Donkey Kong Racing Scribes Excerpts
The following excerpts detailing the development of Donkey Kong Racing was originally published on Rare’s Scribes letter page through the years 2001 – 2009. We’ve scoured each edition for those years in order to provide you with every mention of the title to be found in Rare’s posted answers in chronological order below. We’ve also included a link above each heading which will re-direct to the original letters page that the question was featured in should you wish to view it in the original context – otherwise you’ll find that the entries below only focus on answers related to Donkey Kong Racing for a comprehensive listing for any fan wanting further information on pre-release content, hidden easter eggs, abandoned features and development secrets:
Dear Scribes,
Well, since you’re now accepting questions about the new titles from E3, allow me to direct a few your way in anticipation of witty non-answers.
1. I love Diddy Kong Pilot with a passion. Will it have adventure elements like Diddy Kong Racing did?
2. Will its battle mode be playable with four people and only one cartridge?
3. Will Donkey Kong Racing have as much of an adventure side to it as the previous DKR did?
4. Coconut Crackers… think you’ll actually get away with that name?
5. Will Star Fox Adventures still have that dino-flying level where you shoot down an aerial pirate ship… the one that was in Dinosaur Planet on N64?
6. How much like traditional Star Fox games will the Arwing levels be?
7. In Kameo, what’s the incentive to not always toss out your trained monsters? At E3, they were free, fun to watch, and really far too effective against the baddies…
8. Also in Kameo, will each creature morph only have one ability like in the demo?
Umm, so there. I know it’ll just kill you to visit all those different developer guys, but this is stuff we need to know. Or at least it’s stuff I need to know, and that’s all that matters in the end.
Jonathan Metts
Hah! Dissing my motivation, are you? Check out this bunch of stuff from the relevant designers:
1. “Yes there is an adventure element to Diddy Kong Pilot, as many of the characters in the game have their own Story to play through.”
2. “Battle mode will only be playable with multiple cartridges, as we have something special sorted out for them. However, several race tracks will be available to play with just one cartridge.”
3. “The adventure element will feature much more heavily, only less so, and will be implemented in some areas, but obviously not others – to a higher or sometimes lower degree than is currently planned.”
4. Remains to be seen.
5. “Yes, we still have the dino flying level with the pirate ship.”
6. ” We haven’t actually said yet that there are going to be ArWing levels and if they do exist, then they will be similar though also different.”
7. “Every monster will react and respond to fights in very different ways. Some will be very brave and aggressive, others will be timid or passive. The monsters in the E3 demo behaved in a very aggressive way to make it easy for first time players to get to grips with the basic controls.”
8. “Each character will have more than one ability in the finished game.”
There you go. Sorted. Now get updating them previews, boy.
Dear Rarist of Rare’s (Eh? – Ed),
First of all, I’d like to comment on your new look. Although slow, it’s very, very good. You get the change to interact a lot more too (Eh? – Ed), good work!
Anyway, the titles you revealed for Gamecube thus far look brill. In fact, I am buying Gamecube solely to play your games. All the titles look fantastic, but my personal favourite has to be Donkey Kong Racing. I love the prospect of flying around on Zingers, Neckies etc. By the looks of Donkey Kong Racing so far, it seems we get to ride through many locations from the Donkey Kong Country series. Is this true? (Like you are going to tell me.) Anyway, I hope you include all the Kongs from the DKC series, I really do miss Dixie! Oh, and don’t forget Squitter!
Keep up the great work!
Squitter Himself
You’re right, I’m not going to tell you. Because I don’t know. But I will ask the team on your behalf (don’t get too excited):
“Maybe. We might. The fact that you boast about really ‘doing’ Miss Dixie only confirms the reports of her being the trailer trash Kong. We already have forgotten Squitter.”
September 3rd 2001:
Dear Scribes,
A few numbered questions (don’t you love ’em?) that I’ve been pondering over for a while…
1. We all know Donkey Kong Racing‘s video was prerendered with in-game textures and models. Good. Fine. But what about the oh-so pretty motion blur? Is that an in-game feature, or just something that may or may not be utilized in later generations of GCN software, providing it advances that far?
