A platformer (also called a platform game , and sometimes a jump 'n' run game ) is a sub-genre of action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are characterized by levels with uneven terrain and suspended platforms of varying height that require jumping and climbing to traverse. Other acrobatic maneuvers may factor into the gameplay, such as swinging from vines or grappling hooks, jumping off walls, gliding through the air, or bouncing from springboards or trampolines.
207-876: Donkey Kong Country is a 1994 platform game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It is a reboot of Nintendo's Donkey Kong franchise and follows the gorilla Donkey Kong and his nephew Diddy Kong as they set out to recover their stolen banana hoard from the crocodile King K. Rool and his army, the Kremlings . The player traverses 40 side-scrolling levels as they jump between platforms and avoid obstacles. They collect items, ride minecarts and animals, defeat enemies and bosses , and find secret bonus stages . In multiplayer modes, two players work cooperatively or race. After developing Nintendo Entertainment System games in
414-577: A Bluetooth antenna that communicates with its controllers. A USB-based LAN adapter can connect the Wii to a wired Ethernet network. The Wii reads games from an optical media drive located in the front of the device. The drive is capable of reading Nintendo's proprietary discs, the 12 cm Wii discs and 8 cm GameCube discs , but cannot read other common optical media—namely, DVD-Video , DVD-Audio or compact discs . Although Nintendo had planned on incorporating this feature into later revisions of
621-534: A Donkey Kong Country promotional trailer. Beanland said Tim Stamper liked it and wanted to include it in the game, so Wise adopted it. Lincoln unveiled Donkey Kong Country at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago , which took place from 23 to 25 June 1994. The unveiling was the finale of Nintendo's conference and did not reveal that Donkey Kong Country was a SNES game until the end of
828-500: A boss fight with a large enemy. Donkey and Diddy can defeat enemies by jumping on, rolling into, or throwing barrels at them. If hit by an obstacle, one of the Kongs runs off and the player automatically takes control of the other. They will only be able to control that Kong unless they free the other Kong from a barrel. In certain levels, the player can free an animal that provides the Kongs with special abilities, similar to Yoshi from
1035-935: A composite A/V cable with RCA connectors , and in appropriate regions such as in Europe, a SCART adapter was also included. A copy of the game Wii Sports was included in most regional bundles. Although Nintendo showed the console and the Wii Remote in white, black, silver, lime-green and red before it was released, it was only available in white for its first two-and-a-half years of sales. Black consoles were available in Japan in August 2009, in Europe in November 2009 and in North America in May 2010. A red Wii system bundle
1242-434: A directional pad (d-pad), three face action buttons and a shoulder trigger, and four system-related buttons include a power switch. The Wii Remote connects to the Wii through Bluetooth with an approximate 30 feet (9.1 m) range, communicating the sensor and control information to the console unit. The Wii Remote includes an internal speaker and a rumble pack that can be triggered by a game to provide feedback directly to
1449-403: A proprietary port at the base of the controller. The Wii shipped with the bundled Nunchuk —a handheld unit with an accelerometer, analog stick , and two trigger buttons—which connected to this port on the Wii Remote via a 4 feet (1.2 m) cable. Players hold both the Wii Remote and Nunchuk in separate hands to control supported games. The Wii MotionPlus accessory plugs into the port at
1656-462: A silicon -based Wii Remote Jacket to shipments of the Wii and Wii Remote, as well as a free offering for existing users. The Jacket wraps around the bulk of the remote but leaves access to the various buttons and connectors, providing a stickier surface in the user's grip to further reduce the chance of the Remote falling out of the player's hand. Accessories can be connected to a Wii Remote through
1863-608: A true 3D platformer is a French computer game called Alpha Waves , created by Christophe de Dinechin and published by Infogrames in 1990 for the Atari ST , Amiga , and IBM PC compatibles . Bug! , released in 1995 for the Saturn , has a more conservative approach. It allows players to move in all directions, but it does not allow movement along more than one axis at once; the player can move orthogonally but not diagonally. Its characters were pre-rendered sprites, much like
2070-488: A "running/jumping/climbing game" while developing it. Miyamoto commonly used the term "athletic game" to refer to Donkey Kong and later games in the genre, such as Super Mario Bros. (1985). Donkey Kong spawned other games with a mix of running, jumping, and vertical traversal, a novel genre that did not match the style of games that came before it, leaving journalists and writers to offer their own terms. Computer and Video Games magazine, among others, referred to
2277-443: A 16-bit game. EGM said that the graphical quality prompted questions about the purpose of 32- and 64-bit hardware. Total! said the character animations surpassed those of a Disney film and applauded the parallax scrolling . Several critics said the graphics were the best on available hardware, with Entertainment Weekly writing that they were comparable to matte paintings . The soundtrack and audio were also lauded. Total! said
SECTION 10
#17327730190632484-452: A 1980 arcade release by Universal , is sometimes credited as the first platformer. Another precursor to the genre from 1980 was Nichibutsu 's Crazy Climber , in which the player character scales vertically scrolling skyscrapers. The unreleased 1979 Intellivision game Hard Hat has a similar concept. Donkey Kong , an arcade video game created by Nintendo and released in July 1981,
2691-401: A 2D plane are called 2.5D , as they are a blend of 2D and 3D. The first platformers to simulate a 3D perspective and moving camera emerged in the early-mid-1980s. An early example of this was Konami 's Antarctic Adventure , where the player controls a penguin in a forward-scrolling third-person perspective while having to jump over pits and obstacles. Originally released in 1983 for
2898-543: A 32-bit IBM PowerPC -based processor named Broadway , with a clock frequency of 729 MHz. The reduced size of Broadway—based on a 90 nm process compared to the 180 nm process used in the GameCube's CPU —resulted in 20% lowered power consumption. The Wii's GPU is a system on a chip produced by ATI and named Hollywood ; the core processor runs at 243 MHz, 3 MB of texture memory, digital signal processors , and input/output functions. Additionally,
3105-480: A 3D Sonic game, Sonic Adventure , for its Dreamcast console. It used a hub structure like Super Mario 64 , but its levels were more linear, fast-paced, and action-oriented. Wii The Wii ( / w iː / , WEE ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo . It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America, and in December 2006 for most other regions of
3312-566: A Wii or for those who wanted a second Wii in a different location. Ryan stated that while removing the online functionality would prevent some games from being played, most Wii games could still be played without it. The Wii Mini is styled in matte black with a red border, and includes a red Wii Remote Plus and Nunchuk. According to Ryan, the red coloring was indicative of the planned exclusive release in Canada . A composite A/V cable, wired Sensor Bar and power adapter are also included. The Wii Mini
3519-462: A balance between open-ended and guided exploration. Another platform-adventure released that year, Pony Canyon 's Super Pitfall , was critically panned for its vagueness and weak game design. That same year Jaleco released Esper Boukentai , a sequel to Psychic 5 that scrolled in all directions and allowed the player character to make huge multistory jumps to navigate the vertically oriented levels. Telenet Japan also released its own take on
3726-401: A black Wii Remote Plus and Nunchuk, along with New Super Mario Bros. Wii and a limited-edition soundtrack for Super Mario Galaxy . It was released in Europe on November 4, 2011, in a white finish, bundled with a white Wii Remote Plus and Nunchuk, along with Wii Party and Wii Sports . A special bundle featuring a blue version of the revised Wii model and Wii Remote Plus and Nunchuk with
3933-481: A bouncing car that jumps on various platforms such as buildings, clouds, and hills. Jump Bug offered a glimpse of what was to come, with uneven, suspended platforms, levels that scroll horizontally (and in one section, vertically), and differently themed sections, such as a city, the interior of a large pyramid, and underwater. Irem's 1982 arcade game Moon Patrol combines jumping over obstacles and shooting attackers. A month later, Taito released Jungle King ,
4140-475: A boxing game, Brute Force , using PowerAnimator . Around this time, Nintendo was embroiled in a console war with Sega , whose Mega Drive competed with the SNES. Nintendo wanted a game to compete with Sega's Aladdin (1993), which featured graphics by Disney animators, when Nintendo of America chairman Howard Lincoln learned of Rare's SGI experiments during a trip to Europe. After impressing Nintendo with
4347-525: A brief burst of episodic platformers where the first was freely distributed and parts 2 and 3 were available for purchase. The abundance of platformers for 16-bit consoles continued late into the generation, with successful games such as Vectorman (1995), Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (1995), and Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (1995), but the release of new hardware caused players' attention to move away from 2D genres. The Saturn , PlayStation , and Nintendo 64 nevertheless featured
SECTION 20
#17327730190634554-534: A common term for the genre by 1989, popularized by its usage in the United Kingdom press. Examples include referring to the " Super Mario mould" (such as Kato-chan & Ken-chan ) as platform games, and calling Strider a "platform and ladders" game. The genre originated in the early 1980s. Levels in early platform games were confined to a single screen, viewed in profile, and based on climbing between platforms rather than jumping. Space Panic ,
4761-586: A demonstration of Brute Force , Tim Stamper—inspired by Mortal Kombat 's use of digitised footage in place of hand-drawn art—suggested developing a platform game that used pre-rendered graphics. Nintendo granted the Stampers permission to use the Donkey Kong intellectual property . The franchise had been largely dormant since the unsuccessful Donkey Kong 3 (1983), so Nintendo figured that licensing it posed minimal risk. Some sources indicate that
4968-557: A direct competitor to Sega's Mega-CD and 32X platforms to remind players it was not for next-generation hardware. Nintendo sent a promotional VHS tape, Donkey Kong Country: Exposed , to subscribers of the magazine Nintendo Power . Exposed , hosted by comedian Josh Wolf , provides a "behind-the-scenes" glimpse of the Treehouse, the Nintendo of America division where games are tested. Nintendo World Report wrote that Exposed
5175-447: A firm that had developed several patents related to motion detection , to prototype future controllers using their licensed patents. Over the next two years, sales of the GameCube languished behind its competitors—Sony's PlayStation 2 and Microsoft's Xbox . Satoru Iwata , who had been promoted to Nintendo's president in May 2002 following Hiroshi Yamauchi 's retirement, recognized that Nintendo had not been keeping up with trends in
