GamesMaster Feature: Donkey Kong Country
1S04E05
Tim Stamper gets referred to as "not very good looking" and causes Rareware to avoid journalists or press for ten years
Donkey Kong Country[α] is a 1994 platform game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, as part of the Donkey Kong franchise created by Shigeru Miyamoto. The game centers on the duo of Donkey Kong and his nephew Diddy Kong, who are on a quest to recover their stolen banana hoard from King K. Rool and his Kremling henchmen.
Development began shortly after Rare founders, brothers Tim and Chris Stamper, ran experiments with a Silicon Graphics (SGI) workstation to render 3D sprites. Nintendo became interested in Rare's work and acquired 49% of the company, leading to the production of a game for the SNES using Alias and SGI technology. The Stamper brothers expressed interest in creating a standalone Donkey Kong game and assembled a team of 12 developers to work on the game over 18 months. Donkey Kong Country is the first Donkey Kong game that was not produced or directed by the franchise's creator Shigeru Miyamoto, though he was involved with the project.
Following an aggressive marketing campaign, Donkey Kong Country received critical acclaim and sold more than nine million copies worldwide, making it the third best-selling SNES game. Donkey Kong Country redefined the Donkey Kong series by giving the titular ape his own world to live in, and has since been cited as one of the greatest video games of all time. It was ported to the Game Boy Color in 2000 and again for the Game Boy Advance in 2003, and was made available for Nintendo's Virtual Console. In 2017, the game was released as a part of the Super NES Classic Edition. Donkey Kong Country received two direct sequels on the SNES: Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest in 1995, and Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! in 1996. After a 14-year hiatus, the series was revived in 2010 with the release of Donkey Kong Country Returns.