2. A bit of a silly question to be asking, but is Donkey Kong Racing the official sequel to the N64’s Diddy Kong Racing? The damn-near-identical logos and general concepts would suggest so…
3. While I’m in a DoKR groove, may as well go for the gusto – any chance Wizpig will be reappearing as the villain, with K. Rool backing him up, prompting Donkey’s namesake inclusion? (Braces for inevitable “bugger off” response)
4. Oh, let’s see… Since Diddy Kong Pilot is scheduled to come out by year’s end, maybe the release is close enough to merit a response to this… who’s the hillbilly Kong from the character select screen? Can we at least have a name?
5. So, when are you going to get around to adding Twelve Tales: Conker 64 and the Sabre-riffic N64 Dinosaur Planet to the Limbo page? I know it’s more than redundant, but isn’t that the world we live in?
Well, that about does it. I’ll probably think of several more just seconds after clicking “send” and kick myself for not asking, but I can’t be bothered to write another letter (we both know that’s a lie, but I don’t want to look like a two-letter knob). Cheers.
>Chad McCanna
I can do better than an “inevitable ‘bugger off’ response”. I can get you some of the least satisfactory answers in recorded history from the Donkey Kong Racing team leader.
“1. It is definitely something that ‘may or may not be used in (this or) later generations of GCN software, providing it advances that far.’
“2. No-one really has any idea what the concept for DoKR is yet, so a comparison is not entirely appropriate at this juncture.
“3. There is, more or less, almost certainly ‘any chance’ that Wizpig will appear as the villain.
“Oh, and at my school the word ‘Chad’ was used as an insult.”
He then proceeded to give a graphic example, which I’ve duly censored. It’s for your own good. As for the other questions:
4) Don’t worry about it – he’s been killed off now anyway.
5) Everyone already knows about those, so it’d be a bit pointless at the moment…
November 8th 2001:
Dear Scribes,
With its European release looming, I have some Gamecube related questions for you. And also some non-Gamecube related questions, however, none of which mention Arse, Mr. Pants or Perfect Dark 2.
1) Will you be doing any more Tepid Seats with Gamecube and GBA development teams?
2) In Donkey Kong Racing will you also be able to ride other animals other than those shown in the opening demo such as walruses/penguins etc. in a snow world or a Triceratops/T-Rex in a Dino World? There is however the obvious problem with Penguins; they melt if you leave them out in the sun.
3) Will there be an option to turn on and off the tilt function in Diddy Kong Pilot as I don’t want to look like a nonce tilting it all the time?
4) What is a good time for completing Jet Force Gemini? Is just under 9 hours OK? I need to ask you since all of my mates are crap.
5) In Conker’s BFD, when the Mighty Poo ‘flushes’ are his lines a parody of the Wicked Witch of the West melting in The Wizard of Oz?
You say there are no push button codes for Perfect Dark. However I know how to get the Invincibility cheat and this should help all those moro… err people who want the push button cheats. You simply press C-up, R+D-down, hold C-up C-Right and press Z, L+D-down, hold L and R, move the analogue stick right and press START. These must all be entered within a quarter of a second of each other, although if you place the controller near a strong magnetic field, such as a speaker, it slows the electron flow and you have about one second to enter each step. It might not always work so lots of attempts are necessary.
I leave you with some famous words of Ali G. “Give a man a compilation tape and he will dance for a night. Teach a man to scratch and he will be dancing for generations.”
ZMG
1) Yes. Eventually. Probably.
2) Hear this: “We are most definitely, certainly, 100% guaranteed to not include even the faintest whiff of bloody dinosaurs in this game. As for the melting thing… perhaps we should include rideable Minstrels to avoid such chocolatey disasters.”
3) As far as I know, there always has been…
4) That must make me crap as well, because I haven’t got a clue.
5) If you consider ‘using some of the same words’ a ‘parody’, I suppose so.
Disclaimer: Rare cannot be held responsible for idiots, spivs and arsewits knackering their N64s/controllers/PD cartridges by attempting any stupid, obviously made-up and potentially damaging methods of attaining the mythical PD button codes. It’s sad that I even think this disclaimer is necessary, but we’ve already had a few people filling in the merchandise suggestion form then writing again a few days later, demanding to know why they haven’t ‘received’ their ‘order’.
