Game Players was a monthly video game magazine founded by Robert C. Lock in 1989 and originally published by Signal Research in Greensboro, North Carolina .
163-524: The original publication began as Game Players Strategy to Nintendo Games (the cover featured a disclaimer that claimed it had no affiliation with Nintendo , which already had its official publication in Nintendo Power ). The magazine evolved over the years, spinning off a separate publication called Game Players Sega Genesis Guide when Sega entered the console market. These two magazines were later folded together into one magazine. In 1996,
326-462: A Donkey Kong game. Nintendo figured licensing Donkey Kong posed minimal risk due to the franchise's dormancy. Rare's reboot , Donkey Kong Country , featured side-scrolling gameplay that Mayles based on the Super Mario series. It was the first Donkey Kong game neither directed nor produced by Miyamoto, though he provided support and contributed design ideas. Donkey Kong Country
489-475: A Donkey Kong Country revival. Producer Kensuke Tanabe suggested that Retro Studios , which had developed the Metroid Prime series, would be suitable. With Donkey Kong Country Returns , Retro sought to refine classic Country elements and introduce mechanics such as surface-clinging and simultaneous multiplayer . Returns , the first original Country game since Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! ,
652-549: A ROM cartridge format for video games as well as both a central processing unit and a picture processing unit . The Family Computer , or Famicom, was released in Japan in July 1983 along with three games adapted from their original arcade versions: Donkey Kong , Donkey Kong Jr. and Popeye . Its success was such that in 1984, it surpassed the market share held by Sega 's SG-1000 . That success also led to Nintendo leaving
815-442: A boss fight with a large enemy. The Country series is known for its high difficulty level and emphasis on momentum, requiring players to react to oncoming obstacles quickly to maintain flow. Players control one of the various playable Kongs, depending on the game: Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Dixie Kong, Kiddy Kong, Cranky Kong, and Funky Kong. The Rare games each feature two protagonists, with one protagonist carrying over to
978-453: A comedy rap song which introduces the Kong characters. It was written by Donkey Kong 64 's director, George Andreas, scored and recorded by Kirkhope, and performed by Andreas and Chris Sutherland, with other Rare staff joining on the chorus. Wise was unavailable during the development of Donkey Kong Country Returns , so Kenji Yamamoto took over. At the request of Miyamoto and Iwata,
1141-487: A love triangle with the characters Bluto , Popeye , and Olive Oyl from the Popeye franchise, but a licensing deal between Nintendo and King Features fell through. Bluto evolved into a gorilla, an animal Miyamoto said was "nothing too evil or repulsive". He named him Donkey Kong — donkey to convey stubborn and kong to imply gorilla . Popeye became Mario , the new protagonist, while Olive Oyl became Pauline ,
1304-463: A management buyout from Gulf and Western Industries in 1984. The franchise went on an extended hiatus, while the spin-off Mario franchise found success on the NES, cementing Mario as Nintendo's mascot . Donkey Kong's appearances in the years following Donkey Kong 3 were limited to cameos in unrelated games. The 1987 Official Nintendo Player's Guide advertised a Donkey Kong revival for
1467-430: A niche market , the slow and expensive manufacturing process, high product price, alongside long durability of the cards, which impacted sales due to the low replacement rate. As a solution, Nintendo produced a cheaper and lower-quality line of playing cards, Tengu , while also conducting product offerings in other cities such as Osaka , where card game profits were high. In addition, local merchants were interested in
1630-715: A "1940s big band jazz " sound that he had been unable to produce on the SNES. Beyond the Country series, Wise composed the Diddy Kong Racing soundtrack. Other composers who have contributed to Donkey Kong games include Mahito Yokota , who composed for Jungle Beat , and Lawrence Schwedler, who composed for Mario vs. Donkey Kong . Donkey Kong is represented in every game in Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. series of crossover fighting games . Donkey Kong debuted in
1793-557: A 28% stake in PUX Corporation, a subsidiary of Panasonic , to develop facial , voice , and text recognition for its video games. Due to a 30% decrease in company income between April and December 2013, Iwata announced a temporary 50% cut to his salary, with other executives seeing reductions by 20%–30%. In January 2015, Nintendo ceased operations in the Brazilian market due in part to high import duties . This did not affect
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#17327824170581956-490: A 75% increase in income compared to the previous fiscal year, mainly contributed by the Nintendo Switch Online service. The year saw some changes to the company's management: outside director Naoki Mizutani retired from the board, and was replaced by Asa Shinkawa; and Yoshiaki Koizumi was promoted to senior executive officer, maintaining its role as deputy general manager of Nintendo EPD. By August, Nintendo
2119-401: A British developer founded by the brothers Tim and Chris Stamper , purchased Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI) Challenge workstations with Alias rendering software to render 3D models . The move made Rare the most technologically advanced UK developer and situated them high in the international market. Rare began experimenting with using the technology in a boxing game. At the time, Nintendo
2282-728: A Tokyo branch in Chiyoda, Tokyo , and sold more than 1.5 million card packs, holding a high market share , for which it relied on televised advertising campaigns. In 1962, Nintendo became a public company by listing stock on the second section of the Osaka Securities Exchange and the Kyoto Stock Exchange. In the following year, the company adopted its current name, Nintendo & Co., Ltd. and started manufacturing games in addition to playing cards. In 1964, Nintendo earned ¥150 million . Although
2445-523: A challenge. In certain levels, the player can free an animal that provides the Kongs with special abilities, similar to the Super Mario series' Yoshi . Recurring animal friends include Rambi, a rhino that can charge into enemies and find hidden entrances; Enguarde, a swordfish that can defeat enemies underwater; and Squawks, a parrot who carries the Kongs or assists in finding collectibles. Outside
2608-505: A computer generated or CG cover. The magazine also featured mini-strategy guides, paper toys, trading cards and other branded items and extras, like posters for games, that were included when the issue was polybagged. During 1989 and 1990, the company also put out a total of 16 "GameTapes", which were VHS tapes that showed how to beat certain NES games. Humor is included in almost every videogame review and image caption. Readers' letters come at
2771-446: A construction site to rescue Pauline from Donkey Kong, his escaped pet ape. In the sequel, Donkey Kong Jr. , Mario imprisons Donkey Kong in a cage. The game introduces Donkey Kong's son, the diaper-wearing Donkey Kong Jr. Mario, Pauline, Donkey Kong, and Jr. return in the 1994 Game Boy Donkey Kong , in which Mario again must rescue Pauline from the Kongs. The Game Boy game was the first Donkey Kong game to depict Donkey Kong wearing
2934-540: A demonstration, Tim Stamper suggested developing a platform game that used pre-rendered 3D graphics . Nintendo granted the Stampers permission to use the Donkey Kong intellectual property ; some sources indicate that the Stampers obtained the license after Nintendo offered them its catalog of characters and they chose Donkey Kong, though the designer Gregg Mayles recalled that it was Nintendo that requested
3097-524: A financial crisis for the company. To try to find a more successful game, they put Miyamoto in charge of their next arcade game design, leading to the release of Donkey Kong in 1981, one of the first platform video games that allowed the player character to jump. The character Jumpman would later become Mario and Nintendo's official mascot . Mario was named after Mario Segale , the landlord of Nintendo's offices in Tukwila, Washington . Donkey Kong
3260-566: A homage to Nintendo's previous name - Marufuku. In April 2020, Reuters reported that ValueAct Capital had acquired over 2.6 million shares in Nintendo stock worth US$ 1.1 billion over the course of a year, giving them an overall stake of 2% in Nintendo. Although the COVID-19 pandemic caused delays in the production and distribution of some of Nintendo's products, the situation "had limited impact on business results"; in May 2020, Nintendo reported
3423-503: A hybrid design as a home and handheld console, Joy-Con controllers that each contain an accelerometer and gyroscope, and the simultaneous wireless networking of up to eight consoles. To expand its library, Nintendo entered alliances with several third-party and independent developers; by February 2019, more than 1,800 Switch games had been released. Worldwide sales of the Switch exceeded 55 million units by March 2020. In April 2018,
