| Nintendo 64 |
 |
22nd November 1999 |
 |
6th December 1999 |
 |
10th December 1999 |
Originally penned for the 64DD, when the system addon fell through the game was instead moved to cart, and was the first N64 game that absolutely required the memory expansion pak. In most regions, the game was packed with the pak for free. The reasons simply being that the game is huge, and the graphics are high-resolution.
Everything seems peaceful in the jungle, until it turns out that all of the Kongs minus Donkey Kong have been captured and locked up. To make matters worse, King K. Rool has mechanized Crocodile Isle, and is pointing a huge, but malfunctioning gun at DK Island. Donkey Kong has to rescue his friends and collect the Golden Bananas needed to face K. Rool and put an end to the Blast-o-Matic scheme.
Donkey Kong starts alone in the jungle. Once he has learned the basic moves from Cranky Kong he can move into the hub world and start entering levels. After a while he will free Diddy, and he will become playable when Donkey Kong jumps into a Kong Barrel. Over the next few levels you will also unlock Tiny Kong, Lanky Kong and Chunky Kong. In each stage there are five Golden Bananas to collect for each character, which is done by performing tasks. Each character has their own attributes, and learn different moves, get different weapons, and can hit different switches. There are also 100 bananas to collect per character per stage, which are needed to open the boss of each world and to unlock Cranky's secret game (a recreation of one of Rare's early games, Jetpak - the game also contains the arcade version of Donkey Kong in one stage).
Beating a boss gives you a key, allowing you to open one of the locks on K.Lumsy's cage, and in turn making more stages available. You can collect magical Banana Fairies with a camera that unlock cheats, and plenty more collectables along the way (ammo, orange grenades, etc.) It's one large collectable fest.
The game has many unlockables, and even a multiplayer deathmatch, where players have to collect ammo for their guns and shoot the life out of each other.
At the very start of the game, look around DK's cabin to see bits and pieces from his previous adventures, including girders from Donkey Kong and the gramophone and stereo from Donkey Kong Country. On one wall is a picture of a dolphin. This is one of the earliest references to the working title of the Nintendo GameCube, the "Dolphin".
Donkey Kong (Arcade)
In the Frantic Factory stage, head into the testing area. It is around here that you will find a classic Donkey Kong arcade machine. If DK has learned how to pull switches then you can play the full original game.
Jetpac (ZX Spectrum)
Once you've collected a load of Banana Tokens, Cranky will give you a chance to win a Rare Coin. In order to do it, you have to play a game called Jetpac - Rare's first ever game, originally released on the Sinclair Spectrum back when the developer was called 'Ultimate: Play The Game'.
While they appear throughout this game as a common collectable item, the Crystal Coconut first appeared as a legendary object in the Donkey Kong animated series that King K. Rool often attempted to steal.
Other Donkey Kong Platformers
