digibutter.nerr

[Francis]

Donkey Kong and Mario have had a strange relationship in the past. DK has gone from Mario's enemy in his first game to a hero in his own world, and most recently, Mario's competitor in various Sports and Party games. This was the extent in which the two seperate worlds have crosssed paths. But now there appears to be a trend towards mixing these two character's worlds even more. Various characters from the Donkey Kong franchise are now appearing in Mario games.

Diddy Kong has been in many Mario games (Strikers, Mario Kart, Tennis, etc). Mainly because DK needs a partner. So it was reasonable for Nintendo to bring Diddy in the Mario fold if they were to continue to use Donkey Kong in Mario games. But now we are seeing even more DK characters, when there is no need to do so:
Dixie was in Mario Hoops.
Kritter has been the dedicated goalie in Mario Strikers.
Funky Kong makes a huge apperance in Mario Kart, even getting his own battle stage!
And the lineup for Mario Sluggers is a huge! Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Dixie Kong, Funky Kong, Tiny Kong, King K. Rool, and Kritter!

Many Mario fans may have never even heard of these characters. It's like Nitendo is trying to get the world used to Kongs beign a part of the Mario world. Does this mean we will see a full fledged Mario-DK platformer soon? Will Mario and DK team up to battle the combined forces of Bowser and King K. Rool? Maybe DK's wild side will return and he will make another grab at Paulina? I don't know for sure, but my bet is that we will hear details of such a game sooner than later...

What do you think? Is Nintendo brewing up something big? Or are they just getting desperate for characters, squeezing every drop of each franchise until they have to start adding Zelda characters into the next Mario Tennis game?

[Dark Bristle]

I feel good knowing Kremlins are in mario strikers, along with funky making it into mario kart. Although i see it HIGHLY unlikely, I'd like to see K. Rool make it into a mario game.

[Manjew]

Of course, Donkey Kong was the guy, along with Mario, that started it all!

And, what do you know, Mario succeeded on his side while DK simply lurked in the character archive for nearly 9 years, after which Rare went ahead and used the character to make Donkey Kong Country Series.

The Donkey Kong Country series had many, many fans, and was largely praised for exploiting the SNES at its full capacities, both on the graphical, level design and game mechanic edges.

Meanwhile DK Jr appeared in SMK and DK started to appear in important spin-off games such as Mario Kart 64. I call this concept of guest starring "Never forget this".

The series lived on with DK64, and history repeated itself: DK64 went to the limit of the N64's Graphics, Memory and Mechanic capabilities.

After then Rare was bought by Microsoft, meaning that only Nintendo could work on the series now. But it seems like Nintendo simply didn't have time to do anything at the same level of epic as the previous DK platformers; in fact, they were already booked full with other important and new franchises.

So then the spin-offs came, and they were received quite average by the critics. Donkey Kong (GBC) and Mario vs Donkey Kong (GBC's Donkey Kong remake for the GBA) were made in honor of the nostalgic Mario's first appearance and stuff. Nintendo likes to remind us of important parts of their VG industry history, it seems.

DK made more appearances as a Never Forget, and Donkey Kong was officially acknowledged as a Mario series character, and thus Donkey Kong Series characters were now Mario series character, too. Important Kong, such as Diddy followed along and stared to go along with DK on sport titles, starting with Double Dash if I remember well.

Anyways, the DK and Mario series is now parts of a big family. The Mario-verse contains a bunch of sub series, like Wario Land, for instance... Yeaaaaaaah.

But I guess this can only mean more appearances of the Kongs in Mario-related title. Hey, maybe when the portable Super Mario Sunshine remake will come out, Donkey will be a playable character!

[Sammer Guy Pizza Cat]

Or maybe there will soon come an adventure where Peach and Daisy (or just Peach) invite the Mario Brothers on a Jungle expedition on Donkey Kong Island, and they find Bowser, who's teamed up with King K. Rool, and built a killer new fortress in some region in the DK Archepelago (Group of islands), and that Mario, Luigi, Donkey Kong, and Diddy Kong have to team up, and stop the Two Trouble Kings from using a Banana Fueled Doomsday Device, and they have to rescue Peach and Daisy (or just Peach) from certain doom! Of course, the usual Kongs would be there to help out, Candy to save the game (or provide help), Cranky to harbor a grudge against Mario, and break the fourth wall, with some additional remarks towards Luigi, and Funky to provide some form of moving on, or something to that nature.

[lovegod703]

Unless it's SSB, then NO. DK and Diddy, and sometimes Dixie (it depends on the game) are ok, but they shoudn't be used too much.

*coughcoughYoshi'sIsland2andSuperMarioSluggerscoughcough*

Diddy is DK's partner, so he's pretty necessary for things like Mario Sports, and Dixie is Diddy's partner, so she's SOMEWHAT nececary, but not that much. Mario Baseball, yes, and Mario Soccer, mah, but things like Mario Party, NO

[Strong Bad]

I'm happy for K. Rool in Mario Baseball, I wish he was in Mario Kart Wii instead of Funky, though. I think this started in Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, Diddy's first Mario World appearence.

Though I think they should bring back Wart, Tatanga, The Koopalings and Pauline before the put in anyone else. Mona and Orbulon would be cool, though.

[Almaz]

King K. Rool has been my third favorite-character in Video Game history, so really, him going in Sluggers is a huge raise in morale for me.

Alright, that out of the way? Good...

Now, we've seen worlds blend before (Mario and the imagination of Square, otherwise known as SMRPG), excellently by the way, and everyone reguards such games for their originality. Now, I don't really want Mario and DK to be competing in mini-games to take down their respective baddies. I'd prefer either a two-story RPG (sort of like Yu-gi-oh the Falsebound Kingdom, which was extremely underrated in my opinion) or a two-story platform-adventure game, with the groups eventually intersecting. It would be hilarious: K. Rool and Bowser trying to wrestle control away from the other, DK and Mario apprehensive of each other, some manipulative figure pulling the strings, like in every other Mario RPG...perfection.

Of course, if it's just DK characters going into Mario games for the sake of not having to put in generic minions, I'm all for it. However...THEY BETTER PUT IN THE *crag*ING KOOPALINGS SOON!

[Yoshi]

[Dark Bristle]

y'know, i take back what I said earlier, I think its AWESOME that there's a DK-Mario integration!

[Warlord_Mike]

Something I'd find interesting would be equivalent to what is called "character zapping."

Zapping works like this. You have two groups (or individuals) you control, but only one at a time. You switch between the two by pressing some button on your keyboard/controller. It's essentially how Pikmin 2's playing worked.

So, you could use Team Mario for certain situations, and Team DK for others in this game. It's just a thought, but I figured I'd put it forward.

Other than that, while it wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing for DK and Mario to be integrated into the same game, I'm glad Nintendo hasn't forgotten about DKC and the rest of the Kong Clan.

[Brak Obama]

Yeah, they're running out of characters to cram in more Mario spin-offs.

I guarantee that once they've scrapped the bottom of the barrel for DK characters, they'll be using WarioWare characters.

[lovegod703]

[Brak Obama]

[Sammer Guy Pizza Cat]

Well, they couldn't think of how Elvin Gadd would fit into the sport of baseball. I mean, for pitching, his special would involve using the Poltergust 3000, and shoot out a fast ball.

[lovegod703]