Way back in 1994, Nintendo decided to reboot its Donkey Kong franchise by giving the character new life in Donkey Kong Country. Together with his nephew Diddy Kong, Donkey Kong battled King K. Rool and his Kremlings, the natives of swampy Crocodile Isle. After the games were rebooted following Microsoft’s purchase of developer Rare, the Kremlings were cycled out in favor of the Tiki Tak tribe in Donkey Kong Country Returns and the Snowmads in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. However, a recent interview with some former studio employees has revealed that instead of the Snowmads, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze almost faced a more out-of-this-world threat: aliens.
How Retro Studios Almost Put Donkey Kong Up Against Aliens
On first impression, the concept of Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Cranky Kong, and Dixie Kong fighting against little green men seems like a really out-there concept. While most of Nintendo’s franchises have a lot of very weird enemies – looking at you, Sumo Bros – it’s rare for them to explicitly be aliens from outer space.
However, on a recent episode of the KiwiTalkz podcast, former Retro Studios employees Eric Kozlowsky and Ted Anderson provided some insight into the development process behind Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and how putting Donkey Kong up against aliens would have expanded on the ending of Donkey Kong Country Returns.
“I think early on, I think it might have been discussed like were we going to do the snow theme or like a martian theme where because DK punched the moon at the end of Returns, the aliens living on the moon were going to be the invaders.”
Eric Kozlowsky
It’s not entirely clear why the aliens story line was eventually scrapped in favor of the Snowmads, arctic animal invaders led by Lord Fredrik. However, the reveal that we could have had aliens makes you wonder what kind of extra-terrestrial, alien-punching antics the Kongs could have gotten up to if Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze had gone in a different direction. It probably wouldn’t have been called Tropical Freeze, for one thing, and who knows? Maybe an alien invasion would’ve eventually brought Donkey Kong to space, to boldly go where no ape had gone before.
