▲
2
▼
Based on an early version of the script, Snide was originally going to have a slightly different backstory and motivation for helping the Kongs. Rather than being King K. Rool's chief technician like in the final game, Snide was instead his personal handyman who grew frustrated that K. Rool wasn't letting him work on bigger projects such as the "Super Gun" (the original name for the Blast-o-Matic), eventually deciding to betray him. Notably, instead of mentioning time (in reference to the final level being on a time limit), Snide instead mentions the weapon having "weak points". It's unknown if this is based on an earlier version of Hideout Helm, or if it's just another way of describing the energy barriers, which are called weak points on the complete blueprint.
▲
2
▼
According to composer Grant Kirkhope, the DK Rap was written as a joke song that ended up being interpreted by audiences as a serious attempt at writing hip-hop. Consequently, he expressed confusion at the tongue-in-cheek cult following the song picked up decades later, noting that "bizarrely, this became its own thing now."
▲
2
▼

Contrary to popular belief, as revealed on a December 20, 2007 edition of Rare's Scribes, the decision to redesign Tiny into a teenager was not Rare's call, but Nintendo's, which is appropriate considering Nintendo has retained full ownership of Rare's Donkey Kong characters since the latter company were acquired by Microsoft in 2002, and thus now have full creative control on how they're presented and portrayed.
One detail that is worth pointing out, and may provide an explanation to why Nintendo had no qualms with redesigning a character who was meant to be Dixie's younger sibling into a teenager, is that the Japanese localization of Donkey Kong 64 reportedly makes zero mention of Tiny being related to Dixie, instead just being described by the manuals as just a "Charming girl Kong". It's also worth pointing out that every game that has featured Tiny Kong since 2002, such as Mario Super Sluggers, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U has also made zero mention of Tiny's relationship with Dixie Kong, which adds credence to the theory that Nintendo opted to ignore and essentially retcon Rare's initial lore of the two being siblings.
Rare Scribes on Tiny's redesign:
https://web.archive.org/web/20071224053939/http://www.rareware.com/extras/scribes/20dec07/index.html
Japanese wiki article on Tiny (英語版においては【クランキーコング】の親戚かつディクシーコングの妹という設定がある。 = In the English version, she is a relative of Cranky Kong and sister of Dixie Kong.):
https://w.atwiki.jp/nitendo/pages/1679.html
Japanese DK64 website that just describes Tiny as "charming girl kong":
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/n01/n64/software/nus_p_ndoj/chara/index.html
Gathering of Tiny's profiles and stats on Mario Wiki, notice how nothing after the western DK64 material mentions her relationship to Dixie:
https://www.mariowiki.com/List_of_Tiny_Kong_profiles_and_statistics
https://web.archive.org/web/20071224053939/http://www.rareware.com/extras/scribes/20dec07/index.html
Japanese wiki article on Tiny (英語版においては【クランキーコング】の親戚かつディクシーコングの妹という設定がある。 = In the English version, she is a relative of Cranky Kong and sister of Dixie Kong.):
https://w.atwiki.jp/nitendo/pages/1679.html
Japanese DK64 website that just describes Tiny as "charming girl kong":
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/n01/n64/software/nus_p_ndoj/chara/index.html
Gathering of Tiny's profiles and stats on Mario Wiki, notice how nothing after the western DK64 material mentions her relationship to Dixie:
https://www.mariowiki.com/List_of_Tiny_Kong_profiles_and_statistics
▲
1
▼
According to the game's Japanese website, K. Lumsy is King K. Rool's younger brother. This detail is not mentioned at any point in the English version of the game.
▲
1
▼
In an interview with GamesRadar+, creative director George Andreas revealed that the game's notoriously high volume of collectibles was the result of an executive request from Rare co-founder Tim Stamper. According to Andreas, Stamper believed that the emphasis on collectables would help differentiate the game from Banjo-Kazooie, which the Stamper brothers had previously produced. This desire also influenced the decision to feature five playable characters and the inclusion of "thrilling moments" such as mine cart and slide segments.
▲
1
▼
The Gloomy Galleon level music in Donkey Kong 64 originates from Dream: Land of Giants, the game that eventually became Banjo-Kazooie. Fittingly enough, it was originally intended to be the theme for Captain Blackeye, Dream's villainous pirate antagonist, who would later go on to cameo as a non-playable character in Banjo-Tooie's Jolly Roger's Lagoon world.
