Donkey Kong Country / YMMV

This page is for YMMV in the Donkey Kong Country series as a whole. For individual games:

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The games

Awesome Music: Enough for its own page.
Broken Base:
- Fans either view the original DKC games as classics, or overrated Mario clones.
- The absence of King K. Rool and the Kremlings in Retro's titles has divided the fandom. Some are okay with their absence, arguing that it allows Retro's titles to stand out more from Rare's and that the new villain groups like the Tiki Tong Tribe and the Snowmads do a great job at further expanding upon the Donkey Kong universe and keeping the games fresh. Others, however, despise their absence, given how much of an iconic staple they are in the Donkey Kong Country franchise, and consider the Tiki Tong Tribe and the Snowmads to be uninteresting and unsuitable replacements who don't do anything that couldn't have already been done with King K. Rool and the Kremlings.
Common Knowledge: The original trilogy was and sometimes still is lauded for demonstrating the SNES' 3D capabilities, when in truth the three games are just as 2D as Super Mario World. The graphics are not real-time rendered in 3D, but are sprites taken from 3D models that were rendered separately on a computer, with the smooth, mostly fluid movement simply being a matter of characters having plentiful "in-betweener" animation frames.
Critical Dissonance:
- An interesting case, there are actually a substantial number of professional reviewers who dislike Diddy Kong, whereas among fans he is an extremely popular character.
- The GBA ports are much appreciated by critics, while long-time fans seem to criticize each and every change they made from the original.
Dancing Bear: While the SNES trilogy has always been loved for its super-fun gameplay, it's obvious that the main draw of the series in its heyday (and the obvious key to its staggering success) was the superb pre-rendered CGI sprites, which were nothing short of jaw-dropping for a SNES game, and all without any add-ons or even a Super FX chip. This ironically became a criticism of the game, saying it wouldn't have been as loved or fun without the graphics—-which prompted Rare to develop the Donkey Kong Land series on Game Boy (and later successfully porting the first DKC onto Game Boy Color) which kept the solid gameplay of the consoles intact, in spite of the inevitable downgrade to 8-bit (but still first rate for handheld) graphics. In hindsight, while the graphics are dated now, the series (particularly the first two) are still acclaimed as legitimate platformer classics, once again owing to their still first-rate gameplay, and the appealing cartoon art has helped take the burden off the dated CGI.
Demonic Spiders:
- Kabooms from Donkey Kong Country 2. If you're even a second late from jumping, they run right into you and explode. Black/dark gray Klobbers steal lives away from you on contact. Their cousins, the Klasps, which are found in both Donkey Kong Country 3 and Donkey Kong Land III also qualify.
- Zingers are lethal on contact and cannot be harmed except by projectile attacks or while under the effect of an invincibility barrel. DKC2 introduces reinforced red Zingers that can only be killed with TNT or invincibility. The Buzzes in DKC3 serve the exact same purpose.
Fan Nickname:
- "Dong" for DK himself.
- Kiddy Dong for Diddy Kong, for basically the same reasons people call DK "Dong".
Fandom-Enraging Misconception:
- The Donkey Kong featured in the DKC games and the modern Mario spin-offs is not the Donkey Kong from the original arcade games. The original arcade DK is explicitly confirmed to be Cranky Kong, with modern DK being a Legacy Character who inherited the name from Cranky. Trying to suggest otherwise is a good way to raise the hackles of DKC fans. Not helped by Nintendo themselves saying this in the early 2000s with Donkey Kong's bios in Super Smash Bros. 64 and Super Smash Bros. Melee saying that he first appeared in the original arcade games and the back of the Mario vs. Donkey Kong box saying "For the first time in ages, Mario faces off against his original foe!". Mario Superstar Baseball was the first Nintendo game to say that Cranky was the arcade game Donkey Kong with Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate keeping it up for Grandfather Clause (Cranky Kong's Spirit Battle in Ultimate is against a white-furred Donkey Kong with the 25m Music playing).
- People will often mistake Diddy and Dixie for siblings. They're supposed to be an Official Couple. This bugs fans, especially shippers.
Fandom Rivalry:
- DKC has something of a fandom rivalry with Nintendo's more mature, anime-styled niche franchises, especially Kid Icarus and Fire Emblem. Part of this rivalry was due to the perception that DKC, once revered as one of the most revolutionary and popular series in gaming, was shafted in favor of KI, FE and similar franchises, with the latter in particular getting a huge popularity and marketing boost in The New '10s. Super Smash Bros. helped matters due to the relative amounts of character representation of each of the series, with the highly demanded King K. Rool failing to make the cut. As such, many DKC fans are bitter over this relationship and lash out at KI and FE for being "niche", appealing to "weebs" and veering away from the quirky, cartoony aesthetic of DKC and its flagship parent series. This, in turn, incenses KI and FE fans who bash DKC for its "kiddy" feel^note and for the alleged "overrated" nature of its games and characters, arguing that DKC itself became somewhat niche after its debut. This has been toned down since the Kid Icarus franchise hasn't been getting a lot of attention after for 3DS/Wii U and King K. Rool becoming a newcomer in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
- The series used to have one with Metroid after the revival of the series by Retro Studios turned out to be much more successful than the hated Metroid: Other M, which caused the revival to get a sequel making Metroid fans angry of how Donkey Kong is "stealing the spotlight" away from Metroid. Once Metroid got two new games announced at E3 2017, however, the rivalry died down. It helps that in Super Smash Bros., there's almost always a Donkey Kong newcomer for each Metroid newcomer.
