DK Vine

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Not Demonizing Shigeru Miyamoto since 2010. —Random Message From the Front Page

DK Vine, known originally as "Donkey Kong's Jungle Vine," and later as "Donkey Kong Universe," is a unique Donkey Kong fansite. Its complicated, sometimes controversial nature reflects the complicated, sometimes controversial nature of the games it covers. So let's start at the beginning.

In The Nineties, Rareware was one of the strongest arms of Nintendo, a legacy that began in 1994, when they created Donkey Kong Country, a big-budget revival of Nintendo's Arcade Donkey Kong franchise. The ambitious SNES game was a success, and after two sequels on the platform, Rareware was poised to continue their legacy on the (then cutting-edge) Nintendo 64. Though Rare did not make a proper N64 sequel to the Donkey Kong Country trilogy on the for a while, they did create a spin-off in the form of 1997's Diddy Kong Racing, a game notable for (among other things) an interesting method of self-promotion: It featured Banjo and Conker, two characters with games of their own under development. With the release of the highly-lauded Banjo-Kazooie in 1998, the concept of the Donkey Kong Universe, a tangible canon of Rareware games linked via the presence of their characters in each other, was born. (The staff of the site explained it in TV terms, saying that the same logic makes Frasier part of the "Cheers Universe.")

Donkey Kong's Jungle Vine, originally created by Chad McCanna and Hyle "SirSlush2" Russell, opened in 1999 as a tribute to this collection of distinctive Rareware games featuring anthropormphic animals, and it was a good first year for them, as it saw the release of the first proper Donkey Kong game since the SNES, Donkey Kong 64. In the year 2000, the trend continued with Banjo-Tooie, the long awaited sequel to Banjo-Kazooie. Then, in 2001, came the moment that would change things forever.

Back around the time Diddy Kong Racing was the big Rareware game, Rareware had already begun promoting their two projects starring two of its costars. People had liked what they saw in Banjo-Kazooie. Twelve Tales: Conker 64...not so much. Besides its very juvenile, unfunny story, the game featured flamboyant, excessively-cutesy graphics, and test audiences were much more skeptical. Seeing this, Rareware sent the game into Development Hell for several years, where it underwent excessive changes. When unveiled, the game had been transformed into Conkers Bad Fur Day, an M-rated, subversive take on the anthropomorphic-animal-platformer genre, released in 2001, and Nintendo was not amused. Despite good ratings, the game was a commercial flop as a result of Nintendo's utter (and deliberate) lack of coverage for it and an excessive scare-campaign to repel everyone under 17 away from the game.

The schism having been seeded between Nintendo and Rare, it would only grow. Though Rare launched into the Gamecube and Game Boy Advance era with high hopes (and plans to make many new games for many of their franchises), in the end they would only get to release one game for the Nintendo Gamecube--and not in the form they had intended. At the tail end of the N64's lifespan, Rare had begun work on Dinosaur Planet, an adventure game whose title was self-explanatory. Nintendo persuaded Rare to make some changes, this time of the sort the former wanted, and the game was forced into the Star Fox series and released on the Gamecube as Star Fox Adventures. This would be the last straw, and in September 2002, Microsoft bought Rareware out. Though longtime fans were quick to villify Microsoft for bringing about the end of an era, this anger ignores the obvious fact that neither Nintendo nor Rareware were forced to accept the move--but both did.

About this time, mainstream media that had praised Rare's games years before began to take a more negative stance, and a large number of Rareware games found their way onto lists of "overrated" games. Additionally, an infamous quote from Shigeru Miyamoto, criticizing Donkey Kong Country, was taken as an ill-omen and further proof that a massive anti-Rareware backlash was beginning. Fans of Rare's legacy on Nintendo consoles began to fear Nintendo would begin to dismantle that legacy in their absence, a fear that was not helped by the releases of 2004's Mario Vs. Donkey Kong, which undid much of the latter's Character Development and returned him to his original role as a villain, and 2005's Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, whose developers declared that they intended to wipe the slate clean of iconic elements of the past era's DK games.

Thus, pro-Rareware fans who had congregated on Donkey Kong's Jungle Vine decided to make a stand against the percieved negative tide. Fearing the worst for the Donkey Kong series-proper, and assuming Rareware (who had retained the rights to Banjo and Conker when moving) would be the only party interested in continuing the trends once common on Nintendo platforms, the site was renamed "Donkey Kong Universe," as a reference to the more peripheral games in the canon. It became notorious--at least to many outside observers--for its apparent anti-Nintendo sentiment, with such actions as a "poetry slam" condemming the release of Donkey Konga, boggling to viewers who wondered why a Donkey Kong fansite would harbor so much hatred for the company that originally created and still owned Donkey Kong.

