New pixel art: Donkey Kong and Friends!
My biggest pixel art ever, 100 Kongs and 213 of their best friends and enemies! This was a lot of fun to draw (and many long hours of work), and I’m very proud of it!
https://www.deviantart.com/miloscat/art/Donkey-Kong-and-Friends-891031806
New pixel art: The many faces of Pauline! It’s her 40th anniversary after all (and Donkey Kong’s, I guess).
https://www.deviantart.com/miloscat/art/The-many-face-of-Pauline-885271234
I made a video documenting the rare Grandstand LCD handheld game “Crazy
Kong”! It’s a cute Donkey Kong knockoff :)
2 Weeks of Teitelbaum and the Donkey Kong Country series come to a close with the release of Rescue on Crocodile Isle.
Great preservation efforts for video game-related media here! It’s very much appreciated.
Diddy Kong Racing DS, low-res pixel style!
The original Diddy Kong Racing was one of my early pixel art posts. Non-human forms are still difficult for me to draw, but I’ve gone back and updated all these lovely little critters, then added the new racers from the DS remake. I’m much happier with this piece now!
Krunch, Diddy Kong, Drumstick, Bumper, Banjo, Conker, Tiptup, T.T., Pipsy, Timber, Dixie Kong, Tiny Kong, Taj, Wizpig
Here’s some fun fluff. It’s a short choose-your-own-adventure/puzzle manga loosely based on Diddy Kong Racing (always fun to see Rare’s games given the manga treatment). It comes from the Feb 1998 Ninensei edition of Shogakukan’s Shogaku Gakushu Zasshi magazines. Raw scans again thanks to Ragey. I’ve translated these into English with Horseypope’s help.
The comic is by Hiroshi Takase and is part of the “Super Mario Wonderland” series, later known as “Super Mario Game Land”. This is the successor series to the original “Super Mario-kun” manga that Takase started in 1986. This chapter sees Mario, along with Peach and Toad, meeting up with Diddy Kong who is showing off his vehicles. Dialogue implies this takes place before DKR begins… it’s a prequel to Diddy Kong Racing, somehow! Figure that one out, fans. Bowser then shows up and steals his plane, and the chase is on.
The comic is to be read in its original right-to-left format, and you’ll skip around between pages a lot if you’re treating it as a proper gamebook and following the directions! Some of the puzzle segments were literally untranslatable, so I included a note for these that tells you the solution. If nothing else, enjoy the cute character designs.
Read or download the comic here
My other scanlations are in this folder or the blog’s tag
Hey-oh! Look out down below! This scanlation is from Yukio Sawada’s Super Mario-kun volume 23. It’s labelled as “Special Stage 3” and tells a new story set in the continuity of the French/Canadian Donkey Kong Country CG animated series from Nelvana et al, as you can see from the presence of Bluster Kong and Candy Kong’s unique design. Mario’s not even involved apart from a tiny cameo. It’s a short story but a bit of silly fun with the trademark SMk puns and comedic action (not to mention cute chibi character design).
This volume has never been available outside Japan (although it may be getting a French and even Spanish release in the future). But with the help of Horseypope I’ve translated it into English for the first time for fans to enjoy. It’s to be read in its native right-to-left orientation. I didn’t have scans available for this so I actually scanned this story myself (with help from @lupiter), using an unorthodox technique involving glass plates and a DSLR camera that worked out pretty well, except for losing a tiny bit if the printing was too close to the margin.
I am fascinated by works with multiple layers of adaptation; in this case game series->animated series->manga, so scanlating this was satisfying for me. I hope you enjoy it too. Banana Slamma!
See also: My archive of the Donkey Kong Card Game, another Japanese product based on the show.
My friend @imtherealgibbon and I recorded an episode of our podcast for DK Girder. This one is about all the “Arcade Era” news of the past two years relating to Donkey Kong and its relevant spinoffs. This should lead into more episodes to come!
Donkey Kong Country 2′s Animal Buddies, low-res pixel style!
The Animal Buddies, or Animal Friends, are one of the coolest part of the DKC games. And DKC2 is the best game ever made I reckon, so here’s a bunch of my favourite gaming companions (including the GBA remake, which added an ostrich racing minigame). This picture was drawn as an entry to the DKVine “DKC2 Relay” community event, which I am participating in by streaming DKC2′s Gloomy Gulch this coming Friday at 1pm AEDT.
