Donkey Kong Country
The SNES game whose pre-rendered graphics looked so impossibly '3D' that kids begged for a turn just to see it. Donkey Kong and Diddy rolled through mine carts and jungle levels in a technical showcase that felt like the future.
Donkey Kong Country was developed by the British studio Rare and published by Nintendo for the Super NES, released in November 1994. Its jaw-dropping look came from a technique Rare called Advanced Computer Modelling: the team built 3D models on Silicon Graphics workstations, then compressed them into detailed sprites the SNES could display — graphics that looked generations ahead of anything else on the console.
The effect was a sensation. The game sold about 9.3 million copies worldwide, becoming one of the best-selling SNES titles ever and, at the time, the fastest-selling video game on record, moving hundreds of thousands of copies in its first week. Critics called it a paradigm shift and compared it favorably to Nintendo's own Mario games.
Rare followed it with Diddy's Kong Quest (1995) and Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! (1996), then Donkey Kong 64 on the Nintendo 64 in 1999. The Rare-Nintendo partnership — Rare was an independent studio Nintendo held a large stake in — eventually loosened, and Microsoft acquired Rare in 2002.
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