Really nice article on NintendoLife going into the creation of DKC. Really interesting stuff. I didn't know how technically skilled the Stamper brothers themselves were. Apparently they were the first to get licensed for 3rd Party Nintendo Development by reverse engineering the NES to prove their worth. They also found David Wise in a music shop. They asked him who wrote the music he was playing and he said he did. They hired him after that. Brilliant stuff.
There's also a similar article about Diddy Kong Racing I've yet to look at. Curious how much was known during development about what Banjo and Conker would get up to later. When the decision to add them in was made, when the vehicles got in.
I love the way Rare of yore is described. Sounds like the dream studio with loads of teams all competing with each other over who can make the coolest shit. It's no wonder they dominated the landscape of the N64 era. It's sad that their teams shriveled and died, their release frequency dropped from multiple times a year to once in a blue moon and their IP has been completely underutilized for the last decade. It's sad.
Great article, can't recommend reading it enough.
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