Rambi the Rhino, Rattly the Rattlesnake, Squitter the Spider, Squawks the Parrot, Expresso II the Ostrich, Squeaks/Flapper the Parrot, Enguarde the Swordfish, Glimmer the Angler Fish, Clapper the Seal
I made a video, showing Junior’s adventure to save his Papa. It’s gameplay footage I recorded of different versions of the game, from the arcade original to Game & Watch versions, and the extra kitchen level from the Coleco Adam prototype. And some maths to round it out.
Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle: Donkey Kong Adventure, low-res pixel style!
This is my entry to the fanart contest Ubisoft is running for this upcoming DLC pack. Probably not going to win but a good excuse to draw these characters that the developers have imbued with such life and fun.
Rabbid Peach, Donkey Kong, Rabbid Cranky, Rabbid Kong
My friend @imtherealgibbon is a noted fan of NST’s work to succeed DK94 and keep the spirit of the old Donkey Kong puzzle-platformers alive. Inspired by his example, I sought out his recommendation: the fourth in the series, and the last one with a real “plot”.
I’m so immersed in DK, I don’t know where to start with this review… I treasure the experience of playing this game co-op with my bro on the Wii, but playing the port was strictly solo. Perhaps this helped me focus on the game itself more, and appreciate it. Or perhaps time has allowed the criticisms and expectations I observed in the fan community to settle, so that I can look at it calmly.
Either way, this is a great port of a great game. The 3DS can’t do all the Wii can, so it doesn’t look quite as good; aliasing and a lower frame rate are noticeable compromises. Having the option to play the game with traditional button controls is appreciated though, as the Wii required waggling for common actions. Playing it portably is also a novel convenience. The biggest advantage of this version though is the new extra levels, which stack up well with the rest of the game and reflect favourably on Monster Games (please commission them to make more games Nintendo, and don’t waste them on ports!).
I found myself missing features from Tropical Freeze while playing this, such as extra health by default on minecarts and rocket barrels, or David fricking Wise (or not having the stupid Miyamoto-mandated blowing mechanic). But while Tropical Freeze is an amazing game, it was built squarely on this very solid foundation. This does mean that they share common awkwardnesses like the inventory system, but they also share the fantastic design of top-tier, modern, 2D platforming experiences. This game is really good! It should have had a Nintendo Selects re-release in PAL territories by now!! I’m still not sure this port was really necessary but if it has to exist, then it’s worth playing!!!
In collaboration with dkgirder.com, here’s my newest scanlation project! The official Nintendo “Wonder Life Special” guide for Donkey Kong (Game Boy), aka DK94, contained a short comic by Kotobuki Shiriagari about Mario and DK Junior having a little adventure together. I.M. Gibbon ( @imtherealgibbon ) scanned it for me and I’ve translated it from Japanese into English.
Unlike a lot of manga, this is in colour and also printed in English-style left-to-right. This makes it very natural for English readers to digest. There are a couple of cultural allusions though; big pipes are common in Japanese playgrounds apparently! You might know Shiriagari for his absurdist, surreal manga and art, or you might know him as the guy who did Mona’s comic strip collection for WarioWare DIY (which you can read here)! His style certainly shines through in this comic, it’s quite funny. I also like seeing Mario and Junior being pals (and shaving their body/facial hair).
As always, check out the scanlation tag on this blog for more of my comic projects. Sorry it’s been a while between comics!
I was recently invited to guest on the Arcade Era Power Hour podcast by my buddy Gibbon of DK Girder! He runs a fansite dedicated to the Arcade era of Donkey Kong, and other Donkey Kong and pre-SMB-related Mario stuff, as an unofficial sister site to DKVine. We talked about Stanley the Bugman from off of Donkey Kong 3 for an hour and a half, and it was tons of fun! A barrel of laughs! Or maybe I was a bit awkward because I’m not great at podcasting.
Check it out if you like, or if not at least have a browse around DK Girder; Gibbon has similar sensibilities to my own in doing deep dives into the game stuff that he loves and making interesting connections. Fansites: they’re not dead!
In The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild, Gorons are allowed to enter Gerudo Town, even though...
we’re the same
New pixel art: Donkey Kong and Friends!
My biggest pixel art ever, 100 Kongs and 213 of their best friends and enemies! This was a lot...
This year wasn’t the most productive thanks to Animal Crossing and a pandemic going one, but I still had fun doing what...
Hello, lovely Rayman fans! Turquoisephoenix here with some Edutainment...
If Sir Cochin caught you insulting her in a couple of hours you’d be facing a screaming mad knight on the tilt yard racing at you. But all her...
