The game was an immediate hit, winning many “Game of the Year” awards in 1994 (against tough competition such as Super Metroid). Nintendo was set on driving home the point that you didn’t need new hardware to deliver “next-generation” game experiences. Donkey Kong Country was being marketed directly against Sega’s new 32X and Sega CD platforms.

Although the games didn’t feature particularly rich narratives, a world was created, and it’s proven to be one of the most loved, and lucrative, video game worlds Nintendo’s ever created. Donkey Kong went from being a villain in his title to a member of a larger family.

The games were seen as watermark titles for their platform, and also for their characters. What followed were three games between 19 that defined the later years of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. was given permission to breathe life into the old character after impressing Hiroshi Yamauchi with a demo featuring Silicon Graphics technology. All of that changed, however, when UK developer Rare Ltd. Donkey Kong has been around almost as long as Nintendo has been making video games, but largely he stayed in the background while Mario took over in the late 1980s and early 1990s. While Mario is often seen as Nintendo’s flagship character, this honor should really belong to Donkey Kong, who was at least a named character while Mario was still referred to as “Jumpman”.

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