- Within the franchise, there is a rivalry between the Rare-developed games and the Retro Studios-developed games. Fans who prefer the Rare games tend to criticize the Retro games for their Lighter and Softer tone, cartoonish art style, changes to gameplay, and emphasizing loud action over the quiet ambience of the original games. Fans who prefer the Retro games consider them better for their more modern art style, gameplay, and emphasis on action while considering the Rare games dated and simplistic.
Friendly Fandoms: This has started to develop with the Crash Bandicoot series over time, as both series feature cartoony animals who live on tropical islands and are often famous for tough-as-nails platforming.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
- The Japanese love Funky Kong.
- The series itself may not be a complete example because Donkey Kong originated in Japan, but the Donkey Kong Country games did very well in Japan despite their Western developers. The third game actually sold significantly more in Japan than it did overseas, probably because it was a SNES game released after the Nintendo 64, and unlike everywhere else, Japan tends to continue supporting consoles even after their successors come out.
Hype Backlash: At the time of the series' initial release, the massive amount of publicity and hype centered almost entirely around the impressive graphics, with little attention paid to anything deeper. As a result, it became popular in the following decade to refer to it as "overrated", with "unspectacular" or "standard" gameplay. However, in the years since that time, the game has actually undergone something of a re-re-appraisal, as more critics have come to realize that the gameplay actually is quite well-designed and creative, and that the game remains fun and memorable to this day even without the fancy visuals.
It's Short, So It Sucks!: A common complaint about the first Donkey Kong Country. It is more often the main complaint about Donkey Kong Land 1 and 3.
It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: The main criticism of Donkey Kong Land 2 and 3 is that they're basically watered down ports of DKC 2 and 3, with nothing to truly make them stand out from their console counterparts. The first game doesn't get this as much, as while it certainly recycles content from the first Country game, it also has a share of original content to give it its own identity.
LGBT Fanbase:
- The Kremlings, basically since their inception, but the Furry Fandom has made them into icons of Bara Genre artwork that emphasizes their masculinity and/or muscles. K. Rool and Krusha, in particular, are loved by furries and muscle enthusiasts. The gay fanbase got an exponential boost thanks to K. Rool's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, against all expectations.
- Funky Kong is another icon of the fanbase, but to a lesser extent than the Kremlings. Ironically, Donkey Kong himself, while still popular, doesn't come close to Funky in this regard.
Love to Hate: King K. Rool is a despicable tyrant who abuses his minions and is perfectly willing to kill children. However, his goofy, yet intimidating demeanor and iconic design make him one of the most memorable and well-liked antagonists in the Mario canon.
Magnificent Bastard:
- Donkey Kong 64: Snide was once King K. Rool’s chief technician who helped him create the Blast-O-Matic to destroy DK Isle, but when he was fired by K. Rool out of paranoia, Snide sought revenge. Secretly collaborating with the Kongs to put a stop to K. Rool’s plans, Snide is able to stall the Blast-O-Matic’s firing process long enough for them to stop the machine and eventually ensure K. Rool’s defeat.
- DK: Jungle Climber: King K. Rool aims to steal the Crystal Bananas to take over the universe. To this end, he and his men steal them from benevolent alien Xananab and flee before the Kongs arrived to investigate, leaving both parties to mistake each other as enemies and wreck the ship. Throughout the game, he stays one step ahead of the Kongs, using the Bananas to power up his minions to distract the Kongs, at one point luring them into a trap and leaving in his space ship before they got out. Eventually being cornered, he tricks the Kongs into preparing to fight him and escapes to Xananab's home world, fighting the Kongs when they follow and find him, first by replicating Donkey Kong's moves, and then by using the Banana to grow big and try to crush the Kongs.
Memetic Loser: Despite being the franchise's namesake, Donkey himself occasionally gets this treatment. In the SNES trilogy, he's only been playable in one game and has been kidnapped twice. When he is playable, players tend to treat him as being outclassed by the other Kongs due to them being more agile (and platforming-friendly) and/or having more tools at their disposal (to the point that they're basically mobility powerups for Donkey in the Returns series single-player, and there's nothing he can do that they cannot on their own, which is a far cry from Donkey Kong Country 1, where his advantage over Diddy was being able to defeat sturdier enemies with stomps). This even extends to games outside the franchise, like Super Smash Bros., where Donkey is consistently a Low Tier Let Down.
Memetic Mutation:
- Expand Dong^Explanation
- To a lesser extent on Tumblr, "Do not forget this ape."
- Funky Kong ASMR^Explanation
- The Great Ape War.^Explanation
Mis-blamed: Shigeru Miyamoto is often credited to saying "Donkey Kong Country proves that players will put up with mediocre gameplay as long as the art is good." This is a shame, especially since he probably never actually said that. He stated in a 2010 interview that he does like DKC, saying that he worked closely with Rare on the project. He also was instrumental in Retro Studio's revival of the series in The New '10s.
More Popular Replacement: Chunky Kong had a much more warm reception by fans after he replaced his brother Kiddy Kong, in turn, allowing to play as the tank role without making DK unplayable and also for having a more captivating personality than Kiddy, who was just an ordinary baby personality-wise.
More Popular Spin-Off: More people seem to be familiar with this series than the original Donkey Kong.
Most Wonderful Sound:
- The "AAUGH" noise that some enemies make when being defeated is always good for a laugh. Especially when it echoes.
- Also, when you have one Kong, and you are traversing a tough level, the sound of a Kong in a DK barrel makes a great Hope Spot.
- The chimes you hear when you reach the goal of a level also count.