5382-450: A forward-scrolling effect similar to Sega's 1985 third-person rail shooter Space Harrier . 3-D WorldRunner was an early forward-scrolling pseudo-3D third-person platform-action game where players were free to move in any forward-scrolling direction and could leap over obstacles and chasms. It was notable for being one of the first stereoscopic 3-D games . Square released its sequel, JJ , later that year. The earliest example of
5589-609: A high quality of animation. The 1988 shareware game The Adventures of Captain Comic was one of the first attempts at a Nintendo-style platformer for IBM PC compatibles . It inspired Commander Keen , released by id Software in 1990, which became the first MS-DOS platformer with smooth scrolling graphics. Keen's success resulted in numerous console-styled platformers for MS-DOS compatible operating systems, including Duke Nukem , Duke Nukem II , Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure , and Dark Ages all by Apogee Software . These fueled
5796-591: A kidnapped Donkey Kong from K. Rool and introduces Diddy's girlfriend Dixie Kong . Diddy's Kong Quest was designed to be less linear and more challenging, with a theme reflecting Gregg Mayles' fascination with pirates. Like its predecessor, Diddy's Kong Quest was a major critical and commercial success. Other teams at Rare used Donkey Kong Country 's technology in the fighting game Killer Instinct and Donkey Kong Land , Donkey Kong Land 2 (1996) and Donkey Kong Land III (1997), which attempted to replicate Donkey Kong Country 's visuals and gameplay on
6003-434: A microphone, so they based Donkey Kong's running animation on a horse's gallop and had programmer Mark Betteridge provide Donkey and Diddy's voice clips. Rare positioned Cranky Kong as the original Donkey Kong character from the arcade games but avoided mentioning this in the game and marketing materials out of fear that Nintendo would disapprove of the idea, though it was mentioned in the instruction manual. The antagonists,
6210-559: A named character—Mario, which became a mascot of the company. The term platform game gained traction in the late 1980s, as did the alternate form platformer . During their peak of popularity, platformers were estimated to comprise between a quarter and a third of all console games. By 2006, the genre had experienced a decline in sales, representing a 2% market share as compared to 15% in 1998. In spite of this, platformers are still being commercially released every year, including some which have sold millions of copies. A platformer requires
6417-489: A new way to play". The ads began in November 2006 and had a budget of over $ 200 million for the year. The ads targeted a wider demographic compared to ads for other consoles, inviting parents and grandparents to play on the Wii. Nintendo hoped that its console would appeal to a wider demographic than that of others in the seventh generation. In December 2006, Satoru Iwata said that Nintendo did not think of themselves as "fighting Sony", but were focused on how they could expand
Donkey Kong Country - Misplaced Pages Continue
6624-631: A number of successful 2D platformers. The 2D Rayman was a big success on 32-bit consoles. Mega Man 8 and Mega Man X4 helped revitalize interest in Capcom 's Mega Man character . Castlevania: Symphony of the Night revitalized its series and established a new foundation for later Castlevania games. Oddworld and Heart of Darkness kept the subgenre born from Prince of Persia alive. The difficulties of adapting platformer gameplay to three dimensions led some developers to compromise by pairing
6831-441: A peewee". Electronic Gaming Monthly ( EGM ) called Donkey Kong Country "one of the few games that is actually as good as the hype", and Total! declared it the best game of 1994. GameFan said that Donkey Kong Country set a new quality standard that many developers would attempt to imitate. The visuals were considered the best aspect. Reviewers considered them a major technological achievement, their detail unprecedented for
7038-534: A port of Donkey Kong Country for Nintendo's Game Boy Color (GBC) handheld console. It was released in North America on 4 November 2000, in Europe on 17 November, and in Japan on 21 January 2001. The port was developed alongside the GBC version of Perfect Dark and many assets, including graphics and audio, were re-used from the Donkey Kong Land games. Aside from graphical and sound-related downgrades due to
7245-476: A pre-order bonus, and partnered with Kellogg's for a promotional campaign in which the packaging for Kellogg's breakfast cereals featured Donkey Kong Country character art and announced a prize giveaway. The campaign ran from November 1994 to April 1995. Fleetway Publications published a promotional comic in the UK in 1995. By October 1994, Nintendo was still in fierce competition with Sega and its popular Sonic
7452-403: A primary game mechanic to pay homage to the original arcade game, and included hidden collectibles like coins and balloons to add depth. Diddy Kong originated from Rare's search for a game mechanic akin to Super Mario 's power-up system in that he would serve as the player's health . Mayles said: "We thought a second character could perform this function, look visually impressive, and give
7659-542: A resting position, translating that motion into gesture recognition for a game. For example, the pack-in game Wii Sports includes a ten-pin bowling game that had the player hold the Wii Remote and perform a delivery of a ball; the Wii Remote could account for the player's position relative to the Sensor Bar, and their arm and wrist rotation to apply speed and spin to the virtual ball's delivery on screen. The infrared detectors are used to track emissions from LEDs in
7866-470: A shift in design. Later 3D platformers like Banjo-Kazooie , Spyro the Dragon , and Donkey Kong 64 borrowed its format, and the "collect-a-thon" genre began to form. In order to make this free-roaming model work, developers had to program dynamic, intelligent cameras. A free camera made it harder for players to judge the height and distance of platforms, making jumping puzzles more difficult. Some of
8073-406: A side-scrolling action game some platform elements: jumping between vines, jumping or running beneath bouncing boulders. It was quickly re-released as Jungle Hunt because of similarities to Tarzan . The 1982 Apple II game Track Attack includes a scrolling platform level where the character runs and leaps along the top of a moving train. The character is little more than a stick figure , but
8280-479: A skilled player; as such, objects were placed so well-timed players could continually move through a level. Mayles noted that although the concept of speedrunning did not exist at the time, "the way the game was designed definitely supports it". The team designed levels using Post-it Notes ; they would conceive a set piece (such as swinging ropes), create every variation they could think of, drew them on Post-it Notes, and pieced them together. Rare featured barrels as
8487-725: A teenager with a rebellious personality to appeal to gamers who saw the previous generation of consoles as being for kids. The character's speed showed off the hardware capabilities of the Genesis, which had a CPU clock speed approximately double that of the Super NES. Sonic 's perceived rebellious attitude became a model for game mascots. Other companies attempted to duplicate Sega's success with their own brightly colored anthropomorphisms with attitude. These often were characterized by impatience, sarcasm, and frequent quips. A second generation of platformers for computers appeared alongside
Donkey Kong Country - Misplaced Pages Continue
8694-529: A top-loading disc drive. In addition to the lack of GameCube support, the Wii Mini removes Wi-Fi support and online connectivity, along with the removal of the SD card slot. It also removed support for 480p and component video output. According to Nintendo of Canada's Matt Ryan, they stripped these features to bring down the price of the console further as to make it an option for those consumers that had not yet gotten
8901-415: A video game at the time, 22 years. The team worked 12–16-hours every day of the week. Gunn said that the team was under significant pressure from the Stampers and to finish the game in time for Thanksgiving due to Nintendo's competition with Sega. The stages were painstakingly arranged so that the player could "go first time" past obstacles ([i.e.] if there was a swinging rope then when it came on screen it
9108-474: Is in a vector game called Major Havoc , which comprises a number of mini-games, including a simple platformer. One of the first raster -based platformers to scroll fluidly in all directions in this manner is 1985's Legend of Kage . In 1985, Enix released the action-adventure platformer Brain Breaker . The following year saw the release of Nintendo's Metroid , which was critically acclaimed for
9315-474: Is the third-bestselling SNES game and the bestselling Donkey Kong game. Donkey Kong Country received critical acclaim and was lauded as a paradigm shift that set new standards for video games. Diehard GameFan and Total! said it changed expectations for 16-bit and platform games, and Entertainment Weekly wrote it "is to most 16-bit games what most 16-bit games are to their Atari forebears. Once you've played it, everything else before it seems like
9522-588: The Los Angeles Times , Nintendo spent US$ 16 million on marketing Donkey Kong Country in America alone; at the time, major games typically had an average marketing budget of US$ 5 million. Marketing materials emphasised the revolutionary graphics—often noting that Rare's SGI workstations had been used to create the Jurassic Park (1993) film's dinosaurs—and positioned Donkey Kong Country as
9729-480: The Super Mario series. Buddies include Rambi, a rhino that can charge into enemies and find hidden entrances; Enguarde, a swordfish that can defeat enemies with its bill; Squawks, a parrot that carries a lantern; Expresso, an ostrich that flies; and Winky, a frog that can jump high. Each level contains collectible bananas, letters that spell out K–O–N–G, balloons, and animal tokens. These items can be found within
9936-603: The 4th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards , the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated it for the " Console Family " award. It sold 2.19 million copies worldwide. Platform game The genre started with the 1980 arcade video game Space Panic , which has ladders but not jumping. Donkey Kong , released in 1981, established a template for what were initially called "climbing games". Donkey Kong inspired many clones and games with similar elements, such as Miner 2049er (1982) and Kangaroo (1982), while
10143-480: The Amiga . Rare developed a compression technique to incorporate more detail and animation for each sprite for a given memory footprint, which better preserved the pre-rendered graphics. Nintendo and Rare called the technique Advanced Computer Modelling (ACM). Rare briefly feared competition from DMA Design 's Uniracers (1994), which also featured pre-rendered graphics, but the staff was relieved upon learning that
10350-626: The Atari 2600 , with 256 horizontally connected screens, became one of the best-selling games on the system and was a breakthrough for the genre. Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle was released on the ColecoVision that same year, adding uneven terrain and scrolling pans between static screens. Manic Miner (1983) and its sequel Jet Set Willy (1984) continued this style of multi-screen levels on home computers . Wanted: Monty Mole won