As a bonus feature for Rare Replay, Rare included a set of music tracks dubbed "Top-Secret Tunes", which primarily features previously unreleased music from Rare games in development, including many hailing from Dream. One of these is a rendition of Blackeye's theme, called "High Tides, Swift Sails". While Rare had made efforts to avoid any legal issues with Nintendo as they were putting together Rare Replay (such as removing the remix of the Donkey Kong Land boss battle from its version of Blast Corps), this song's appearance may be an exception as the original version comes from a game owned by Rare that was never completed, while the game the song was repurposed for was never planned to be included in Rare Replay to begin with.
As a bonus feature for Rare Replay, Rare included a set of music tracks dubbed "Top-Secret Tunes", which primarily features previously unreleased music from Rare games in development, including many hailing from Dream. One of these is a rendition of Blackeye's theme, called "High Tides, Swift Sails". While Rare had made efforts to avoid any legal issues with Nintendo as they were putting together Rare Replay (such as removing the remix of the Donkey Kong Land boss battle from its version of Blast Corps), this song's appearance may be an exception as the original version comes from a game owned by Rare that was never completed, while the game the song was repurposed for was never planned to be included in Rare Replay to begin with.
Gloomy Galleon - Donkey Kong 64:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxzb8VufArY
Captain Blackeye - Dream: Land of Giants
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdOk3hzbkF4
Rare Replay Top-Secret Tunes: High Tides, Swift Sails - Dream: Land of Giants:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnI4RmsShnQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxzb8VufArY
Captain Blackeye - Dream: Land of Giants
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdOk3hzbkF4
Rare Replay Top-Secret Tunes: High Tides, Swift Sails - Dream: Land of Giants:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnI4RmsShnQ
subdirectory_arrow_right DK: King of Swing (Game)
▲
1
▼

It turns out that this particular name was already used for this enemy back in the Japanese localization of Donkey Kong 64. In the bestiary within the official Japanese DK64 guidebook, they are named フリップフラップ (Furippufurappu), which of course translates to Flipflap in English.
Scan from Japanese DK64 guidebook:
https://www.mariowiki.com/images/4/4a/DK64_Shogakukan_P13.jpg
Japanese DK King of Swing website:
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/n08/bbkj/story/index.html
English DK King of Swing manual:
https://www.thegameisafootarcade.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/DK-King-of-Swing-Game-Manual.pdf
https://www.mariowiki.com/images/4/4a/DK64_Shogakukan_P13.jpg
Japanese DK King of Swing website:
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/n08/bbkj/story/index.html
English DK King of Swing manual:
https://www.thegameisafootarcade.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/DK-King-of-Swing-Game-Manual.pdf
▲
1
▼
The infamous DK Rap was featured in the 2023 film "The Super Mario Bros. Movie", with the chorus portion used to chant Donkey Kong's name as he enters the Great Ring of Kong to battle Mario. Donkey Kong's voice actor Seth Rogen reacted to the DK Rap prior to the film's release, referring to it as "objectively one of the worst rap songs of all time." The original songwriter Grant Kirkhope expressed excitement upon hearing about the song's inclusion in the film, but was dismayed upon seeing that he was not credited as the song's original composer in the movie's credits.
Seth Rogen reaction:
https://twitter.com/supermariomovie/status/1641485445816102920
Grant Kirkhope tweet reacting to Seth Rogen:
https://twitter.com/grantkirkhope/status/1641555322723774464
Grant Kirkhope tweet about DK Rap in end credits:
https://twitter.com/grantkirkhope/status/1643446092791705600
https://twitter.com/supermariomovie/status/1641485445816102920
Grant Kirkhope tweet reacting to Seth Rogen:
https://twitter.com/grantkirkhope/status/1641555322723774464
Grant Kirkhope tweet about DK Rap in end credits:
https://twitter.com/grantkirkhope/status/1643446092791705600
subdirectory_arrow_right Jetpac (Game)
▲
1
▼
Despite becoming a Microsoft game following the buyout of Rare, the ZX Spectrum version of Jetpac was left intact in the Wii U Virtual Console version of Donkey Kong 64.
Wii U Virtual Console version of Donkey Kong 64:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLqeJEsi3tY
MarioWiki article:
https://www.mariowiki.com/Jetpac
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLqeJEsi3tY
MarioWiki article:
https://www.mariowiki.com/Jetpac
▲
1
▼

▲
1
▼
There was a special edition Donkey Kong 64 controller released through Nintendo Power. Original advertisements showed the controller with the entire Donkey Kong 64 logo, but this was changed to only saying "DK64" by release.
▲
1
▼

▲
1
▼
An infinite life GameShark code increase the player's life melon count to 4, though the most you can have normally is 3. Even after disabling the code, your melon count will stay at 4. It's thought that Rare planned to implement an additional melon upgrade at Candy's shop. Alternatively, it's also possible that two melons were planned to be used at the beginning of the game instead of one.
