In the latest YouTube video DK Creations (via NintendoLife), longtime video game artist Kev Bayliss presents original sketches from Rare’s Donkey Kong Country, and talks about how he turned the original Nintendo cartoon monkey from a 2D villain into a 3D rendered platform hero.
Using character design sketches he created while working on the 1994 Super Nintendo classic for Rare, Bayliss takes us from the original art Shigeru Miyamoto Donkey Kong sent by fax (by fax!) From Nintendo to the monkey acrobatics with heavy eyebrows that we know and love. He wasn’t upset with Miyamoto, but his design didn’t look like that to kidnap Mario’s ex-girlfriend, Pauline. Bayliss’s stiffer badass seems to be causing trouble all day.
Bayliss also presents sketches of enemies in the game, some of which did not make the final cut. See all his sketches in the video below.