10557-462: The Black Friday shopping season. It was released in the UK on 18 November, in North America on 21 November, in Europe on 24 November, and in Japan on 26 November. In Japan, the game was released under the title Super Donkey Kong . Donkey Kong Country set the record for the fastest-selling video game at the time: it sold over 500,000 copies within a week, and sales reached one million copies in
SECTION 50
#173277301906310764-722: The Chrysler Neon , and it became the first game to win the Favourite Video Game Kids' Choice Award at the 1995 Kids' Choice Awards . In April 1995, following Donkey Kong Country 's success, Nintendo purchased a 25% minority stake in Rare, which increased to 49% over time. Rare was the first non-Japanese studio to enter such a relationship with Nintendo, making them a second-party developer ; Nintendo published Rare's subsequent games and allowed them to expand their staff from 84 to over 250 and move out of
10971-521: The Internet Channel , a modified version of the Opera web browser for the Wii which supports USB keyboard input and Adobe Flash Player . The Wii Menu channels feature music composed by video game composer Kazumi Totaka . The Wii introduced the use of player-customized avatars called Miis, which have been continued to be used by Nintendo in the Wii U, the Nintendo 3DS family, and, to
11178-570: The Korg Wavestation synthesiser. He wrote lyrics for each melody, though The New York Times noted "no one is really meant to hear them". Since Donkey Kong Country featured advanced pre-rendered graphics, Wise wanted to push the limits to create "equally impressive" music and make the most of the limited memory he was working with. Wise found Donkey Kong "a little more brutal" than Mario , so departed from Super Mario 's Latin and calypso -inspired sound. He wanted to compose in
11385-587: The Kremlings , steal the Kongs ' banana hoard. The gorilla Donkey Kong and his nephew Diddy Kong set out to reclaim the hoard and defeat the Kremlings. Donkey and Diddy serve as the player characters of the single-player game; they run alongside each other and the player can swap between them at will. Donkey is stronger and can defeat enemies more easily; Diddy is faster and more agile. Both can walk, run, jump, pick up and throw objects, and roll; Donkey can slap
11592-683: The MSX computer, it was subsequently ported to various platforms the following year, including an arcade video game version, NES , and ColecoVision . 1986 saw the release of the sequel to forward-scrolling platformer Antarctic Adventure called Penguin Adventure , which was designed by Hideo Kojima . It included more action game elements, a greater variety of levels, RPG elements such as upgrading equipment, and multiple endings . In early 1987, Square released 3-D WorldRunner , designed by Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nasir Gebelli . Using
11799-530: The Master System with Alex Kidd in Miracle World . It has horizontal and vertical scrolling levels, the ability to punch enemies and obstacles, and shops for the player to buy power-ups and vehicles. Another Sega series that began that same year is Wonder Boy . The original Wonder Boy in 1986 was inspired more by Pac-Land than Super Mario Bros. , with skateboarding segments that gave
12006-632: The Nintendo 64 game Donkey Kong 64 (1999). After a hiatus, during which Rare was acquired by the Nintendo competitor Microsoft , Retro Studios revived the series with Donkey Kong Country Returns (2010) for the Wii and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (2014) for the Wii U . Donkey Kong Country is a side-scrolling platform game . A reboot of the Donkey Kong franchise, its story begins when King K. Rool and his army of crocodiles,
12213-631: The Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985, became the archetype for the genre. It was bundled with Nintendo systems in North America, Japan, and Europe, and sold over 40 million copies, according to the 1999 Guinness Book of World Records . Its success as a pack-in led many companies to see platformers as vital to their success, and contributed greatly to popularizing the genre during the third and fourth generations of video game consoles. Sega attempted to emulate this success with their Alex Kidd series, which started in 1986 on
12420-454: The Sega arcade game Congo Bongo (1983) adds a third dimension via isometric graphics . Another popular game of that period, Pitfall! (1982), allows moving left and right through series of non-scrolling screens, expanding the play area. Nintendo 's flagship Super Mario Bros. (1985) was a defining game for the nascent genre, with horizontally scrolling levels and the player controlling
12627-526: The Super Mario series, particularly Super Mario World (1990). Some considered Donkey Kong Country an improvement upon the Mario formula. GameFan said it would be a worthy successor to Super Mario World even without the graphics and Total! wrote that it took Mario 's best elements, increased the speed, and presented them better. Next Generation felt the gameplay, though good, did not meet
SECTION 60
#173277301906312834-492: The Super Nintendo Entertainment System , with a d-pad, four face buttons, Start and Select buttons alongside the Wii connection button, and two shoulder buttons. Additionally, Nintendo included inputs present in modern controllers, like 2 analog sticks and pressure sensitive shoulder buttons. Players can use it with older games from the Virtual Console in addition to games designed for the Wii. In 2009, Nintendo released
13041-553: The Wii Remote Plus , first released in October 2010. A number of third-party controller manufacturers developed their own lower-cost versions of the Wii Remote, though these generally were less accurate or lacked the sensitivity that Nintendo's unit had. The Classic Controller is an extension for the Wii Remote, released alongside the Wii in November 2006. Its form factor is similar to classic gamepads such as that for
13248-557: The Wii Shop Channel . The Wii also supports wireless connectivity with the Nintendo DS handheld console for selected games. Initial Wii models included full backward compatibility support for GameCube games and most of the console's accessories . Later in its lifecycle, two lower-cost Wii models were produced: a revised model with the same design as the original Wii but without the GameCube compatibility features, and
13455-590: The cooperative "Team" mode, they play as a tag team. In 1985, the British game developers Tim and Chris Stamper established Rare Ltd. The brothers previously founded the British computer game studio Ultimate Play the Game and founded Rare to focus on the burgeoning Japanese console market. After Nintendo rejected their efforts to form a partnership in 1983, Chris Stamper studied the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) hardware for six months. Rare demonstrated it
13662-467: The fifth generation of video game consoles . It is considered one of the greatest video games of all time and has been ported to platforms such as the Game Boy Color , Game Boy Advance , and digital distribution services. Rare followed it with two sequels for the SNES, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (1995) and Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! (1996), and
13869-537: The virtual camera , it had to be constrained to stop it from clipping through the environment. In 1994, a small developer called Exact released a game for the X68000 computer called Geograph Seal , which was a 3D first-person shooter game with platforming. Players piloted a frog-like mech that could jump and then double-jump or triple-jump high into the air as the camera panned down to help players line up their landings. In addition to shooting, jumping on enemies
14076-417: The 1980s, Rare, a British studio founded by Tim and Chris Stamper , purchased Silicon Graphics workstations to render 3D models . Nintendo sought a game to compete with Sega 's Aladdin (1993) and commissioned Rare to revive the dormant Donkey Kong franchise. Rare assembled 12 developers to work on Donkey Kong Country over 18 months. Donkey Kong Country was inspired by the Super Mario series and
14283-468: The Enchanted Castle , which was only modestly successful. That same year, Capcom released Strider in arcades, which scrolled in multiple directions and allowed the player to summon artificial intelligence partners, such as a droid, tiger, and hawk, to help fight enemies. Another Sega release in 1989 was Shadow Dancer , which is a game that also included an AI partner: a dog who followed
14490-553: The GBC's weaker 8-bit hardware, the port is mostly identical to the original release. One level was redesigned and another was added. It also adds bonus modes, including two minigames that supplement the main quest and support multiplayer via the Game Link Cable , as well as Game Boy Printer support. The GBC version was a runner-up for GameSpot ' s annual Best Game Boy Color Game and Best Platform Game awards, and during
14697-465: The GPU included an additional 24 MB of 1T-SRAM and an additional 64 MB of 1T-SRAM on the motherboard, totaling to 88 MB of memory for the console. The Wii's computational power was roughly 1.5 to 2 times as powerful as the GameCube, but was the least powerful of the major home consoles of its generation. The Wii's motherboard has a WiFi adapter which supports IEEE 802.11 b/g modes, and
14904-523: The GameCube controller ports, and memory card slots found on the original model. This means that this model is incompatible with GameCube games alongside the GameCube Controller for Wii games that support it. This model is sometimes referred to as the "Wii Family Edition", the name given to the bundle in which it was first sold in Europe. Additionally, it does not include a stand, as it is intended to be positioned horizontally. Nintendo announced
15111-564: The Hedgehog franchise. Donkey Kong Country was released a month after Sonic & Knuckles for the Mega Drive. The Los Angeles Times characterised the coinciding releases as a battle; both featured company mascots, boasted " Hollywood -sized" marketing budgets, and advertised revolutionary technological advances ( lock-on technology for Sonic & Knuckles and 3D-rendered graphics for Donkey Kong Country ). Donkey Kong Country
15318-424: The Hedgehog into 3D. Their project, titled Sonic Xtreme , was to have featured a radically different approach for the series, with an exaggerated fisheye camera and multidirectional gameplay reminiscent of Bug! . Due in part to conflicts with Sega Enterprises in Japan and a rushed schedule, the game never made it to market. In the 1990s, platforming games started to shift from pseudo-3D to "true 3D," which gave
15525-487: The Kremlings, were recycled from a cancelled Rare game, and their name is a play on the Moscow Kremlin . Rare's initial story was extensive and spanned 15 pages, but Nintendo had it condensed to fit into an instruction manual . Donkey Kong Country was one of the first games for a mainstream home video game console to use pre-rendered 3D graphics, a technique used in the earlier 1993 Finnish game Stardust for
15732-692: The Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection were discontinued in May 2014, while the Wii Shop was closed in January 2019, effectively ending all online services for the console. The Wii Mini continued to be manufactured for some time after. Despite the Wii's discontinuation, some developers continued to produce Wii games well beyond 2013. Ubisoft released Just Dance games for the Wii up to Just Dance 2020 (2019). Vblank Entertainment's Shakedown: Hawaii along with Retro City Rampage DX are
