Donkey Kong Confusion

Is it me, or did Donkey Kong as a character barely get any playtime by himself, or at all, really? I've noticed that ever since the original Donkey Kong Arcade/NES game Donkey Kong has barely ever been playable. Lets take a look.

Donkey Kong Arcade: Play as Mario/Jumpman

Donkey Kong Country: Play as DK and Diddy and you can choose who you want to play as, alright

Donkey Kong Country 2: Play as Diddy and Dixie, DK is captured

Donkey Kong Country 3: DK makes no appearences

Diddy Kong Racing: No appearence at all

Donkey Kong 64: Play as a large variety of Kongs

Now, the games that puzzle me the most are the Country games and Diddy Kong Racing. The Country games were all called DONKEY KONG Country, yet he was only playable in one of them. Now for Diddy Kong Racing, I mean, what the hell? I know it was a spin-off, but why not include Donkey Kong? You got to play as DK in a none Rare/DK racing game, Mario Kart 64, why is it that DK can't be playable in a Kong spin-off game? It makes no sense at all, he's the main character of the franchise and Rare barely used him. He's used more often now I guess, but there are barely any DK games anymore worth playing.

We need another game like Donkey Kong 64. That was a big hit way-back-when.

While I'm not particularly fond of non-human primates, DK is my buddy, and needs more attention.

you can still play the drug-influenced Jungle Beat!

Funny, I was thinking about this a few days ago.
A great game comes out and when the sequel comes the main character it's not playable...and then again with the third DKC.

This post has been edited by EDGE on Oct 9 2008, 01:19 PM

I've mentioned it before that DKC2 is called "Diddy's Kong Quest". There is no "Donkey Kong" mentioned on the title screen of the game itself, or in the sequel's - just the box. So it's a marketing thing. Also DK does appear in DKC3 at the end.

Diddy Kong Racing is a racing game filled with Rare characters. MK64 covers Nintendo ones. Why would Rare waste a valuable character slot with a character that appeared in a similar racing game already?


The character of Donkey Kong is not Rare's creation. They probably had to ask permission every time it was used (and possibly even pay royalties). Not the case for the others.

King of Swing.

Quit ignoring it.

Donkey Kong was captured in DKC2

but yeah its still weird

This post has been edited by BurninLeo on Oct 9 2008, 01:40 PM

Wrong, he was captured with Diddy.

so Donkey Kong is a whimp that gets captured alot

And Donkey Kong Jungle Climber.

Did I mention that Funky Kong is awesome?

Glad someone else pointed out PAON's climbing games. They aren't the crap spin-offs so many people assume them to be.

Anyway:

-The original Donkey Kong was the villain of his games and had really huge sprites to show off his animation. It probably would've looked really odd to shrink his sprite down, or, considering the time period and hardware constraints, have been a pain to program and design a game with a protagonist that huge. The second game starring his much smaller son was probably the easier way to go.

-Like my post in the other topic, I don't think DK under Rare was supposed to be the almost unfailing go-to hero like Mario and a lot of other Video Game heroes. Diddy Kong went from DK's sidekick hero-in-training to a hero all his own by the second game. Diddy Kong Pilot was even going to be called so despite Donkey Kong being playable.

-Diddy may as well have been Rare's mascot back in 1997, and a big reason for Diddy Kong Racing's development was to give Rare's fans something while they were still working on their other N64 titles. How little Diddy Kong Racing had in common with DKC could've also been a reason why they went with Diddy instead. Take a look at the Donkey Kong Racing video: Donkey, Diddy, Tiny, Kiddy, Rambi, Expresso, Enguarde, etc. and very DKC-ish environments.

This post has been edited by Clutch on Oct 9 2008, 05:43 PM

He's the leader of the bunch
You know him well
He's finally back
To kick some tail!

DonkeyKong has always been getting kidnapped, look at donkey kong jr.

@Thunder: play Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, dangit!

This brings up a very good point. :r


But then again the only ones I still play are 64 and DK Country 1, So I think I'll live without an answer.

I do agree with with the Donkey Kong Country series. It's quite ridiculous how the series is named after him yet he is playable in just the first game and he only makes a minor appearance in later two.

Diddy Kong Racing is understandable, since it's Diddy Kong Racing.

Yes, definitely. 3D platformers similar to DK64 and the Banjo series in gameplay are among my favorite types of games, and I'd love incredibly much to see more of them come out.

Don't forget the Mario Parties series drop DK as playable after 5 or so

im kind of happy that he wasn't in DKR, he seems too tuff of a character for that game.
and weren't they making a donkey kong racing game for the gamecube but it got canceled? like you could ride ostriches and stuff?