A few of it’s possible you’ll recall that in 2013, former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime appeared at VGX to indicate off Cranky Kong in Donkey Kong Nation: Tropical Freeze. VGX was the brand new tackle the Spike Video Recreation Awards that ran for a decade prior. It solely passed off that single yr – Geoff Keighley then went on to kind The Recreation Awards.
Equipment Ellis and Krysta Yang, who labored for Nintendo for over a decade, mirrored on the entire thing in an episode of Equipment & Krysta Podcast. Ellis began out by sharing the next, which works into why the Cranky Kong information was chosen within the first place:
“… we began to consider what’s the reveal for his – the ‘world unique’. What might we provide? This was the peak of the Wii U doldrums although… we had additionally began at this level began to do Nintendo Direct, so we had extra methods than ever to share information, so there was a bit extra competitors for the place does information go if we now have information.
So frankly, this was exhausting for us to even discover one thing, however we lastly did decide on this concept of showing Cranky Kong as a playable character in Donkey Kong Nation: Tropical Freeze, which was going to be popping out the next February. … we’re stepping into the house stretch of this recreation, and we’re considering this is usually a actually cool shock and a pleasant little bit of fan service for Donkey Kong followers to be this thrilling factor. It’s not going to be a brand new recreation announcement, possibly it’s not on the identical degree of issues that we’ve revealed earlier than, however this may nonetheless be cool and we are able to complement this with some dwell gameplay – actually exhibit the character and construct it into this prolonged factor.”
Sadly for Nintendo and Geoff – who was the host of VGX – issues didn’t go easily. Just some days earlier than VGX 2013, the information about Cranky Kong leaked by way of a retailer itemizing. That meant the shock was ruined, and Geoff was apparently “livid”. Some followers had been additionally disillusioned that this was the one factor Nintendo needed to present.
Ellis shared the next about Geoff’s response:
“I used to be not on the receiving finish of the communications from Geoff, however from what I heard, he was massive mad – like livid. He’s usually a fairly easygoing man, very even keel, very cheap – and that’s one thing we actually respect about him – however on this case he was furious about this.”
Ellis and Yang speculated that Geoff had plenty of stress on his shoulders. As we already talked about, the occasion was going by way of a reasonably large transition from the Spike Video Recreation Awards to VGX.
Reggie did find yourself showing at VGX together with a rep from Retro Studios the place Cranky Kong in Donkey Kong Nation: Tropical Freeze was formally introduced. Part of the section had Reggie and Geoff jabbing forwards and backwards (with Geoff even mentioning the leak), and one of many speaking factors was a Metroid pin Reggie had on, fueling fan hypothesis a few potential future announcement.
You’ll be able to atone for the complete episode of the Equipment & Krysta Podcast right here.