November 30th 2001:
TEH SRCIBEZ,
Hello goodly sir, I’m back with more all-too-serious questions for your none-too-serious letters page.
1. When can we expect to learn more about Kameo? E3 2002 is an awful long time away…
2. Same as previous question, replace “Kameo” with “Donkey Kong Racing“.
3. I love the Arwing level included in the SpaceWorld and Cube Club demo versions of StarFox Adventures, but it’s a tad short. Does the one I played represent a real level from the game, or was it just thrown together to show the flying mechanics?
4. Why was Diddy Kong Pilot delayed until March? WHYYYYYY???
5. When are you going to make the trek to E3? I want to see the cosmic singularity explosion-type event that will occur when you and Seanbaby and Brandon DeHart are simultaneously in the same room. Then I can die happy… actually, I’ll probably die right then and there.
Jonathan Metts
1 & 2) E3 2001 was basically a sneak peek at some of Rare’s big projects for the next couple of years, just to reassure everyone that we’re hard at work on next-gen stuff. Following that, most of our upcoming behemoths went back into hiding. So don’t expect to see much (if anything) before the next E3…
3) Team quote: “Thrown together you say? As we speak, three tooled-up gorillas are speeding towards your house in an unmarked car to give you a lesson in banana-related punishment. Seriously though, the level you will have played was an unfinished test version of one of the many ArWing levels in the game.”
4) Well… because it sort of wasn’t, y’know… finished.
5) If I ever do get to E3, I’ll try to remember to make your last living moments happy ones by giving DeHart a big lick on the face.
Oy, continually arse muttering, lazy, hangovered bams at Scribes, ’tis me again…
I was originally going to write to you about the turgid state of affairs the world is in at the moment but then I was playing Diddy Kong Racing at a friend’s house and realised something that could change my life.
It was the first time I had played the game in about a year because previously after completing Adventure 1 and 2 I sold DKR for about £4 at the local shop, CA Games back in the days I owned the game.
Anyway, I’d forgotten the music in the game was so bloody fantastic! Every track has a superb catchy tune to it that burrows its way into your head like a bullet from an RCP-120.
So all I ask is that you make some DKR MP3s… and you make them now! If you don’t I will lose all faith in you and never rush out to buy one of your titles again so there!
Stuart Gillies, Glasgow
PS What concoction of narcotics were you on when you created Taj, he is the most arsebrained character I have ever come across. Remove him from Donkey Kong Racing or whatever it’ll be called or I’ll end up chopping off my fingers with a kitchen knife and washing my hands in vinegar, you have been warned.
What is a ‘bam’? Pray tell. I must not remain ignorant to regional slang.
Despite your deeply upsetting comments about Taj and thoughtless, penny-pinching abandonment of your own personal copy of the game, I’ve pestered the musician to come up with a nice selection of DKR MP3s for haphazard distribution across the site. However, there’s still the rest of the JFG and Conker stash to clear out before we dig into any other games, so you’ll have to wait a bit. All in good time, my boy.
December 20th 2001:
Dear overly patient Scribes editor,
I was gadding about your website, looking at the games you have coming out, and for some reason I became disappointed. Not that I’m thinking that your current slew of announced (which I’m thinking is the key word) games are bad, just nothing truly grabs me by the throat as absolutely must have. Just thought that was an odd thing coming from a game company that I have come to adore. I think it’s said best in Conker, “a niggling little tagnut”. Not sure if I got that right, but close enough. I’m still gonna get most of your titles. Just seems something’s missing, is all. Thought I would share that, cause I know how important the opinion of a regressed teenager matters so much to you. Thanks for your time.
Aaron Mayoras
Who are you calling patient?
Interesting observation, though. I mean, compare Rare’s first wave of GameCube titles with Rare’s first N64 titles. A lot of people look back on them fondly now, but KI Gold and Blast Corps didn’t exactly make waves at the time. Having well-established characters such as Donkey Kong and Fox McCloud in the vanguard of GC development is nothing to sneeze at… and while we’ve got a far bigger range of high-profile franchises to work with now than we did five years ago, we’re still devoting time to original titles such as Kameo too. You wait until the hype really kicks in. It’s early days yet.