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#17327824170583586-565: A long-time employee of the company. Yokoi was moved to the newly created department and was responsible for coordinating various projects. Yokoi's experience in manufacturing electronic devices led Yamauchi to put him in charge of the company's games department, and his products would be mass-produced. During this period, Nintendo built a new production plant in Uji , just outside of Kyoto, and distributed classic tabletop games such as chess , shogi , go , and mahjong , and other foreign games under
3749-401: A major Nintendo franchise. Rare developed Donkey Kong games for the SNES, Game Boy , and Nintendo 64 until they were acquired by Microsoft in 2002; subsequent games have been developed by Nintendo, Retro Studios, Namco and Paon . The most recent major game was Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze in 2014. The main Donkey Kong games are platformers in which the player must reach
3912-865: A million units were sold. Nintendo partnered with Magnavox to provide a light gun controller based on the Beam Gun design for the company's new home video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey , in 1971. Other popular toys released at the time included the Ultra Hand , the Ultra Machine , the Ultra Scope, and the Love Tester , all designed by Yokoi. More than 1.2 million units of Ultra Hand were sold in Japan. The growing demand for Nintendo's products led Yamauchi to further expand
4075-647: A new character, Kiddy Kong , as protagonists, the Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! team sought to incorporate 3D-esque gameplay and Zelda -inspired role-playing elements. Although it was released late in the SNES's lifespan and after the launch of the Nintendo 64 , Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! sold well. Separate Rare teams developed the Game Boy games Donkey Kong Land (1995), Donkey Kong Land 2 (1996), and Donkey Kong Land III (1997), which condensed
4238-460: A new department focused on arcade game development was created. In 1980, one of the first handheld video game systems , the Game & Watch , was created by Yokoi from the technology used in portable calculators. It became one of Nintendo's most successful products, with over 43.4 million units sold worldwide during its production period, and for which 59 games were made in total. Nintendo entered
4401-416: A partnership with The Walt Disney Company to incorporate its characters into playing cards, which opened it up to the children's market and resulted in a boost to Nintendo's playing card business. Nintendo automated the production of Japanese playing cards using backing paper, and also developed a distribution system that allowed it to offer its products in toy stores. By 1961, the company had established
4564-769: A pirate captain in Donkey Kong Country 2 . Villains introduced in the Retro Studios Country games include the Tiki Tak Tribe, a race of floating masks who hypnotize animals into stealing the banana hoard, and the Snowmads, Viking invaders who summon a dragon to take over Donkey Kong Island. Mario, the protagonist of the 1981 game, went on to headline the Mario franchise. Although the franchises largely remain separate, they take place in
4727-432: A playable comic strip that unfolded across multiple levels with unique scenarios. This was uncommon in contemporary arcade games, which typically featured a single scenario that repeated. As he lacked programming expertise, Miyamoto consulted technicians on whether his ideas were possible. Four programmers from Ikegami Tsushinki spent three months turning Miyamoto's design into a finished game. Although Miyamoto's team
4890-501: A red necktie bearing his initials, "DK". Beginning with Donkey Kong Country , Donkey Kong's role shifted from the antagonist to the protagonist. Rare's Kevin Bayliss redesigned him; alongside the red tie from the Game Boy game, he was given what GamesRadar+ described as "menacing, sunken eyes and [a] beak-like muzzle", and Bayliss designed him as blocky and muscular to make animating him easier. Rare's games characterize him as
5053-399: A separate character has been inconsistent. Rare's games moved the franchise's primary setting from a city to Donkey Kong Island, an idyllic isle. Because Donkey Kong did not have much of an established universe, Rare was free to expand it with new characters. Donkey Kong Country introduced Diddy Kong, Donkey Kong's sidekick and nephew. Diddy's design was based on a spider monkey ; he
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5216-483: A spin-off rhythm game . It was designed for the DK Bongos , a GameCube peripheral that resembles bongo drums . Nintendo of America executive Reggie Fils-Aimé opposed releasing Donkey Konga , concerned it would damage the Donkey Kong brand, but it sold well and received positive reviews. It was followed by Donkey Konga 2 (2004) and the Japan exclusive Donkey Konga 3 (2005). Donkey Kong Jungle Beat ,
5379-417: A strategic alliance to develop the Nintendo 64 . NEC , Toshiba , and Sharp also contributed technology to the console. The Nintendo 64 was marketed as one of the first consoles to be designed with 64-bit architecture. As part of an agreement with Midway Games , the arcade games Killer Instinct and Cruis'n USA were ported to the console. Although the Nintendo 64 was planned for release in 1995,
5542-670: A themed area in Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios , soundtrack albums, and Lego construction toys. Donkey Kong is one of Nintendo's bestselling franchises, with more than 65 million copies sold by 2021. The original game was Nintendo's first major international success, rescued Nintendo of America from a financial crisis, and established it as a prominent force in the video game industry . The franchise has pioneered or popularized concepts such as in-game storytelling and pre-rendered graphics, inspired other games (including clones ), and influenced popular culture. In
5705-565: A three-dimensional environment with the aid of a sensor bar; the Nunchuk peripheral that includes an analog controller and an accelerometer; and the Wii MotionPlus expansion that increases the sensitivity of the main controller with the aid of gyroscopes . By 2016, more than 101 million Wii consoles had been sold worldwide, making it the most successful console of its generation, a distinction that Nintendo had not achieved since
5868-503: A year later, GP Publications was purchased by Future Publishing UK (mainly for Game Players ) as an entry into the North American media publishing field. The newly acquired publication (along with PC Gamer , that was also published by GP Publications) was then used as a foundation to start a for a new American publishing company operated under the name of Imagine Media. Games Players is the first video game magazine to feature
6031-912: Is a video game series and media franchise created by the Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto for Nintendo . It follows the adventures of Donkey Kong , a large, powerful gorilla, and other members of the Kong family of apes. Donkey Kong games include the original arcade game trilogy by Nintendo R&D1 ; the Donkey Kong Country series by Rare and Retro Studios ; and the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series by Nintendo Software Technology . Various studios have developed spin-offs in genres such as edutainment , puzzle , racing , and rhythm . The franchise also incorporates animation, printed media, theme parks, and merchandise. Miyamoto designed
6194-411: Is commonly assumed to mean "leave luck to heaven", but the assumption lacks historical validation; it has also been suggested to mean "the temple of free hanafuda ", but even descendants of Yamauchi do not know the true intended meaning of the name. Hanafuda cards had become popular after Japan banned most forms of gambling in 1882, though tolerated hanafuda. Sales of hanafuda cards were popular with
6357-617: Is internationally recognized, as well as other characters like Donkey Kong , Link , Samus Aran , Kirby , and Pikachu . The company has sold more than 5.592 billion video games and over 836 million hardware units globally, as of March 2023. Nintendo has multiple subsidiaries in Japan and abroad, in addition to business partners such as HAL Laboratory , Intelligent Systems , Game Freak , and The Pokémon Company . Nintendo and its staff have received awards including Emmy Awards for Technology & Engineering , Game Awards , Game Developers Choice Awards , and British Academy Games Awards . It
6520-493: Is one of the wealthiest and most valuable companies in the Japanese market. Nintendo was founded as Nintendo Koppai on 23 September 1889 by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi in Shimogyō-ku, Kyoto , Japan, as an unincorporated establishment, to produce and distribute Japanese playing cards , or karuta ( かるた , from Portuguese carta , 'card') , most notably hanafuda ( 花札 , 'flower cards') . The name "Nintendo"