Popularity Polynomial: The series was huge in the mid-90s, with both critics and gamers praising it to no end. While DKC3 may not have had the impact the first two games had^note, the series remained popular, though the critical praise tapered a bit drawing closer to the Turn of the Millennium. Sometime during the mid-2000s, Hype Backlash set in, and it became trendy among critics and gamers to badmouth the series. Most retrospectively attribute this to spite over Rare's decision in late 2002 to leave Nintendo for Microsoft, while others point to a well-publicized quote supposedly from Shigeru Miyamoto, proclaiming that the series was all graphics and no gameplay. Either way, the Donkey Kong Country series found its way onto many "Most Overrated Games Of All Time" lists and was seen as a prime example of all that was wrong with the mid-90s shift to 3D. Fortunately, the backlash subsided greatly after Donkey Kong Country Returns became a massive critical and commercial success. And the series' reputation has, since, returned to greatness among critics and gamers.
Popular with Furries: The original SNES trilogy and 64, thanks in no small part to the Kremlings.
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
- Squawks went from being virtually useless in DKC1 to fulfilling a vital role in DKC2. Also, Squawks' purple Palette Swap (named Quawks, according to Donkey Kong Barrel Blast) goes from being just a prop in DKC2 (and blue) to a playable character with a separate, equally useful moveset in DKC3, able to grab barrels and use them instead of shooting eggy-nut dealies. In Returns and Tropical Freeze, Squawks can hint the player on where hidden puzzle pieces are. For many beginning players and completionists, Squawks is frequently purchased in shops.
- Tiny Kong, thanks to her complete redesign in Diddy Kong Racing for the Nintendo DS which earned her quite a few fans in the process, especially those who already liked her personality but hated how she was essentially a clone of Dixie. Though averted with some who liked her cute younger design, and were rather unsettled at seeing a kid character suddenly fanserviced up.
Sacred Cow: After surviving its Popularity Polynomial in the 2000s and being revived in 2010, the Donkey Kong Country series has managed to build an incredibly loyal fanbase, with many within proclaiming the games to be among the best and most tightly-designed 2D platformers ever made.
Scrappy Mechanic: Happens in all games except Donkey Kong 64 (more commonly occurring in the Donkey Kong Land trilogy due to hardware limitations), when any of the character(s) fall down from a great height faster than the game can keep up with them. The game mistakenly thinks you fell down a bottomless pit, resulting in you losing a life. Have fun repeating part of the level again due to Fake Difficulty! This was fixed in the GBA ports, since the GBA has a more powerful processor than the SNES.
So Bad, It's Good: The little-known novel adaptation of the first game (dramatic reading available here). While nobody expects a children book based on a mostly plotless videogame to be a great work of literature, it doesn't make the stiff dialogue and repetitive plotting any less amusing.
Squick: Tiny Kong's redesign, to some. The aging and fanservicing up of an underage character disturbed a few fans, while others are repulsed by the idea of making an ape attractive at all, though the latter case is not to the same degree as Candy Kong.
Sweet Dreams Fuel: "Aquatic Ambiance" from DKC1 is often a big favorite among fans for its relaxing nature. Special mention goes towards the remix from Tropical Freeze, thanks to modern technology. Listen here.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The redone graphics for the GBA ports of Donkey Kong Country 1 and 2 were received poorly by both critics and fans and are considered to be a blight on what are otherwise considered to be Polished Ports. This is in part due to the colors getting brightened and oversaturated with the darker levels receiving new brighter colors in order to make them visible on the GBA (which at the time, was notorious for its dark screen). While this was understandable, many felt the saturated and brighter colors came at the expense of and ruined much of the atmosphere of the original games. This does not apply to the port of 3 as it largely remains faithful to the SNES version (thanks to being released around the GBA SP, which had a front/backlit screen), although some people still think the overworld art looks pretty cheap and plastic-y.
Unintentional Uncanny Valley:
- Many of the original trilogy's renders have not aged very well and in fact can look rather grotesque, mainly because they attempted to look simultaneously cartoony and realistic. For example, Klump's saggy manboobs◊ or the Manky Kong's everything◊.
- Some find Candy Kong and post redesign Tiny Kong to fall into this territory, due to their more humanlike proportions compared to the other Kongs.
Visual Effects of Awesome: Back in the day, the graphics were absolutely amazing, and they still hold up remarkably well today. And more amazing is that the games didn't use any add-ons, or even the SNES Super FX chip; everything you see on-screen is done on the actual hardware!^note
Vocal Minority: Most of the DKC fandom is fairly peaceable and gets along well with other Nintendo fandoms, and is always happy to share memories and memes from their series. One wouldn't know this from looking at King K. Rool's extremely vocal cult following in the Super Smash Bros. fandom, which has been known to not only attack other franchises, but also Donkey Kong Country games that don't feature K. Rool (even deriding the widely-loved Snowmads just for not being the Kremlings).
Underused Game Mechanic:
- After the SNES trilogy, the role of the animal buddies decreased greatly. Donkey Kong 64 only features Rambi the rhino and Enguarde the swordfish, who appear in one main level each (Rambi also appears in the final level, while Enguarde gets a minigame); you don't get to ride them either, your Kong just transforms into them. Rambi is the lone buddy in Donkey Kong Country Returns and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, and he appears in just three or four levels in each game. (While Squawks is also present in both of the games, his only role is to guide the Kongs to the locations of the jigsaw pieces instead of being ridable).
- The fact that Donkey Kong himself was only playable in the first entry of the SNES trilogy baffles many fans. Thankfully later entries do a better job compromising extra characters and DK himself.

