The premier news source and fan community for the shared universe of Rare games that began with Donkey Kong Country. Covering DK, Banjo-Kazooie, Conker, Dinosaur Planet, Grabbed by the Ghoulies, It's Mr Pants, Viva Piñata, Yooka-Laylee, Sea of Thieves, and more!
1:10:38 While it is more of a thing to respect experienced people in Japan, it is also a thing to have a sense of humor, cranky and bitter old men and women are incredibly common in japanese media. If Cranky Kong was nicer in the Paon games it's because of Paon's own decisions as developers not because of japanese culture™.
First of all, I take BIG OFFENSE to the notion that trying to unravel Pink DK Jr is a worthless endeavor! Arguing and theorizing about Mario is what I do. And that includes the extended worlds of Yoshi, Wario, and of course-- Donkey Kong. This video does a really good job at explaining the sheer confusion that lies in the status of the fictional reality Rare universes. Donkey Kong Country always had that weird fourth wall breaking thing going on. DK Land's plot cannot be ignored (I think it's quite poetic how the game ends in the same city that Cranky had his debut. It wasn't just about doing it on a more primitive game system, it was about experiencing the same conditions). _sidenote: It's interesting how Donkey Kong isn't showcased in Cranky's video game heroes gallery... perhaps because he'd never collected any DK coins? Does this mean that Mario, Yoshi, and Link all played DKC2 on their own and got all those coins when they played? Perhaps they were the playtesters before the game was released._ Alongside the examples of the DK characters playing their own game series, Mario backs this up a ton as well. Nintendo is a real company in-universe that makes games based off of Mario's adventures. There are several mentions of classic games in various mainline and spin-off titles. FLUDD's knowledge of Mario in Super Mario Sunshine hinges upon the video games that existed at the time. Professor E Gadd modifies Nintendo hardware to make his own inventions. There's also the infamous Fire Emblem Toad, who plays through Fire Emblem, and the first 3 Paper Mario games in TTYD (the 3rd entry didn't even exist yet!). Nintendo is a sponsor for the events of Mario Kart 64. Perhaps this is where Modern DK first met with the company? In the WarioWare series, Wario creates his own game studio at Nintendo, and his team is allowed to make microgames based off of various Nintendo titles. I guess Nintendo was willing to let one of their big Video Game Heroes make his own games, and it paid off! Heck, some of Wario's employees knew him from his video games before they even met him. I'd imagine Nintendo has certainly made brand deals with the Kong family as well. This must be why there are Nintendo stickers on Diddy's hat and some of DK's bananas. Do they get free games? Funding for personal projects? Maybe Cranky's hall of Video Game heroes only exists due to funding from Nintendo. Cranky might even just be playing it up to get more Nintendo money by advertising their other heroes! Maybe DK Land is all a big set-up! Nintendo called Cranky and asked him to stage a new adventure so that they could make a GameBoy game out of it! But of course, this is where contradictions start to arise. There are very solid and clear explanations of how Nintendo works within Mario's world. But Banjo and Conker go against that. The video goes over the problems pretty well. The L.O.G. and Conker's ending show how absolutely meta they are in comparison to the jokes and references in Mario and DK's games. The awareness of living in literal video game worlds goes far beyond Cranky's acknowledgement of hardware and video game heroes. I respect DK Vine's beliefs of a shared DK + Rare universe, but I think it fundamentally does not work, due to how linked to Mario that DK is. Smash Bros and Mario + Rabbids are confirmed to be noncanon by the developers themselves. The world of Mario + Rabbids is so hecked up by Sparks of Hope, that Mario's entire universe is just permanently infested with rabbids and rabbid culture. There's no going back to normal there. BUT, this does bring up the idea of _alternate universes._ The shared universe of Smash Bros is not canon to Mario. It's a kid playing with toys. But different series interpret Smash Bros in different ways. Kirby treats it as noncanon, but will take ideas from the smash games to incorporate into its own games. I've heard that Kingdom Hearts' creator sees it as canon, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was canon to Banjo Kazooie as well, given the whole L.O.G. situation. So while Smash isn't canon to Mario or DK, versions of Mario and DK exist in that alternate universe. And I didn't even know about the intense Viva Pinata lore. That complicates everything even more! I think it's for the best that Nintendo keeps the RareWare connections severed from what DK is now. But I don't think that means that DK doesn't exist in the shared Rare world. It just might be another universe. Diddy Knog Racing DS is the canon events in Mario's world. But Diddy Kong Racing 64 is the alternate universe, where RareWare, or the L.O.G., put the literal video game characters together.
I've been listening to the Kongversation on and off for about 10 years now, sorta regret not interacting sooner. I can't describe the feeling of nostalgia I'm able to feel by visiting a fan site in the year 2024. Let alone still being able to post in a forum with some amount of daily activity. As long as DK Vine is still around, I can rest assured that theres still other weirdo's like me out in the world. Thanks for all you do Hyle and the rest of the DK Vine staffers who are also still around.
I wasn't sold on this idea until the end, because it needs a good progression system. I think one thing I would like to see is something akin to the movie "The Wizard" where there's this big unveiling of Mario 3 and they make a tournament out of it where people are flying in from all over the country. What if each game at this place held a tournament (featuring the calendar idea that was mentioned) where you fly somewhere and play a special, tournament-curated romhack of one of the games. It would be randomized so that players wouldn't be able to grind the game in the arcade and win off of sheer pattern recognition and muscle memory. Essentially, it would force players to get skilled at the games in such a way that they are prepared for anything. And you would progress to end game by becoming an arcade legend and winning a certain amount of these things.
I actually love the idea of mafia kremlings. I could see K. Rool taking a page out of Grunty's book (i.e Grunty Industries) and setting up an underground, seedy poker scene on some faraway land. And the kremlings there develop their own mobster culture.
There's a Steam game called The Coin Game with a pretty close concept to this! No children with cannibalistic tendencies in it yet though, but it is Early Access.
even if the Gloomy Galleon is the Gangplank doesn't mean it can't come back. If they can drudge up Flameheart's ship and rebuild it in SoT why can't K. Rool resurrect his?
Every mainline Donkey Kong game: 1. Donkey Kong (1981) 2. Donkey Kong Jr. 3. Donkey Kong 3 4. Donkey Kong Country 5. Donkey Kong Land 6. Diddy's Kong Quest 7. Donkey Kong Land 2 8. Dixie Kong's Double Trouble 9. Donkey Kong Land 3 10. Donkey Kong 64 11. Donkey Kong Country Return 12. Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze
I like how this series goes for the weirdest questions that no one asks, but going as thorough as possible. That being said I feel in a realistic way, you could write around most of the fourth wall breaks to make it feel more grounded (Like Cranky mainly talking about his Heyday or Mumbo having some odd predictions about the future).. I don’t know how Conker’s ending would work with this in mind, especially since it’s important for Conker as a character that he royally screws up at the end.
