Retro Talk Donkey Kong Country Returns Development

By Jorge Ba-oh 04.03.2011 8

Retro Talk Donkey Kong Country Returns Development on Nintendo gaming news, videos and discussion

During this year's GDC, Retro Studios sat down to discuss developing a high-profile Nintendo game with Nintendo themselves.

Donkey Kong: Swinging Across Oceans, saw key members of the Retro team, including CEO Michael Kelbaugh, joined by Retro vice-president and Nintendo producer Kensuke Tanabe to discuss what it was like taking on such a popular classic series and working with Nintendo of Japan and the rather picky father of Donkey Kong, Shigeru Miyamoto.

  • Kelbaugh had told Nintendo that he would like to work on a new Donkey Kong game back in 2004, but it only came to light in 2008.

  • Unfortunately some key members had left the team, and so Retro sought to pursue a different direction - this came in form of Donkey Kong Country Returns for Wii.

    If any of [the people who left] are out there, look what you missed - Kelbaugh
  • The team needed a completely different art direction to the slightly dark, space and alien design they had been used to with the Metroid Prime trilogy. "Fun" and "whimsical" came to mind.

  • The team at Retro travelled to Japan to discuss core elements with franchise creator Shigeru Miyamoto - even speaking for hours on the "ground pound" move, which Miyamoto wasn't happy with.

    After a lot of experimentation, and [physically] pounding the table, it became an offset bo-boom, bo-boom. That process of playing with the features, figuring out how to make them fun - overall it improved the quality of the game.
  • Miyamoto had envisaged on a single player experience like the past Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Land games, where players couldn't play together in the past. Using Super Mario Bros. Wii as an example, producer Tanabe wanted to incoporate co-operative play.

  • The team faced hurdles dealing with Nintendo - with the key idea, the main phiolosophy, being "finding the key idea that is fun, make a prototype, and iterate on that again and again". It wasn't quite in line with Retro's way of thinking, but eventually both Nintendo and Retro saw eye to eye.
    • Via GameSpot.

    During the talk Tanabe also noted that Monster Games are the brains behind Nintendo's new flight simulator, Pilotwings for 3DS.

    Are you a fan of Donkey Kong Country Returns on Wii? Are you happy with Retro Studios' take on the classic Rare series?

    Box art for Donkey Kong Country Returns
    Developer

    Retro

    Publisher

    Nintendo

    Genre

    2D Platformer

    Players

    2

    C3 Score

    Rated $score out of 10  9/10

    Reader Score

    Rated $score out of 10  9/10 (19 Votes)

    European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date Out now   Australian release date Out now   

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    Sonic_13 is offline. Sonic_13 04.03.2011#1

    I love Donkey Kong Country Returns.

    I got it this past Christmas. I had no doubts that it would be fun, but I had no idea it would be so utterly addicting to play.

    On another note, I wonder what Retro is working on right now...

     
    Vorash Kadan 04.03.2011#2

    Sonic_13 said:
    I love Donkey Kong Country Returns.

    I got it this past Christmas. I had no doubts that it would be fun, but I had no idea it would be so utterly addicting to play.

    On another note, I wonder what Retro is working on right now...

    With any luck the next Metroid game...

    It is not wise to speak on subjects you do not know all facts about, nor is it smart to judge a game based on looks alone. PSN: Nintendo_Gamer 3DS: 4296-3029-7422
     
    Sonic_13 is offline. Sonic_13 04.03.2011#3

    Vorash Kadan said:
    Sonic_13 said:
    I love Donkey Kong Country Returns.

    I got it this past Christmas. I had no doubts that it would be fun, but I had no idea it would be so utterly addicting to play.

    On another note, I wonder what Retro is working on right now...

    With any luck the next Metroid game...

    I'm hoping for something different. Perhaps even original.

     
    Our member of the week
    RudyC3 is offline. RudyC3 04.03.2011#4

    Let Retro studios work on Raven Blade again and bring it to the Wii Nintendo !!

    Cubed3 Limited Staff :: Review and Feature Writer
     
    PMD is offline. PMD 04.03.2011#5

    I feel that Raven Blade isn't the type of game that Retro makes best. However, I would have said the same thing about Donkey Kong, so we'll just have to wait and see.

    I do hope they get to work on something original, as I believe Retro could definitely come up with something good.

     
    Darkflame is offline. Darkflame 04.03.2011#6

    I also vote "something new"
    Metroid needs to be rested. Corruption was utterly superb, but I don't think we need a new one yet.

    I wouldn't have anything against a different first person adventure though, if they wanted to reuse the engine and expirence. As long as it played significantly different.

    http://www.fanficmaker.com <-- Tells some truly terrible tales.
    Last update; Mice,Plumbers,Animatronics and Airbenders. We also have the socials; Facebook & G+. 
     
    Azuardo is offline. Azuardo 04.03.2011#7

    I'd like something different, but definitely wouldn't mind a new Metroid either. I hope they're working on the 3DS.

     
    bornforthis43 is offline. bornforthis43 07.03.2011#8

    If Retro can bring Metroid, and DK Country (not counting Jungle Beat, even though it's an amazing game), from the SNES era, I wonder what other franchises they could bring back. I really hope they make the next Star Fox.

     

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