The cartoon

Accidental Aesop: "Kong for a Day" has one thanks to Diddy Kong's ineptitude as ruler when King K. Rool attacks: "A capable, unpopular leader is better than a popular, incapable one."
Accidental Innuendo: In some of the songs.
- "Our Love is Stronger than a Golden Banana" has a rather infamous line.
- Cranky's lesser-known, but still unfortunate line about anyone who "takes the banana."
- "Yes Means No," if taken out of context.^note
Diddy: Yes means no and no means yes, it should be rather obvious!
- Hey Dix!^note
- The episode title "A Thin Line Between Love and Ape" is meant to be a play on the movie A Thin Line Between Love and Hate, but considering what "ape" rhymes with, and the fact that the episode partially revolves around Bluster brewing a love potion to force Candy to marry him...
Alternative Character Interpretation:
- Many fans likes to view Krusha's Genius Bruiser personality from "Speed" as his true self.
- In "It's a Wonderful Life," Diddy is the future tyrant of Kongo Bongo without Donkey Kong around. Fans started to view Diddy's selfish behavior in previous episodes ("Kong for a Day" especially) as his evil side slipping into view.
- Thanks to the VHS release of "The Legend of the Crystal Coconut" (which was actually a compilation of the titular episode, "Bug-A-Boogie", "Booty and the Beast", and "Ape-nesia") airing the episodes out of order, which resulted in one of the flashbacks in "Ape-nesia" appearing before the actual event, some fans imagine that Diddy Kong can see the future.
- Does Candy Kong genuinely love Donkey Kong despite her constantly butting heads with him, or is she only in it because of his future status as ruler of the island? In "From Zero to Hero" she even considers marrying Bluster when he claims she'll inherit his wealth once he supposedly dies, giving some fuel to the latter fire.
- The Crystal Coconut itself is prone to this. Considering that it tends to grant wishes and requests no matter if they're good or bad, willingly promotes Diddy as future ruler in "Kong for a Day" and has even allowed a Jerkass like Bluster to consult it, it may not be as benevolent as the Kongs assume, being Chaotic Neutral at best.
Awesome Music: A surprising amount of the songs are actually REALLY good, even the ones with incredibly stupid lyrics.
- "I'm Nobody's Hero"
- "King K. Rool's Finest Hour" is a fun, ominous villain song that's perfect for K. Rool's debut Villain Song and is usually considered his definitive one.
- Apart from Diddy's grating singing voice, Metal Head is actually a genuine catchy song, even if it does more or less steal from Daft Punk. This has even led to fan-made edits of the song that cut out Diddy's lyrics entirely.
- Every song featuring Captain Scurvy, especially Pirate's Scorn. It even got its own brilliant rock-based cover from Scottish pirate metal band Alestorm. As an added bonus, said band also named the album it featured on — Curse of the Crystal Coconut — after the MacGuffin from the cartoon.
- Most songs featuring Donkey Kong. Sterling Jarvis (the singing voice for Donkey Kong sans for "Our Love is Stronger Than a Golden Banana") has an excellent singing voice, making the songs sound like actual songs from the 90's.
- "Bluster the Benevolent" actually has very powerful hooks that make you feel like you're watching an opera.
Badass Decay: Every character except for Cranky, who's frankly more proactive than his game counterpart:
- Downplayed for Donkey Kong himself. He still retains his Super-Strength, but he's been turned into an idiot.
- The cartoon frequently portrays Diddy as a Tagalong Kid who lets Donkey do most of the heavy lifting and is only occasionally useful at best (and outright The Load at worst) despite his role as the co-star of the first DKC and then main character of the sequel. Dixie is perhaps even worse, since she's so underused and her few appearances barely explore her Action Girl qualities.
- King K. Rool in the games was a capable fighter who was able to abduct members of the Kongs several times. Here he's an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain who is typically taken out with a single punch from DK.
- Krusha and Klump. In the games they're Elite Mooks who pose a problem when encountered, especially if you don't have DK (they're immune to Diddy's jump attacks). Here, Krusha is presented as rather threatening in the pilot, but after that is relegated to a slow-witted Dumb Muscle henchman, and Klump is only mildly smarter in exchange for being far less physically impressive.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: "Bug A Boogie," when after Cranky laughs about the Snipe Hunt he sent Donkey and Diddy Kong on, we cut to Skurvy's ship, where a song and dance routine is taking place. People tend to remember the song before the context. The songs themselves can be seen as these moments.
Can't Un-Hear It:
- For fans that grew up with the cartoon, Benedict Campbell is the iconic voice of K. Rool. It helps that K. Rool barely got voiced dialogue anywhere else, and Campbell gave a memorable performance. So much so that the crew behind the animated Pirate's Scorn video created a follow-up titled Return to Krocodile Isle that features Campbell as K. Rool alongside multiple other voice actors from the show. Needless to say, the fans loved it.
- Many also have this view of Aron Tager's performance as Cranky Kong in the show, since the voice compliments Cranky's role as the Grumpy Old Man perfectly. This was exacerbated in 2023 when Fred Armisen gave a poorly received performance as Cranky in The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
Cult Classic: The show wasn't much of a hit (outside Japan at least), lasted only two seasons, and is basically forgotten compared to the far more well-known games that inspired it. Despite this it maintains a cult following that celebrates its bizarre animation, offbeat humor, and surprisingly good songs. It's often hailed as being far more entertaining than its poor reputation suggests, though not necessarily for the right reasons.
