very well at all. Personally I've always found them to be bland, cluttered and artificial looking. The character designs were equally as generic and uninspired, the only one I particularly like is Dixie Kong. There was some great music though, the wonderful and understated kind you don't come across often in platform games.
For me Game Boy Donkey Kong (1994) is the definitive Donkey Kong game, and Mario vs Donkey Kong is a worthy successor (though not without its faults). March of the Minis has already won me over for the return of Pauline (hopefully Junior will make it in too). The Game & Watch Gallery games were also fantastic and did a wonderful job of making Donkey Kong and DK Junior seem natural parts of Mario's world.
I can tolerate the Donkey Kong Country style games existing as their own series, I just wish that the Mario spinoff games would use more classic DK elements (ala GBDK, G&WG and MvsDK) than Country DK elements.
-
Donkey Kong is a stupid character with a stupid name. Both Nintendo's and Rare's Donkey Kong games are good as games, but Donkey Kong is a stupid character and always has been.
Since I have no love for the Donkey Kong character, I don't mind that there is no consistency between Nintendo's and Rare's Donkey Kong games. They are completely independent in my mind, and they're all fun. Rare's games are more fun. Donkey Kong Country 2 and Donkey Kong Country 3 are both masterpieces, and Donkey Kong 64 is pretty good too. Crazy Penguin is spot on about the music (Monkey Rap excluded). I am particularly fond of Crocodile Cacophony (vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/snes/dkc2krl.mid), the music that plays during the last boss battle (or maybe second-to-last boss battle if you count the secret world) in Donkey Kong Country 2.
-
...I'd say Nintendo and Rare did great with Donkey Kong games. No one ruined the series for either company.
-
I liked Rare's games(although DKC1 was a bit drab and DK64 was unreasonably time-consuming), but they sure ruined the character's identity. That's my biggest gripe.
-
Both companies produced great DK games, but I prefer Rare's handling of the series. The DK Country trilogy is beyond awesome. Beautiful backgrounds, a great soundtrack, some of the best level designs, not to mention the rising difficulty and the few hidden secrets. I'm holding out hope that if Diddy Kong Racing DS is successful, Nintendo allows Rare to develop Donkey Kong Country 4.
-
...I'd say Nintendo and Rare did great with Donkey Kong games. No one ruined the series for either company.
-
The only thing Rare ruined was DK's placement in the time-space continuum (as was previously stated) and his family tree. I'm sorry, but Lanky, Tiny, Chunky and Kiddy Kong suck. (Though granted, Kiddy doesn't suck quite as much as the DK64 has-beens)
-
Okay. Being a fan of the DKC series, let me warn you, what I'm about to say may be considered highly opinionated:
No, infact, I think they did better than Nintendo does. Before Rare got a hold of him, he was just a "stubborn ape" and would have only starred as a villian or made a few guest appearances (not too mention, Kamek would have been in Mario Kart 64 instead of DK. I like Kamek, personally, but not as much as DK). Also, they introduced some new loavable characters, like Diddy Kong and even Lanky Kong. However, I will admit that I like Namco's Donkey Konga (as I even bought it recently, mostly for when DK Bongo Blast get's released though) and I can't really judge Donkey Kong Jungle Beat or DKa2 too much, since I have not played them enough, but I will say that I absolutely hate the toothy grin style of DK.
(https://themushroomkingdom.net/board/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fen%2F1%2F17%2FDonkeyKongJB.jpg&hash=6ab0e6b832821d371e666d0d916f5ab5)
I know the DK character has had a toothy grin since the first games, but too me, the toothy grin just doesn't look right on Rare's design for DK. He looks like a psychotic freak who's about to beat the crap out of you.
Edit:
I'm holding out hope that if Diddy Kong Racing DS is successful, Nintendo allows Rare to develop Donkey Kong Country 4.
Eh, I don't think that could happen either way. I believe they are only able to create ports of thier older DK games. However, DK King of Swing is pretty much the official sequal to DK64, since it contains elements from the older games.
-
The "toothy grin DK" that everybody gripes about is the SAME version as Rare's, only smiling. Is smiling so wrong?
-
Yeah, I know that. That is why I said "it does not look right on Rare's Donkey Kong". I mean, I don't have a problem with him smiling, but couldn't he smile like this at least?
(https://themushroomkingdom.net/board/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fen%2F9%2F9f%2FDonkey_Kong.JPG&hash=c7e985b39f15a1b6bede105220ae97da)
Or if with an open mouth, without the teeth?
-
He's a stupid character either way.
-
How is he a stupid character? I've seen characters that are far more likely to be considered 'stupid' than DK.
