Steve Mayles, artist before in Rare and now in Playtonic Games, dedicates a beautiful illustration for the 25th anniversary of Donkey Kong Country
Today, November 24 is celebrating not only one of the most popular characters in the history of Nintendo, but an entire genre, since exactly 25 years ago Donkey Kong Country was launched in Europe, reaching 21 to North America and the 26 to Japan. On the occasion of this beautiful event, Steve Mayles, once a Rare artist and today at Playtonic – creators of Yooka-Laylee – wanted to dedicate a no less beautiful illustration to the game that would devote to the studio as one of the greats of the 90s.
Mayles has worked with some of the most famous characters in the platform genre, from Donkey Kong himself to Diddy Kong, through King K. Rool and another prestigious duo also created by Rare and much missed as Banjo and Kazooie. This illustration depicts Donkey and Diddy on the back of the Rambi rhinoceros, also an icon of the fantastic trilogy featured on Super Nintendo.
25 years of one of the best platforms
Donkey Kong Country marked an important milestone in the industry, being the first video game for home consoles to use pre-rendered 3D graphics, thanks to a technique that Rare would also use in the no less fabulous Killer Instinct. But he also did it because of a seamless gameplay and a difficulty to take into account, especially at those infernal levels in the mine.
Despite having an already veteran career in the industry, with games like Battletoads and California Games, it was this game that catapulted Rare as one of the top studios of the 90s, a period in which they were able to create great titles like the aforementioned Killer Instinct, Banjo-Kazooie, the mythical Goldeneye 007 or already in the year 2000, Perfect Dark.
Today, with the help of Microsoft, they try to green old laurels first thanks to Sea of Thieves, a peculiar multiplayer pirate themed proposal that can be enjoyed on Xbox One thanks to Xbox Game Pass, or the recently introduced Everwild.