Designated Hero:
- Donkey Kong can slip into this at times. He is extremely stupid and tends to be selfish too, which very often leads to foolish, short-sighted decisions that cause a lot of problems for everyone.
- Candy Kong is a Tsundere, but tends to be so tsun that she often comes off as a Jerkass to everyone, especially Donkey Kong.
- The Kongs in general hold the Idiot Ball so often that it can sometimes be hard to sympathize with them in episodes like "Vote for Kong-fidence" where they conveniently forget that K. Rool is the Big Bad and put down DK for reasons besides his lackluster candidacy.
Ensemble Dark Horse:
- Despite only appearing in a few episodes, Skurvy and his pirates are very well-remembered. They're basically the same type of Terrible Trio as K. Rool, Klump, and Krusha, but they manage to be genuinely intimidating and come off as far more dangerous and competent, while still being very funny and wacky.
- Also Dixie Kong, who maintains her popularity from the games and is considered criminally underused in the show.
- And then there's Evil Diddy from It's a Wonderful Life. Villains were already quite popular on this show, but this guy is just epic.
- Leo Luster, Bluster's alternate identity, has a decently sized fanbase for the single episode he appeared in.
Evil Is Cool: The Kremlings may not be able to steal the Crystal Coconut they want, but they steal the show on account of being far funnier, cooler, and generally more entertaining to watch than the Kongs. They also tend to get better songs.
Fan Nickname: DK Vine members like to call the show Lord Harry. The person who coined it did so initially to distance it from the games, feeling it was a bad show, though the members who like the show, or at least warmed up to it, started using it as an Affectionate Nickname more than anything.
Foe Yay Shipping: K. Rool using a love potion to turn DK and Candy into his servants.
Fountain of Memes:
- The show's aberrant character models and animation coupled with contrastingly catchy and competent songs were both more than enough to grant memetic infamy to this otherwise unremarkable tie-in cartoon.
- The show's iteration of King K. Rool is the biggest one of the bunch, especially after the game version's inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. His hammy nature, amusing faux-posh accent and surprisingly good Villain Songs led this version of the Kremling King being almost as big of a meme as AoSTH Robotnik, causing a strong case of Can't Un-Hear It within the fandom.
Fridge Brilliance:
- The fact that Klump and Skurvy have the same model makes perfect sense when you realize that Scurvy was based off of the in-game enemy from Donkey Kong Country 2 named Kannon which was essentially Klump from the first game with a cannon and dressed in pirate gear. This is further justified when you also learn that Skurvy is Klump's big brother.
- Another one involving Skurvy. In his debut episode, he had a pet parrot named Polly Roger. But when next we see Polly, he works for King K. Rool. Some fans have been wondering why Polly would work for K. Rool, especially considering that K. Rool and Skurvy don't like each other. But we learn a very interesting fact about Polly in his last appearance "Speak No Evil, Dude." Aside from the obvious fact that he has Chronic Backstabbing Disorder and "would sell his own mother for a single cracker," it turns out Polly carries the highly contagious (and terminal) "Kongo Bongo Gone Wrongo" disease. It's possible that Skurvy got rid of Polly because he or his crew got infected by this bird's disease, or they otherwise heard about it. Suddenly, the unexplained switching of sides makes sense.
Fridge Horror: In the pilot episode, Krusha is considerably more intelligent than he in all other episodes. Since the last we see of him in that episode is getting beat up by DK, it's possible that the beatdown gave him brain damage. A later episode then gives an x-ray of his body. His brain is actually missing from his skull, being down by his gut instead. It's possible that it got dislodged during the beatdown, seeing as this is a cartoon. The episode It's a Wonderful Life even supports this theory, as the Krusha found in the dream reality where DK never existed is significantly smarter than the actual Krusha, implying that Donkey Kong had something to do with it.
Genius Bonus: The pronunciation of King K. Rool's name in the show being "King Kuh-rool" seems like a mispronunciation, until one realizes that that's how his name actually is pronounced in Japanese. It also makes his Punny Name more obvious.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The show was so popular in Japan that it spawned its own unique merchandise line over there, including a collectible card game that not only featured elements of the show, but also from Donkey Kong 64.
Ham and Cheese: While most of the voices come across as being rather flat and/or obnoxious, it's made clear that Benedict Campbell and Donald Burda are having an absolute blast with their roles as K. Rool and Bluster Kong respectively.
Harsher in Hindsight: At one point in "Speak No Evil, Dude", Klump misinterprets a sickly King K. Rool as wanting him to blow up the island. It turns out Klump wasn't far off.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- In "Vote of Kong-fidence," DK briefly imagines himself in a boxing ring, wearing red boxing gloves, just like in his appearance as the superboss in the Wii version of Punch-Out!!. He can also fight King K. Rool in a boxing ring in Donkey Kong 64.
- During the memetic "I'm gonna be a Star" sequence, Donkey Kong sings about wanting to drive around in a big fancy car. With Mario Kart Wii having the Honeycoupe◊ and Mario Kart 8 getting a Mercedes-Benz as DLC, he finally got his chance. From the same song, Cranky Kong sings about how he's gonna "be a smash". Later, he would appear as a background element in Super Smash Bros. Melee and later still, a spirit in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
- In the opening scene of "To the Moon Baboon," DK briefly inquires whether there are bananas on the moon.
- Also from "To the Moon Baboon," Diddy demonstrates his musical skills with a home made drum. Come 2004...
- "It's a Wonderful Life" has Diddy being the villain instead of King K. Rool. Maybe that tidbit serves as decent inspiration for this.
