Donkey Kong Country has long been considered one of the most beautiful games on the Super Nintendo and part of it can be attributed to the drawings of former rare artist Kev Bayliss. In a new YouTube video, Bayliss revealed a number of early sketches for the game, including models for Donkey Kong, Winky, Kremlings and more. It’s a fascinating look back at the design process and should be of equal interest to those who played the game when it was released in 1994 and to those who just discovered it last year when it launched on the Nintendo Switch!
The video can be found embedded below.
Bayliss’s designs are a bit more “cardboard” than the versions that reached the final game, but still have the same feeling. It’s easy to see how these sketches evolved into the designs that turned it into the final game. While most of the characters that appeared in Donkey Kong Country were completely original, Rare had to make a considerable effort to modernize Donkey Kong from the version that originally appeared in the arcade with his former nemesis, Mario.
Rare’s position on Donkey Kong was clearly very successful. Not only did this version of DK appear in a trio of SNES games, 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 mustache mascot, DK is particularly absent from the attraction of the Japanese Super Nintendo World University. However, a data analyzer managed to discover the stamps and materials related to the character in the Super Nintendo World application. These materials present Rare’s approach to DK, as well as Diddy Kong and more. This could indicate that the theme park attraction may see Donkey Kong content sometime in the future!
Lots of models from previous games are often lost or discarded, so it’s really great to see that the Bayliss sketches have managed to survive for more than 25 years. Maybe one day they will even see the launch as part of a game-based art book! Given the popularity and relevance that Donkey Kong Country claims after all these years, it certainly seems a possibility.
What do you think about this early on? Donkey Kong Country conceptual art? Are you a fan of the Super Nintendo game? Tell us in the comments or share your opinions directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp let’s talk about all the games!