A rare former artist reveals the original art of the Donkey Kong Country concept

Country Donkey Kong It has long been considered one of the best-looking games on Super Nintendo, and part of it can be attributed to former Rare artist Kev Bayliss’s designs. In a new YouTube video, Bayliss revealed a number of preliminary sketches for the game, including designs for Donkey Kong, Winky, Kremlings, and more. It’s a great look at the design process, and should be of equal use to those who played the game when it was released in 1994. And those who discovered it last year when it was released on the Nintendo Switch!

The video can be found embedded below.

The Bayliss designs are somewhat „cartoonish“ versions of the versions that ended up in the final match, but they still have the same feel. It’s easy to see how these graphics evolved into designs that made it to the final game. While the majority of the characters that appeared in Country Donkey Kong Totally original, Rare had to go to great lengths to update Donkey Kong from the version that initially appeared in arcades alongside his previous opponent, Mario.

Rare’s engagement with Donkey Kong has clearly been a hit. Not only did this version of DK appear in the SNES trilogy, but the character redesign began to appear in the Mario family games such as Mario Kart 64 And the Mario Party. Despite this close association with the mustachioed Nintendo mascot, DK is noticeably absent from Universal Studios Japan’s Super Nintendo World appeal. However, Data Agent was able to Discover stamps and character materials in the Super Nintendo World app. These articles feature Rare’s Eat on DK, plus Diddy Kong and more. This might indicate that the theme park’s appeal could see Donkey Kong content at some point in the future!

Lots of designs from previous games are often lost or ignored, so it’s really cool to see that Bayliss‘ graphics have survived for more than 25 years. Maybe one day they’ll even see the release as part of a game-based art book! Due to the popularity and importance of it Country Donkey Kong Confirming after all these years, it definitely looks like a possibility.

What do you think about this ahead of time Country Donkey Kong The concept of art? Are you a fan of the Super Nintendo game? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at Embed a Tweet To talk about all things games!