6683-567: Is the Nintendo Entertainment System , or NES, which was released in North America in 1985. The landmark games Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda were produced by Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka . Composer Koji Kondo reinforced the idea that musical themes could act as a complement to game mechanics rather than simply a miscellaneous element. Production of the NES lasted until 1995, and production of
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6846-480: The Call of Duty franchise. Nintendo Life reported in 2021 that Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development was working on another Switch Donkey Kong game, separate from the canceled 3D platformer. The original Donkey Kong features three characters: Donkey Kong, a large, antagonistic gorilla; Mario, the overall-wearing protagonist; and Pauline, Mario's girlfriend. Donkey Kong follows Mario as he ascends
7009-674: The Transformers franchise) voiced Mario and Donkey Kong Jr. Donkey Kong is also a recurring character in Captain N: The Game Master , a DIC Entertainment series that ran on NBC for 34 episodes between 1989 and 1991. Donkey Kong Country , a television series produced by the French-Canadian company Medialab Technology, ran for 40 episodes between 1997 and 2000, bridging the gap between Dixie Kong's Double Trouble and Donkey Kong 64 . Reflecting
7172-685: The 128-bit Gekko processor and the DVD drive to be used in Nintendo's next home console. Meanwhile, a series of administrative changes occurred in 2000 when Nintendo's corporate offices were moved to the Minami-ku neighborhood in Kyoto, and Nintendo Benelux was established to manage the Dutch and Belgian territories. In 2001, two new Nintendo consoles were introduced: the Game Boy Advance , which
7335-715: The 1973 oil crisis caused both a spike in the cost of plastics and a change in consumer priorities that put essential products over pastimes, and Nintendo lost several billion yen. In 1974, Nintendo released Wild Gunman , a skeet shooting arcade simulation consisting of a 16 mm image projector with a sensor that detects a beam from the player's light gun . Both the Laser Clay Shooting System and Wild Gunman were successfully exported to Europe and North America. However, Nintendo's production speeds were still slow compared to rival companies such as Bandai and Tomy , and their prices were high, which led to
7498-595: The CD-i , and Sony's independent efforts resulted in the creation of the PlayStation console . The first issue of Nintendo Power magazine, which had an annual circulation of 1.5 million copies in the United States, was published in 1988. In July 1989, Nintendo held the first Nintendo Space World trade show with the name Shoshinkai to announce and demonstrate upcoming Nintendo products. That year,
7661-564: The Country games, but require players to use the shoulder buttons to grab and climb pegboards to reach the end of a level. Diddy Kong Racing and Donkey Kong Barrel Blast are kart racing games that play similarly to the Mario Kart series, though Diddy Kong Racing features an adventure mode with boss fights and Barrel Blast has the player shake the Wii Remote and Nunchuk alternatively to accelerate. The Donkey Konga trilogy
7824-469: The Country series' gameplay for the handheld game console . Rare's Game Boy programmer, Paul Machacek, convinced Tim Stamper that developing Land as an original game rather than a port would be a better use of resources. A port of Country was eventually released for the Game Boy Color in 2000. Rare also developed a tech demo for a Virtual Boy Donkey Kong game, which was canceled after
7987-444: The Donkey Kong franchise's most recent major game. Nintendo and Vicarious Visions , with consultation from Miyamoto, worked on a Donkey Kong game for the Switch for six months. Codenamed Freedom , the project was an open-world 3D platformer that emphasized traversal, with grinding on vines as a core mechanic. It was canceled in 2016 after Activision Blizzard , Vicarious Visions' parent company, redirected its developers' focus to
8150-666: The Game Boy Advance SP , an improved version of the Game Boy Advance with a foldable case, an illuminated display, and a rechargeable battery. By the end of its production cycle in 2010, over 43.5 million units had been sold worldwide. Nintendo also released the Game Boy Player , a peripheral that allows Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games to be played on the GameCube. In 2004, Nintendo released
8313-459: The Game Boy Color was released. In addition to backward compatibility with Game Boy games, the console's similar capacity to the NES resulted in select adaptations of games from that library, such as Super Mario Bros. Deluxe . Since then, over 118.6 million Game Boy and Game Boy Color consoles have been sold worldwide. In May 1999, with the advent of the PlayStation 2 , Nintendo entered an agreement with IBM and Panasonic to develop
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#17327824170588476-494: The Nintendo 2DS , a version of the 3DS that lacks the clamshell design of Nintendo's previous handheld consoles and the stereoscopic effects of the 3DS. With 13.5 million units sold worldwide, the Wii U is the least successful video game console in Nintendo's history. In 2014, a new product line was released consisting of figures of Nintendo characters called amiibos . On 25 September 2013, Nintendo announced its acquisition of
8639-691: The Nintendo DS , which featured such innovations as dual screens – one of which is a touchscreen – and wireless connectivity for multiplayer play. Throughout its lifetime, more than 154 million units were sold, making it the most successful handheld console and the second bestselling console in history. In 2005, Nintendo released the Game Boy Micro , the last system in the Game Boy line . Sales did not meet Nintendo's expectations, with 2.5 million units being sold by 2007. In mid-2005,
8802-668: The Nintendo Labo line was released, consisting of cardboard accessories that interact with the Switch and the Joy-Con controllers. More than one million units of the Nintendo Labo Variety Kit were sold in its first year on the market. In 2018, Shuntaro Furukawa replaced Kimishima as company president, and in 2019, Doug Bowser succeeded Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé . In April 2019, Nintendo formed an alliance with Tencent to distribute
8965-665: The Nintendo World Store was inaugurated in New York City. Nintendo's next home console was conceived in 2001, although development commenced in 2003, taking inspiration from the Nintendo DS. Nintendo also considered the relative failure of the GameCube and instead opted to take a " Blue Ocean Strategy " by developing a reduced performance console in contrast to the high-performance consoles of Sony and Microsoft to avoid directly competing with them. The Wii
9128-556: The Returns soundtrack mostly comprises rearrangements of tracks from the original Donkey Kong Country , plus some new material by Yamamoto. He focused on what Tanabe felt made Donkey Kong Country 's music iconic, such as piano arrangements and the bassline . Wise left Rare during Returns ' development and collaborated with Yamamoto on the Tropical Freeze soundtrack. Technological advances allowed Wise to achieve
9291-566: The Sharp Corporation . In 1988, Gunpei Yokoi and his team at Nintendo R&D1 conceived the Game Boy , the first handheld video game console made by Nintendo. Nintendo released the Game Boy in 1989. In North America, the Game Boy was bundled with the popular third-party game Tetris after a difficult negotiation process with Elektronorgtechnica . The Game Boy was a significant success. In its first two weeks of sale in Japan, its initial inventory of 300,000 units sold out, and in
9454-620: The Super Nintendo Entertainment System , the Nintendo DS , the Wii , and the Nintendo Switch . It has created or published numerous major franchises, including Mario , Donkey Kong , The Legend of Zelda , Metroid , Fire Emblem , Kirby , Star Fox , Pokémon , Super Smash Bros. , Animal Crossing , Pikmin , Xenoblade Chronicles , and Splatoon , and Nintendo's mascot, Mario ,
9617-605: The Taishō era dated to 1915 indicates that the business was named Yamauchi Nintendo but still used the Marufuku Nintendo Co. brand for its playing cards. Japanese culture stipulated that for Nintendo to continue as a family business after Yamauchi's retirement, Yamauchi had to adopt his son-in-law so that he could take over the business. As a result, Sekiryo Kaneda adopted the Yamauchi surname in 1907 and headed
9780-422: The Wii U . The Wii U's greater processing power allowed for visual elements that the team had been unable to accomplish on the Wii, such as lighting and translucency effects and dynamic camera movement. Tropical Freeze was released in 2014 to favorable reviews, but it sold poorly in comparison to Returns ; Nintendo Life attributed this to the Wii U's commercial failure. It achieved greater success when it
9943-414: The arcade video game market with Sheriff and Radar Scope , released in Japan in 1979 and 1980 respectively. Sheriff , also known as Bandido in some regions, marked the first original video game made by Nintendo, was published by Sega and developed by Genyo Takeda and Shigeru Miyamoto . Radar Scope rivaled Galaxian in Japanese arcades but failed to find an audience overseas and created