15939-740: The Photo Channel which could be used to view and edit photos stored on an SD card; the Wii Shop Channel to purchase new games and applications; the Forecast Channel and the News Channel. In addition to default channels that came with the Wii, new channels could be added through system updates, downloaded applications from the Wii Shop Channel, or added by games themselves. Shortly after launch, other free channels created by Nintendo were made available to users, including
16146-613: The Revolution controller at the Tokyo Game Show in September 2005. At this stage, the controller unit resembled the final Wii Remote device along with the separate Nunchuk attachment. Iwata demonstrated its motion sensing gameplay capabilities, and incorporated commentary from developers, such as Hideo Kojima and Yuji Horii , who had tested the controller and believed people would be drawn in by it. The console's name
16353-465: The Stampers obtained the licence after Nintendo offered them their catalogue of characters and they chose Donkey Kong. Conversely, the lead designer Gregg Mayles recalled that it was Nintendo that requested a Donkey Kong game. According to Mayles, Nintendo codenamed the project "Country" (based on Rare's location in Twycross ), leading to the title Donkey Kong Country . Rare assembled a team of 12,
16560-575: The US alone in two weeks. In its second week on sale in the US, the game grossed US$ 15 million, outpacing the week's highest-grossing film ( The Santa Clause , US$ 11.5 million) and album ( Miracles: The Holiday Album , US$ 5.2 million). In the UK, it was the top-selling SNES game in November 1994. Donkey Kong Country sold six million copies worldwide in its first holiday season, grossing $ 400 million in worldwide sales revenue. Cumulative sales reached 9.3 million copies. Based on available sales figures, it
16767-441: The US if it matched sales projections. Nintendo anticipated that it would sell two million copies in a month, an expectation that Main acknowledged was unprecedented but was "based on the off-the-chart reactions we've received from game players and retailers". USGamer noted that Nintendo, at the time of Donkey Kong Country 's release, faced difficulty to keep the SNES profitable. The fifth generation of video game consoles
16974-499: The Vitality Sensor had been shelved, as internal testing found that the device did not work with all users, and its use cases were too narrow. Despite this, Nintendo has continued Iwata's quality of life program with further products on later consoles and games. A number of first- and third-party accessories were developed that the Wii Remote could be slotted into and then used in a more physical manner that took advantage of
17181-558: The Wii Classic Controller Pro, which was modelled after the GameCube and PlayStation 2 controllers form factor and amongst other additions, adds grips on the bottom of the controller and rearranges the placement of the shoulder buttons. However, unlike the GameCube and original Classic Controller, the Classic Controller Pro does not have pressure sensitive shoulder buttons. The Wii Balance Board
17388-562: The Wii Menu, the main user interface for the Wii, was led by Takashi Aoyama of Nintendo's Integrated Research & Development Division. The project, named the "Console Feature Realization Project", was to figure out what the Wii interface could show running in a low-power mode on an around-the-clock schedule that would be of interest for people to look at if they were not playing games. The idea of having continually updated weather and news reports made logical sense from testing, and this led to
17595-465: The Wii Mini for a few years afterwards, and offered a subset of the Wii's online services through 2019. Shortly after the release of the GameCube , Nintendo began conceptualizing their next console. The company's game designer Shigeru Miyamoto said that, in the early stages, they decided they would not aim to compete on hardware power, and would instead prioritize new gameplay concepts. The console
17802-526: The Wii Mini's release. The Wii Mini was never released in countries outside of Canada, Europe and the United States. The console has many internal features made available from its hardware and firmware components. The hardware allows for extendability (via expansion ports), while the firmware (and some software) could receive periodic updates via the WiiConnect24 service. The development of
18009-414: The Wii Mini, a compact, budget redesign of the Wii which further removed several features, including online connectivity and SD card storage. Because of Nintendo's reduced focus on computational power, the Wii and its games were less expensive to produce than its competitors. The Wii was extremely popular at launch, causing the system to be in short supply in some markets. A bundled game, Wii Sports ,
18216-445: The Wii channels. Users could expand their storage for downloaded games and saved games, as well as provide photos and music that could be used with some games and Wii channels, through SD cards (and later SDHC cards ) inserted into an external slot on the console located under a front panel. A later system update added the ability to launch Wii channels and play Virtual Console and WiiWare games directly from SD cards. The rear of
18423-399: The Wii from commercial off-the-shelf hardware rather than seek out customized components. This helped to reduce the cost of the Wii system to consumers. Miyamoto said "Originally, I wanted a machine that would cost $ 100. My idea was to spend nothing on the console technology so all the money could be spent on improving the interface and software." The console's central processing unit is
18630-417: The Wii had broadened the demographics that they wanted, the core gamer audience had shunned the Wii. The Wii's successor, the Wii U , sought to recapture the core gamer market with additional features atop the Wii. The Wii U was released in 2012, and Nintendo continued to sell both units through the following year. The Wii was formally discontinued in October 2013, though Nintendo continued to produce and market
18837-511: The Wii in China in 2008, but failed to meet the requirements to circumvent the ban on foreign-made consoles the Chinese government had put in place. Nintendo announced the successor to the Wii, the Wii U, at E3 2011 . Nintendo had recognized that the Wii had generally been shunned by the core gaming audience as it was perceived more as a casual gaming experience. The Wii U was aimed to draw
19044-427: The Wii served part of this, but Nintendo developed additional accessories to give awareness of one's health as a lead-in for the company to break into the health care field. At E3 2009 , Nintendo had presented a " Vitality Sensor " accessory that would be used to measure a player's pulse as a lead-in to a larger quality of life initiative, but this product was never released. In a 2013 Q&A, Satoru Iwata revealed that
19251-453: The Wii's design, as the company found that the DS's novel two-screen interface had drawn in non-traditional players and wanted to replicate that on the new console. Designer Ken'ichiro Ashida noted, "We had the DS on our minds as we worked on the Wii. We thought about copying the DS's touch-panel interface and even came up with a prototype." The idea was eventually rejected because of the notion that
19458-501: The Wii, the demand for the console meant a delay in their schedule, until the feature lost interest. The slot of the optical drive is backed by LED lights which show the system's status. For example, it will pulse blue when the system is communicating with the WiiConnect24 service or when reading a disc after being inserted. The Wii includes 512 MB of internal flash memory for storing saved games and downloaded content from
19665-546: The Year awards. For EGM 's Best and Worst of 1994, it won Game of the Year, Best SNES Game, and Best Animation; Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong won Best Game Duo. It also received Video Games: The Ultimate Gaming Magazine 's awards for Game of the Year, Best SNES Game, Best Action Game, and Best Graphics. Donkey Kong Country was the only video game included in Time 's Best Products of 1994 list, coming in second behind
19872-473: The accelerometer and gyroscopic functions of the controller. Some copies of Mario Kart Wii shipped with the Wii Wheel , a plastic steering wheel frame with the Wii Remote could be inserted into, so that players could steer more effectively in game. Rhythm games that used plastic instruments, such as Guitar Hero III , shipped with instruments that the Wii Remote could be slotted into; the remote powered
20079-529: The acrobatics evoke the movement that games such as Prince of Persia would feature. B.C.'s Quest For Tires (1983) put a recognizable character from American comic strips into side-scrolling, jumping gameplay similar to Moon Patrol . The same year, Snokie for the Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit computers added uneven terrain to a scrolling platformer. Based on the Saturday morning cartoon rather than
20286-485: The aged incarnation (or father) of Donkey Kong from the original Donkey Kong (1981), provides tips and fourth wall -breaking humour; and Candy Kong saves the player's progress . The player can increase their completion percentage by finding bonus stages. Reaching the maximum 101 per cent results in a different ending. The game also features two multiplayer game modes . In the competitive "Contest" mode, players take turns playing each level as quickly as possible. In
20493-465: The base of the Wii Remote and augments the existing sensors with gyroscopes to allow for finer motion detection. The MotionPlus accessory was released in June 2009 with a number of new games directly supporting this new functionality, including Wii Sports Resort which included the accessory as part of a bundle. The MotionPlus functionality was later incorporated into a revision of the controller called
20700-415: The basis for the non-linear mission structure found in most open-world, multi-mission, sidequest -heavy games. Another Capcom platformer that year was Bionic Commando , which popularized a grappling hook mechanic that has since appeared in dozens of games, including Earthworm Jim and Tomb Raider . Scrolling platformers went portable in the late 1980s with games such as Super Mario Land , and
20907-419: The choice. President of Nintendo of America Reggie Fils-Aimé justified the new name over Revolution by saying that they wanted something short, distinctive, and easily pronounceable for all cultures. The Wii was made available for a press demonstration at E3 2006. Planned launch titles were announced at a press conference alongside the unveiling. At the same conference, Nintendo confirmed its plans to release
21114-518: The console as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in North America, along with Super Mario World , while Sega released Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Genesis . Sonic showcased a new style of design made possible by a new generation of hardware: large stages that scrolled in all directions, curved hills, loops, and a physics system allowing players to rush through its levels with well-placed jumps and rolls. Sega characterized Sonic as
21321-425: The console by the end of 2006. Nintendo announced the launch plans and prices for the Wii in September 2006. The console was first launched in the United States on November 19, 2006, for US$ 249.99 . Other regional release dates and prices included Japan on December 2 for ¥25,000 , followed by Australasia on December 7 for A$ 399.95 , and was later launched on December 8 in the United Kingdom for £179.99 and for
