Characters

In the Donkey Kong Country: Exposed promotional video, developers from Rare discuss visiting the zoo to observe the movement and behavior of real gorillas. However, many years later, it was revealed that their findings were “completely unsuitable” for what was intended to be a fast-paced platforming game. Rare instead did all of the animations by hand, experimenting with 15 different versions, including some attempts built around the movements of rabbits and frogs. The final animations ended up being loosely based on horses.

Donkey Kong

As the marketing noted, “This isn’t your father’s Donkey Kong!” He is, in fact, Donkey Kong Jr., all grown up. For his 16-bit revival, Donkey Kong was redesigned, with his original creator Shigeru Miyamoto providing Rare with a sketch that included the now-iconic red tie. Mr. Miyamoto also suggested Donkey’s ape-inspired “hand slap” move, which allowed him to defeat nearby enemies and reveal certain secrets. Rare was able to implement the move just weeks before the deadline for the game.

Funky Kong

Funky Kong provides Donkey and Diddy a plane that looks like a barrel to ride to previously visited locations around the island, along with all the bodacious ’90s slang the Donkey dudes can handle! Does this guy even have his pilot’s license? Or is the Funky Barrel flying itself? Whoa…

Diddy Kong

Diddy Kong was initially designed as Rare’s take on Donkey Kong Jr. Nintendo felt the new look was too much of a departure. As Rare was quite attached to their creation, they opted to drop Donkey Kong Jr. altogether and make Diddy Kong a completely original character. Rare passed around a paper with potential names, including Diet DK, DK Lite, Titchy Kong, and Dinky Kong, which is what they eventually settled on. A bit of legal advice led to one final change, and Dinky Kong became Diddy Kong.

Diddy was often described as a Donkey Kong wannabe. His smaller size makes him less powerful than Donkey Kong, but notably faster. Instead of rolling, he uses a cartwheel attack that is just as adept at taking out weaker enemies as it is at rapidly traversing levels.

Cranky Kong

Also known as Donkey Kong Sr., Cranky’s days of kidnapping Pauline and terrorizing Mario and Stanley the Bugman have long since passed. Now he dispenses snarky tips, breaks the fourth wall, and otherwise lives up to his new name. Cranky served as an opportunity for the developers to satirize certain video game tropes, such as the “Notes” section included in the instruction booklet that Cranky doubts anyone actually uses.

Candy Kong

Donkey’s “rumored” love interest manages the save points in Donkey Kong Country. Candy did not appear in either sequel for the Super NES, though she did appear in their Game Boy Advance remakes.