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#173278241705810106-504: The damsel in distress . Miyamoto cited the fairy tale " Beauty and the Beast " and the 1933 film King Kong as influences. Donkey Kong was one of the earliest platform games , with players controlling Mario as he ascends a construction site to rescue Pauline from Donkey Kong. Whereas previous platform games focused on climbing, Miyamoto placed an emphasis on jumping to avoid obstacles and cross gaps. He envisioned something akin to
10269-450: The iOS and Android systems, Miitomo , was released. Since then, Nintendo has produced other similar apps, such as Super Mario Run , Fire Emblem Heroes , Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp , Mario Kart Tour , and Pokémon Go , the last being developed by Niantic and having generated $ 115 million in revenue for Nintendo. In March 2016, the loyalty program My Nintendo replaced Club Nintendo . The NES Classic Edition
10432-423: The natural environment and regional culture of Sonobe , popular culture influences like Westerns and detective fiction , along with folk Shinto practices and family media . These would each be seen in most of Nintendo's major franchises which developed following Miyamoto's creative leadership. Two key events in Nintendo's history occurred in 1979: its American subsidiary was opened in New York City, and
10595-461: The strategy video game Lemmings (1991). The Donkey Kong Country series features platforming gameplay in which players complete side-scrolling levels to progress, reminiscent of Nintendo's Super Mario series. The player begins in a world map that tracks their progress and provides access to the themed worlds and their levels. They traverse the environment, jump between platforms, and avoid enemy and inanimate obstacles. Each world ends with
10758-450: The yakuza -run gaming parlors in Kyoto. Other card manufacturers had opted to leave the market not wanting to be associated with criminal ties, but Yamauchi persisted without such fears to become the primary producer of hanafuda within a few years. With the increase of the cards' popularity, Yamauchi hired assistants to mass-produce to satisfy the demand. Even with a favorable start, the business faced financial struggle due to operating in
10921-655: The "Play It Loud!" advertising campaign for Game Boys with different-colored casings. The Advanced Computer Modeling graphics used in Donkey Kong Country for the Super NES and Donkey Kong Land for the Game Boy were technologically innovative, as was the Satellaview satellite modem peripheral for the Super Famicom, which allowed the digital transmission of data via a communications satellite in space. In mid-1993, Nintendo and Silicon Graphics announced
11084-471: The 1960s and acquiring legal status as a public company, Nintendo distributed its first console, the Color TV-Game , in 1977. It gained international recognition with the release of Donkey Kong in 1981 and the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Mario Bros. in 1985. Since then, Nintendo has produced some of the most successful consoles in the video game industry , such as the Game Boy ,
11247-408: The 1990s with the Super NES. Several accessories were released for the Wii from 2007 to 2010, such as the Wii Balance Board , the Wii Wheel and the WiiWare download service. In 2009, Nintendo Iberica S.A. expanded its commercial operations to Portugal through a new office in Lisbon . By that year, Nintendo held a 68.3% share of the worldwide handheld gaming market. In 2010, Nintendo celebrated
11410-465: The 25th anniversary of Mario's debut appearance, for which certain allusive products were put on sale. The event included the release of Super Mario All-Stars 25th Anniversary Edition and special editions of the Nintendo DSi XL and Wii. Following an announcement in March 2010, Nintendo released the Nintendo 3DS in 2011. The console produces stereoscopic effects without 3D glasses. By 2018, more than 69 million units had been sold worldwide;
11573-467: The Bear and Conker the Squirrel , later starred in the Banjo-Kazooie and Conker franchises. Rare began working on Donkey Kong 64 , the first Donkey Kong platform game to feature 3D gameplay, in 1997. They conceived it as a linear game similar to the Country series, but switched to a more open-ended design using the game engine from their 1998 game Banjo-Kazooie after 18 months. Transitioning Donkey Kong to 3D proved challenging since
11736-744: The DS, which blend Country elements with puzzle gameplay inspired by Clu Clu Land (1984). Mario vs. Donkey Kong , a spin-off series that acts as a spiritual successor to the Game Boy Donkey Kong , was developed by Nintendo Software Technology . It began with a 2004 GBA game and continued with the DS sequels March of the Minis (2006), Minis March Again! (2009), and Mini-Land Mayhem! (2010). In contrast to other post- Country games, Mario vs. Donkey Kong restored Donkey Kong's villainous role. In 2008, Miyamoto expressed interest in
11899-520: The European release of the GameCube in May 2002, Hiroshi Yamauchi announced his resignation as the president of Nintendo, and Satoru Iwata was selected by the company as his successor. Yamauchi would remain as advisor and director of the company until 2005, and he died in 2013. Iwata's appointment as president ended the Yamauchi succession at the helm of the company, a practice that had been in place since its foundation. In 2003, Nintendo released
12062-570: The Famicom in America was also impacted. To differentiate the Famicom from its competitors in America, Nintendo rebranded it as an entertainment system and its cartridges as Game Paks, with a design reminiscent of a VCR . Nintendo implemented a lockout chip in the Game Paks for control on its third party library to avoid the market saturation that had occurred in the United States. The result
12225-570: The Famicom lasted until 2003. In total, around 62 million Famicom and NES consoles were sold worldwide. During this period, Nintendo created a copyright infringement protection in the form of the Official Nintendo Seal of Quality, added to their products so that customers may recognize their authenticity in the market. By this time, Nintendo's network of electronic suppliers had extended to around thirty companies, including Ricoh (Nintendo's main source for semiconductors ) and
12388-486: The Famicom. In the early 1980s, several video game consoles proliferated in the United States, as well as low-quality games produced by third-party developers , which oversaturated the market and led to the video game crash of 1983 . Consequently, a recession hit the American video game industry , whose revenues went from over $ 3 billion to $ 100 million between 1983 and 1985. Nintendo's initiative to launch
12551-479: The Game & Watch game Green House (1982), who must fend off Donkey Kong and a swarm of bees. Donkey Kong 3 was unsuccessful, as was an edutainment game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Donkey Kong Jr. Math (1983). Sega obtained the license to develop a game featuring a playable Donkey Kong as a parking attendant , but it was canceled after Sega's David Rosen and Hayao Nakayama arranged
12714-549: The Game Boy, with different level design that accounts for the system's low-quality display. Donkey Kong 64 blends Country elements with "collect-a-thon" gameplay reminiscent of Super Mario 64 (1996) and Banjo-Kazooie , with puzzles tailored to the unique abilities of the five playable characters (Donkey Kong, Diddy, Chunky, Tiny, and Lanky). Jungle Beat 's score attack emphasis challenges players to complete levels with as many points as possible. DK: King of Swing and DK: Jungle Climber are aesthetically similar to
12877-429: The GameCube, even with such distinguishing features as the miniDVD format of its games and Internet connectivity for a few games, its sales were lower than those of its predecessors, and during the six years of its production, 21.7 million units were sold worldwide. The GameCube struggled against its rivals in the market, and its initial poor sales led to Nintendo posting a first half fiscal year loss in 2003 for
13040-460: The Hedgehog franchise, as a playable character; in the Wii version of Punch-Out!! (2009) as the final boss; and in Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (2017), a crossover between Mario and Ubisoft 's Raving Rabbids franchise, as the protagonist of an expansion pack . Activision 's toys-to-life game Skylanders: SuperChargers (2015) includes Donkey Kong as a playable character in
13203-404: The Japanese arcade market in late 1985. At this time, Nintendo adopted a series of guidelines that involved the validation of each game produced for the Famicom before its distribution on the market, agreements with developers to ensure that no Famicom game would be adapted to other consoles within two years of its release, and restricting developers from producing more than five games per year for
13366-401: The NES, Return of Donkey Kong , which was never released. In the early 1990s, Philips obtained the license to use five Nintendo characters, including Donkey Kong, in games for their CD-i format. Philips contracted Riedel Software Productions to make a CD-i Donkey Kong game; it was developed between 1992 and 1993, but canceled. Nintendo staff began discussing a Donkey Kong revival as
