Donkey Kong Country is a video game initially released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System on November 25, 1994. The game was developed by Rare and published by Nintendo.[1] A simplified port was released on November 20, 2000 on the Game Boy Color[2] and an enhanced port was released on the Game Boy Advance on June 9, 2003.[3]
The game is a 2D platformer utilizing pre-rendered 3D sprites that Rare was able to use due to their acquisition of Silicon Graphics. After cracking the anti-piracy software in the Famicom/NES, Nintendo gave Rare a budget and a license to produce unlimited NES titles. Rare used its profits from this to produce the studio, and Nintendo was so impressed by the technology as used on the SNES that Nintendo gave Rare's owners, the Stamper Brothers, the option to use any Nintendo intellectual property to make a game using this technology. The Stamper Brothers chose Donkey Kong, which had been a dormant franchise whose last entry was a Game Boy enhanced remake of the original Donkey Kong arcade game.
A team of twelve worked on the game in an eighteen-month development cycle.[4] The game is renowned for its tight controls, accessible yet progressively difficult platforming, and ambient music from composers such as David Wise.