Tag Archives: Donkey Kong

Technology

Nintendo Has Filed A New Trademark For The Donkey Kong Series

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Try not to go bananas over this, but Nintendo has filed a “new” trademark for the Donkey Kong series. This one is seemingly a little different from the usual ones. Instead of another stock-standard renewal, it actually seems to have been updated to mention “downloadable programs for portable and electronic consoles”.

It’s already ignited speculation that something video game-related could be on the way to the Nintendo Switch. In saying this, it should probably be treated as nothing more than a simple update potentially just future-proofing the Donkey Kong series. Trademark renewals are a regular thing for classic Nintendo IPs.

Earlier this year in May, for example, Nintendo filed trademarks for four classic titles. One of these happened to be for Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong’s Double Trouble! on the Super Nintendo. This was alongside other titles from series such as Zelda and Metroid:

Rumours about a new Donkey Kong game have been circulating online over the past year – with one, in particular, suggesting Nintendo EPD (the team responsible for Super Mario Odyssey) could be working on a new entry.

Apart from the upcoming Mario movie, when do you think we’ll see DK make a return? What kind of adventure would you like to see him feature in next and would you like to see the retro Donkey Kong games return? Leave your own thoughts down below.



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Technology

The Nintendo Switch Has A Big Summer Sale Right Now

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The dog days of summer are officially here. Whether you’re trying to take your mind off the heat or the bad headlines, you’re in luck: Nintendo is currently running a major sale on digital Switch games. Cool off with Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze or mind-meld with a sentient hat in Super Mario Odyssey for 30% off the normal sticker price.

That’s not a giant discount in the larger world of gaming, but it’s a big deal for the notoriously stingy Nintendo eShop, where first-party games especially remain full price years after launch (unlike, for example, PlayStation where you can currently get God of War for just $20). The handheld hybrid’s current promotion is called the Nintendo eShop Big Ol’ Super Sale, and while it’s not as sweeping as last year’s Black Friday discounts, there’s still a lot of decently priced stuff if you’re looking for something to play while lying in front of the box fan or lounging in the pool.

Here’s the first-party stuff, discounted 30% off the normal $60 MSRP:

  • Super Mario Odyssey – $42
  • Super Mario Maker 2 – $42
  • Paper Mario: The Origami King – $42
  • The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening – $42
  • Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze – $42
  • Pikmin 3 Deluxe – $42

Why is Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, a 2018 port of a 2014 Wii U game, still regularly full price? Who can say. But Tropical Freeze remains a gem and one of the best platformers of the modern era. Here are some other standouts from the sale:

  • Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore – $42
  • Astral Chain – $42
  • Daemon X Machina – $42
  • Bravely Default II – $42
  • Shin Megami Tensei V – $42
  • Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga – $45
  • Monster Hunter Rise – $31
  • Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – $35
  • Dark Souls Remastered – $20
  • Ruined King: A League of Legends Story – $20
  • Tetris Effect: Connected – $24
  • No More Heroes 3 – $30
  • Hades – $15
  • Persona 5 Strikers – $30
  • The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – $30
  • Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic – $12
  • Diablo II: Resurrected – $24
  • The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – $30

There are also a few fantastic indies with some nice discounts right now, including Loop Hero ($10.50), Death’s Door ($13), and Chicory: A Colorful Tale ($14), all 2021 standouts on several people’s game-of-the-year lists. I personally will be taking this opportunity to pick up Castlevania Advance Collection ($13.50) and Eastward ($20), because June is usually when I get that itch to go back and play something classic or retro-influenced.

The Big Ol’ Super Sale will run until July 6 just before midnight and eShop purchases net you 5 percent back through gold coins, so you’ll get a few bucks off future games as well.

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Technology

Reggie “Hated” Donkey Konga And Was Worried It Would Hurt The DK Brand

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Update [Sat 7th May, 2022 12:30 BST]: G4 has now uploaded the full interview with Reggie – adding some much-needed context to that line about how much he “hated Donkey Konga”. It turns out, he was just protective and was worried about the music rhythm series ruining the Donkey Kong brand. In the end, though, he admits it sold “reasonably” well.

“I have to tell you, as an executive, I hated Donkey Konga. I hated it. I fought with our parent company. I thought it was going to hurt the Donkey Kong brand. Personally, I didn’t find it a lot of fun to play so I pushed back hard. You know what? We launched it. The first game actually sold reasonably well, but boy I was not a fan.”

Original article [Sat 30th Apr, 2022 02:30 BST]: The former Nintendo of America president, Reggie Fils-Aimé, is currently doing the rounds online to promote his new book Disrupting the Game. If you thought you’ve heard everything he’s had to say, perhaps not.

In a new teaser (that lacks context and is clearly poking fun) for an upcoming G4TV XPlay interview, Reggie can be seen answering some hard-hitting questions. We do hear him say a little bit in this short time frame, but possibly the most shocking (and hilarious) line is the following: “As an executive, I hated Donkey Konga.”

Again, there’s not really much context here, so there’s no need to raise that pitchfork just yet. It’s no doubt G4TV drumming up some excitement for this special interview. Reggie’s new book will be made available on 3rd May. It’s filled with inspiring stories and lessons about his “unlikely rise” to the top.

Keep an eye out for our Nintendo Life review next week.



