DKC Atlas Forum

[Goe]

Hi:

I'd like to know why Dixie was replaced by Tiny in DK64, and why Kiddy was replaced by Chunky...i've always think is strange because put known characters is easier than create new characters...

When i saw Nintendo decided to put new kongs in DK64, i thought that is because Dixie and Kiddy aren't as popular as Donkey and Diddy(I always thought that for several reasons: 1)I always liked DK and Diddy more to Dixie and Kiddy 2) here in Spain, everyone know who is Donkey Kong, and who is Diddy, but most people don't know who is Dixie) but seeing Dixie is a really popular character for DKC fans, i don't understand why Tiny replaced her. Has Nintendo explained why removed Dixie?

[Jomingo]

It wasn't Nintendo's decision. It was Rare's, the developer. They decided early on that they wanted to have a fresh start and go back to the original, so they decided only to have characters from the first game to appear, and new characters. Later they ended up ignoring this when they put in Wrinkly Kong.

[Tiptup Jr.]

Yeah, and when people started screaming "We want Dixie!" the game was too far along in development for Rare to create two new characters. Personally, I don't have a problem with Tiny... but that's probably because my six-year-old self developed a crush on her shortly after unlocking her.

[Jomingo]

[Tiptup Jr.]

Going through DK Island with Hunky Chunky: $60.

Getting the 201st Golden Banana with Lanky: $100.

The look on Jomingo's face when he finds out Tiptup has been sleeping with Tiny for a year? Priceless.

[Jomingo]

Just when I thought you couldn't get any more disturbing. I'm going to go ahead and ignore all future references to your obviously unhealthy obsession with video game woman.

[Kiddy14]

Yep... priceless.
Altough I agree with him.

[Tiptup Jr.]

I'm going to go ahead and ignore all future references to your obviously unhealthy obsession with video game woman.

Eh, I thought you might. But we're still buds... right?

[Rodent]

I'm going to go ahead and ignore all future references to your obviously unhealthy obsession with video game woman.

Eh, I thought you might. But we're still buds... right?

You don't need Jomingo. You have Tiny...

[Jomingo]

Rodent, could you please not bump topics this old when you have near nothing of importance to say.

[Tiptup Jr.]

Well, he had something to say, but... Joe Minga's right.

[/insert lame attempt to get back on topic here]

[swoopysalvo]

I remember watching the Nintendo Power Promo for Donkey Kong 64 and Jet Force Gemini and when they announced the new characters I wasn't exactly heartbroken seeing as how we had Donkey Kong Country 3 starring them. I was excited and happy to see Diddy back at the time. I instantly fell in love with Tiny after unlocking her(I started playing as Diddy as soon as I unlocked him so thats why I unlocked Tiny first). I admit that Tiny did borrow the pony whirl from Dixie(to be honest she looked more like a Kong version of Tooty to me rather then a Dixie clone despite popular belief) but Chunky was definatly not a Kiddy rip-off. How could he be Kiddy stands only as tall as Dixie who is about the height of Diddy but Chunky towers over Donkey Kong and to my knowledge doesn't borrw the water skip from Kiddy.

[Qyzbud]

I just plain didn't like DK64, no matter how much I tried to. I think a good part of that is because of the sibling stand-ins; Tiny and Chunky.

I agree that Tiny resembles Banjo's sister Tooty more than Dixie (looks-wise), but clearly she took the part which Dixie could have (and I think should have) played in DK64. Chunky replacing Kiddy was particularly silly, as Kiddy would have no doubt grown in size by the time DK64 came out, and could have easily filled the role which Chunky was introduced for. I'm not against new Kongs, of course - Diddy and Dixie being my favourites, and Lanky was also great (because he was so original!).

Basically, I assume Rare was following their style of always introducing at least one new Kong for each game. Having Dixie playable would have meant likely sacrificing the potential of new characters, to a degree. Besides, if Dixie featured, but Kiddy didn't, that would have been a huge slap in the face for Kiddy fans, wouldn't it...

It must have been hard for Rare to decide which Kongs to include, and I guess they did what they felt worked best... but it still didn't sit well with me.

[Swing King]

FUN FACT! DK64 was in production after DKC almost immediately so while many fans considered Tiny a Dixie clone, more than likely Dixie was based off of Tiny.

[swoopysalvo]

I didn't know that but it explains alot. Thank you .

[Jomingo]

I always thought that Chunky looked like what Kiddy would've if he had aged.

Anyway, I have two ideas that would've been better:
1) Have DK, Diddy, Dixie, and Kiddy. This seems to make sense, as the N64 was the first game console to focus on 4-players at a time, though this would've taken out some of the variety the series is known for.
2) Have DK, Diddy, Dixie, Kiddy, and Lanky. Just swap Tiny and Chunky for Dixie and Kiddy, but still include the obligatory new Kong.

[swoopysalvo]

I bet you that if Kiddy wasn't mentioned to be Chunky's brother nobody would have noticed similar traits. I'm just surprised nobody's noticed the similarities between Lanky and Kiddy. Either way I think Kiddy would have looked alot different from Chunky when aged but that doesn't really matter because judging by the Donkey Kong Racing trailer the character wasn't meant to get bigger. If he were to come back I'd say make him smaller just to keep him different from Chunky who though we may not like it is more popular then Kiddy.

