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 Kong Cameos Donkey Kong has had so many cameos that we could almost do a feature on this aspect alone. He's popped up in several major Nintendo games - racing cars, playing tennis, driving golf balls, and beating up other famous Nintendo trademarks to prove his superiority. Below we've got the breakdown on where and when he's appeared in other video games. And just for the record, he is not portrayed in a painting in the window of Princess Zelda's castle in Ocarina of Time. (Mario, Bowser, and a few others are there, but DK is not there.)
Super Mario Kart A large number of gamers believe that go-kart style racing was perfected in Super Mario Kart and has never been bested. This game, which was one of the major hits for the Super NES that used the ability of its Mode 7 graphics, let you choose from one of eight characters: Mario, Luigi, Princess, Koopa, Toad, Bowser, Yoshi, and Donkey Kong. Out of the octet of characters, only one really didn't belong. The first seven characters all came from the world of Super Mario Bros., but it seems likely that Nintendo needed another heavyweight with slow acceleration and horrible turning but a high top speed to compete with Bowser. So Donkey Kong stepped up to the challenge. This is the game that set the framework for Mario Kart 64 and Diddy Kong Racing. And DK's weapon of choice? A banana, naturally.
Mario Kart 64 Mario Kart came out in 1997 as a supposed killer app for the Nintendo 64, which was already under heavy fire from the Saturn and the PlayStation. Corporate bigwigs at the Big N thought that if they captured the success of Super Mario Kart in 64 bits, they'd have a sure winner on their hands. While the game was a commercial success, critical opinions ran the gamut. Some thought the computer AI was way too easy and that the game offered little replay value. Others felt that the computer was cheating with the computer-controlled racers constantly appearing behind your character no matter how hard they were hit or how long ago they were passed. Nevertheless, Donkey Kong resumed his heavyweight role in this racer, not taking any flak from his competitors. Armed with skins from his favorite fruit, he laid waste to anyone who dared pull in front. And he even had a level based on the Kong jungle.
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