Donkey Kong was Mario's first antagonist, and the character that spawned the entire Mario franchise. After the horribly unsuccessful Donkey Kong 3, DK vanished from the public spotlight for many years, only to re-debut in Rare's 1994 SNES title Donkey Kong Country. Rare gave DK a whole new look, and and placed the character in an entirely new world, complete with new friends, locations and enemies. DKC was a tremendous sucess, and many sequels soon followed. The series took Donkey Kong in an entirely new direction, moving him away from Mario and his world and in doing so made the character a virtual Rare exclusive. Today, DK's only role in traditional "Mario" games is one of many selectable characters in the various sport games and Mario Party titles. In such games the Rare-designed "model" of the character continues to be used, despite conflicting claims that the Rare DK is actually a different character than the DK of Mario's world.