▲
1
▼
A ROM was ripped from a demo kiosk version of the game, and was found to have three demo levels in it. They were the Army Dillo level, the Mine Cart level, and the Dogadon fight. Certain beta elements were in the ROM such as the silver balloon counter, Army Dillo's speech, and Dogadon's beta spit noise.
▲
1
▼
Using a glitch to get under DK Isle, going towards the waterfall will bring you to the escape ship cockpit King K. Rool used during the "K. Rool Press Button" cutscene.
▲
1
▼
It was originally believed that the only reason the game needed the Expansion Pak to run was because it fixed a game-breaking bug that caused the 4 megabyte game cartridge to randomly crash. Rare couldn't find any other solution, so they bundled the Expansion Pak with the game, costing them a lot of money. They still don't know what caused the bug. According to software engineer Chris Marlow:
However, developer Mark Stevenson claimed that while there was a game-breaking bug, it only affected one hardware revision of the Nintendo 64 that would be resolved on later models. He claims that the actual reason the Expansion Pak was required was because Rare's management instructed the game's developers to support it early in development to accommodate advanced graphical effects like dynamic lighting. Stevenson speculated that these two stories were likely conflated into one, creating the memory leak rumor that persisted for years.
Ultimately, Simon Craddick, one of the four engineers who worked on the Expansion Pak's implementation into Donkey Kong 64, claimed in a Facebook group that the only thing the Expansion Pak actually did was add vertex lighting to the levels.
"There was a bug that caused the game to randomly crash that only occurred in the 4meg-only version ... and they couldn't find out what it was, so they had to shift with the memory card in it for free and it cost them a fortune."
However, developer Mark Stevenson claimed that while there was a game-breaking bug, it only affected one hardware revision of the Nintendo 64 that would be resolved on later models. He claims that the actual reason the Expansion Pak was required was because Rare's management instructed the game's developers to support it early in development to accommodate advanced graphical effects like dynamic lighting. Stevenson speculated that these two stories were likely conflated into one, creating the memory leak rumor that persisted for years.
Ultimately, Simon Craddick, one of the four engineers who worked on the Expansion Pak's implementation into Donkey Kong 64, claimed in a Facebook group that the only thing the Expansion Pak actually did was add vertex lighting to the levels.
Conker's Bad Fur Day Director Commentary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgtAXCaSlpk#t=2m58s
NintendoLife article:
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2019/11/feature_donkey_kong_64_devs_on_bugs_boxing_and_20_years_of_the_dk_rap
GamesRadar interview:
https://www.gamesradar.com/uk/making-of-donkey-kong-64/
Simon Craddick Facebook Group screencap from 2022:
https://imgur.com/a/ENjggIj
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgtAXCaSlpk#t=2m58s
NintendoLife article:
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2019/11/feature_donkey_kong_64_devs_on_bugs_boxing_and_20_years_of_the_dk_rap
GamesRadar interview:
https://www.gamesradar.com/uk/making-of-donkey-kong-64/
Simon Craddick Facebook Group screencap from 2022:
https://imgur.com/a/ENjggIj
▲
1
▼
ASCII text for ICE KEY is present in the ROM. The Ice Key is one of the Stop 'n' Swop items in Banjo-Kazooie, so there may have been intended to be a connection between the two games.
keyboard_double_arrow_leftFirst keyboard_arrow_leftPrev | Page 1 of 2 | Nextkeyboard_arrow_right Lastkeyboard_double_arrow_right |
Related Games
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
Donkey Kong Land
Donkey Kong Barrel Blast
Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D
Diddy Kong Racing
Donkey Kong Country 2
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
Donkey Kong Jungle Beat
Donkey Kong Country
Donkey Kong Bongo Blast
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
Donkey Kong Country
Donkey Kong Country 3
DK: King of Swing
Donkey Kong Racing
Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!
Donkey Kong Country Returns
Donkey Kong Country
Donkey Kong Country
Game & Watch Gallery 2
Mario vs. Donkey Kong
Mario Kart DS
Game & Watch Gallery 4
Donkey Kong Circus
Super Smash Bros.
Nintendo Land
Donkey Kong: Coconut Crackers
Donkey Kong
Donkey Konga 2
Donkey Kong
NES Remix
Donkey Kong: Original Edition
Green House
Mario Kart Arcade GP
Mario Kart Arcade GP DX
Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition
Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games
Super Donkey
Donkey Kong
Mario Sports Mix
Game & Watch Collection
Mario Party 2
Donkey Kong Plus
Donkey Kong no Ongaku Asobi
Donkey Konga 2
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Skylanders: SuperChargers Racing
Donkey Kong 3
Mario Hoops 3-on-3
Super Smash Bros. Melee