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conkreetmonkey · 2 months

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So this is probably really stupid to find interesting, but I watched a video about the evolution of King K. Rool over the years, and it's pretty clear to see that his golden belly armour being just that, armour, and not a part of his body is a pretty recent thing, which was seemingly introduced in Smash Ultimate. In his debut appearance in DKC, it does seem to be made of gold:

That's pretty clearly the same material on his crown, cuffs and belly, right? And as his cuffs and crown are clearly just accessories and not part of his body, it would be natural to assume that so is his belly armour. I'm actually not sure if this is the case, however, since I've never read the manual the game clearly expects you to have read, can't find a video of someone hitting him from the front to see what kind of sound effect it makes, and haven't gotten to the final boss of DKC myself yet (I'm stuck on Chimp Caverns, lol). So as far as this installment goes, with my limited knowledge, I could go either way (K. Rool experts, feel free to weigh in).

From this point forth, his belly armour remains golden for some time, and I don't believe an answer to whether it's part of him or not is given in any of the several games he appears in up until Smash Melee.

Then, suddenly, in DK King of Swing on the GBA, his belly armour is made of skin.

This change then remains consistent from this point up until Smash Ultimate, and K. Rool actually does appear in a surprising amount of games up until then, featuring in Barrel Blast, Super Mario Sluggers, and even in Brawl as a trophy.

Finally, after Brawl, his next appearance is in Smash Ultimate, in which we finally get a solid answer: it's a metal chestplate. Apparently. Despite the long string of games before in which it was clearly flesh. In Ultimate, this is even of mechanical importance, as it can be worn down and eventually broken by attacks, which stuns K. Rool and leaves him vulnerable. He can also use it to parry attacks, so it has multiple associated mechanics. This cracked texture would be kind of gross if it was made of tough skin instead of metal, so maybe that's why they made the change.

I also discovered that whether or not he has a tail, and how long it is, is wildly inconsistent. In Melee he has a short tail, in Brawl he does not, in Ultimate he has a nubby one yet again, and in DK64 he has a properly long crocodile tail longer than his legs. Weird.

idk why I thought this was interesting I just did.

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seandwalsh · 1 year

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Hello. I have some questions about Donkey Kong:

-Do the DK games take place in the same world as the Mario games? I have seen some users argue that DK does not live in the same world as Mario, but comes from another universe and that sometimes he arrives in the mushroom kingdom using a warp pipe that connects his universe with Mario's universe, but I don't know if that is true or just a theory.

-Why do you think King K Rool and the kremlings stopped appearing in DK games? I know that this is because Nintendo doesn't like characters that they didn't create and that's why they don't use them, but within the history of DK games, what do you think is the reason?

The Donkey Kong games, both classic and modern, clearly take place in the very same world as the Mario games. The Mario Universe IS the Donkey Kong Universe, and vice versa. Anyone who suggests otherwise is simply incorrect, and likely isn’t all too familiar with the history of Mario and Donkey Kong or the content of the games they star in. Donkey Kong is a Mario character.

Donkey Kong (Arcade), of course, is the first appearance of both Mario and the original Donkey Kong. From their inception, these two characters were intrinsically connected. Mario went on to become the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom, fighting Bowser and rescuing Princess Peach… While Donkey Kong eventually settled down and retired, becoming Cranky Kong, with his grandson taking up the mantle and becoming the modern Donkey Kong that we know today.

However, the relationship between Mario and the Kongs never died. Donkey Kong and his son, Donkey Kong Jr., continued to make appearances in Mario’s life after his move to the Mushroom Kingdom, as we see in Donkey Kong (Game Boy), the Game & Watch Gallery games, Super Mario Kart and Mario’s Tennis.

Then the modern Donkey Kong began appearing in Mario’s life, with him appearing in the Mario vs. Donkey Kong games, the Mario Kart games from Mario Kart 64 onwards, the Mario Tennis games, the Mario Party games, etc., etc. Note that all of the other characters in these games, such as Yoshi and Wario, are from the same world as Mario too. Then Donkey Kong even started bringing his friends (and enemies) along to events in the Mushroom Kingdom - Diddy Kong, Dixie Kong, Funky Kong - and then they started building racetracks, golf courses, boards and stadiums on Donkey Kong Island for Mario and his friends to compete on.

With the sheer frequency of these connections, the idea of them being from two separate universes makes less and less sense. But, just for the sake of argument I do have some more definitive evidence. In Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze’s stage “Frosty Fruits”, one of Bowser’s Tanks from Super Mario Bros. 3 can be seen. What would one of Bowser’s tanks be doing in another universe?

In Dr. Mario World, alien viruses invade Mario’s Planet, forcing everyone to band together to defeat them and save the world. During the adventure, the Mario crew makes their way to DK Jungle, bringing on Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong as doctors to help with the pandemic. Why would these viruses also be invading a planet in another universe? At the end of the game, the text states: “Mario and friends have reached the end of their journey and taken back their world, freeing it of viruses.” Notice how it says “their world”. Donkey Kong’s included.