- A Kong with martial arts skills named Kong Fu appears in one episode of the same name. Nearly a decade later, another martial arts-based kong (Karate Kong) is an enemy in Donkey Kong Jungle Beat. And in the original Japanese version and the French release, Karate Kong is named Kong Fu.
- In "From Zero to Hero," Krusha and a Kritter mention meeting a "very cute lizard." Almost a decade later, Donkey Kong Barrel Blast has a female Kremling (Kalypso).
- "Follow that Coconut" begins with DK and Diddy talking about an annual soccer game with the Kremlings. Donkey Kong would later go on to be playable in three soccer video games, with Diddy also appearing in the later two. And the goalies in the first two games are Kritters.
- "From Zero to Hero" features King K. Rool's Villain Song, "My Finest Hour"; which is an apt description of his inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate 20 years later.
- Another Super Smash Bros. example: Diddy Kong had a stint as a notorious High-Tier Scrappy in the fourth game, and his infamous KO combo was known as the Hoo-Hah. In the context of Smash, the theme song may as well have been about Diddy.
- Green Kroc is a black recolor of the Kritter model with different clothes, a tattered pair of pants. In DK: King of Swing, Kritters would be redesigned to wear little more than tattered pants.
- In the episode "Ape-nesia", Donkey Kong lost his memories from hitting his head and Skurvy takes Donkey Kong in with his crew, convincing him that he's a croc. Nearly two decades later in Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness we see the premiere of "Po The Croc" where yet again, a mammalian CGI hero, Po, loses his memory and is convinced he's a croc in a gang of villainous crocodiles, courtesy of Fung and his Croc Bandits.
- In one episode, Donkey Kong takes King K. Rool's crown, prompting an angry K. Rool to chase the Kong to get it back. In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, K. Rool can have his crown stolen by other players when he uses his side special, which will likely end up causing the exact same thing to happen.
- DK's excitement at being a movie star is this when, many years after the show's end, he would be on the big screen for real in Pixels and The Super Mario Bros. Movie, the latter of which has him voiced by actual movie star Seth Rogen.
Ho Yay:
- Several jokes implying that the Krocs are gay pop up in "Four Weddings and a Coconut."
- Klump and Krusha have their share throughout the show. In "Hooray for for Holly Kongo Bongo" their audition for Bluster's movie has them re-enacting the famous ending to Casablanca, complete with Krusha wearing a frilly pink hat and Klump holding Krusha in a romantic fashion.
- In A Thin Line Between Love And Ape K Rool tests Bluster's Love Potion out on Klump directly, making him speak of his undying affection towards his king. He even seems to be satisfied with the results until Klump starts getting a bit too forward, sounding like he himself is getting too excited by Klump's advances.
Jerkass Woobie:
- King K. Rool occasionally treaded around this territory. Sure, he's trying to take over the island and would probably kill the Kongs without hesitation, but he's Surrounded by Idiots and is an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain. With all the abuse and misery he puts up with, you kinda pity him after a while.
- Bluster Kong also. He may be a greedy Mama's Boy, but being a Butt-Monkey is never fun, and it's shown that Bluster can be a Jerk with a Heart of Gold when he really has to.
- Eddie the Mean Old Yeti deconstructs this considering that he is mean, it's highly implied that his time alone on the White Mountains has made him Go Mad from the Isolation which actually makes him a woobie at the same time.
Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: Diddy and Candy are more disliked by fans than the actual villains of the show, King K. Rool and Kaptain Skurvy. Despite being Donkey Kong's closest friends and allies, they are prone to mistreating him, sometimes for little or no reason. This is one of the main contributors to Rooting for the Empire below.
Mainstream Obscurity: The number of people who've actually watched the show for its plot likely pales in comparison to the number of people who know about the show due to its Fountain of Memes status, courtesy of its bizarre animation, zany quotes, and surprisingly catchy songs.
Memetic Mutation:
- K. Rool screaming "WHYYYYY NOOOOTTTT!!!???" from "Bug a Boogie." ^note
- A video called "OH MY GOD WATCH OUT DK" features a snippet from "Kong for a Day" with DK singing "I don't know what's happening to me" edited to look like a plane crashes into DK. There are variations that either have a character dubbed with DK's voice suffering similar disasters or people's reactions to the original video.
- "You may spank it... once."^Explanation
- "I'll shower you with coconut cream pies"^Explanation
- The show as a whole has reached minor memetic status, thanks to the bizarre animation, expressions and storylines, and the rampant insanity of the show in general, having spawned several YouTube Poops.
- It was particularly common to reference the cartoon on Twitter after King K. Rool was announced for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
- This gif tends to be used in instances describing a group of people riding in a vehicle and leaving after something disappointing, or even horrible and traumatic, such as a group of people in the Fighting Game Community heading out after participating in a tournament and getting zero wins between all of them, or a family returning home after going out to an event that turned out to be terrible.
- "Man it hurts to be this hip" from Leo Luster's song is often paired with failed attempts at appearing hip.
- "Why did I use up my best material on this shindig?!"^Explanation
- "That's nuts. I had no idea he was real"^Explanation
Moral Event Horizon:
- K. Rool's dirtiest trick came in "The Curse of Kongo Bongo." Magical chain letters are sent to all the Kongs, with a curse that if two people read them, the Crystal Coconut will lose its powers and the island will sink into the ocean. DK unknowingly reads his letter before he finds out what it is, and the rest of the episode concerns him and Diddy getting the rest of the letters before anyone can read theirs. K. Rool gets his hands on Cranky's spellbook which has his letter in it, and when Cranky explains the curse to him to make sure he doesn't read it by accident, K. Rool threatens to read it if Cranky doesn't give him the Crystal Coconut. Cranky points out they're all doomed if the island sinks, but K. Rool doesn't care. And if you think he's just bluffing, no; when Diddy and DK invade his lair to get the spellbook and letter, he reads it, and then begins to panic when the island begins to sink. K. Rool wants the Coconut so badly, he would doom the entire island and everyone on it, including himself and his Kremlings, to get his claws on it.
