Donkey Kong Country is long considered one of the most beautiful games on the Super Nintendo, and part of it can be attributed to the design of former rare artist Kev Bayliss. In a new YouTube video, Bayliss has revealed a number of early sketches for the game, including designs for Donkey Kong, Winky, the Kremlin, and more. This is a fascinating look back at the design process, and it should be of interest to those who played the game when it was released in 1994, and those who only discovered it last year when it was released on Nintendo Switch!
The video can be found embedded below.
Bayliss’ designs are a bit “cartoonish” like the versions that ended in the last game, but they still felt the same. It’s easy to see how these sketches evolved into the designs that made it into the final game. While the majority of the characters in Donkey Kong Country was completely original, Rare had to make a significant effort to modernize Donkey Kong from the version that initially appeared in arcades with his former arch-enemy, Mario.
Rare’s attack on Donkey Kong has clearly been very successful. Not only did this version of DK appear in a trio of SNES games, but the character redesign began to appear in Mario family games, such as Mario Kart 64 and Mario Party. Despite this close association with Nintendo’s snake mascot, DK is particularly absent from the Universal Nintendo World appeal of Universal Studios in Japan. However, a computer maker was able to discover stamps and materials related to the character in the Super Nintendo World app. This material contains the version of Rare about DK, as well as Diddy Kong, and more. This may indicate that the attraction in the Donkey Kong theme park may be seen somewhere in the future!
Many designs from previous games are often lost or discarded, so it’s really amazing to see that Bayliss’ sketches have managed to survive for over 25 years. Maybe one day they will see release as part of an art book based on the game! Given its popularity and relevance Donkey Kong Country maintain after all these years, it certainly seems like a possibility.
What do you think of this early on? Donkey Kong Country concept art? Are you a fan of the Super Nintendo game? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to play all games!