13529-764: The NES. In response to the competition, Uemura designed the Super Famicom , which launched in 1990. The first batch of 300,000 consoles sold out in hours. The following year, as with the NES, Nintendo distributed a modified version of the Super Famicom to the United States market, titled the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Launch games for the Super Famicom and Super NES include Super Mario World , F-Zero , Pilotwings , SimCity , and Gradius III . By mid-1992, over 46 million Super Famicom and Super NES consoles had been sold. The console's life cycle lasted until 1999 in
13692-790: The Nintendo Switch in China starting in December. The theme park area Super Nintendo World opened at Universal Studios Japan in 2021. In early 2020, Plan See Do, a hotel and restaurant development company, announced that it would refurbish the former Nintendo headquarters from the 1930s as a hotel, with plans to add 20 guest rooms, a restaurant, a bar, and a gym. The building is owned by Yamauchi Co., Ltd., an asset management company of Nintendo's founding family. The hotel later opened in April 2022, with 18 guest rooms, and named Marufukuro in
13855-643: The Nippon Game brand. The company's restructuring preserved a couple of areas dedicated to playing card manufacturing. In 1970, the company's stock listing was promoted to the first section of the Osaka Stock Exchange, and the reconstruction and enlargement of its corporate headquarters was completed. The year represented a watershed moment in Nintendo's history as it released Japan's first electronic toy—the Beam Gun , an optoelectronic pistol designed by Masayuki Uemura . In total, more than
14018-716: The United Kingdom, Spain, Belgium, and Australia. In 1992, Nintendo acquired a majority stake in the Seattle Mariners baseball team, and sold most of its shares in 2016. On July 31, 1992, Nintendo of America announced it would cease manufacturing arcade games and systems. In 1993, Star Fox was released, which marked an industry milestone by being the first video game to make use of the Super FX chip. The proliferation of graphically violent video games, such as Mortal Kombat , caused controversy and led to
14181-567: The United States, and until 2003 in Japan. In March 1990, the first Nintendo World Championship was held, with participants from 29 American cities competing for the title of "best Nintendo player in the world". In June 1990, the subsidiary Nintendo of Europe was opened in Großostheim , Germany; in 1993, subsequent subsidiaries were established in the Netherlands (where Bandai had previously distributed Nintendo's products), France,
14344-494: The United States, an additional 40,000 units were sold on its first day of distribution. Around this time, Nintendo entered an agreement with Sony to develop the Super Famicom CD-ROM Adapter , a peripheral for the upcoming Super Famicom capable of playing CD-ROMs . However, the collaboration did not last as Yamauchi preferred to continue developing the technology with Philips , which would result in
14507-453: The acquisition, Rare continued to develop games for Nintendo's handheld consoles since Microsoft did not have a competing handheld. It developed ports of the Country games for the GBA and Diddy Kong Racing for the Nintendo DS with additional content, released between 2003 and 2007. Meanwhile, Paon also developed DK: King of Swing (2005) for the GBA and DK: Jungle Climber (2007) for
14670-474: The antagonistic Kremlings . After 18 months of development, Donkey Kong Country was released in November 1994 to acclaim, with critics hailing its visuals as groundbreaking. It was a major success, selling 9.3 million copies and becoming the third-bestselling SNES game . It reestablished Donkey Kong as a major Nintendo franchise and heralded Donkey Kong's transition from villain to hero. Following
14833-439: The basis for a sequel. Miyamoto wanted to make Donkey Kong the protagonist, but the sprite graphic was too big to easily maneuver, so he created a new character, Donkey Kong Jr. The team still wanted Donkey Kong on top of the screen, so they conceived a plot in which Mario had caged him and Donkey Kong Jr. had to save him. To develop Donkey Kong Jr. (1982), Nintendo reverse-engineered Ikegami's Donkey Kong code, making it
14996-451: The beginning of the magazine and are often one of the highlights of the magazine. The magazine often includes a "newsletter" with irreverent jokes about magazine staffers, as well as cartoons. The introduction of Ultra Game Players was intended to coincide with the release of the Nintendo 64 and Super Mario 64 , as originally, the Nintendo 64 went by the name Nintendo Ultra 64. Ultra Game Players features an updated design which places
15159-547: The business in 1929. By that time, Nintendo was the largest playing card business in Japan. In 1933, Sekiryo Kaneda established the company as a general partnership named Yamauchi Nintendo & Co., Ltd. investing in the construction of a new corporate headquarters located next to the original building, near the Toba-kaidō train station . Because Sekiryo's marriage to Yamauchi's daughter produced no male heirs, he planned to adopt his son-in-law Shikanojo Inaba, an artist in
15322-562: The business styled itself as Marufuku Nintendo Card Co. The war created considerable difficulties for companies in the leisure sector, which were subject to new levies such as the Karuta Zei ("playing cards tax"). Nintendo subsisted and, in 1907, entered into an agreement with Nihon Senbai—later known as the Japan Tobacco —to market its cards to various cigarette stores throughout the country. A Nintendo promotional calendar from
15485-482: The characters and foreground environments appear as silhouettes , and swinging vines. Barrels return from the original series and can be used as weapons or broken to uncover power-ups. One barrel variant releases a partner Kong when thrown. Each level contains collectibles such as bananas, letters that spell out K–O–N–G, balloons, and puzzle pieces. These items can be found within the main level or by discovering hidden bonus stages , where they are earned via completing
15648-500: The company was experiencing a period of economic prosperity, the Disney cards and derived products made it dependent on the children's market. The situation was exacerbated by the falling sales of its adult-oriented playing cards caused by Japanese society gravitating toward other hobbies such as pachinko , bowling , and nightly outings. When Disney card sales began to decline, Nintendo realized that it had no real alternative to alleviate
15811-426: The company's employ and the father of his grandson Hiroshi , born in 1927. However, Inaba abandoned his family and the company, so Hiroshi was made Sekiryo's eventual successor. World War II negatively impacted the company as Japanese authorities prohibited the diffusion of foreign card games, and as the priorities of Japanese society shifted, its interest in recreational activities waned. During this time, Nintendo
15974-742: The creation of the Interactive Digital Software Association and the Entertainment Software Rating Board , in whose development Nintendo collaborated during 1994. These measures also encouraged Nintendo to abandon the content guidelines it had enforced since the release of the NES. Commercial strategies implemented by Nintendo during this time include the Nintendo Gateway System , an in-flight entertainment service available for airlines, cruise ships and hotels, and
16137-468: The descendant of the Donkey Kong character from the arcade games, who appears as the elderly Cranky Kong . Cranky Kong provides scathing, fourth wall -breaking humor in which he unfavorably compares current games to older ones like the original Donkey Kong . Donkey Kong Jr. has made few appearances since Country , and Nintendo's stance on whether Rare's Donkey Kong is a grown-up Donkey Kong Jr. or
16300-566: The discontinuation of some of their light gun products. The subsidiary Nintendo Leisure System Co., Ltd., which developed these products, was closed as a result of the economic impact dealt by the oil crisis. Yamauchi, motivated by the successes of Atari and Magnavox with their video game consoles , acquired the Japanese distribution rights for the Magnavox Odyssey in 1974, and reached an agreement with Mitsubishi Electric to develop similar products between 1975 and 1978, including
16463-468: The end of a level . Donkey Kong's role shifts between the antagonist as in the arcade games and the protagonist as in the Country games. The original games featured a small cast of characters, including Donkey Kong, Mario , and Pauline . Rare's games expanded the cast with friendly Kongs alongside the Kremlings , an army of antagonistic crocodiles led by Donkey Kong's nemesis King K. Rool . Mario,
16626-525: The figure increased to 75 million by the start of 2019. In 2011, Nintendo celebrated the 25th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda with the orchestra concert tour The Legend of Zelda : Symphony of the Goddesses and the video game The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword . In 2012 and 2013, two new Nintendo game consoles were introduced: the Wii U , with high-definition graphics and a GamePad controller with near-field communication technology, and
