Its founder, Minoru Arakawa, asked his father in-law, Nintendo CEO Hiroshi Yamauchi, to provide a new game that could repurpose the unsold Radar Scope cabinets.

[65] It was Nintendo's bestselling game during the 1999 Christmas season and received positive reviews,[66][67] though critics felt it did not match the revolutionary impact of Donkey Kong Country.

[90] A racing game that used the DK Bongos, Donkey Kong Barrel Blast, was developed by Paon for the GameCube, but was moved to the Wii with no support for the peripheral.

[112][113] Tropical Freeze was released in 2014 to favorable reviews,[114] but it sold poorly in comparison to Returns;[115] Nintendo Life attributed this to the Wii U's commercial failure.

[136] Polygon summarized K. Rool as an archetypal game villain who "often wears disguises and invents strange gadgets for his elaborately evil schemes",[135] such as dressing as a pirate captain in Donkey Kong Country 2.

[137] Other villains introduced in the Retro Studios Country games include the Tiki Tak Tribe, a race of floating masks who hypnotize animals into stealing the banana hoard,[138][139] and the Snowmads, Viking invaders who summon a dragon to take over Donkey Kong Island.

[151] The Country series is known for its high difficulty level and emphasis on momentum, requiring players to react to oncoming obstacles quickly to maintain flow.

[156] In the Retro Studios games, other characters ride on Donkey Kong's back to provide special abilities; for instance, Diddy's jetpack allows him to temporarily hover.

[156] Country's game mechanics include blasting out of barrel cannons,[159] vehicle sequences with minecarts and barrel-themed rockets,[156][159] levels in which the characters and foreground environments appear in silhouette,[160] and swinging vines.

[57][164] Outside the main gameplay, the Rare games' world maps contain areas where players can converse with non-player characters, such as Cranky, who provide advice, collectibles, and save points.

[165] The Retro Studios games feature shops (run by Cranky in Returns and Funky in Tropical Freeze) where the player can purchase items like power-ups and lives.

[157][166] The Donkey Kong Land trilogy condenses the SNES Country gameplay for the Game Boy, with different level design that accounts for the system's low-quality display.

[167][168] Donkey Kong 64 blends Country elements with adventure gameplay that emphasizes collecting items to proceed, reminiscent of Super Mario 64 (1996) and Banjo-Kazooie.

[64][68] The player explores worlds and solves puzzles tailored to the unique abilities of the five playable characters (Donkey Kong, Diddy, Chunky, Tiny, and Lanky).

[176] Hirokazu Tanaka, a sound engineer who later garnered recognition for his work on Nintendo's Metroid and Pokémon franchises, also contributed,[177] while Miyamoto wrote Donkey Kong's opening and closing music.

[54] Fischer attempted to give levels a sense of purpose and drew inspiration from film composers such as Alan Silvestri and Klaus Doldinger.

[54] Wise composed a replacement soundtrack for the 2005 GBA port of Dixie Kong's Double Trouble after Rare had problems converting Fischer's score.

[48] At the request of Miyamoto and Iwata, the Returns soundtrack mostly comprises rearrangements of tracks from the original Donkey Kong Country,[153] plus some new material by Yamamoto.

[196] Activision's toys-to-life game Skylanders: SuperChargers (2015) includes Donkey Kong as a playable character in the versions released on Nintendo platforms.

[210] Elements from the Donkey Kong franchise feature prominently in The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023),[211] an animated film produced by Nintendo, Illumination, and Universal Pictures.

[212] Mario (Chris Pratt) and Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) seek the Kongs' help to stop Bowser (Jack Black) from invading the Mushroom Kingdom.

[212] In November 2021, prior to The Super Mario Bros. Movie's release, reports emerged that Illumination was developing a Donkey Kong film with Rogen set to reprise his role.

[219] It was designed with consultation from Miyamoto and includes a roller coaster, Mine-Cart Madness, based on the Tiki Tong boss fight from Donkey Kong Country Returns.

[222] Donkey Kong merchandise includes clothing,[223] toys such as plushes and Amiibo figures,[224][225] trading cards,[226] breakfast cereal,[198] and soundtrack albums.

[253] Donkey Kong also paved the way for the NES,[254] which rejuvenated the crashed Western game industry and shifted the home console market's dominance from the US to Japan.

[270] Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair (2019)—developed by Playtonic Games, whose staff includes Rare alumni that worked on Country—was noted for its gameplay similarities to Country.

[33][272] Country originated conventions characteristic of Rare's later output, including an emphasis on collecting items,[57] irreverent humor,[130] visual appeal, and tech demo-like design.

[275] Jonas Kaerlev, who developed the 3D platformer A Hat in Time (2017), said Donkey Kong 64 gave the genre a reputation for tedium that contributed to a decline in interest.

Kotaku described one theory, which postulates that Donkey Kong Jr. was killed in a violent, off-screen conflict to explain his absence in the Country series, as "a fascinating example of how fandoms can run away with the smallest bits of narrative available" to rationalize inconsistencies.

[294] Several voice actors from the Country television series reprised their roles for DKC: Return to Krocodile Isle, a follow-up animation released in 2023.