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Technology

Nintendo Switch eShop Sees Massive Server Issues On Christmas

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Across the country, folks everywhere are unwrapping their new Nintendo portable hardware, booting up their accounts, and trying to buy new digital games. But over the last few hours, per social media, the Nintendo Switch storefront known as the eShop has been in and out of commission. Sometimes it loads, albeit slowly. Other times, you can’t access the strangely laggy orange menus to rebuy Mario Kart 8 for the third time, alas.

Under error code 2811-7429, the message that stares back at you after some loading struggle simply says that the console is unable to connect to server and says that you should try again later. Kotaku has reached out to Nintendo for more information on when users can expect the service to come back. The official online server website says, “We are currently experiencing difficulties with our network services.”

For the most part, this shouldn’t be too disruptive when it comes to enjoying the console. You can still boot up whatever games you already own, you just can’t buy new stuff or download DLC and the like. Granted, you also can’t redeem gift cards, which is likely a bummer for anyone who received them as presents this morning. That’s likely a ton of people, huh? A lot of people who are surely loading and re-loading hoping that something has changed this time…oh, this will probably be a while.

But for the folks who had the prescience to gift or buy physical games, if not download stuff in advance of wrapping—well, you’re probably fine. Everyone else: honestly, stuff like this happens nearly every year, for at least one of the consoles or one of the major games. I know it’s annoying now and likely will be for a chunk of the day. The servers are definitely getting hammered. I guess go spend time with your family or something?

Or, if you’d like some good reading: our suggestion for the very best games the Nintendo Switch has to offer, and the cream of the crop sales that the console has going on right now. You know, for when the shop comes back.



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Technology

Mysterious And Super Rare Nintendo Game & Watch Discovered At Auction

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A Yahoo Auctions listing in Japan made headlines in the collecting community recently when it offered for purchase a Nintendo Game & Watch that was so rare many people were convinced it was fake.

As Nintendo super-fan and author of the incredible History of Nintendo series of books Florent Gorges explains in the video below, this particular Game & Watch came in a regular retail Donkey Kong box, but on its top plate had an illustration of three men, along with a commemorative note about Nintendo having sold 20 million Game & Watch devices.

Those notes have been seen before in other rare Game & Watches, but the presence of the three men here is what made this particular unit so mysterious. One was Nintendo legend Gunpei Yokoi, but the other two—Momose and Ishida—were complete unknowns, and had seemingly never been Nintendo employees.

That fact, the style of illustration and some other little things—like the lack of a serial number—had a lot of people convinced the unit was a fake, but as Gorges spells out, after some research it turns out the unit was most likely legit, and incredibly rare at that.

The three men were drawn by legendary artist Makoto Kano (who worked on everything from the original Metroid to Pokémon Stadium), and after some digging by Gorges and some friends discovered, the other two weren’t Nintendo employees, but instead partners involved in the production of Game & Watch hardware. Momose was the director of the factory that produced the aluminium plates found on every Game & Watch, while Ishida was an employee of that factory who was Nintendo’s direct contact.

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Armed with all that information, and with this likely being one of only a handful of these ever made (maybe even just one for each of the men pictured), Georges and some other collectors teamed up to try and buy the unit at auction so they could add it to their historical collections. Sadly their Yahoo account was limited to a maximum bid of one ¥1,000,000, and the winning bid ended up being…¥1,000,100, but as Georges ends the video saying, there’s always hope that the buyer, realising the rarity and worth of the item, was also someone committed to preserving it, and was maybe even Nintendo themselves in order to add it to their upcoming museum.

The video below is in French, but has proper English subtitles available once you enable them.

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Technology

Nintendo Characters Star in Awesome Godzilla vs. Kong Mash-Up

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Hype is quite high for Godzilla vs. Kong following the release of the film’s first trailer, and one Nintendo fan has taken the opportunity to reimagine the upcoming battle with a pair of the company’s characters. Artist @TinaFate1 on Twitter shared an amazing match-up between a different dinosaur and ape: Bowser and Donkey Kong! The characters seem to fit in quite well for the two monsters, though it seems that their conflict will cause a bit less destruction than the battle between Kong and Godzilla. That’s because, rather than a city, the backdrop for this titanic tussle is the Battlefield stage from the Super Smash Bros. franchise!

The image from @TinaFate1 can be found embedded below.

The decision to use Donkey Kong in this role is very fitting, considering the history between the two characters. The King Kong films had a major influence on Shigeru Miyamoto’s development of the original Donkey Kong arcade game. The game found a significant amount of success, prompting MCA Universal to bring a lawsuit against Nintendo in 1984. However, Nintendo was able to successfully prove that the King Kong character actually existed in the public domain, and the company won the lawsuit, as a result.

Since those early days, Donkey Kong has strayed quite a bit from his King Kong-inspired roots, while remaining one of Nintendo’s biggest characters. Despite starting out as Mario’s arch-rival, the character eventually went on to become a full-fledged hero, starring in the massively popular Donkey Kong Country series. Of course, Bowser took on the role of Mario’s greatest enemy with the release of Super Mario Bros. in 1985. Ironically enough, Bowser’s next role will see the character growing to Kaiju-like size in Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury. In that game, players will be able to take part in a massive battle between Bowser and a giant version of Mario. Sadly, there’s no Donkey Kong in site!

With Godzilla vs. Kong set to release in just a few short months, it’s not hard to imagine that the film will inspire a slew of additional artwork like the one made by @TinaFate1!

Are you looking forward to Godzilla vs. Kong? What do you think of the artwork by @TinaFate1? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!



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