21528-791: The console features the unit's video output and power connections along with two USB ports. The top of the console, when placed vertically, includes a panel that includes four ports for GameCube controllers and two GameCube memory cards. The Wii was Nintendo's smallest home console at the time (the current smallest is hybrid home-portable console Nintendo Switch, when in portable mode); it measures 44 mm (1.73 in ) wide, 157 mm (6.18 in) tall and 215.4 mm (8.48 in) deep in its vertical orientation, slightly larger than three DVD cases stacked together. The included stand measures 55.4 mm (2.18 in) wide, 44 mm (1.73 in) tall and 225.6 mm (8.88 in) deep. The system weighs 1.2 kg (2.7 lb ), making it
21735-534: The console's development under the codename Revolution . The primary controller for the Wii is the Wii Remote , a wireless controller with both motion sensing and traditional controls which can be used as a pointing device towards the television screen or for gesture recognition . The Wii was Nintendo's first home console to directly support Internet connectivity, supporting both online games and for digital distribution of games and media applications through
21942-496: The core audience back in with more advanced features atop the basic Wii technology. The Wii U features the Wii U GamePad , a controller with an embedded touchscreen and output 1080p high-definition graphics that serves as a secondary screen alongside the television. The Wii U is fully backward-compatible with Wii games and peripherals for the Wii, including the Wii Remote, Nunchuk controller and Wii Balance Board, and select Wii U games including support for these devices. The Wii U
22149-421: The criteria of a platformer, and was billed as an action adventure . It used true 3D characters and set pieces, but its environments were rendered using a rigid engine similar to the one used by Wolfenstein 3D , in that it could only render square, flat corridors, rather than suspended platforms that could be jumped between. Sega had tasked their American studio, Sega Technical Institute , with bringing Sonic
22356-417: The cutting-edge SGI workstations was difficult; Gregg Mayles' brother Steve said they had a steep learning curve. The game was Rare's first to require multiple programmers, and they worked with little guidance. To help, Nintendo provided Rare with research material regarding apes, barrels, and caves. The pre-rendered graphics allowed for variety and detail uncommon at the time, and Tim Stamper constantly pushed
22563-557: The difficulty to appeal to a broad audience, reasoning that the secrets would provide sufficient challenge for hardcore gamers. At this point, Miyamoto made some last-minute suggestions, such as Donkey Kong's terrain slap, that were incorporated. Nintendo's Kensuke Tanabe flew to Twycross to localise the game with Rare. Kevin Bayliss was in charge of redesigning Donkey Kong. He wanted a character that looked believable and could perform animations like pounding his chest. His initial design
22770-419: The earlier Clockwork Knight . The game plays very similarly to 2D platformers, but lets players walk up walls and on ceilings. In 1995, Delphine Software released a 3D sequel to their 2D platformer Flashback . Entitled Fade to Black , it was the first attempt to bring a popular 2D platformer series into 3D. While it retained the puzzle-oriented level design style and step-based control, it did not meet
22977-465: The environments and includes music from levels set in Africa-inspired jungles, caverns, oceanic reefs, frozen landscapes, and industrial factories. Wise cited Koji Kondo 's music for the Super Mario and Legend of Zelda games, Tim and Geoff Follin's music for Plok! (1993), and 1980s synthesiser film soundtracks, rock, and dance music as influences, and wanted to imitate the sound of
23184-516: The farmhouse to an advanced development site elsewhere in Twycross. Rare was one of the first developers to receive Nintendo 64 software development kits and decided to start spending more time developing fewer games. Nintendo and Rare's partnership produced acclaimed Nintendo 64 games such as GoldenEye 007 (1997), Banjo-Kazooie (1998), Perfect Dark (2000), and Conker's Bad Fur Day (2001). A proposed Game Boy port of Donkey Kong Country
23391-521: The first award for Best Platform game in 1984 from Crash magazine. Later that same year, Epyx released Impossible Mission , and Parker Brothers released Montezuma's Revenge , which further expanded on the exploration aspect. The first platformer to use scrolling graphics came years before the genre became popular. Jump Bug is a platform-shooter developed by Alpha Denshi under contract for Hoei/Coreland and released to arcades in 1981, only five months after Donkey Kong . Players control
23598-628: The first level's track. Miyamoto was impressed, and Wise was enlisted to produce the final score. Before composing, Wise was shown the graphics and given an opportunity to play the level they would appear in, which gave him a sense of the music he would compose. He chose samples and optimised the music to work on the SNES's SPC700 sound chip. Wise worked separately from the team in a former cattle shed, visited occasionally by Tim Stamper. Donkey Kong Country features atmospheric music that mixes natural environmental sounds with prominent melodic and percussive accompaniments. Its soundtrack attempts to evoke
23805-554: The first major steps Iwata had made based on the company's research was directing the development of the Nintendo DS , a handheld incorporating dual screens including a touchscreen , to revitalize their handheld console line. In 2003, Iwata met with Miyamoto and Genyo Takeda to discuss their market research. Iwata instructed Takeda "to go off the tech roadmap" for this console, but said it had to be appealing to mothers. Iwata wanted their next console to be capable of playing past Nintendo games, eliminating clutter in houses. Takeda led
24012-485: The foreground and background, and the camera panning and curving around corners. Meanwhile, Pandemonium and Klonoa brought the 2.5D style to the PlayStation . In a break from the past, the Nintendo 64 had the fewest side scrolling platformers with only four; Yoshi's Story , Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards , Goemon's Great Adventure , and Mischief Makers —and most met with a tepid response from critics at
24219-470: The game a greater sense of speed than other platformers at the time, while its sequel, Wonder Boy in Monster Land added action-adventure and role-playing elements. Wonder Boy in turn inspired games such as Adventure Island , Dynastic Hero , Popful Mail , and Shantae . One of the first platformers to scroll in all four directions freely and follow the on-screen character's movement
24426-451: The game by splitting them into tiles as "the bane of the project". Models took hours to render, so the team would leave the computers running overnight. Sometimes, artists would shut down other artists' computers in the middle of the process so they could render their own models. The SGI machines required a massive air conditioning unit to prevent overheating, while the team worked in the summer heat without relief. Programmer Chris Sutherland
24633-498: The gameplay from its precursor but traded the frog-like mech for a cartoony rabbit mech called Robbit. The title was successful enough to get two sequels and is remembered for being the first 3D platformer on a console. Rob Fahey of Eurogamer said Jumping Flash was perhaps "one of the most important ancestors of every 3D platformer in the following decade." It holds the record of "First platform videogame in true 3D" according to Guinness World Records . Another early 3D platformer
24840-503: The gaming demographic. This proved to be a success as the Wii would become a social phenomenon globally throughout 2007. It took several years for the Wii to launch in other regions. It was released in South Africa on September 30, 2007, South Korea on April 26, 2008, Taiwan on July 12, 2008, India on September 30, 2008, and Hong Kong on December 12, 2009. Nintendo had planned work with its localization partner iQue to release
25047-632: The gaming industry. BBC News ' technology editor Alfred Hermida wrote that Nintendo's struggle to match Sony and Microsoft in the home console market made success crucial. The console, still named "Revolution", was formally presented to the public at E3 2005 . The motion controller interface had not yet been completed and was omitted from the unveiling. Iwata held the console above him with one hand to emphasize its size relative to its rivals. A smaller device meant it would draw on less power as to not overheat, and thus appealed to parents who were willing to have an attractive, small, power-efficient device in
25254-419: The genre are walking, running, jumping, attacking, and climbing. Jumping is central to the genre, though there are exceptions such as Nintendo 's Popeye and Data East 's BurgerTime , both from 1982. In some games, such as Donkey Kong , the trajectory of a jump is fixed, while in others it can be altered mid-air. Falling may cause damage or death. Many platformers contain environmental obstacles which kill
25461-471: The genre as "Donkey Kong-type" or "Kong-style" games. "Climbing games" was used in Steve Bloom's 1982 book Video Invaders and 1983 magazines Electronic Games (US)—which ran a cover feature called "The Player's Guide to Climbing Games"—and TV Gamer (UK). Bloom defined "climbing games" as titles where the player "must climb from the bottom of the screen to the top while avoiding and/or destroying
25668-457: The genre continued to maintain its popularity, with many games released for the handheld Game Boy and Game Gear systems. By the time the Genesis and TurboGrafx-16 launched, platformers were the most popular genre in console gaming. There was a particular emphasis on having a flagship platform title exclusive to a system, featuring a mascot character. In 1989, Sega released Alex Kidd in
25875-412: The genre. A modern variant of the platform game, especially significant on mobile platforms, is the endless runner , where the main character is always moving forward and the player must dodge or jump to avoid falling or hitting obstacles. Various names were used in the years following the release of the first established game in the genre, Donkey Kong (1981). Shigeru Miyamoto originally called it
26082-509: The handheld Game Boy. Following Diddy's Kong Quest , the Donkey Kong Country team split in two: one half began working on Project Dream , a role-playing game that used the Donkey Kong Country technology, and the other on Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! (1996). Rare followed Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! with Donkey Kong 64 (1999), the first Donkey Kong game to feature 3D gameplay. In 2002, Rare
26289-405: The idea of presenting these similar to a row of televisions each set to a different television channel as if in an electronics shop, creating the "channels" concept. A user can navigate to any channel window to bring that to the forefront, whether to launch the game or application or to get more information that was being displayed. For example, the Forecast Channel would display a brief summary of
26496-430: The included Sensor Bar , which is placed just above or below the television display, as to track the relative orientation of the Wii Remote towards the screen. This gives the Wii Remote the ability to act as a pointing device like a computer mouse on the television screen, with an approximate 15 feet (4.6 m) range for accurate detection. In addition, the Wii Remote features traditional controller inputs, including