Throughout these years, the DKU became a small, but tight-knit and definitive community, with vocally unique opinions from the majority of gaming websites, and a cynical, but often darkly-humorous outlook on life. Through dedicated observation, they successfully linked two new Rareware games, Grabbed By the Ghoulies and Viva Pinata, into the Donkey Kong Universe canon, and eagerly anticipated each new game from the original, Nintendo-era DKU franchises. However, another shift was coming.

Following the 2005 release of Conker: Live and Reloaded, a remake of Conkers Bad Fur Day in the place of what many believed should have been a sequel, faith in Rareware wavered. Conker's own page should give a good idea of the controversy surrounding the remake; here suffice to say that it wasn't controversial for any of the same reasons that the original was.

Still more upsetting to the fanbase (especially in light of its misleading trailer) was the 2008 release of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, a new installment in the Banjo series with little more than a cosmetic resemblence to its predecessors and divisive new gameplay mechanic. With this game, Rareware dispelled most remaining notions that they would necessarily be any more willing to preserve their old legacy than Nintendo was.

Then came a very unexpected move: Nintendo, the company the DKU had long since abandoned all hope in, commissioned Retro Studios to revive the core DKU franchise in the form of Donkey Kong Country Returns, And the Fandom Rejoiced. Nintendo even promoted the upcoming game passionately, and Shigeru Miyamoto made a public statement apologizing for his earlier criticisms of the series. The tide had turned, and in a rather unique way. In honor, of this new development, the DKU redesigned itself, renamed itself DK Vine, focused back in on the core Donkey Kong series, and suddenly became one of the most collectively-optimistic fansites ever. Membership swelled as fans flocked to discuss the new release, and although the site has offered some constructive criticism of the game, their anticipation was largely justified.

Much like the Donkey Kong series itself, the DK Vine is enjoying a major Rennsaissance, so if you're DK fan and looking for something different in your gaming fandom, head on down!

The DK Vine contains examples of:

• Accentuate the Negative: More averted now. During The Turn of the Millennium, though, it tended to be full-stop; at least with regards to Nintendo.
• After Action Report: The Slush Fun'd, in which Slush catches up with the games he missed out after he lost interest in the DKU, and posts his progress on the site's forums. He covers the games released between Mario Party 5 and Donkey Kong Country Returns. That's fifty-five games! He's currently up to Donkey Konga 2.
• All There in the Manual: The site loves digging up the most minute details of game plots. They have multiple essays on these things.
• BLAM Episode: The infamous Bear Rape topic became such a site meme that it was reopened!
• Canon Welding: How DKU canon works.
• Caption Humor: Used in the now-defunct Gallery section of the site (with official artwork and screenshots from related games), as well as the artwork and screenshot pages for Donkey Kong Country Returns.
• Continuity Porn: Pretty much every bit of original fanon was designed solely for this purpose.
• Deadpan Snarker: May be seen as a whole site full of them.
• Death of the Author: After the Old Staff quit, their final sway in controlling DKU canon was lost. Aussie Ben would later take over the forums in attempt to enforce his will over Viva Pinata's canonicity.
• Five-Man Band: New Staff: Chad as The Hero, Slush as The Lancer, Aussie Ben as the smart guy, Andrey as the Big Guy, and Our Friend as the chick.
• Left Hanging: Fun With Pass A Story: The Epic Donkey Kong [Not A Cock-And-Bull Story]. It later got a Fully-Absorbed Finale with The End, which doesn't necessarily tie up all loose ends.
• Long Runners: 11 years and counting. "I can't believe this forum is still here", "I can't believe my old password still works" and "I can't believe how long it's been" are phrases you'll hear a lot from returning members.
• Podcast: Two of them;
  • The Roundtable Po D Kast, a straight up discussion program about current events in the DKU which features Mark and a variety of other hosts
  • The Vine Audio Programme, initially the same, only featuring large scripted elements and soon evolving into an epic and crazy story arc. Features the original DKU staff members and their friends.
• Poorly-Disguised Pilot: The afore-mentioned Pass-A-Story feature laid the foundations for Elvis And Slick Monty.
• Series Fauxnale: The End, which is also a two-fold Whole-Plot Reference to the Grand Finales of both The X-Files and Newhart.
• Serious Business: The very definition of it with regard to fandom, in many people's opinions.
• Snarky Non-Human Sidekick: Our Friend, Chad's camera inhabited by a lost soul. At one point he got hit in the lens cap by a wayward hoe, thought he was Bob Newhart, and transformed into Barack Obama. It's a Long Story.
• Universe Bible: The whole idea of Rare's "Donkey Kong Universe" is explained by a set of rules kept on the site. They go through a lot of change; the current incarnation is specifically designed to thwart all sorts of loopholes in the system (It's Mr. Pants gets a special article on its inclusion). In addition, a full timeline of events, including complete fanon constructions, called the Timevine is kept.
• Viewers are Morons: Chad almost constantly in his forum posts. His angst eventually lead him to cancel Green Porn City
• Word of God: Leigh Loveday on the canon, Chad and Slush on the fandom. To this day Slush is seen as the guru on canon