Kevin Bayliss was art director in Rareware’s golden era of the 1990s, designing several of the characters that would become more funky alternative mascots to Super Mario and others from the Mushroom Kingdom on both Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64. From his pencils came the modern version of Donkey Kong for the Donkey Kong Country series, as well as his inseparable friend Diddy Kong, Timber the tiger and baddie Wizpig from Diddy Kong Racing. Now, following the controversy over the redesign of Donkey Kong in Mario Kart 9, the artist has taken to social media to share his thoughts on the matter.
Why Donkey Kong needed a redesign
In one of his posts on X, Bayliss talks about the second most popular ape of all time’s ever-frowning, a design that, while it matched the beastly character he was intended to be in the 90s, made it difficult to add a wide range of facial expressions to him. In other words, he always looked like he was angry.
“Unfortunately, when I designed him, because he basically had BATTLETOAD eyes, it is hard to give Donkey Kong any expression other than ‘annoyed’ – this is something I take a little more into consideration when creating characters today!”
In fact, Bayliss, who effectively designed those distinctive eyes for the NES batrachian beat ’em up already, adds that this inherent design limitation is “a good reason to give him a face-lift”, referring to the change Nintendo has opted for in DK’s new appearances.
In both 2023’s Super Mario Bros. The Movie and the first teaser for last week’s new Mario Kart for Nintendo Switch 2, Donkey adopts a design that was not only intended for the big screen, but aligns more with the pre-Rare ’80s and ’90s cartoon-style designs that Nintendo artists like Shigehisa Nakaue have maintained in spinoffs to this day.
In light of all this, Bayliss is delighted with Donkey Kong’s design for the new Mario Kart, writing that he thinks it looks “KOOL” and other similar responses to fans who ask him for his opinion.
The real origin of Diddy Kong and Timber was always in your breakfast cereal and you never saw it
In the wake of these new discussions, Bayliss has also been encouraged to share the “how it was done” of other characters from the era. The most curious anecdote, which has been circulating for just a few hours, is that Diddy Kong’s design was unashamedly inspired by the Coco monkey advertising Kellogg’s Choco Krispies cereal (Choco Pops in other regions). In fact, he shares this origin with Timber the tiger, inspired by Tony the tiger from Kellogg’s Frosties (Ricicles). A different case was the evil wizard pig Wizpig, who also drew from Battletoads.
“Timber was originally the protagonist in Starfox Adventures when it was called Dinosaur Planet” – Kevin Bayliss
How do you think Rare’s 90s designs have aged, and what do you expect Diddy Kong to look like in Mario Kart 9?