Prerelease:Donkey Kong Country (SNES)
This page details pre-release information and/or media for Donkey Kong Country (SNES).
Contents
Early Concepts
Donkey Kong
These early sketches of Donkey Kong are from 1993, and have more slim limbs and a radically different face. This was before Miyamoto requested adding a tie (something he had included in his own redesign of DK that would be used in Game Boy Donkey Kong).
Early Character Sketches
 | To do: Properly bring over and highlight the design differences here, including the artists commentary. |
 | This page or section has one or more broken YouTube links. Please find an archived version of the video(s) or a suitable replacement. |
Kevin Bayliss, one of the games artists, shows off his early sketches of characters, including early iterations known characters and some discarded ideas.
SCES 1994 Promotional Video
Used for promoting DKC and the Super Game Boy, here are some differences between this build and the final version:
- 13:25 - Ropey Rampage with no lightning or rain.
- 13:34 - Poison Pond rendered with blue water/background.
- 13:51 - The banana counter goes above 100, on Ropey Rampage (rain). No lighting changes to the Kongs either.
- 14:09 - Klump is not defeated by DK.
Dumb Drum Battle
Boss Dumb Drum would originally have been fought in a room much like the bonus rooms, however he was moved elsewhere in the final game. The original room still exists in the ROM (room ID 21), but without the boss itself.
Early Naming Sheet
A naming sheet posted by Gregg Mayles on Twitter dated March 8, 1994 reveals that the game was originally called Donkey Kong's Monkey Mayhem. It also shows that the technique Rare used for the 3D art in this game was to be named Render FX (R.F.X) instead of Advanced Computer Modeling (ACM).
Candy Kong was originally Honey Kong or Blondie Kong, King K. Rool was Kommander K. Rool, Rock Kroc was Krocrock, Slippa was Mr. Hister (a name which made it into an unused early hint message in the final game), Squidge had the honorific "Mr.", and Clambo was Ms. Clamity.
Unused concepts revealed in this sheet include an eel named Mobo, a fireball named Fizzle, a yeti named Frozone, fish named Bloop and Gloop, a "nasty beetle" named Veedub, a Kremling named Klanger, a robot Kremling named Krocbot, and a statue Kremling named Krumble. It also shows two unused Animal Friends: an owl named Hooter and a mole named Miney. According to Mayles, Hooter was eventually retooled into Squawks (parrot); instead of a lantern, the owl would've used its night vision to illuminate dark areas.
Despite being cut from the original game, Shuri, Puftup, Kloak and the beetle (renamed Click-Clack) made it into Donkey Kong Country 2. A fish enemy named Gloop later appeared in Donkey Kong Land, though it's unclear if it's connected to the Gloop seen here.
Besides Squawks, other characters missing from this list who appear in the final version are Bitesize (piranha), Chomps Jr. (little shark), Gnawty (beaver), and Manky Kong (orangutan). It's possible Squawks took Hooter's planned role, while Bitesize and Chomps Jr. replaced Bloop and Gloop.