Dear Scribes,
After reading the last Scribes I decided that I shall help you out and not send in a numbered list. I have replaced it wih letters pointing out were each question should be.
a) Is this form of asking questions just as annoying as numbers?
b) I haven’t seen any images or any information for what characters will be in Donkey Kong Racing besides the few images showing Taj, Donkey, Diddy (on a bloody huge Rhino) and Tiny. What other characters will be in the game.
c) Is a Zebra a black animal with white stripes or a white animal with black stripes?
d) Can you at least release the MP3 of when Conker first meets Death, it’s the greatest cut scene in the game and there is no way to reply it without starting a new game and it’s pointless going through the 1st 20 mins of the game just for the opertunity to kill ones self.
Luke
p.s. What with people writing in post scripts at the end of all Scribes messages it seems almost manitory along with the word arse, Sean W insults, RPAs and requests for PD push button codes.
p.p.s. I still firmly beilive the current Mr Pants is not really him. (I still don’t give a hoot about spelling either.)
p.p.p.s. I wounder what the actuall record for post scripts actually is. (It’s OK I won’t try and break it… yet.)
p.p.p.p.s. Stop bagging Taj that Indian Genie thing is great and has the funniest voice (behind Gregg the grim reaper- I hate cats too).
a) Sigh. No, it’s vastly different. I’m touched by your consideration.
b) We’ll tell you later. Maybe.
c) It’s flesh-coloured with black and white stripes, as you’d know if you’d watched one of those wildlife programmes that show zebras getting their legs ripped off by cheetahs and stuff.
d) What, you think you can just snap your fingers and I’ll go off looking for it and take the time to stick it on the Conker Downloads page? Merry Xmas.
PS So where’s yours?
PPS I noticed. Perhaps we should make proper spelling ‘manitory’.
PPPS You’d have a much better chance at the Mangling Simple Words record.
PPPPS Freddy! You’re right.
Dear Scribes…
Morning. Since it’s my birthday and I can’t be arsed to work hard, thought I’d dream up some irreverent questions for you. Better number them, I suppose.
1) Do you guys have any idea what happened to RareNet? Dan was funny, even if he did upset some people with that receptionist valentine.
2) One thing about PD multiplayer that a lot of mates complain about – if you’re dazed (tranquilised and / or punched) and then die, when you are respawned into the level you still can’t see. Was that intentional, or did it slip through?
3) One of the best things Rare does is to gradually release game information over a period of time. For example, the PD rumour mill was worth the wait. In the spirit of that policy, does the PD designer have a list of player statistic targets that he’s willing to share with us? I’m at level 2, but with over 1000 in each medal category I’m not sure where the final point is. Do you have to cover 2000km, for example?
4) Thanks for the continued delays on the GC software. It implies that things are being improved all the time. What happened to Donkey Kong Racing, though? No news in ages… was DK shot for being so bloody slow in DK64?
I know games in design / development are rarely confirmed by Rare until the day after they’re released, but if anyone is contemplating a JFG sequel, please promise some of the same levels / music will return – Rith Essa and SS Anubis, for example. Best music in any game.
I know it was Tusk that recently mentioned Miami Vice, not Scribes, but I’m watching repeats of it on NZ TV at the moment, and it still rules. Tubbs was a funny name.
Cheers,
Steve Smith
1) I think they just stopped being arsed, though it appears they may be arsed again sometime in the near future. In the meantime, I wish people would stop writing in asking me to update RareNet.
2) I shall make the appropriate inquiries on your behalf. “Intentional; though contentious within the team at the time, it got into the final game.”
3) You’ve got the medals sorted, but a loooong way to go in terms of distance.
4) That’s enough sarcasm, you young rascal. As for Donkey Kong Racing, you’ll see soon enough…
Not sure why we’d want to reuse music from one game to the next – wouldn’t it be better to get the same musician back on the project and crank out some all-new “best ever” tunes?
Miami Vice is certainly better than Nash Bridges, but then again so’s Poltergeist: The Legacy.
