Donkey Kong Country (video game)/Trivia


 * The music in the swamp levels in Donkey Kong Country 2 has the exact same drumbeat as "In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins, which inevitably led to this.
 * The Bramble levels BGM "Stickerbrush Symphony" takes chord progressions, beats, and a short excerpt from "I Will Remember You" by Amy Grant.
 * The ice cave level BGM "In a Snow-bound Land" is based on "Theme of Antarctica" by Vangelis.
 * In Donkey Kong Country 3, when you enter Wrinkly's Save Cave, on occasion Wrinkly will be playing her Nintendo 64, as evidenced by the music being an Expy of the Super Mario 64 "Inside the Castle Walls" theme.
 * Also in Donkey Kong Country 3, the mill music, appropriately named "Mill Fever" is based on "Fever" by Peggy Lee.
 * Bad Export for You: "Jungle Fantasy", the Japanese OST for the original Donkey Kong Country, contained seven arranged songs, all exclusive to the soundtrack. The OST was eventually released in Amercia as "DK Jamz", though out of all the arrangements, it only contained Jungle Groove, leaving out the other six songs (two examples).
 * Executive Meddling: The reason for Tiny Kong's unexpected change in design.
 * Fan Nickname: Before Donkey Kong Barrel Blast, Quawks was believed by fans to be two parrots (due to there being two of him onscreen at a time) named Squeaks and Flapper, after the two wrong answers players can give to Swanky Kong when asked Quawks' name. It had more to do with the fact that "Quawks" in Donkey Kong Country 2 was blue, but in Donkey Kong Country 3, he was purple, as seen in this sprite sheet... and it has never been confirmed that the blue one is Quawks.
 * Follow the Leader: It was obviously based on Super Mario World, but it does have its own original elements, like a frontal rolling attack, minecart rides and secrets hidden in the walls. Though some still slam it for being a Mario clone.
 * Keep Circulating the Tapes: The original Donkey Kong Country trilogy was removed from the NA and PAL Wii Virtual Console services for reasons known only to Nintendo, meaning the only way to get copies of the game is finding either the original SNES cartridges or the GBA remakes. That is until October 2014, where all three SNES games were released for the Wii U's Virtual Console (along with the Donkey Kong Land games for 3DS) in Europe and February 2015 for America.
 * However, the Wii Shop Channel versions are set to become this once again. Due to the impending shutdown of the Wii Shop Channel itself, this won't be reversed barring any unforseen circumstances. You won't be able to add Wii points to the service in early 2018, and the channel is set to shut down entirely in 2019, meaning even redownloading already purchased games will no longer be an option. Welcome to the digital age, where circulating the tapes isn't even an option anymore.
 * Killer App: The original ended up being the deciding factor in the SNES defeating the Genesis in western countries. Donkey Kong Country actually ended up becoming the top selling video game that gen that wasn't bundled.
 * Name's the Same:
 * The song in Donkey Kong Country 3's factory levels was named "Nuts and Bolts".
 * One of the two piranha enemies in Donkey Kong Country 2 is named "Snapjaw". "Snapjaw" is also the name of an enemy from the 1982 arcade game Donkey Kong Junior (they're the blue and red "walking bear trap" enemies).
 * The Other Darrin: Donkey Kong's voice actor went from Kevin Bayliss (Donkey Kong 64) to Takashi Nagasako (Donkey Kong Jungle Beat).
 * What Could Have Been: Timber the Tiger was supposed to have his own spinoff game, but it never materialized (some say that it later got redeveloped into a different game: Banjo-Kazooie is the most frequently suspected example).