26703-522: The inclusion of Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games was released in Europe on November 18, 2011, in collaboration with Sega . Nintendo later revised the North American bundle by replacing the prior pack-in game and soundtrack with the original Wii Sports duology; the new bundle was released on October 28, 2012. The Wii Mini (model RVL-201) is a smaller, redesigned Wii with
26910-478: The internet service CompuServe . The campaign included downloadable video samples of the game, a trivia contest in which 800 people participated, and an hour-long online chat conference attended by 80 people, in which Lincoln, Arakawa, and vice-president of marketing Peter Main answered questions. Nintendo's CompuServe promotion marked an early instance of a major video game company using the internet to promote its products. Nintendo gave away Donkey Kong T-shirts as
27117-472: The largest in their history at that point, and development began. Nintendo was sceptical of Rare's approach to graphics, concerned it would make the game unplayable. Early in development, Mayles and other developers presented a demo to Nintendo staff in Japan. One in attendance, the Game Boy creator Gunpei Yokoi , felt the game "looked too 3D", but Mayles said Donkey Kong 's creator, Shigeru Miyamoto ,
27324-454: The levels were open and had objectives. Completing objectives earned the player stars, and stars were used to unlock more levels. This approach allowed for more efficient use of large 3D areas and rewarded the player for exploration, but it meant less jumping and more action-adventure . Even so, a handful of boss levels offered more traditional platforming. Until then there was no settled way to make 3D platformers, but Super Mario 64 inspired
27531-414: The lightest of the three major seventh-generation consoles. The Wii may stand horizontally or vertically. The Wii Remote is the primary controller for the console. The remote contains a MEMS-based three-dimension accelerometer , along with infrared detection sensors located at the far end of the controller. The accelerometers allow the Wii Remote to recognize its orientation after being moved from
27738-425: The living room. Iwata reportedly used a stack of three DVD cases as a size guide. The prototype held by Iwata was black, but at release the following year, the console was only available in white. In their book on the console, two Loyola University Chicago professors suggested that Nintendo was inviting comparisons with Apple 's first iPod line. Iwata later unveiled and demonstrated their current prototype of
27945-574: The local area's temperature and short-term weather forecast, while clicking on the channel brought up an interactive globe that the user could manipulate with the Wii Remote to explore real-time weather conditions across the Earth. The Wii launched with six channels: the Disc Channel which was used to launch Wii and GameCube titles from an optical disc; the Mii Channel to create Mii avatars;
28152-557: The main level or by discovering hidden bonus stages , where they are earned via solving puzzles. The player starts with six lives . Collecting 100 bananas, all the K–O–N–G letters, a balloon, or three of the same animal token grants extra lives . The player can visit other members of the Kong family from the world map. Funky Kong operates a flight service allowing the player to travel across different areas of Donkey Kong Island; Cranky Kong ,
28359-449: The majority of Europe for €249.99 . Nintendo planned to have around 30 Wii games available by the end of 2006, and anticipated shipping over 4 million consoles before the end of the year. As part of its launch campaign, Nintendo promoted the Wii in North America through a series of television advertisements (directed by Academy Award winner Stephen Gaghan ); its Internet ads used the slogans "Wii would like to play" and "Experience
28566-489: The maze game, Namco's 1984 Pac-Land is a bidirectional, horizontally-scrolling, arcade video game with walking, running, jumping, springboards, power-ups , and a series of unique levels. Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani described the game as "the pioneer of action games with horizontally running background." According to Iwatani, Shigeru Miyamoto described Pac-Land as an influence on the development of Super Mario Bros. . Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. , released for
28773-405: The more linear 3D platformers like Tork: Prehistoric Punk and Wario World used scripted cameras that limited player control. Games with more open environments like Super Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie used intelligent cameras that followed the player's movements. Still, when the view was obstructed or not facing what the player needed to see, these intelligent cameras needed to be adjusted by
28980-414: The most recent Wii games, which were released on July 9, 2020 (more than 13 years after the Wii's launch). On January 27, 2020, Nintendo announced that it will no longer repair any faulty Wii consoles in Japan starting on February 6 due to a scarcity of spare parts. In building the Wii, Nintendo did not aim to outpace the performance of their competitors. Unlike the company's previous consoles, they built
29187-545: The music built atmosphere, Top Secret wrote the "captivating" soundtrack asserted itself as a masterpiece in its own right, and EGM and Entertainment Weekly said the audio quality was unprecedented for the SNES and on par with a CD's. Reviewers praised the gameplay for its variety and depth; Entertainment Weekly appreciated that it did not build upon the original arcade game's design. Total! described Donkey Kong Country as addictive, accessible and exciting, with humour, imagination, puzzles and secrets, that proved there
29394-553: The music that plays in the underwater levels, took five weeks to compose. Wise was inspired by a recent breakup, which made him feel as if he was drowning. He considers the track his favourite and the game's biggest technological accomplishment in regards to the audio. The boss theme was inspired by the Nine Inch Nails song " March of the Pigs " (1994), and K. Rool's theme was influenced by sea shanties , barrel organ music, and
29601-416: The new revision in August 2011 as a replacement for the original Wii model which it was discontinuing in certain regions including Europe and the United States. The new unit in its bundles was priced at $ 149.99 , a further reduction for the Wii's MSRP at the time of $ 199.99 established in September 2009. The console was first released in North America on October 23, 2011, in a black finish, bundled with
29808-483: The new wave of consoles. In the latter half of the 1980s and early 1990s, the Amiga was a strong gaming platform with its custom video hardware and sound hardware . The Atari ST was solidly supported as well. Games like Shadow of the Beast and Turrican showed that computer platformers could rival their console contemporaries. Prince of Persia , originally a late release for the 8-bit Apple II in 1989, featured
30015-511: The obstacles and foes you invariably meet along the way." Under this definition, he listed Space Panic (1980), Donkey Kong , and despite the top down perspective, Frogger (1981) as climbing games. In a December 1982 Creative Computing review of the Apple II game Beer Run , the reviewer used a different term: "I'm going to call this a ladder game, as in the 'ladder genre,' which includes Apple Panic and Donkey Kong ." That label
30222-423: The offline Wii Mini, though the Wii Shop Channel remained available. Nintendo discontinued production of the Wii in October 2013 after selling over 100 million units worldwide, though the company continued to produce the Wii Mini unit primarily for the North American market. The WiiConnect24 service and several channels based on that service were shuttered in June 2013. Support for online multiplayer games via
30429-408: The platform-action game, Valis , which contained anime -style cut scenes . In 1987, Capcom 's Mega Man introduced non-linear level progression where the player is able to choose the order in which they complete levels. This was a stark contrast to both linear games like Super Mario Bros. and open-world games like Metroid . GamesRadar credits the "level select" feature of Mega Man as
30636-571: The player a feeling that they were not alone". Donkey Kong Country did not have much scrapped content; Gunn said he only regretted that Donkey Kong walks across dotted lines instead of paths on the world map, which could not be implemented due to time constraints. One scrapped idea, a collectible that would evade the player by running or hiding, served as the basis for the Jinjos in Rare's subsequent game Banjo-Kazooie (1998). Reviewing Donkey Kong Country for release, Nintendo directed Rare to reduce
30843-561: The player around and aid in battle. In 1990, Hudson Soft released Bonk's Adventure , with a protagonist positioned as NEC 's mascot. The following year, Takeru's Cocoron , a late platformer for the Famicom allowed players to build a character from a toy box filled with spare parts. In 1990, the Super Famicom was released in Japan, along with the eagerly anticipated Super Mario World . The following year, Nintendo released
31050-459: The player character was Uniracer 's only element that was pre-rendered. The artists began by modelling the characters in NURBS using PowerAnimator and adding textures . They then created the animations and rendered them frame by frame before compressing them for the game. The ACM process was handled by a designated computer that had a proprietary utility similar to Deluxe Paint . Adapting to
31257-405: The player more control over the character and the camera. To render a 3D environment from any angle the user chose, the graphics hardware had to be sufficiently powerful, and the art and rendering model of the game had to be viewable from every angle. The improvement in graphics technology allowed publishers to make such games but introduced several new issues. For example, if the player could control
31464-481: The player to maneuver their character across platforms to reach a goal while confronting enemies and avoiding obstacles along the way. These games are either presented from the side view, using two-dimensional movement, or in 3D with the camera placed either behind the main character or in isometric perspective . Typical platforming gameplay tends to be very dynamic and challenges a player's reflexes, timing, and dexterity with controls. The most common movement options in
31671-498: The player's character upon contact, such as lava pits or bottomless chasms. The player may be able to collect items and power-ups and give the main character new abilities for overcoming adversities. Most games of this genre consist of multiple levels of increasing difficulty that may be interleaved by boss encounters, where the character has to defeat a particularly dangerous enemy to progress. Simple logical puzzles to resolve and skill trials to overcome are other common elements in
31878-400: The player's hand. Up to four Wii Remotes could connect wirelessly to a Wii, with LED lights on each remote indicating which controller number the Remote had connected as. The remote is battery -operated, and when the Remote is not powered on, these LED lights can display the remaining battery power. A wrist-mounted strap is included with the Wii Remote, with one end affixed to the bottom of