Dear Scribes,
I’ve got one question that is driving me mad. Is Donkey Kong Racing still coming out? Some websites such as gamespot.com (where I downloaded the movie of Donkey Kong Racing) say “it’s hanging in the limbo” which I think means could be, could not. Other websites say it’s been cancelled or canned because of your move to Microsoft. And one website which I’ve forgotten the site says it’s still coming out and will be out by the end of 2004. Please tell me if it’s still coming or not as ever since I saw the screenshot on my Gamecube box I’ve been looking forward to it and it would definitely outsell Mario Kart Double Dash!! as Diddy Kong Racing outsold Mario Kart 64. Please let me know.
Ben
Well, yes and no. It’s not called Donkey Kong Racing any more, it’s not for the GameCube any more and by this point I’d imagine so little of the original art and code remains that it’s barely even the same game any more, but yes, it’s still coming out. In some form. Wait and see, if you haven’t already picked up on the new title that’s been unofficially floating around the electrical interweb for months now.
May 5th 2004:
Dear Scribes,
Now that donkeykong racing will never come out,can you tell me what it was like or going to be like.Who else would you have been able to play as besides the ones show in the old e3 video.Would the enemy(if their was one be k.rool or the wizpig).I have been a big rareware fan since the days of the donkeykong country series(which I think is the best 2-d series of all time)and i really hate how nintendo won’t let you make the donkeykong games anymore.Nintendo never even cared about donkeykong until you guys came along a brought the series back to life.You made the donkykong that everybody knows and loves, not Nintendo, you should be able to continue the series.I hate what nintendo did to zelda and I’m afraid of what they will do to donkeykong.
Bubblegum Crisis Fan
I can’t even bring myself to make a start on your grammar.
Nintendo are hardly going to let us make games starring DK for the Xbox, are they? It’s not as if we ever expected them to. But here are some answers from the ex-Donkey Kong Racing team for your delectation:
“We were going to set in it downtown Miami, and have a large free-roaming element so that you could actually get out of the car and… well… murder things. We would have had blood, prostitutes, guns, drive-bys and crime. We were going to put swearing in, and grenades – a tank and the Mafia. You would have been able to bludgeon innocent people to death with a baseball bat until they collapsed, allowing you to steal their money – and when the ambulance arrived, you would have been able to steal it, and mow down the paramedics desperately trying to revive your original victim. It would have rocked – but it got cancelled, so we won’t.
“Other playable characters: Roger Moore, Peter Andre, Kevin Keegan and my mum.”
Hope that was of some help to you.
Dear Scribes,
I recently saw a copy of Banjo Kazooie: Grunty’s Revenge for the GBA in an airport store. Stifling my emotions and trying to keep my heartbeat under control I swiftly moved to the GC section with credit card at the ready to purchase the full console version… Nothing there!
Asked the salesguy – didn’t know… didn’t care!
So, I see from your website that you are developing only for the GBA.
Is there any chance that you will develop something for one of the proper consoles (even if it isn’t the GC) rather than just a handheld?
Thanks in advance,
Robert
I assume you mean something specifically Banjo-related, considering we’ve already released one unrelated game for the Xbox with several more in development. Yes, Grunty’s Revenge was a standalone GBA title, not tied in to a full-blown console release – that’s not a crime, is it? None of our other GBA games have been produced solely as support material for bigger-budget Xbox versions either. But if it’s a next-gen Banjo game you’re looking for, the odds aren’t bad – it’s one of Rare’s big franchises, so it’s highly likely to pop up again in the future. We’re just not saying when. As usual. You should come here more often, then you could watch us failing to be specific until the cows come home.
June 25th 2007:
Hey Scribes,
Great job with Diddy Kong Racing DS, it’s by far my favorite game for the DS. Viva Piñata also looks great and it’ll be my first game when I get a 360 (assuming I get one before the new Banjo-Kazooie comes out). Anyways, I noticed something about the secret levels in Diddy Kong Racing DS. Three of them have a darker feel than the rest of Diddy Kong Racing, and two of them contain music from the cancelled Donkey Kong Racing for the Gamecube. Are these beta tracks from Donkey Kong Racing?
Dylan Mattern
Honestly? Haven’t the foggiest. Let’s ask.
