Donkey Kong Racing

"LET'S RIDE!"

—Donkey Kong Racing slogan

Donkey Kong Racing is a canceled Nintendo GameCube game that would have been a sequel to the Nintendo 64 game Diddy Kong Racing. The most notable feature with Donkey Kong Racing would have been its inclusion of more Kong Family members.

Gameplay[]

According to Rare's defunct site from the early 2000s, the play could use fruit and prizes to upgrade the animal rides for their Animal Buddies or the enemies which, notably, they can use as vehicles to race upon. Also, the game is said to have various landscape racing including underwater and in the skies (not shown in the pre-rendered video), along with the basic land racing. It is also said to have had orchestral themes and real-world phenomena scenery including swaying trees and fading sunlight.^[3]

According to IGN, they said that Rare would have planned four-player races with the maximum amount being four.^[4]

Development[]

Officially announced at E3 2001, this game had it's first trailer release at Spaceworld 2001 with a pre-rendered concept of the game with the slogan "LET'S RIDE". This trailer was the only media ever to be shown to the public as the game was in heavy and slow progress. It was then stated by the press that the game was going to see a release in between late 2002 and 2003.

Despite being presented at Space World 2001, it was not featured in the Nintendo Space World 2001 Official Guidebook.

Sometime in 2002, Rare decided to only present Star Fox Adventures at E3 2002. This decision was most likely in response to a private agreement with Microsoft, who would later purchase them in 2002 just after the publication of Star Fox Adventures. Donkey Kong Racing and Rare's other titles from E3 2001 were either privately canceled, put on hold, or ported to the Xbox or Xbox 360. The game was canceled along with Donkey Kong Coconut Crackers in August 2002, one month before Microsoft's acquisition of Rare, which caused the latter company to lose the rights to Donkey Kong games.

Around the Xbox 360 era, the game was in process of a total rework into Sabreman Stampede which was also cancelled.