16789-665: The first microprocessor for video games systems, the Color TV-Game series, and an arcade game inspired by Othello . During this period, Takeda developed the video game EVR Race , and Shigeru Miyamoto joined Yokoi's team with the responsibility of designing the casing for the Color TV-Game consoles. In 1978, Nintendo's research and development department was split into two facilities, Nintendo Research & Development 1 and Nintendo Research & Development 2 , respectively managed by Yokoi and Uemura. Shigeru Miyamoto brought distinctive sources of inspiration, including
16952-418: The first World of Nintendo stores-within-a-store , which carried official Nintendo merchandise, were opened in the United States. According to company information, more than 25% of homes in the United States had an NES in 1989. In the late 1980s, Nintendo's dominance slipped with the appearance of NEC 's PC Engine and Sega 's Mega Drive , 16-bit game consoles with improved graphics and audio compared to
17115-498: The first company to succeed in mass-producing plastic playing cards in Japan. Some of the company's employees, accustomed to a more cautious and conservative leadership, viewed the new measures with concern, and the rising tension led to a call for a strike . However, the measure had no major impact, as Hiroshi resorted to the dismissal of several dissatisfied workers. In 1959, Nintendo moved its headquarters to Kamitakamatsu-cho, Fukuine, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto. The company entered into
17278-496: The first game that Nintendo developed without outside help. Following Donkey Kong Jr. 's release, Ikegami sued Nintendo for copyright infringement . In 1990, the Tokyo High Court ruled in favor of Ikegami, and the companies reached a settlement . Donkey Kong 3 , released in 1983, features shooter gameplay that departs from its predecessors. Instead of Mario, the player controls Stanley, an exterminator from
17441-495: The first main Donkey Kong game since Donkey Kong 64 , was released for the GameCube in 2004. It returned to the Donkey Kong Country style of platforming, controlled using the DK Bongos. It was directed by Yoshiaki Koizumi as the debut project of Nintendo EAD Tokyo . Koizumi sought to create an accessible game with a simple control scheme to contrast with more complex contemporary games. It received positive reviews, but
17604-459: The first time since the company went public in 1962. In 2002, the Pokémon Mini was released. Its dimensions were smaller than that of the Game Boy Advance and it weighed 70 grams, making it the smallest video game console in history. Nintendo collaborated with Sega and Namco to develop Triforce , an arcade board to facilitate the conversion of arcade titles to the GameCube. Following
17767-485: The games' pre-rendered 3D graphics, Donkey Kong Country was produced using computer animation , accomplished with motion capture technology. The series adopts a sitcom approach and follows Donkey Kong as he attempts to protect a magical artifact, the Crystal Coconut, from King K. Rool. The creative direction was largely dictated by the limitations of early motion capture technology; Simon Racioppa, one of
17930-591: The greatest of all time . In 1995, Nintendo released the Virtual Boy , a console designed by Gunpei Yokoi with stereoscopic graphics . Critics were generally disappointed with the quality of the games and red-colored graphics, and complained of gameplay-induced headaches. The system sold poorly and was quietly discontinued. Amid the system's failure, Yokoi formally retired from Nintendo. In February 1996, Pocket Monsters Red and Green , known internationally as Pokémon Red and Blue , developed by Game Freak
18093-442: The highest-grossing games of all time. In 1982, Universal City Studios filed a lawsuit alleging Donkey Kong violated its trademark of King Kong . The lawsuit failed when Nintendo's lawyer, Howard Lincoln , discovered that Universal had won a lawsuit in 1976 by declaring that King Kong was actually in the public domain . Miyamoto and his team used game mechanics and levels that could not be included in Donkey Kong as
18256-399: The late 1970s, the Japanese company Nintendo shifted its focus from producing toys and playing cards to arcade games . This followed the 1973 oil crisis , which increased the cost of manufacturing toys, and the success of Taito 's arcade game Space Invaders (1978). In 1980, Nintendo released Radar Scope , a Space Invaders -style shoot 'em up . It was a commercial failure and put
18419-466: The levels. This gameplay would serve as the basis for Mario vs. Donkey Kong , which introduces stages in which Mario must guide six Mini-Mario toys to a toy box while protecting them from hazards. Mario vs. Donkey Kong 's sequels make guiding the Mini-Mario toys the focus, with each stage requiring the player to do so with touchscreen controls. This gameplay has been frequently compared to
18582-417: The magazine changed its name to Ultra Game Players and introduced a radically different format. At the end of its run, it turned into Game Buyer , before being cancelled in 1998. Around 1992, Signal Research was shut down by investors that seized the company because of fiscal mismanagement. The publishing house was revived by an investment group as GP Publications, with the intention of being sold. About
18745-535: The main gameplay, the Rare games' world map contains areas where players can converse with non-player characters , such as Cranky, who provide advice, collectibles, and save points . The Retro Studios games feature shops (run by Cranky in Returns and Funky in Tropical Freeze ) where the player can purchase items like power-ups and lives. The Donkey Kong Land trilogy condenses the SNES Country gameplay for
18908-506: The newly established subsidiary Nintendo of America in a financial crisis. Its founder, Minoru Arakawa , asked his father in-law, the Nintendo CEO Hiroshi Yamauchi , to provide a new game that could repurpose the unsold Radar Scope cabinets. Most of Nintendo's top developers were preoccupied, so the task went to Shigeru Miyamoto , a first-time game designer. Supervised by Gunpei Yokoi , Miyamoto settled on
19071-407: The offices, for which he acquired the surrounding land and assigned the production of cards to the original Nintendo building. Meanwhile, Yokoi, Uemura, and new employees such as Genyo Takeda , continued to develop innovative products for the company. The Laser Clay Shooting System was released in 1973 and managed to surpass bowling in popularity. Though Nintendo's toys continued to gain popularity,
19234-509: The original Super Smash Bros. (1999) as the only heavyweight fighter, with slow but powerful attacks. Diddy Kong was added as a playable fighter in Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008), while King K. Rool was added in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018). Smash games also feature Donkey Kong stages and music. Donkey Kong appears in Mario & Sonic , an Olympic Games -themed crossover between Mario and Sega's Sonic
19397-462: The original 1981 Donkey Kong to repurpose unsold arcade cabinets following the failure of Radar Scope (1980). It was a major success and was followed by the sequels Donkey Kong Jr. (1982) and Donkey Kong 3 (1983). The franchise went on a hiatus as Nintendo shifted its focus to the spin-off Mario franchise. Rare's 1994 reboot , the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) game Donkey Kong Country , reestablished Donkey Kong as
19560-629: The original game's tenth anniversary approached in 1991. While they were initially limited to including Donkey Kong Jr. as a playable character in Super Mario Kart (1992), the discussions led to the production of the Game Boy game Donkey Kong (1994), the first original Donkey Kong game in ten years. It features Mario as the player character and begins as a remake of the 1981 game before introducing over 100 puzzle-platforming levels that incorporate elements from Donkey Kong Jr. and Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988). Around 1992, Rare ,
19723-417: The platform game genre. In both games, the player must guide the playable character (Mario in the first game, Donkey Kong Jr. in the second) to scale four levels while avoiding obstacles. The player jumps to dodge incoming obstacles (such as barrels) or cross gaps and climbs ladders or vines to reach the top of the level. In the first game, Mario can destroy obstacles by obtaining a hammer power-up , while in
19886-498: The presidency and headed manufacturing operations. His first actions involved several important changes in the operation of the company: in 1951, he changed the company name to Nintendo Playing Card Co., Ltd. and in the following year, he centralized the manufacturing facilities dispersed in Kyoto, which led to the expansion of the offices in Kamitakamatsu-cho, Fukuine, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto. In 1953, Nintendo became