Lastly, and I think the most clear piece of evidence these two share a universe, is New Donk City. New Donk City is the location where Donkey Kong (Arcade) took place. I’d recommend reading this Blog Post I helped work on for the complete history of the location, but to quickly recap:

It’s made appearances in multiple Donkey Kong and Mario games.

In Super Mario Odyssey, we see that New Donk City is on the same planet as the Mushroom Kingdom.

In Donkey Kong Land, Donkey Kong gets to the city from his island via a Zeppelin.

In Donkey Konga 2 the city is visible from the shores of the island.

In Donkey Kong (Game Boy), Mario chases the original Donkey Kong around the world after he kidnaps Pauline once again. The chase begins in New Donk City, but after going through a Forest and boarding a Ship, they arrive at a Jungle - likely DK Jungle on Donkey Kong Island - where they meet Donkey Kong Jr. The chase continues, with Donkey Kong Jr. helping his father, until they all eventually arrive in the Mushroom Kingdom where Donkey Kong has built a Tower of trials for Mario to overcome. They don’t go through any portals or Warp Pipes during this game.

All of these locations are clearly intended to be in the same universe.

As for your second question, it appears you’re operating under a bit of a misconception. If you’ll allow me to step out of the Mario Universe and into the real world for just a moment…

Nintendo absolutely does like characters they didn’t create. Nintendo didn’t create Diddy Kong, Funky Kong and Dixie Kong, yet they constantly appear in modern Donkey Kong and Mario games. Heck, King K. Rool and the Kremlings continued to appear for a full decade after Rare was bought and almost the entire Donkey Kong Country cast received in-house redesigns from Nintendo in the 2000s. Nintendo EPD loves the Donkey Kong Country characters, with New Donk City’s streets and shops even being named after them.

No, the only reason the Kremlings aren’t in modern Donkey Kong games is because Nintendo and Retro Studios decided not to include them in order to allow their teams to flourish creatively. According to Yoshiaki Koizumi, Director of Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy and Producer of various other titles:

“With the exception of the character Donkey Kong and the bananas, everything is original. I thought this was for the best as it became apparent the [Donkey Kong Jungle Beat] was uncharacteristic/unbefitting of conventional/traditional Donkey Kong. I think I was uncertain of my ability to show EAD Tokyo's personality.”

[Source: Nintendo Online Magazine, No. 77, December 2004]

When Retro had their turn with the series, they took things in a different direction. According to Bryan Walker, a Senior Development Director of Donkey Kong Country Returns and Mario Kart 7:

“While we were of course fans of [the Kremlings], there were simply too many fantastically talented artists at Retro to simply do a rehash of the previous art style. The Tikis were a brainstorm of one of our character artists, Quinn Smith if I recall correctly, and we quickly glommed onto them as a way to modernize the art style of the game while still remaining very true to the spirit of the original. I really love how they turned out.”

[Source: Shinesparkers, Interview with Bryan Walker, April 2022]

In Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, they yet again had other ideas. According to Vince Joly, Art Director of Donkey Kong Country Returns and Mario Kart 7 and Creative Director of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze:

“Here was the high-level thinking behind the Snowmads, after using the more abstract design of the Tikis in Donkey Kong Country Returns, we felt that there was more that we could do to have the player relate to the Kongs' foes. We wanted a set of baddies that would thematically and physically match up well against DK as a large primate. So polar bears, sea lions and walruses all seemed like good mammalian match-ups - and that was the beginning of the story of these nomadic snow creatures invading DK's island.”

[Source: Retro Gamer Magazine, Load 237, “The Evolution of Donkey Kong Country - How Rare and Retro Reimagined Nintendo’s Platforming Primates”, September 2022]

So as you can see, the lack of Kremling appearances came from a place of creativity, not dislike. Of course the Kremlings haven’t had many other opportunities to appear. There haven’t been any Donkey Kong Spin-offs in recent years, and when it comes to Mario Spin-offs, large character rosters have become more and more taxing on developers as video games have become higher fidelity. With their lack of appearances in the Donkey Kong Country games, the Kremlings simply aren’t a “priority” inclusion for spin-off titles.

Anyway, with that out of the way, back to the lore…

Over the years, King K. Rool’s plans became more and more elaborate and laser-focused on Donkey Kong-destruction. After a series of colossal failures and humiliations, resulting in the destruction of his island and the loss of faith from his minions, King K. Rool was mostly reduced to petty competition in games like DK: King of Swing, Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast and Mario Super Sluggers, even forming a temporary alliance with the Kongs in the last example.

His last plot of note was seen in DK: Jungle Climber, where he used a Crystal Banana from the Planet Plantaen to grow to a gargantuan size - but not even in this form could he defeat Donkey Kong, with the Kongs bringing him back to Earth by tying him to the back of Xananab’s Banana Ship.

It’s possible that after all of these defeats, petty schemes and forced alliances that King K. Rool simply ceased his plots. Perhaps he continues to wait in the shadows for his next opportunity to strike, or perhaps he turned over a new leaf and is busy rebuilding Kremling society …as if!

In any case, I doubt it’ll be too long before we see him again...

#donkey kong #super mario #mario lore #kremlings #k rool

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