[swoopysalvo]

One more thing I should mention is that Chunky was around probably 17-19 in DK64 While Kiddy was three in DKC3.

[Jomingo]

Please don't double post so early between posts. You could've just edited your previous post...

About the topic, I think that Kiddy Kong is probably more popular than Chunky(at least that's the case on this forum), and I'd rather just have one of the two in a new game instead of both.

Actually, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'd rather leave both of them where they were left, and create new Kongs. We haven't seen new Kongs in forever(other than the JB Kongs), and if done right they could create some cool newcomers to the series. Just as long as they don't follow the Mario route when creating characters... make them all original.

[swoopysalvo]

So you're saying that instead of bringing back the one main DK64 character who didn't return in Barrel Blast and the one main character in the DKC trilogy that didn't return in Barrel Blast should be replaced by new Kongs just because they didn't appear in Barrel Blast?

We saw new Kongs in Jungle Beat and in my opinion they were handled in the best way any new Kong at this point could have be handled(maybe not the best but still good). Anyway I think it would be fair atleast if Chunky Kong is in a DK game as an NPC alongside Lanky and Tiny (all three debuted in the same game and got the same playable treatment as each other) just shown hangin out with the Kongs or in a multiplayer game such as Barrel Blast as a playable character. Kiddy Kong deserves to have a role as atleast an NPC that acknowledges he exists. I'd even go as far as to say he deserves a playable spot in a future main DK game. But I'll go make a new thread because I think I'm getting a bit off topic.

[Qyzbud]

Would DK64 have been too crowded if there had been six playable characters?

Personally, I think it would have been great to have the original four playable Kongs (DK, Diddy, Dixie & Kiddy) back for DK64... and I really liked the style, originality and comical aspects which Lanky introduced, so I would certainly want him in there, too; but it feels like there would need to be at least one more new Kong, to balance things, and to achieve the 'fresh' approach Rare wanted. I think it would have been great for Kiddy to have filled Chunky's role, and to have Tiny in the game as well as Dixie (Tiny's pigtails had nothing on Dixie's ponytail, after all, so it wouldn't have to feel like character duplication).

Might have worked, eh?

[Jomingo]

Nope. Tiny was just too similar to Dixie, I doubt it would've worked. I think that 6 Kongs could've worked, but only if they were all unique. So the 6th Kong would be.....

Dizzy Kong! He can spin like a tornado and stuff! Whooo!

[Tiptup Jr.]

I still don't see how Tiny is a rip off of Dixie. I mean, she has blond hair, but then the similarities end...

And I actually kinda like Tiny, so I don't care about this issue as much as others would.

[swoopysalvo]

I agree with Tiptup Jr.. She looked much different from Dixie. You could argue that she does Dixie's pony whirl but even she does that differently and she needed a potion to learn it while Dixie knew it off the bat.

If you ask Donkey Kong 64 is fine the way it is. Lanky, Tiny, and Chunky were great character choices and brought different personalites to the Donkey Kong series. If you remove one of them from the game in favor of DIxie and Kiddy pretty much everything we knew in the game could collapse(can you actually imagine Dixie palying a saxophone or taking Tiny's verse in the DK rap because I can't).

[Gnawzooka]

Because the DK rap isn't incredibly stupid and lame or anything. Dixie would've been much better to have if you ask me.

[Chaquan]

I think you can not be more disturbing. I want to move on, ignore all references to your future and the video game was an unhealthy obsession with a woman....

Buy RS Gold,Rift Platinum,Rift Plat

[Tiptup Jr.]

You know guys, I don't know what the dude above me is talking about, but I used to be really weird on this forum, and I'm sorry. Also Tiny has a different personality and abilities than Dixie, didn't "replace" anyone, etc. etc.

EDIT: Also, I don't buy into the theory that Tiny existed before Dixie. I don't think Rare really rushed into DK64's development like that right after DKC came out (even if it did take them five years to make it, it just wouldn't add up). DK64 probably really got going after or slightly before the release of DKC3.

[Kimi Kong]

Sorry for the bump but i wanted to put my imput.

To start off, the first Donkey Kong game i ever played was indeed DK64, and at the time i didnt know Dixie exist. A few years later, i found a Donkey Kong Drawing book at a book fair and my mom bought me DKC2: Diddy's Kong Quest on the SNES. I immediatly started to ask questions. "Who is she?" I thought it was Tiny, but then i read more into it and found out that it wasnt. It was Dixie.

I later did a lot more research on it and found out the Dixie was Tiny's big sister and wasnt included in DK64(at that time, i havent played it much but i played it enough). I was kinda upset. I was all like "Why not? Why was Tiny there but not Dixie. Dixie could have at least been a supporting character or something. Why did they just replace her like that?"

Dont get me wrong, i love Tiny, but I was still highly upset that Dixie wasnt even considered. When i read more into it, i saw that the concept of DK64 was originally just gonna be anyone who was in DKC1, but bended the rules when Wrinkly was added. So i guess DK64 was just Nintendo and Rare's oppritunity to introduce more Kongs into the family instead of bringing back others, maybe to see how it worked out. It was obviously a success since the game was great, but there were still fans(including myself) upset the Dixie didnt get a chance in the game.

But thats just my imput, but what i woud really love to know is if someone asked the storyboard artists where was Dixie during these events, how would they answer it?