20049-680: The production schedules of third-party developers influenced a delay, and the console was released in June 1996 in Japan, September 1996 in the United States and March 1997 in Europe. By the end of its production in 2002, around 33 million Nintendo 64 consoles were sold worldwide, and it is considered one of the most recognized video game systems in history. 388 games were produced for the Nintendo 64 in total, some of which – particularly Super Mario 64 , The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time , and GoldenEye 007 – have been distinguished as some of
20212-510: The prospect of continuous renewal of decks, thus avoiding the suspicions that reusing cards would generate. According to Nintendo, the business' first western-style card deck was put on the market in 1902, although other documents postpone the date to 1907, shortly after the Russo-Japanese War . Although the cards were initially meant for export, they quickly gained popularity not only abroad but also in Japan. During this time,
20375-448: The protagonist of the 1981 game, became Nintendo's mascot and the star of the Mario franchise, and Donkey Kong characters appear in Mario games such as Mario Kart , Mario Party , and Mario Tennis . Donkey Kong has also crossed over with other franchises in games such as Mario & Sonic and Super Smash Bros. Outside of video games, the franchise includes the animated series Donkey Kong Country (1997–2000),
20538-497: The readers' letters at the end of the magazine. One of the features of Ultra Game Players is a "prize store" in which readers answered trivia questions for chances to win prizes. However, many readers complained that the humor that had made Game Players such an enjoyable magazine was missing from the Ultra version, which prompted a return to form soon after the switch. Ultra Game Players continued until June 1998, at which point it
20701-483: The rest of Nintendo's Latin American market due to an alliance with Juegos de Video Latinoamérica. Nintendo reached an agreement with NC Games for Nintendo's products to resume distribution in Brazil by 2017, and by September 2020, the Switch was released in Brazil. On 11 July 2015, Iwata died of bile duct cancer , and after a couple of months in which Miyamoto and Takeda jointly operated the company, Tatsumi Kimishima
20864-454: The revolutionary impact of Donkey Kong Country . At E3 2001 , Nintendo and Rare announced three Donkey Kong projects: the GameCube game Donkey Kong Racing and the Game Boy Advance (GBA) games Donkey Kong Coconut Crackers and Diddy Kong Pilot . However, development costs were increasing, the Nintendo 64 did not perform as well as Nintendo's previous consoles, and the GameCube
21027-564: The same fictional universe, and Donkey Kong and other Donkey Kong characters frequently appear as playable characters in Mario spin-offs such as Mario Kart , Mario Party , and Mario Tennis . Two Rare characters, Banjo the Bear and Conker the Squirrel, were introduced in Diddy Kong Racing ahead of starring in their own games, Banjo-Kazooie and Conker's Bad Fur Day (2001). Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. are early examples of
21190-671: The second, Donkey Kong Jr. can do so by knocking pieces of fruit down from vines. Points are awarded for dodging or destroying obstacles, collecting items, and completing stages quickly. The player begins each game with three lives , which they lose if they touch an obstacle or fall from a distance. Donkey Kong 3 departs from this gameplay: it is a shooter game in which the player controls Stanley, an exterminator who must prevent Donkey Kong from stirring up insects in his greenhouse. The player fires bug spray at Donkey Kong and enemy insects that attempt to steal Stanley's flowers. They complete levels by spraying Donkey Kong enough to force him to
21353-588: The sequel while another is introduced. The Retro Studios games star Donkey Kong with other characters as his sidekicks. Players primarily control one Kong, with the second increasing their health . In the Retro Studios games, other characters ride on Donkey Kong's back to provide special abilities; for instance, Diddy's jetpack allows him to temporarily hover. Country 's game mechanics include blasting out of barrel cannons, vehicle sequences with minecarts and barrel-themed rockets, levels in which
21516-525: The series' main antagonist. K. Rool leads the Kremlings, an army of crocodiles who seek to steal Donkey Kong's hoard of bananas. Their name is a play on the Moscow Kremlin and their theme music incorporates Soviet influences . Polygon summarized K. Rool as an archetypal game villain who "often wears disguises and invents strange gadgets for his elaborately evil schemes", such as dressing as
21679-418: The situation. After the 1964 Tokyo Olympics , Nintendo's stock price plummeted to its lowest recorded level of ¥60 . In 1965, Nintendo hired Gunpei Yokoi to maintain the assembly-line machines used to manufacture its playing cards. Yamauchi's experience with the previous initiatives led him to increase Nintendo's investment in a research and development department in 1969, directed by Hiroshi Imanishi,
21842-484: The sound of the Korg Wavestation synthesizer. Fischer attempted to give levels a sense of purpose and drew inspiration from film composers such as Alan Silvestri and Klaus Doldinger . Graeme Norgate and Grant Kirkhope adapted Wise's Country soundtracks for the first two Donkey Kong Land games, while Fischer adapted the Dixie Kong's Double Trouble soundtrack for Donkey Kong Land III . Fischer
22005-404: The success, Nintendo purchased a large minority stake in Rare. Rare began developing concepts for a Donkey Kong Country sequel during production, and Nintendo green-lit the project immediately after the success. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest , released in 1995, features Diddy rescuing a kidnapped Donkey Kong and introduces Diddy's girlfriend Dixie Kong . Diddy's Kong Quest
22168-433: The system's commercial failure. The first Donkey Kong game for the Nintendo 64, Diddy Kong Racing , a kart racing game , was released as Nintendo's major 1997 Christmas shopping season product. Rare originally developed it as a sequel to its NES game R.C. Pro-Am (1988), but added Diddy Kong to increase its marketability. It received favorable reviews and sold 4.5 million copies. Two playable characters, Banjo
22331-410: The technology was still new. The designers could not replicate the detail of Country 's pre-rendering on the Nintendo 64, which rendered graphics in real time . Donkey Kong 64 was released in November 1999, accompanied by a US$ 22 million marketing campaign. It was Nintendo's bestselling game during the 1999 Christmas season and received positive reviews, though critics felt it did not match
22494-492: The top of the screen or by killing all the insects. The 1994 Game Boy game begins with the four stages from the original Donkey Kong , but after completing the fourth, the player is presented with over 100 additional stages that introduce puzzle-platform gameplay in which Mario must scout each level within a time limit to locate a key. Mario can pick up and throw objects and enemies, similar to Super Mario Bros. 2 , and perform acrobatics to reach otherwise inaccessible areas of
22657-549: The versions released on Nintendo platforms. A Donkey Kong cartoon produced by Ruby-Spears aired as part of CBS 's hour-long Saturday Supercade programming block in 1983. The cartoon follows Mario and Pauline as they attempt to capture Donkey Kong after he escapes from a circus. Game Informer described the series as "abysmal... filled with bad puns and ridiculous situations". Soupy Sales voiced Donkey Kong, while Peter Cullen and Frank Welker (who later garnered recognition for voicing Optimus Prime and Megatron in
22820-517: The writers, noted restrictions including characters being unable to pick up objects and introducing new locations and characters being discouraged. Donkey Kong Country was produced with little input from Nintendo, and was the final Western series that Nintendo licensed before it shifted to producing and distributing anime . The series was popular in France and Japan, though less so in the United States. Retrospectively, Hardcore Gaming 101 criticized
22983-499: Was a commercial disappointment. A Wii version, featuring revised Wii Remote and Nunchuk controls, was released in 2008 as part of the New Play Control! line. A racing game that used the DK Bongos, Donkey Kong Barrel Blast , was developed by Paon for the GameCube, but was moved to the Wii with no support for the peripheral. It was released in 2007 to negative reviews, with criticism for its controls. Despite
23146-593: Was a financial success for Nintendo both in Japan and overseas, and led Coleco to fight Atari for licensing rights for porting to home consoles and personal computers. In 1983, Nintendo opened a new production facility in Uji and was listed in the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange . Uemura, taking inspiration from the ColecoVision , began creating a new video game console that would incorporate
23309-403: Was also expected to be a sales disappointment. Rare began looking to be acquired, but Nintendo did not see Rare remaining valuable in the long term and opted against acquiring them. In September 2002, Microsoft acquired Rare for $ 375 million, making Rare a first-party developer for Xbox . Nintendo retained the rights to Donkey Kong under the terms of the acquisition. Donkey Kong Racing
