Rare Artist Shows Donkey Kong Country Concept Art, 30 Years After It Stunned The World 1
Image: Time Extension

30 years ago this week, Nintendo and Rare attended the Consumer Electronics Show '94 with one of the most significant games of the 1990s – Donkey Kong Country.

Much of 1994 was spent hyping up the new consoles from Sega and Sony, while Nintendo's mooted Ultra 64 was still some way off being ready for release.

Therefore, the company needed something special to convince attendees that its SNES console could still do business in a rapidly evolving market – and Rare's CGI-made platformer was just that.

So dramatic was the impact of the game's pre-rendered visuals that some people assumed Nintendo was showing a game for its forthcoming 64-bit system.

To celebrate 30 years since the game was shown to the public for the first time, former Rare artist Kev Bayliss has shared some of the earliest concept artwork for the game.

These include Winky, the Kremlins, Rambi and – of course – Kong himself.

Donkey Kong Country sold 9.3 million copies and is the third best-selling game on the SNES. Rare would produce two more sequels for the console, as well as Donkey Kong 64.

Following the amazing success of the game, Nintendo would purchase a sizeable stake in the British developer, effectively turning it into a second-party studio.