-
Basically, it's his name I don't like. I like all the other Kongs and I like the Kremlings. But Donkey Kong??? His name is obviously meant to be a parody of King Kong, which itself makes the character unoriginal but isn't so terrible. But to prefix Kong with Donkey??? It makes no sense. It would be like me making a spy character who parodies James Bond, and naming him Carrot Bond, even though he has nothing to do with carrots. I've heard the stories of the origin of Donkey Kong's name but none of them adequately justify the name in my mind. I think his name should be changed. There is precedent for this. In the USA at least, King Koopa's name was changed to Bowser, Princess Toadstool's name was changed to Peach, and Dr. Robotnik's name was changed to Eggman. All of these changes caused temporary confusion but in the end they were improvements. It's time Donkey Kong's name was changed.
-
I think you're making too big a deal out of it.
Dr. Robotnik's name was changed to Eggman
It was the other way around, and eventualy they decided that Robotnik was his real name and Eggman was his nickname.
-
You guys are forgetting the most important name change, JUMPMAN to MARIO!!
-
It's time Donkey Kong's name was changed.
No it's not. The time to change his name would have been before the original arcade game was exported from Japan.
-
I hate what Donkey Kong has become. I love the Mario series, in part, because of its recurring characters. But Rare's DK doesn't carry the spirit of the original DK. There's no thematic continuity with that character. When I see Mario, or a Shy Guy or whatever, I can remember where they began, and all the games they've been in. There's history there. But with Rare's DK, they stripped away that history. There's no thematic connection with the Mario universe. Rare's Kong-world doesn't fit in with Nintendo's Mario-world. Rare's DK doesn't belong in Mario games.
In my ideal world, Rare's DK game would have the "Donkey Kong" name removed. Call him anything else. "Rare Kong" or "Rare's Neat Gorilla Game". I don't want Rare's games to go away. I just don't want their influence to show in the DK character. My dream is Nintendo bringing back the DK from DK94 and DK Jr. Put those guys in the sports and party games and get rid of DK and Diddy. It's frustrating to see Rare's DK in the "Mario vs. DK" games, where the original DK so obviously belongs.
One huge step to getting things where I want them is to get rid of that giant eyebrow-forehead thing around his eyes. Without that, DK would look so much like he did in DK94.
-
Eh, the old DK would probably be as PD described him: Stuck as a dead end villain with only a few appearances before he would be phased out completely. Rare gave him personality and backstory and for that I applaud them. Plus they created Diddy Kong, the absolute best Kong, and the DK rap, which rules.
-
I just don't like what Rare did to the DK Timeline. If they could've kept the DK in their games the same as the original one and kept DK Jr. in the light, I'd be content.
-
(deleted)
-
Donkey Kong had plenty of personality in the 1994 Game Boy game. In the Donkey Kong Country games he was mostly expressionless, except when doing the ridiculously bad 1990s style intro dance and the eye bulging.
-
Donkey Kong had plenty of personality in the 1994 Game Boy game. In the Donkey Kong Country games he was mostly expressionless, except when doing the ridiculously bad 1990s style intro dance and the eye bulging.
Sorry dude, but you are just being ridiculous here! That so called bad 1990s style intro dance might have seemed corny, but it showed us that DK was one easy going, party animal of an ape. Heck, throughout the entire game DK shows us his "I'm the man attitude" by pounding his chest and making a cry of pride when you leave him alone for awhile and shaking his hands up and down and screeching after he defeats bosses. Rareware's has given DK a personallity much greater then Nintendo has and even you can not deny that.
-
The problem is that they said that he was an entirely different character than the old DK in order to explain the change. That's the one thing I do not like.
-
What's so bad about DK now? I think that Rare improved him lots! But yes, he should be doing much more in the Mario universe next time.
-
I think the Rare games are better. And the graphics have little to do with why I like them. Mr. Wiggles's earlier post about summed up why I like them. All of the DKC games and (especially) DK64 are positively amazing.
The early Nintendo ones are good too, but I still think the Rare ones are better. (I haven't played a lot of the newer ones.)
I completely fail to understand how someone could think DK64 was not fun. The collecting was made enjoyable by the game's incredible variety.
DK's name is pure genius. It isn't stupid at all. And a name change for him is about the last thing that's called for now, after all the games that have been made about him.
-
I always thought that Nintendo and Rare BOTH created the Donkey Kong Country series.
In fact, they did. Rare didn't single-handedly design the Country trilogy. But correct me if I'm wrong.
-
I also remember hearing that Myamoto himself thought up DK's 'Super' design.
-
Some games by Rare such as the DKC series sucked but DK64 waz da best DK game ever. I begged my parents to buy it.
-
http://dkmegasite.vgfort.com/dkc.php
It looks like Miyamoto's design is the one that was used in the Game Boy Donkey Kong and Game & Watch Gallery art work. I have no idea where they got that image or information from though.
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/nom/0002/01/miyamoto.html
There's an interview there, if anyone can translate it properly. Miyamoto talks quite a bit about Donkey Kong's redesign.
I ran it through an online translator, and it seems that Miyamoto confirms that the necktie was his idea, but these online translators are never accurate.