32085-993: The player. In the 1990s, RPGs , first-person shooters , and more complex action-adventure games captured significant market share. Even so, the platformer thrived. Tomb Raider became one of the bestselling series on the PlayStation , along with Insomniac Games ' Spyro and Naughty Dog 's Crash Bandicoot , one of the few 3D games to stick with linear levels. Moreover, many of the Nintendo 64 's bestsellers were first- and second-party platformers like Super Mario 64 , Banjo-Kazooie , and Donkey Kong 64 . On Windows and Mac , Pangea Software 's Bugdom series and BioWare 's MDK2 proved successful. Several developers who found success with 3D platformers began experimenting with titles that, despite their cartoon art style, were aimed at adults. Examples include Rare 's Conker's Bad Fur Day , Crystal Dynamics 's Gex: Deep Cover Gecko and Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver , and Shiny Entertainment 's Messiah . In 1998, Sega produced
32292-408: The presentation, fooling the audience into believing that it was for the upcoming Nintendo 64. Gregg Mayles recalled the audience was stunned in silence before bursting into applause. As one of the flagship games of Nintendo's Play It Loud! promotion, Donkey Kong Country was backed by an exceptionally large marketing campaign—"marketing blitzkrieg ", as Hardcore Gaming 101 put it. According to
32499-716: The range of exercises using the Wii Balance Board, the accessory can be used in other third-party games that translated the player's balance on the unit into in-game controls such as Shaun White Snowboarding and Skate It . Namco Bandai produced a mat controller (a simpler, less-sophisticated competitor to the Balance Board). One of Iwata's initiatives at Nintendo was focused on "quality of life" products, those that encouraged players to do other activities beyond simply sitting and playing video games as to promote physical wellbeing. The use of motion controls in
32706-475: The red Wii system bundles feature the Wii Remote Plus, with integrated Wii MotionPlus technology. The prefix for the numbering scheme of the Wii system and its parts and accessories is "RVL-" for its codename , "Revolution". The base Wii console had a model number of RVL-001, for example. A cost-reduced variant of the Wii (model RVL-101) was released late into the platform's lifespan that removed
32913-441: The redesign suited the updated Donkey Kong universe, so he chose to make it a new character. Naming the character was a challenge, and Rare dropped their preferred "Dinky Kong" due to legal problems. Rare staff spent hours at the nearby Twycross Zoo recording gorillas for reference, which they described as "a complete waste of time". They found their movements unsuitable for a fast game and their noises too quiet to be captured by
33120-456: The standards of previous SNES games such as the Mario and Legend of Zelda series and prevented it from being a "typical Nintendo blockbuster". CVG wrote that Donkey Kong Country was the only SNES game that matched Super Mario World , but that it would be a conventional platformer without its graphics. It warned that experienced players may find the game, designed for a broad audience, unoriginal. Donkey Kong Country received many Game of
33327-547: The style of 1940s jazz , seeking to imitate the Glenn Miller Orchestra in the "DK Island Swing", but was restricted by the SPC700's limitations; he "used a lot of small samples and made [the soundtrack] very synthesised" to work around them. His colleague Grant Kirkhope said that Wise's familiarity with the SNES hardware meant he could "make it do things that people hadn't heard before". " Aquatic Ambience ",
33534-402: The team building the console's hardware components, and Miyamoto spearheaded the development of a new type of controller, based on Gyration's motion-sensing technology. Iwata had proposed that this new console use motion sensing to simplify the gaming interface, increasing appeal to all audiences. An initial prototype was completed within six months. The Nintendo DS was said to have influenced
33741-455: The team to go further and incorporate weather and lighting effects. The ACM process pushed the SNES hardware to its limits; Betteridge said Rare wanted to do everything they could with the hardware similar to what they had done with the NES game Battletoads (1991). A single SGI screen took up more memory than an entire SNES cartridge, and Gregg Mayles described transferring the backgrounds into
33948-536: The terrain to defeat enemies or find items. The player begins in a world map that tracks their progress and provides access to the 40 levels . The player attempts to complete each level while traversing the environment, jumping between platforms, and avoiding enemy and inanimate obstacles. Level themes include jungles, underwater reefs, caves, mines, mountains, and factories. Some feature unique game mechanics , such as rideable minecarts , blasting out of cannons resembling barrels, and swinging ropes. Each area ends with
34155-441: The time. Despite this, Yoshi's Story sold over a million copies in the US, and Mischief Makers rode high on the charts in the months following its release. The term 3D platformer usually refers to games with gameplay in three dimensions and polygonal 3D graphics. Games that have 3D gameplay but 2D graphics are usually included under the umbrella of isometric platformers , while those that have 3D graphics but gameplay on
34362-423: The time. With 9.3 million copies sold worldwide, it is the third-bestselling SNES game and the bestselling Donkey Kong game. Following the success, Nintendo purchased a large minority stake in Rare, which became a prominent second-party developer for Nintendo during the late 1990s. Donkey Kong Country re-established Donkey Kong as a popular Nintendo franchise and helped maintain the SNES's popularity into
34569-487: The two gaming systems would be identical. Miyamoto also stated, "if the DS had flopped, we might have taken the Wii back to the drawing board." Prior to E3 2004, Iwata had referred to Nintendo's upcoming console offering as the GameCube Next (GCNext or GCN). Iwata first unveiled some details of Nintendo's new home console at E3 2004 under the codename "Revolution", as Iwata believed the console would revolutionize
34776-479: The unit. Nintendo strongly encouraged players to use the strap in case the Wii Remote accidentally slipped out of their hands. Nintendo recalled the original straps in December 2006 and provided a free, stronger strap as a replacement, as well as packaging the new strap in future bundles after the company faced legal challenges from users that reported damage to their homes from the Wii Remote slipping from their hands while playing. In October 2007, Nintendo also added
34983-430: The various buttons on the controller and relayed that to the Wii. The Wii launch bundle included the console; a stand to allow the console to be placed vertically; a plastic stabilizer for the main stand, one Wii Remote, a Nunchuk attachment for the Remote, a Sensor Bar and a removable stand for the bar to mount on a television set, an external power adapter , and two AA batteries for the Wii Remote. The bundle included
35190-437: The video game industry internationally. The following year, Donkey Kong received a sequel, Donkey Kong Jr. and later Mario Bros. , a platformer with two-player cooperative play . It laid the groundwork for other two-player cooperative games such as Fairyland Story and Bubble Bobble . Beginning in 1982, transitional games emerged with non-scrolling levels spanning multiple screens. David Crane's Pitfall! for
35397-411: The video game industry, such as adapting to online gaming. He also thought that video gaming had become too exclusive and wanted Nintendo to pursue gaming hardware and software that would appeal to all demographics. Nintendo's market analysis found that their focus on novel hardware had created consoles that made it difficult for third-party developers to create games for, hampering their position. One of
35604-455: The visual flash of 3D with traditional 2D side scrolling gameplay. These games are often referred to as 2.5D. The first such game was Saturn launch title , Clockwork Knight (1994). The game featured levels and boss characters rendered in 3D, but retained 2D gameplay and used pre-rendered 2D sprites for regular characters, similar to Donkey Kong Country . Its sequel improved upon its design, featuring some 3D effects such as hopping between
35811-421: The work of Iron Maiden . For the title screen theme, Wise remixed Nintendo's original Donkey Kong theme to demonstrate Donkey Kong's evolution. Wise said his primary focus was to make the most of the SPC700, and he input the music by hand to save memory. He noted the process was easier than composing for the NES due to the larger number of sound channels. Eveline Novakovic contributed seven tracks, including
36018-404: The work to Rare. Programmer Brendan Gunn noted that the Stampers worked to shield the team from outside influence. Rare spent 18 months developing Donkey Kong Country from an initial concept to a finished game, and according to product manager Dan Owsen , 20 people worked on it in total. It cost an estimated US$ 1 million to produce, and Rare said that it had the most man hours ever invested in
36225-576: The world map theme, as her first SNES project. Novakovic was inexperienced with the SNES hardware and Wise helped teach her as they worked together. She attempted to provide the levels a sense of purpose and drew inspiration from film composers like Alan Silvestri and Klaus Doldinger . Funky Kong's theme was originally written by Robin Beanland . According to Beanland, the track was intended for an internal progress video about another Rare game, Killer Instinct (1994), before Nintendo decided to use it in
36432-620: The world, no matter what language they speak. No confusion." The name resulted in criticism and mockery. Forbes expressed a fear that the console would be seen as juvenile. BBC News reported the day after the name was announced that "a long list of puerile jokes, based on the name," had appeared on the Internet. Some video game developers and members of the press stated that they preferred "Revolution" over "Wii". Nintendo of America's Vice President of Corporate Affairs Perrin Kaplan defended
36639-482: The world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, following the GameCube , and is a seventh-generation console alongside Microsoft 's Xbox 360 and Sony 's PlayStation 3 . In developing the Wii, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata directed the company to avoid competing with Microsoft and Sony on computational graphics and power and instead to target a broader demographic of players through novel gameplay. Game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Genyo Takeda led
36846-413: Was Floating Runner , developed by a Japanese company called Xing and released for PlayStation in early 1996, before the release of Super Mario 64 . Floating Runner uses D-pad controls and a behind-the-character camera perspective. In 1996, Nintendo released Super Mario 64 , which is a game that set the standard for 3D platformers. It let the player explore 3D environments with greater freedom than
37053-413: Was "probably the first time most people outside of Nintendo learned about the [Treehouse]" and the promotion allowed players to see the game for themself at home, rather than having to learn about it secondhand from a magazine. Exposed also features gameplay tips and interviews with localisers, playtesters , and Tim Stamper. In October 1994, Nintendo of America held an online promotional campaign through
37260-505: Was a primary way to attack. This was the first true 3D platform-action game with free-roaming environments, but it was never ported to another platform or released outside Japan, so it remains relatively unknown in the West. The following year, Exact released their follow-up to Geograph Seal . An early title for Sony's new PlayStation console, Jumping Flash! , released in April 1995, kept
