Basically, I was scrolling the Mariowiki out of boredom. Then, I checked the Wiki page for Diddy Kong. I checked the game appearance and noticed that the character did not appear in any non-Rare games created by Nintendo (like Mario spin-offs or Smash Bros.) until 2003 with the release of [Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour](https://www.mariowiki.com/Mario_Golf:_Toadstool_Tour).
In that article, there’s something that caught my eyes. It states: “it is also the first to include Diddy Kong from the Donkey Kong games, effectively taking Donkey Kong Jr.’s previous role as secondary Donkey Kong character in Super Mario games following the acquisition of Donkey Kong Country assets from Rare Ltd.”
Does this mean that Nintendo didn’t own DK characters created by Rare (basically everyone like Diddy, Dixie, Cranky, Funky, Tiny, Chunky, Lanky, King. K. Rool, etc.. except DK and DK Jr.) Until 2002? I’m surprised that this isn’t like Mrs. Pac-Man, were she’s owned by a different company because she wasn’t created by Namco. Specially since Rare owns Banjo-Kazooie and Conker.
If that’s the case, then that explains why they never appeared in games like Mario Kart 64, or how they didn’t have five fingers until Mario Golf. I’m not sure about this, which is why I’m asking. Does anyone know?
by Jaccblacc203
14 Comments
They’ve always been owned by Nintendo. The reason it took until the Gamecube for them to appear in Mario spin-offs is probably due to roster sizes. You mention Mario Kart 64, but that game only had 8 characters. You’d have to cut someone like Wario or Toad to fit Diddy in.
They were owned by Nintendo. On the back of the box of Diddy Kong Racing, it was written that Diddy, Banjo and Krunch were characters licensed by Nintendo.
Diddy Kong Racing would have been in development at the same time as Mario Kart 64 (they released a year apart) so Diddy Kong would even never have been considered for it even if there was room for more characters.
Nintendo always owned everything the DK universe. Diddy Kong racing is the oddball because rare owns some of those characters while Nintendo owns the rest. Think of it as a Geno situation.
There are stories that Microsoft executives were also confused by this when they acquired Rare and found out that Donkey Kong didn’t come with the purchase.
Nintendo retained original characters and franchises such as the Donkey Kong Franchise, and Microsoft was sold independently created IPs such as Banjo Kazoie, Conker, Perfect Dark, etc.
Nintendo always owned the Donkey Kong characters, including those created by Rare. However, when Microsoft purchased Rare, they initially believed they owned all of those characters as well.This was sorted out between Microsoft and Nintendo, but it would explain why for some time, the extended DK roster wasn’t used in Nintendo games for a time.
Take this with a grain of salt, because they are still rumors, but I’ve heard that Nintendo and Microsoft actually had to trade the rights between Banjo and the expanded Kong family.
Apparently, went dividing Rare, there was some copyright licensing issue that came into affect where Rare was considered the owners of the expanded Kong family.
So Nintendo and Microsoft, to avoid as little confusion as possible, traded Banjo and a few others for Microsoft and Rare to give back the expanded Kong family.
That is just a rumor that even I’m skeptical of, and I’m sure other comments will disprove it, but that’s what I’ve heard.
Considering they were created in the 80s…..
Bruh when Microsoft came to visit rare they saw a huge Dk statue and one of the execs said something like “ we own that too, right”? No, all characters created for a Nintendo game are owned by Nintendo. Rare didn’t own anything but when it came to rereleases and such Nintendo, rare, and Microsoft would work together.
100% Nintendo will have had absolute ownership over any and all characters in these games.
My understanding is that Rare originally owned the DK64 debuting characters like Lanky Kong.
https://www.dkvine.com/interactive/forums/index.php?act=findpost&pid=431335 is an old forum post where, if you scroll down a bit, you can find an image from the DK64 player’s guide with the copyright and trademark info near the bottom.
Why did you ask if it was after Microsoft bought rare? 🤣 do you not realize that donkey kong country came out way before that happened also to answer your question, nintendo owns them
For an analogous situation, nobody’s ever asserted that Intelligent Systems own the WarioWare cast, yet they’ve also never interacted with the main Mario cast. Nintendo sometimes likes to keep things separate that would logically be part of the same universe.
At the very least, Nintendo didn’t want to step on Rare’s toes by using their characters without their involvement while they were working together. It being an actual ownership issue is also very probable, however.
I believe Nintendo owned everything Rare created but when Microsoft bought them out Nintendo allowed rare to take their original IPs they created with them as a parting gift.
The only characters from Donkey Kong that Rare owned, aside from most of the cast in Diddy Kong Racing, were surprisingly, the original characters created in Donkey Kong 64. But during the Microsoft buyout, Nintendo traded Banjo-Kazooie, for the Kongs and characters that Rare owned (it’s believed that they were Chunky, Tiny, and Lanky). But as for Diddy, Dixie, Cranky and others created prior to DK64, I believe Nintendo owned them, but still consulted Rare whenever using them for anything, especially the models created by Rare. It’s why you see Rare in the credits for games like Mario Kart 64 and Smash Bros.. Though it is interesting that none of Rare’s created characters showed up in any Nintendo games up until the Microsoft Buyout, maybe Nintendo thought that since they didn’t create them, that it wasn’t any of their business to use them… They tend to do that sometimes when separate teams create characters even within the company.