- Bluster crosses this in "A Thin Line Between Love And Ape," where he wants to use a Love Potion to make Candy fall in love with him. When DK found this out, boy, was he pissed. And DK is usually pretty easygoing and friendly most of the time. Not helping was, once again, the Crystal Coconut — you know, the MacGuffin of this show — actually giving Bluster the recipe for said love potion.
- Polly Roger crosses this in "Speak No Evil, Dude." It's revealed he carries the highly contagious "Kongo Bongo Gone Wrongo" disease. He knew full well biting Diddy Kong would spread the disease, yet he did it anyway. He also clearly was enjoying Donkey Kong struggling with his Sadistic Choice between saving his best friend or the island. The threat of the island being blown up could have been prevented, but Polly held his tongue because K. Rool insulted him, and for no other reason. Not helping was the fact that, much like K. Rool in "Kong for a Day," Polly was a Karma Houdini after all of this. Kinda makes you wonder why he's not a member of Kaptain Skurvy's crew anymore...
- While Krusha is normally a moronic Punch-Clock Villain, his Genius Bruiser persona in "Speed" crosses it with his plan to kill Donkey Kong. He tricked Dixie and Diddy into a mine cart that had no brakes — and a bomb rigged up on it that would detonate when it stopped — and told Donkey Kong about it with the intent to kill all three of them. On top of that, he was willing to let K. Rool go down with them, calling him disposable. Even Klump was appalled.
Most Wonderful Sound: DK's singing voice. Especially noticeable anytime he has to sing along with Diddy.
Narm Charm: The whole show can count as this. Even with the writing being wildly inconsistent in quality and the animation being incredibly primitive, these can make the whole show an absolute treat to watch, with bits of legitimately good slapstick, wit and dialogue to help. Also, depending on who you ask, some of the songs fall into this category purely because of just how good they are for a show about Donkey Kong.
Nightmare Fuel: DK's description of the bog monster.
Nightmare Retardant: "Follow that Coconut" features a scene where K. Rool grabs Diddy and dangles him over a sheer cliff with the full intention of dropping him to his death if DK doesn't give him the Crystal Coconut. This would've been terrifying for young viewers, if the whole hostage situation hadn't been negotiated through a rap.^note.
Once Original, Now Common: The show was one of the first to use Motion Capture technology as a primary animation technique. Impressive and revolutionary in mid-90, completely ubiquitous and vastly improved two decades later.
One-Scene Wonder: Bluster's Super Mode, Leo Luster, only appeared in a single episode late in the second season, but is beloved for his memetic factor.
Rooting for the Empire: K. Rool and his minions completely steal the show on account of being far cooler, funnier, and just more entertaining to watch than the Kongs, and this goes double for Skurvy and his crew who are a legitimate threat to the island and yet still rather funny, and both Skurvy and K. Rool get great Villain Songs. Between the villains being so much fun, and the Kongs being various shades of inept, stupid, or Jerkasses, one can find themselves hoping that some day the Kremlings will triumph.
The Scrappy: This show's version of Candy Kong is wildly disliked for always getting mad at Donkey Kong at the slightest provocation, even if Donkey Kong had nothing to do with it, and yet acting entitled to his help whenever she needs it. Even if she does have Pet the Dog moments once in a while — like, for example, the ending to "Speed" — people still hate her for her rude, ungrateful and generally insufferable personality. It doesn't help that she has an ugly character design which barely resembles her game counterpart. Notably, even Erika Strobel, the most prolific writer on the show, hated her.
Signature Song: The two most well-remembered songs from the show are "Our Love Is Stronger Than a Golden Banana" for its infamous "I'll shower you in coconut cream pies," and "I'm Nobody's Hero" for being a genuinely good song and Tear Jerker moment compared to the rest of the show, to the point where it doesn't even feel like a cartoon song when taken out of context. "Finest Hour" has joined the ranks as well, especially after King K. Rool was announced for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
So Bad, It's Good: With early mo-cap CGI making up all the animation, how surreal and absurd the whole show is, and how hilariously bad the writing and story was, quite a lot of people look back on the show fondly, or even go out of their way to watch it for the first time, just how weird and funny the whole thing is.
Special Effects Failure:
- Oftentimes, a character's mesh will end up clipping with itself (especially noticeable with the model used for General Klump/Captain Skurvy) during the first season. The second season, while having noticeably stiffer looking movements less detailed textures, generally avoided this. The animators also seem to have taken a page from Beast Wars and made the body parts separate from each other.
- When Cranky, Diddy and K. Rool confront DK for supposedly putting the Crystal Coconut on a rocket bound for the moon in To the Moon, Baboon!, Candy, Dixie and Bluster are all frozen, and don't move or emote. This was possibly done to avoid overloading the primitive mo-cap software with too many unique instructions at the same time.
Suspiciously Similar Song:
- The last few measures of "Metalhead" sound a lot like Daft Punk's "Around the World."
- The melody of "Bluster the Benevolent" is a variation of "Ding Dong Merrily On High."