37467-502: Was a significant risk, as each workstation cost £80,000. The move made Rare the most technologically advanced UK developer and situated them high in the international market. Though they had purchased the workstations to produce games for the Nintendo 64 , which was in development at the time, Rare discovered it was possible to use them with the 16-bit SNES. Rare tested the SGI technology with Battletoads Arcade (1994) and began developing
37674-411: Was acquired by Nintendo's competitor Microsoft and the Donkey Kong rights reverted to Nintendo. A soundtrack CD, DK Jamz , was released in North America via news media and retailers in November 1994, with a standalone release in 1995. It was one of the earliest video game soundtrack albums released in the United States. The Japanese soundtrack CD, Super Donkey Kong Game Music CD ~ Jungle Fantasy ,
37881-511: Was also used by Video Games Player magazine in 1983 when it named the Coleco port of Donkey Kong "Ladder Game of the Year". Another term used in the late 1980s to 1990s was "character action games", in reference to games such as Super Mario Bros. , Sonic the Hedgehog , and Bubsy . It was also applied more generally to side-scrolling video games , including run and gun video games such as Gunstar Heroes . Platform game became
38088-458: Was available in Japan on November 11, 2010, commemorating the 25th anniversary of Super Mario Bros. The European version of the limited-edition red Wii bundle was released on October 29, 2010, which includes the original Donkey Kong game pre-installed onto the console, New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Wii Sports . The red Wii bundle was released in North America on November 7, 2010, with New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Wii Sports . All of
38295-505: Was blocky and muscular to make Donkey Kong easy to animate, but it became more cartoonish when Nintendo faxed reference material. Some of Bayliss' designs were in the style of his Battletoads work, and the final design's eyes came from those of the Battletoads . Miyamoto provided some suggestions, including the red tie, but left the design's specifics to Bayliss. Because Donkey Kong did not have much of an established universe, Rare
38502-431: Was considered the killer app for the console; other flagship games included entries in the Super Mario , Legend of Zelda , Pokémon , and Metroid series. Within a year of launch, the Wii became the best-selling seventh-generation console as well as a social phenomenon in many countries. Total lifetime sales of the Wii had reached over 101 million units, making it Nintendo's best-selling home console until it
38709-521: Was first released on December 7, 2012, exclusively in Canada with a MSRP of CA$ 99.99 . It was later released in Europe on March 22, 2013, and in the United States on November 17, 2013. The Canadian and European releases did not include a game, while Mario Kart Wii had been included in all launch bundles in the United States. Nintendo added several best-selling and critically acclaimed Wii games to its Nintendo Selects label and marketed those alongside
38916-404: Was first released on November 18, 2012 in North America; November 30, 2012 in Europe and Australia, and December 8, 2012 in Japan. Nintendo continued to sell the revised Wii model and the Wii Mini alongside the Wii U during the Wii U's first release year. During 2013, Nintendo began to sunset certain Wii online functions as they pushed consumers towards the Wii U as a replacement system or towards
39123-485: Was firstly named "GameCube Next" as a placeholder. The price of the new console was originally envisioned to be as low as 100 euros but the NAND flash memory desired by Satoru Iwata would force that price to slightly more than the double. Miyamoto cited Dance Dance Revolution 's unique game controllers as inspiration for developing new input devices. Later on September 24, 2001, Nintendo began working with Gyration Inc.,
39330-408: Was formally announced as the Wii in April 2006, a month prior to E3 2006 . Nintendo's spelling of "Wii" (with two lower-case "i" characters) was intended to represent both two people standing side by side, and the Wii Remote and its Nunchuk. In the company's announcement, they stated: "Wii sounds like 'we', which emphasizes that the console is for everyone. Wii can easily be remembered by people around
39537-473: Was found in any previous game in the genre. With this in mind, Nintendo put an analog control stick on its Nintendo 64 controller, a feature that had not been seen since the Vectrex but which has since become standard. The analog stick provided the fine precision needed with a free perspective. In most 2D platformers, the player finished a level by following a path to a certain point, but in Super Mario 64 ,
39744-412: Was free to expand it with new characters. Mayles conceived Diddy as a redesign of Donkey Kong Jr. Unlike the original Donkey Kong Jr., Rare did not want Diddy to share his build with Donkey Kong, so they based him on a spider monkey and made him agile to give him distinct moves. Nintendo considered the redesign too great a departure and asked it to be reworked or presented as a new character. Mayles felt
39951-423: Was highly anticipated and backed by a major marketing campaign that cost $ 16 million in America alone. It was released in November 1994 to acclaim; critics hailed its visuals as groundbreaking and praised its gameplay and music. Its quality and design were favourably compared to the Super Mario series. Donkey Kong Country received several year-end accolades and set the record for the fastest-selling video game at
40158-426: Was highly anticipated. Hardcore Gaming 101 wrote: "It was everywhere. You couldn't escape it. It was on the cover of every magazine. It was on gigantic, imposing displays and marquees at Wal-Mart and Babbages ... For kids of the era, November 20th seemed like the eve of a revolution". The Exposed VHS tape contributed significantly to the hype. Donkey Kong Country was expected to gross at least US$ 140 million in
40365-500: Was on the horizon, the 32-bit prowess of Sony 's PlayStation and the Sega Saturn far exceeding the SNES's capabilities. The Nintendo 64 was not due for release until 1996, so Donkey Kong Country , wrote USGamer , served as Nintendo's "bluff" to make it seem that the SNES could hold its ground against next-generation hardware. Donkey Kong Country was released worldwide in November 1994, two weeks ahead of schedule and around
40572-441: Was one of the first home console games to feature pre-rendered graphics, achieved through a compression technique that converted 3D models into SNES sprites with little loss of detail. It was the first Donkey Kong game neither produced nor directed by the franchise's creator Shigeru Miyamoto , though he contributed design ideas. Following its announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show in June 1994, Donkey Kong Country
40779-726: Was possible to reverse-engineer the NES and showed several tech demos to Nintendo executive Minoru Arakawa ; impressed, Arakawa granted Rare a Nintendo developer licence. Rare developed more than 60 NES games, including the Battletoads series and ports of games such as Marble Madness . When Nintendo released their next console, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), in 1991, Rare decided to limit their output. Around 1992, Rare invested their NES profit in Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI) Challenge workstations with Alias rendering software to render 3D models . It
40986-436: Was released alongside Wii Fit in December 2007. It is a wireless balance board accessory for the Wii, with multiple pressure sensors used to measure the user's center of balance . Wii Fit offers a number of different exercise modes which monitored the player's position on the board, as well as exercise gamification, as to encourage players to exercise daily. In addition to use in Nintendo's Wii Fit Plus that expanded
41193-554: Was released in January 1995. In addition to the game music, it features seven rearrangements by Yoshiyuki Ito, who previously composed rearrangements for Nintendo's Zelda and Metroid soundtrack releases. The soundtrack was rereleased through the Donkey Kong Country Trilogy compilation album in November 1996 and via Nintendo Music , Nintendo's music streaming service , when it launched in October 2024. A competition-oriented version of Donkey Kong Country
41400-433: Was repurposed as a separate game, Donkey Kong Land (1995), after the programmer Paul Machacek convinced Rare that it would be a better use of resources and expand the potential audience. 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
41607-415: Was responsible for implementing the graphics and found reducing the characters' frames of animation challenging. David Wise composed most of the soundtrack. Wise initially worked as a freelancer and assumed his music would be replaced by Koji Kondo because of the importance of Donkey Kong to Nintendo. Rare asked Wise to record three jungle demo tunes that were merged to become the "DK Island Swing",
41814-528: Was sold through Blockbuster Video . Its changes include a time limit for the playable levels and a scoring system, which had been used in the Nintendo PowerFest '94 and Blockbuster World Video Game Championships II competitions. It was later distributed in limited quantities through Nintendo Power . The competition version of Donkey Kong Country is the rarest licensed SNES game; only 2,500 cartridges are known to exist. In 2000, Rare developed
42021-466: Was still potential in the platform game genre. EGM and GameFan wrote that the game was lengthy and offered plenty of technique, and GamePro commended the replay value that searching for bonus stages provided. EGM and GamePro found searching for bonus stages was challenging, though GamePro said it was easy to "breeze through the game" without them and criticised the boss fights as simplistic. Critics frequently compared Donkey Kong Country to
42228-450: Was supportive and gave Rare his approval. Donkey Kong Country was the first Donkey Kong game that was neither directed nor produced by Miyamoto, who was working on Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (1995). Miyamoto was still involved with the project and Rare said he provided crucial input. Nintendo is usually highly protective of their intellectual properties, but was relatively uninvolved with Donkey Kong Country , leaving most of
42435-534: Was surpassed by the Nintendo Switch in 2021. As of 2022, the Wii is the fifth-best-selling home console of all time . The Wii repositioned Nintendo as a key player in the video game console marketplace. The introduction of motion-controlled games via the Wii Remote led both Microsoft and Sony to develop their own competing products—the Kinect and PlayStation Move , respectively. Nintendo found that, while
42642-410: Was swinging towards you so you could jump onto it straight away)... If you time everything correctly, you can get through the level efficiently and impressively. Gregg Mayles Rare drew inspiration from the Super Mario series, Mayles citing Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988) as the primary influence on the level design . Mayles wanted to make a game that was accessible but would flow seamlessly for
42849-418: Was the first game to allow players to jump over obstacles and gaps. It is widely considered to be the first platformer. It introduced Mario under the name Jumpman. Donkey Kong was ported to many consoles and computers at the time, notably as the system-selling pack-in game for ColecoVision , and also a handheld version from Coleco in 1982. The game helped cement Nintendo's position as an important name in
#62937