User:TheJoebro64/drafts/krool

King K. Rool is a character who appears in Nintendo's Donkey Kong video game franchise. K. Rool was created by brothers Gregg and Steve Mayles of British game developer Rare, and first appeared in Rare's 1994 platform game Donkey Kong Country as the main antagonist and leader of the villainous crocodilian tribe of Kremlings. In addition to his antagonistic role in Donkey Kong games, K. Rool has also appeared as a playable character in Mario Super Sluggers (2008) and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018).

Description and history

King K. Rool, the main antagonist of the Nintendo video game franchise Donkey Kong, was created by brothers Gregg and Steve Mayles of British game developer Rare. Within the Donkey Kong franchise, he is the leader of the Kremlings, a race of crocodilian raiders. The Kremlings were created for an unreleased Rare game called Jonny Blastoff. Rare became a second-party developer for Nintendo after the publisher purchased a significant stake in the developer due to its work with Silicon Graphics workstations. With access to Nintendo-owned intellectual property, Rare founders Tim and Chris Stamper obtained permission to develop a game starring Donkey Kong, leading to the development of K. Rool and the Kremlings' debut game, the platformer Donkey Kong Country (1994).

Rare's original storyline concepts for Donkey Kong Country featured Wario as the game's main antagonist; he would turn Mario into stone, and Donkey Kong would set out to stop him. However, Nintendo disapproved of Rare's use of Wario and asked that they create new villains instead. As such, Rare decided to repurpose the Kremlings, and K. Rool was created to act as the game's antagonist. Gregg was responsible for creating K. Rool's actions and naming him, while Steve was responsible for the character design. Names considered for the character included "Krudd" and "Kommander K. Rool", although Gregg joked that it only took him five minutes to come up with the final name. The initial K. Rool design was "far more serious and tough-looking", while the Kremlings were more militaristic.

In Donkey Kong Country, K. Rool steals Donkey Kong's banana hoard, setting the events of the game in motion. K. Rool serves as the game's final boss and is fought on his pirate ship, the Gang-Plank Galleon. In the fight, the player, as Donkey or Diddy Kong, must dodge K. Rool's attacks (which include dashing, tossing his crown, jumping on them, and summoning a downpour of cannonballs) and jump on him when he is vulnerable. Halfway through the battle, K. Rool feigns defeat to deceive the player, causing a mock credits roll, before getting back up to continue the fight. According to Steve, the K. Rool boss fight was challenging to implement, as Donkey Kong Country programmer Chris Sutherland complained that the character was too big, took up too much memory, and used too many frames.

K. Rool returned in Donkey Kong Country's sequels, Diddy's Kong Quest (1995) and Dixie Kong's Double Trouble (1996), taking on a different persona in both games. In Diddy's Kong Quest, he masquerades as the pirate "Kaptain K. Rool"—inspired by Gregg's fascination with the Golden Age of Piracy—and kidnaps Donkey Kong.

Characterisation

The name "K. Rool" is a play on the word "cruel". Gregg Mayles says the initial "K." does not stand for anything and described it as "just a way of making him seem more important, that he'd added it to inflate his ego. In hindsight, it could have been something tonal like 'Kremling,' or something deliberately out of character, like Keith."

Reception and legacy

Notes

References

Jonny Blastoff:

Wario instead of K. Rool:

Other dev.