There is one exception, which I’ll note below. But I thought this was an interesting observation. According to wiki: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_Donkey\_Kong\_video\_games](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Donkey_Kong_video_games)
You can see that starting with the SNES when Rare took over development for the DKC series, and since then, that (almost) all games have been developed an external studio. By external I mean second-party or third-party, as opposed to being proper in-house Nintendo (as Mario, Zelda, etc are).
The exception to this is Donkey Kong Jungle Beat for the Gamecube.
So yeah, it just struck me as interesting, because I see DK as a major mascot of Nintendo right alongside Mario himself, since he’s been in the mix about the same length. It just seems odd that Nintendo basically outsources the development of a major IP to a studio other than Nintendo EAD.
Anyone have any insight on why this has turned out this way, if there is any particular reason? Or maybe just a quirk of how the history of the franchise went.
by currently__working
11 Comments
>It just seems odd that Nintendo basically outsources the development of a major IP to a studio other than Nintendo EAD.
To be fair, getting external studios to work on their major IP is kinda a big part of Nintendo’s MO. Nintendo’s almost always had the problem of having more IP than their internal teams can manage, and they’ve been using partnerships with external developers to supplement their output pretty much forever. To give a few examples, Capcom’s made 3 mainline Zelda games, Sega made an F-Zero, Smash has pretty much *never* been done in-house (Brawl is probably the closest, but even then a lot of it was contracted out to external studios), and Starfox has been passed around to everyone from Namco to Platinum.
You’re also kinda ignoring Donkey Kong ’94 for the Gameboy (which released the same year as DKC1) which was worked on by Nintendo EAD; plus the Mario vs Donkey series and DKC Returns/Tropical Freeze were made by fully-owned Nintendo studios, not 2nd or 3rd party partners. Nintendo Software Technology and Retro Studios are just as much “Nintendo” as, say, Naughty Dog is “Sony”.
I think the reason that most DK games have been made outside of Nintendo EAD (or EPD nowadays) though is sorta just a matter of circumstance. They only have so many teams there and most of those teams kinda already have specific series they focus on. DK had a “home developer” of its own for a while with Rare so there was no need to make room at EAD for it, but then when they got bought by Microsoft, DK was suddenly a series without a dedicated home; then it kinda just got bounced around here and there before Retro wanted a break from Metroid and decided to seriously commit to it for a while.
It is interesting though to think that there might just be something about the DK series that western developers just have an easier time vibing with or find more appealing, and that’s why they keep picking the series back up.
Retro Studios is 100% owned by Nintendo and is considered an external 1st party studio.
As others have already pointed out, this simply isn’t true… Not even remotely. Off the top of my head, the only ones that come to mind that weren’t developed internally were the original DKC games (Rare), the Donkey Konga games (Namco), and DK Jungle Climber (Paon). There could be others, but I’d say the majority were made by Nintendo and not outsourced.
Your main issue seems to be the misunderstanding that Nintendo EAD are Nintendo’s only 1st party studios. They aren’t. Retro Studios, NST, and Nintendo SPD are all fully owned Nintendo subsidiaries as well and everything from them are every bit “made by Nintendo” as EAD. Granted, unlike the main EAD, they aren’t housed in Nintendo’s Kyoto Headquarters, but then again neither is EAD Tokyo who made Jungle Beat.
Plenty of Nintendo IPs are outsourced to second party studios, though.
Heck, even the original donkey kong arcade wasn’t developed, or at least fully developed, by Nintendo. It’s just tradition at this point
I’m not surprised by this considering how even back in the 90s, everyone knew that Donkey Kong Country was synonymous with Rare.
Relevant but slightly off topic: Donkey Kong ’94 was one of the best games I ever played, and I loved how it was true to the spirit of the original, while adding to it. But apparently, that too was made by someone else: Pax Softinca. I played the hell out of that game, and I loved the retro feel of it at the time.
The Gameboy was on another level in terms of Nintendo classics. We only got one sequel to Super Mario World on the SNES and I’id argue it wasn’t even a true sequel. But on the Gameboy we got three Super Mario Land games, AND sequel to the original Donkey Kong series.
didn’t they make the Mario Vs Donkey Kong games?
DK as a series has always been floated around by different developers.
Nintendo: Donkey Kong (arcade), Donkey Kong Jr., Donkey Kong 3, Donkey Kong 94, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, and Mario vs. DK series.
Rare: Donkey Kong Country Trilogy, Donkey Kong Land Trilogy, DKC GBA ports/remakes, Donkey Kong 64, Diddy Kong Racing/DS
Paon: DK: King of Swing, DK: Jungle Climber, and Donkey Kong Barrel Blast
Namco: Donkey Konga Trilogy
Retro Studios (which is Nintendo btw): Returns and Tropical Freeze.
I wish DK had his own dedicated studio within Nintendo so we wouldn’t go on 10 year long hiatuses. DK sells good numbers but the problem is DK doesn’t sell Mario, Zelda, Splatoon, and Animal Crossing numbers nowadays. So Nintendo doesn’t dedicate the time, money, and resources for in house development for the series. Which is a shame. DK is what put Nintendo on the map yet they treat the big ape like complete crap when it comes to games. At least he’s getting a theme park and has a major role in the Mario movie with a potential spin-off in the future.
Donkey Kong Jungle Beat
/thread
Mario VS Donkey Kong was developed by Nintendo IIRC
Retro studios is Nintendo, they are fully part of Nintendo.