“The new race tracks did not come from Donkey Kong Racing, nor did the music. They were created from scratch for DKR DS.”
That’s you told then. You and your alleged Donkey Kong Racing expertise. Thanks for responding to the call for DKR DS comments though (yes, boy, this is how we repay you).
February 12th 2009:
Hi Scribes,
I am a long time fan of Rare since I was five years old, my first game was even Donkey Kong Country for the SNES when it came out in 1994 and I received it along with my first console ever. Enough about that, my question is if you guys at Rare would ever consider to remake Donkey Kong Racing for the Nintendo DS? Like how you guys remade and ported Diddy Kong Racing over to the DS. I know I might be asking the wrong person for this question, but I hope you can inform the DS team to come to an agreement with Nintendo on this lost 2001 game that almost once was a reality. I do love Diddy Kong Racing and I still enjoy the original and the DS remake to this day, and I’m sure the mass majority of Rare fans do as well, and hope for this game’s return. In my position, I was crushed back in 2001 when Donkey Kong Racing was announced as canceled on the Nintendo GameCube, and all the people (fans) waiting for it were also crushed as well.
I do hope this question ends up in your next edition of Scribes, and maybe it can get the attention of fans who can remember this game; and also maybe it can get Rare’s attention because of the fans rejoice and Rare to rethink of remaking this for the Nintendo DS or DSi. I just hate seeing a good looking game being canceled without giving it a chance of its potential to the gaming world. Thanks for listening.
Jake
I’m not sure you can remake a game that was never made, but I get where you’re coming from. So would we consider remaking it? Well, I suppose there’s no harm in saying we’d consider it. But it also seems likely that nothing would come of it unless we were directly approached by Nintendo. It’s not as straightforward as “informing the DS team to come to an agreement”; deals involving other companies’ IP very rarely are. I’m sure you realise we didn’t cancel it on a whim the first time around just to aggravate fans. Our acquisition by Microsoft led to a lot of changes being made, and while we’re still on good terms with Nintendo, it’d be naive to expect our working relationship to be as direct now as it was when we were developing primarily for their systems.
So, long story short: Donkey Kong Racing, maybe one day, you never know, if the fates decree it. Right then, back to Banjo.
September 18th 2009:
Dear Rare,
I have a few donkey kong questions i would like to ask you.
1.) Recently I have been playing though the dkc trilogy on the wiis vc and also donkey kong 64 on the n64 but since you left Nintendo I think donkey kong has lost his way after playing the terrible jet race I cant help but think how good donkey kong racing would have been if it was released you ever went back to Nintendo would you finish it?
2.) This probably is more of a question for Nintendo but my N64 is just about to give up the ghost and I was wondering why donkey kong 64 is not on the wiis vc yet I know jetpac makes an appearances in the game but that can’t be the only thing holding it back.
3.) One last question what ever happened to Kiddy kong we have not seen him since dkc3 did Nintendo not like him.
ResidentSteve
Numbered list, distracting full stop/bracket antics and near-total absence of capitalisation and appropriate punctuation. I’m just saying.
1) I don’t think there was ever all that much of Donkey Kong Racing; it’s not as if we’re talking tragically canned near-complete product here. And if Nintendo were desperate to see it finished they could have tapped someone else for the job. Would we seize the opportunity to finish it now? I dunno, isn’t there a limit on the number of Kong-themed racers the market can sustain?
2) I have no idea why DK64 hasn’t shown up yet, and whether Jetpac would still be in there or they’d replace it with Mario’s Cement Factory (which ate about three years of my life as a child) or something. Or maybe a single-screen 2D shooty version of Jet Race would be more appropriate. Who knows? Not us, obviously, or we wouldn’t be sitting here pitching clueless alternatives.
3) The very idea that anyone didn’t like Kiddy Kong is just… well… moving on, I think the team just wanted a new cast for DK64, we haven’t done a lot of work with the Kongs since then, and it’s up to Nintendo which of the wacky monkey chums they want to bring back nowadays. Maybe you should start a petition, but then you’ve only got yourself to blame if Kiddy Kong makes an appearance rolling around like an idiot and ruining your yoga session in Wii Fit 2.