23472-404: Was canceled, and Rare reworked Donkey Kong Coconut Crackers and Diddy Kong Pilot into It's Mr. Pants (2004) and Banjo-Pilot (2005). After Microsoft acquired Rare, Nintendo relegated Donkey Kong to spin-offs and guest appearances in its other franchises, such as Mario Kart , Mario Party , and Super Smash Bros. In 2003, Nintendo and Namco released Donkey Konga (2003),
23635-659: Was composed by Yukio Kaneoka, one of Nintendo's earliest audio engineers . Kaneoka wanted to take players on an adventure with a "pretty melody", which he compared to those in Disney films. He faced resistance from the designers, who wanted comical music to reflect the games' tone. Hirokazu Tanaka , a sound engineer who later garnered recognition for his work on Nintendo's Metroid and Pokémon franchises, also contributed, while Miyamoto wrote Donkey Kong 's opening and closing music. The Donkey Kong Country series features atmospheric music that mixes natural environmental sounds with melodic and percussive accompaniments. It
23798-486: Was created as a redesign of Donkey Kong Jr. but retooled into a separate character at Nintendo's request. Other supporting Kong characters that Rare introduced include Funky Kong , a surfer ; Candy Kong , Donkey Kong's girlfriend; Dixie Kong, Diddy's girlfriend; Kiddy Kong, a large toddler; Chunky Kong , Kiddy's brother; Tiny Kong , Dixie's sister; and Lanky Kong , a buffoonish orangutan . Country introduced King K. Rool , an anthropomorphic crocodile who serves as
23961-412: Was designed by Gwénaël Nicolas with stylistic departure from its predecessors, and the GameCube . During the first week of the Game Boy Advance's North American release in June 2001, over 500,000 units were sold, making it the fastest-selling video game console in the United States at the time. By the end of its production cycle in 2010, more than 81.5 million units had been sold worldwide. As for
24124-429: Was designed to be less linear and more challenging, with a theme reflecting Mayles' fascination with pirates. Like its predecessor, Diddy's Kong Quest was a major critical and commercial success, and is the sixth-bestselling SNES game. Following Diddy's Kong Quest , the Donkey Kong Country team split in two, with one half working on Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! (1996). Featuring Dixie and
24287-448: Was developed by the Taiko no Tatsujin developers and features the same gameplay: they are rhythm games in which the player must hit scrolling notes to the beat of the music with accurate timing, with stylized notes corresponding to different buttons. Players build combos by hitting two or more notes; the combo ends when they miss a beat. The music for Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr.
24450-475: Was embroiled in a console war with Sega, whose Genesis competed with the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). Nintendo wanted a game to compete with Sega's Aladdin (1993), which featured graphics by Disney animators. Lincoln, who became a Nintendo of America executive following the Universal lawsuit, learned of Rare's SGI experiments during a trip to Europe. After impressing Nintendo with
24613-643: Was named as Iwata's successor on 16 September 2015. As part of the management's restructuring, Miyamoto and Takeda were respectively named creative and technological advisors. The financial losses caused by the Wii U, along with Sony's intention to release its video games to other platforms such as smart TVs , motivated Nintendo to rethink its strategy concerning the production and distribution of its properties. In 2015, Nintendo formalized agreements with DeNA and Universal Parks & Resorts to extend its presence to smart devices and amusement parks respectively. In March 2016, Nintendo's first mobile app for
24776-418: Was named the richest company in Japan. In June 2021, the company announced plans to convert its former Uji Ogura plant, where it had manufactured playing and hanafuda cards, into a museum tentatively named "Nintendo Gallery", targeted to open by March 2024. In the following year, historic remains of a Yayoi period village were discovered in the construction site. Donkey Kong Donkey Kong
24939-406: Was one of the first games for a mainstream home video game console to use pre-rendered graphics, achieved through a compression technique that allowed Rare to convert 3D models into SNES sprites with little loss of detail. Because Donkey Kong did not have much of an established universe, Rare was free to expand it, introducing Donkey Kong's sidekick Diddy Kong (who replaced Donkey Kong Jr.) and
25102-522: Was partly supported by a financial injection from Hiroshi's wife Michiko Inaba, who came from a wealthy family. In 1947, Sekiryo founded the distribution company Marufuku Co., Ltd. responsible for Nintendo's sales and marketing operations, which would eventually go on to become the present-day Nintendo Co., Ltd., in Higashikawara-cho, Imagumano, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto . In 1950, due to Sekiryo's deteriorating health, Hiroshi Yamauchi assumed
25265-415: Was ported to the Switch in 2018, outselling the Wii U version within a week of release. Meanwhile, the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series continued with Tipping Stars (2015) and Mini Mario & Friends: Amiibo Challenge (2016) for the Wii U and 3DS, and a remake of the first Mario vs. Donkey Kong (2024) with new levels and cooperative gameplay for the Switch. As of 2024, Tropical Freeze remains
25428-730: Was primarily composed by David Wise , who worked at Rare from 1985 to 2009. After Wise moved with a portion of the Diddy's Kong Quest team to work on Project Dream , Eveline Fischer —who composed a portion of the first Country —handled the majority of Dixie Kong's Double Trouble . Wise composed a replacement soundtrack for the 2005 GBA port of Dixie Kong's Double Trouble after Rare had problems converting Fischer's score. Wise drew inspiration from Koji Kondo 's Super Mario and Legend of Zelda music, Tim and Geoff Follin's Plok! (1993) soundtrack, and 1980s synthesizer -heavy rock music, dance music and film soundtracks. He aimed to imitate
25591-400: Was released for the Wii in 2010. It sold 4.21 million copies in under a month and received positive reviews, with critics considering it a return to form for the franchise. Monster Games developed a Nintendo 3DS version in 2013, while a high-definition remaster is scheduled for the Nintendo Switch in 2025. Retro developed a sequel, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze , for
25754-472: Was released in Japan for the Game Boy, and established the popular Pokémon franchise. The game went on to sell 31.37 million units, with the video game series exceeding a total of 300 million units in sales as of 2017. In 1997, Nintendo released the Rumble Pak , a plug-in device that connects to the Nintendo 64 controller and produces a vibration during certain moments of a game. In 1998,
25917-533: Was released in November 2006, with a total of 33 launch games. With the Wii, Nintendo sought to reach a broader demographic than its seventh-generation competitors, with the intention of also encompassing the "non-consumer" sector. To this end, Nintendo invested in a $ 200 million advertising campaign. The Wii's innovations include the Wii Remote controller, equipped with an accelerometer system and infrared sensors that allow it to detect its position in
26080-623: Was released in November 2016. The console is a version of the NES based on emulation, HDMI , and the Wii remote. Its successor, the Super NES Classic Edition , was released in September 2017. By October 2018, around ten million units of both consoles combined had been sold worldwide. The Wii U's successor in the eighth generation of video game consoles , the Nintendo Switch , was released in March 2017. The Switch features
26243-573: Was replaced by Game Buyer . Game Buyer ran for four more months before being cancelled by Imagine Publishing. Nintendo Nintendo Co., Ltd. is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto . It develops, publishes and releases both video games and video game consoles . Nintendo was founded in 1889 as Nintendo Koppai by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced handmade hanafuda playing cards. After venturing into various lines of business during
26406-468: Was set to compose music for Donkey Kong 64 , but shifted to working on sound effects. She was replaced by Kirkhope, who composed alongside the Banjo-Kazooie games and Perfect Dark (2000). Nintendo Life described Kirkhope's Donkey Kong 64 score as closer in spirit to his work on Banjo-Kazooie than to Wise's Country music. Donkey Kong 64 's introduction features the " DK Rap ",
26569-503: Was told it would be a failure, Donkey Kong became Nintendo's first major international success upon its release in July 1981. The $ 280 million windfall gain rescued Nintendo of America from its financial crisis and established it as a prominent brand in America. Donkey Kong achieved further success in 1982, when Nintendo released a Game & Watch adaptation and licensed it to Coleco for ports to home consoles . It grossed $ 4.4 billion across various formats, making it one of
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