News Articles
Wednesday5th Apr 2023
Random Ex-Rare Dev Explains The Origin Of Donkey Kong Country's Name
Take me home, country roads
When you think of the titles of some of Nintendo's most iconic platform games, many of them just make sense as they are: Super Mario World, Kirby's Dream Land, and Donkey Kong Country. It all fits as a naming convention, right? Well, according to ex-Rare dev Kev Bayliss, the inclusion of the word 'Country' in Donkey Kong...
Friday28th May 2021
News Project64 Celebrates Its 20th Anniversary With A 3.0 Update
Fixes for "issues" with Donkey Kong 64 and more
Emulation might be a bit controversial, but (like it or not) it's arguably played a crucial role in gaming over the past two decades. Beyond fan-made projects and attempts to preserve long-forgotten releases, developers and publishers have also made use of emulators to revive certain releases. With...
Monday25th Jan 2021
News New Letter Details Why Donkey Kong 64's Innovative "Stop 'N' Swop" Feature Was Removed
"We must ask that you remove this feature"
Stop 'N' Swop was undoubtedly one of the N64's biggest mysteries, and even now, we're still learning new things about it decades later. With six coloured eggs and an ice key scattered across Banjo-Kazooie, it was designed as a means of unlocking special content in the sequel, Banjo-Tooie. It was never used...
Thursday4th Jun 2020
Random Pirate Metal Band Alestorm's Latest Album Features Several Donkey Kong References
Something tells us they're big fans
It's always pretty cool seeing Nintendo games being referenced in your favourite films or music, so take a look at Curse of the Crystal Coconut, the new album from Scottish metal band, Alestorm. You can probably think of one reference immediately - yes, the Crystal Coconut is an item found in Donkey Kong 64, used...
Tuesday10th Dec 2019
Random Rare Forgot To Remove A Shotgun From Donkey Kong 64 Before Showing Miyamoto
There was a "look of horror" on his face
Last month, Donkey Kong 64 turned 20 years old. Since then, the development team behind the game has been doing the press rounds to celebrate the anniversary. During a recent interview with Games Radar, one of the creative leads George Andreas recalled a horrifying moment when Rare was showing the game to...
Tuesday26th Nov 2019
Random If Cranky Kong Was Once Donkey Kong, What Does The Future Hold For Funky Kong?
DK devs weigh in
With Donkey Kong Country turning 25 last week and soaking up the lion's share of the anniversary headlines, we thought we'd give its younger sibling a chance to shine. Donkey Kong 64 celebrated its 20th birthday on 22nd November and we caught up with Mark Stevenson and
Sunday24th Nov 2019
Poll Box Art Brawl #18 - Donkey Kong 64
Walnuts, peanuts, pineapple smells
He-he-here we go! It's time for Box Art Brawl, our weekly look at which region got the best box art of a particular retro release. Last week the North American version of Ninja Gaiden on the NES absolutely trounced the competition, with the Japanese variant a distant second and Europe left stumbling in a daze...
Saturday1st Apr 2017
News The Yooka-Laylee Rap Tries to be the Best and Worst Thing All at Once
The spirit of the DK rap lives on
The DK Rap is iconic, well known for being pretty awful while also being loved by plenty of retro gamers. It was typical Rare, and so the freshly revealed Yooka-Laylee rap is perhaps 'typical Playtonic'. It's no secret that many of the leading developers in the Playtonic team have lucrative histories at Rare, and...
Monday15th Feb 2016
Video Try Not To Go Bananas At This Unreal Engine 4 Recreation Of Donkey Kong 64's Opening Stage
Unfinished monkey business
The power of Epic's Unreal Engine is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it allows talented fledgling artists to create amazing sequences which are arguably on par with the efforts of professional developers, but on the other it teases viewers with tantalising glimpses of projects which are unlikely to actually...
Thursday5th Nov 2015
Video The Story of Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot... in Donkey Kong 64
Remember, remember
The Fifth of November, Guy Fawkes' Night, Bonfire Night, Fireworks Night, or whatever you want to call it is a celebration in the United Kingdom and certain other countries centred around a historical event known as the Gunpowder Plot. Many people know it because of the excellent comic and subsequent film adaptation V for...
Thursday16th Apr 2015
Nintendo Download 16th April (North America)
StreetPass DLC, Smash Bros. DLC, DK 64, 3D Fantasy Zone II and much more
It's that time again, North American gamers, for the Nintendo Download Update to bring more treats to Wii U and 3DS. This week we have some Rare action on the Wii U, Smash Bros. DLC, StreetPass extras, another Sega classic and much more besides. Let's get to the details...
Monday6th Apr 2015
Video Donkey Kong 64 Tumbles Onto Wii U Virtual Console
Don't even think about that rap
The avalance of Wii U Virtual Console games continues with a game that is new to the Virtual Console service, having never previously received a re-release. Rare's Donkey Kong 64 has achieved infamy thanks to THAT intro song, but is the gameplay worth talking about? As someone who missed out on the game the first...
Thursday2nd Apr 2015
News Buy Three Nintendo 64 and DS Virtual Console Games and Get the Fourth Free in Europe
Knocks the average price down a little...
During this week's Nintendo Direct we had the news that Nintendo 64 and DS games are coming to the Wii U Virtual Console in force. In the madness then and since we didn't notice a particular deal that's running in Europe as a result of the region having four games available right from the off. As was...
Monday10th Jun 2013
Believes modern platformers should strike a balance
Wind-Waker lookalike A Hat In Time is currently being developed by Gears for Breakfast after it smashed through its Kickstarter goal. It's a cell-shaded homage to the classic N64 plaformers and though it's currently only down for a PC and Mac release, the developer has expressed its desire to...
Tuesday28th May 2013
News Donkey Kong 64 Required Expansion Pak to Prevent Game-Breaking Bug
Game would crash when using the N64's standard setup
When Donkey Kong 64 released all the way back in 1999, it was the first Nintendo 64 game to require the system’s 8MB Expansion Pak add-on in order to work. Advertising at the time suggested that the game was just so big that it couldn't possibly work without it. However, Chris Marlow, one of the...
Monday13th Dec 2010
Podcast NLFM Episode 11: A Holiday Season in FLUX
Take a sneak peek at the final BIT.TRIP, sigh at simians, sneak along with a secret agent and get into the spirit of the season
We look to the future here at Nintendo Life. Why, take this episode of NLFM, the little ol' chip and game music podcast we've got going: it's got an exclusive first listen of the soundtrack to Gaijin Games' upcoming...
