Ahead of the grand opening of Super Nintendo World: Donkey Kong Country, some of the original Donkey Kong Country development team spoke to VGC about the IP being adapted to an entire theme park.
During the same chat, artist Steve Mayles – who helped co-found Playtonic Games and create the Kong family, admitted he would “very much” like to work on another Donkey Kong Country game. It’s now been “30 years” since he worked on the original game. He also mentioned how happy he was to see the characters he created being “given such love after all this time”.
Steven Mayles: “It’s quite surreal… Even though we borrowed the DK IP from Nintendo, and much of the park is themed on the latest DKC games from Retro, the strong theme we created for DKC remains… And yes, I would very much like to work on another DKC game…”
Donkey Kong Country artist and graphic designer Kevin Bayliss and composer David Wise also mentioned how impressed they were with Nintendo’s new theme park expansion. They’re both honoured to see their own work featured within the theme park:
Kevin Bayliss: ” I only wish I’d known years ago that the models I had built were going to be blown up to ridiculous larger than life sizes, so that I could have modelled them better – but in hindsight, it’s probably just as well I didn’t know. I’d never had got them finished!”
David Wise: “It’s very cool to hear my Donkey Kong Country theme in a different setting. 30 years later and still going strong!”
The latest entries in the Donkey Kong series were created by Retro Studios – with Donkey Kong Country Returns HD due out on the Switch next month. Last week, Nintendo also added Donkey Kong Land 3 to the Switch Online Game Boy library.
The Super Nintendo World: Donkey Kong Country extension officially opens in Japan tomorrow on 11th December 2024.