- "Pirates' Scorn" bears a strong resemblance to "The Last Saskatchewan Pirate" by the Canadian comedy band The Arrogant Worms.
Tear Jerker:
- "Nobody's Hero", which DK sings after K. Rool's machinations get him alienated from his friends.
- "Klump's Lumps," as well as Klump's song in the episode.
- "The Kongo Bongo Festival of Lights" cements Klump's status as a Jerkass Woobie, showing him alone for the holiday season as the rest of the Kremlings excitedly leave for the holiday season to visit their loved ones, and being incredibly lonely and depressed, made worse by being unable to remember the end of a poem that's his only link to his long-lost family. Klump's song, "I Got No Family Tree," just drives it home even more. Fortunately for him, he's reunited with his long-lost brother Skurvy before the episode ends.
- The entirety of "It's a Wonderful Life", which takes the premise of "Kong for a Day" and turns up a few notches. The other Kongs act like Ungrateful Bastards towards DK and berate him for accidents he never intended (such as breaking Funky's board, causing the barrels at Bluster and Candy's factory to collapse and throwing Diddy's lucky ball too far). Cranky's case is even more noteworthy, as he is mad at DK for giving the Crystal Coconut an extra layer of protection even though Cranky was aware of how dangerous the Coconut was and how K. Rool could use it for evil! DK then sleeps through the day, only to find all the Kongs angry at him because he slept through a dinner where he was the guest of honor, and they all give up on him and tell him that they'd be better off without him. Poor DK leaves the island, singing about his feelings of rejection until he gets knocked out by a tree branch. He hallucinates Eddie (referred as the "Guardian Angel Yeti") showing him a world in which he never existed, in which Bluster and Candy have been married, Diddy is a tyrant and the new MacGuffin is a papier-mache lilypad guarded by the Kremlings. But even after DK pleads to Eddie to bring him back to existence, things turn out the same way and his klutziness causes everyone to be mad at him once again, with the enemy Kongs and Kremlings forming an Enemy Mine taking their wrath out on DK. Eventually, Donkey Kong wakes up and realizes that it was All Just a Dream, the Kongs apologize to him for being mean earlier and the conflict is resolved and it ends on a happy note.
- DK's Despair Event Horizon moment in "Kong Fu", where he realizes that his laziness might cost him the annual Donkey Kong Challenge and is certain Kong Fu will utterly destroy him. Even Cranky, who's hard on him at the best of times, clearly feels sorry for him.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
- Dixie Kong, despite her overall popularity, had the least amount of scenes in the show out of all the main characters.
- The Pirates only show up for a few episodes despite stealing the show in most of their appearances. Notably, they disappear entirely after the first episode of Season 2.
- Upon getting hit by a minecart in Speed, Krusha turns into a power-hungry Genius Bruiser that proves to be far viler and more competent than K. Rool. Despite loads of potential, this would offer to shake up the show's dynamic, Krusha returns to normal after receiving another head injury with his more vile personality never resurfacing.
- The Country games had a wide array of supporting characters and bosses that could've appeared but the show only features 6 Kongs from the games, with K. Rool being the only boss to appear. While this can be partially explained by the limitations of CGI at the time ^note, the fact Dixie is the only character who debuted after the first Country game to appear is still disappointing.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- "Raiders of the Lost Banana" concerns Donkey Kong stealing the Golden Banana from the Temple of Inka Dinka Doo, enraging the idol. K. Rool exclaims the Golden Banana has powers to rival the Crystal Coconut, and when DK returns it to the temple at the end of the episode, Polly Roger steals it for K. Rool. Cranky reveals that anyone intending to use the Banana for evil will be cursed with misfortune, which prompts a Gilligan Cut to K. Rool's lair exploding. While Inka Dinka Doo becomes a supporting character, the Golden Banana and its curse are never mentioned again.
- "It's a Wonderful Life" has an example. Dixie is noticeably absent from this alternate universe. This is predictable given her rare appearances, but with Diddy as the evil tyrant of this world, and the series making it clear that they're in a relationship, one can imagine how cool it would have been to see her as his "evil queen."
- Song example: In "The Big Switch-A-Roo," one of the songs sung in that episode is titled "Metal Head." Yet despite the fact that it's the same as the name for fans of metal music...it's a hybrid of electronic music and rock music.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Some consider Donkey Kong to be this "Its A Wonderful Life", at least when compared to "Kong For A Day" another episode where everyone got angry at him. In "Kong For A Day" he was framed for all of the bad things by King K. Rool, the other Kongs rejected his attempts to apologize and refused to even let him explain his side of the story. In "It's A Wonderful Life" on the other hand, he actually did do the things that everyone was mad at him for, and instead of at least trying to apologize, he just made excuses and ran away, so the others had every reason to be angry with him. And when he sees what the world would have been like if he wasn't around, the narrative doesn't explain WHY Donkey Kong's absence turns Diddy into an evil dictator. It also shows that Candy would have been happy to marry Bluster and the Crocs are good without his presence (even Krusha is more intelligent), all implying that the world is in fact better off without him.
Values Resonance: "Speak No Evil, Dude", the episode in which Diddy avoiding his vaccination causes him to contract a deadly disease, hits closer to home in light of COVID-19.
Visual Effects of Awesome: For its time, the CGI was quite something to behold. It still is today, but for all of the wrong reasons.
The Woobie: General Klump is generally the Butt-Monkey of the show, so it's intended he gets this reaction. "Klump's Lumps" and "The Kongo Bongo Festival of Lights" completely cemented this status.

YMMV / Donkey Kong Country

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