The Cantankerous Spirit of Cranky Kong -- Designing For Maturity

foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] characters are great you can also summarize most of them in a couple sentences Donkey Kong is a laid-back protector Funky Kong is funkyo Chunky Kong is a gentle giant Diddy Kong acts tough and cool to keep the guilt of destroying an entire civilization from destroying his spirit foreign I mean yeah he's cranky but there's always a lot more to him than Grandpa Simpson jokes the Elder of the Kong family has always been the most storied member of the DK crew helped in no small part by his endless ramblings about the good old days of burning his personality into the minds of anyone who cared to read them but there's a certain Nuance to cranky a consistency to and development of his character that puts him past not only his Simeon and crocodilian contemporaries but a significant portion of Nintendo's greater cast cranky takes the simple joke that his existence is based off of plays with it for all it's worth reflects on it and evolves from it ending up is one of the most entertaining enjoyable and Rich characters in not just the Donkey Kong Pantheon but Nintendo's as a whole yes that sentence is music to my ears [Music] Cranky Kong is an odd character to conceptualize take the Beloved icon of Nintendo's arcade days the face that made them a force in video games to begin with and then say he's a boomer who's broken down and out of touch with the kids today that's the tack that rare decided to go through with Cranky Kong the grumpy aged up version of the girder climbing Barrel tossing primate from the arcade classic leaving the platforming of Donkey Kong Country up to a new Donkey Kong his grandson son temporally displaced son okay grandson okay okay that's a recent enough confirmation and oh who the hell are you supposed to be like regardless of if the modern main monkey is an aged up Junior or Donkey Kong III cranky serves the same role yelling about how bad the game he's in is how pathetic his successor is and how much better the old days were Cranky Kong is a fourth wall Bustin Powerhouse of a character taking over Donkey Kong country's game manual just to gripe about how useless all these features and characters and fancy schmancy level design philosophies are he is a great joke full of wit and sardonic Edge that feels contemporary and smart for its backdrop of he funny monkey game it gets in the face of Nintendo's clean and authoritarian image as was the style at the time he pretty hysterical but only to a point the joke of the tired old man complaining about what the kids call with it and baste would only really land if Donkey Kong Country managed to blow the original arcade game out of the water dkc was the first major release the Donkey Kong brand had in almost a decade the Game Boy tile released in the same year to help support Donkey Kong Country notwithstanding Cranky Kong represented every skeptic that dkc had to win over fans and even old Nintendo guard who revered the arcade game as a classic if dkc flopped Cranky Kong would be right and all the self-deprecating humor in the world wouldn't save rare from knowing that it really was better in the good old days but they didn't make a new Donkey Kong they made a scrappy do but this video exists so you know that didn't happen for all of his Bluster and though he'd never admit it cranky does really love Donkey Kong Country sure he's glitched so that he only gives out hints on the first world and spends most of his time complaining but he knows everything there is about the game he didn't beat it in under an hour with only one life out of spite or anything Donkey Kong Country did succeed cranky does respect and enjoy it and he can even recognize the new Donkey Kong as a full-fledged hero who should be proud of his accomplishments that's very impressive I must say but of course Cranky's got an image to keep Donkey Kong might be great but greater than him the original never cranky continues moving the goal post saying that Donkey Kong could never beat king a rule without his fancy Graphics in the future technology that is the Super Nintendo when DK responds oh bet cranky calls K rool on the phone asks him to steal the banana horde and challenges Donkey Kong to an Adventure on the less technologically advanced Game Boy setting up Donkey Kong Land let's do it again he even makes sure that the game ends in Big Ape city as any real game should end in a girder-filled urban jungle like he debuted in and even when DK does it and meets his expectations that doesn't mean that Diddy can Waltz up and expect the same treatment no Donkey Kong Country 2 has cranky ready to give up and surrender the banana horde to Captain K rool as soon as he learns That Donkey Kong has been kidnapped not believing that wimpy little diddy and his girlfriend could do the deed he's even more vicious and critical of this pair than he was of donkey and Diddy seeing this sequel as a stupid unnecessary cash grab of a game how could you have a Donkey Kong game without Donkey Kong after all good question he even sets up an extra challenge for Diddy just to rub it in Cranky's video game hero coins setting him up against real heroes of the era and showing him just how far he has to climb to even pretend to escape Donkey Kong's shadow laughs but Diddy like donkey before him exceeds Cranky's expectations proving himself an equal hero to Nintendo icons that cranky can't help but Revere in spite of his constant vitriol at the end of the game cranky has nothing but praise for the little monkey that could you played him like a Stradivarius Diddy and that is the key to cranky Kong's longevity character growth it'd be incredibly easy keeping cranky is the same impossible to impress grumpy started as a fossil whose waxing poetic on the games of yesteryear would grow more and more ridiculous with each game he shouted them in and while cranky would still be a great novelty that sort of one-off joke would grow really thin really quickly turning him into the grandparent at the family dinner that you just kind of ignore spouting off the same tirades again and again come on cranky shut up but cranky doesn't double down on how great his arcade Classics were he's just a bitter critic who hates change in general dkc too sees him lamenting the removal of Winky and expresso going so far as to immortalize the frog in his monkey Museum missing when games were real in Donkey Kong Country the game that came out and he was just slamming one year prior and this Killer Instinct game oh that's gotta be garbage it hasn't got Donkey Kong senior in it after all but not only can you find him wanting to get a few matches in when you leave the monkey Museum he's actively set up shop in a Killer Instinct themed arcade by the time you reach crazy kremland awesome by Donkey Kong Country 3 he's left his Shack entirely and his role is the Kong family patriarch has similarly shifted cranky gives no respect to Dixie having dismissed her long ago as a would-be damsel in distress overstepping her bounds and instead of giving his usual help he just messes around not even showing up in the manual addicted to Swanky's carnival games and throwing baseballs at children when he loses you right and while the respect he gives is gone the respect he's shown similarly goes by the wayside Brinkley Kong complaining about her husband's time-wasting Antics and negative attitude as she decides to be a real gamer and beats Mario 64. a game that while knew she sure that cranky would hog if he ever actually came home and when dkc3 is finally complete Baron K ruelenstein finally slain DK and Diddy looking to cranky to give the same respect to Dixie that he gave to them cranky goes nope and Dixie decides to beat the crap out of him for it Cranky Kong wasn't needed for the Donkey Kong Country series anymore Dixie doesn't need his respect and approval and he was forced to accept his place as a side character among the Donkey Kong cast Ry games had found their way out of the shadow of the Donkey Kong that came before they could survive and even Thrive without the work cranky did in the 80s preceding them and considering all of the insecurity and risk that came with Reviving the Donkey Kong brand in such a radical way it's cool to see the face of all the skepticism and Donkey Kong die hards totally turning around on it plus cranky cared enough to 103 complete dkc3 so he probably liked it a little bit get out of my face scrambled you future appearances would see Cranky Kong softening bit by bit after this incredibly humble performance Donkey Kong 64 gives the Old Timer a more actively helpful role developing potions that teach the Kong's new moves inventing barrels to transform their abilities and even laying them play jetpack on his computer to show him what real gaming looks like foreign sure he'll still gladly insult the Kongs at every turn and insults the player directly in the manual by telling them to look up Guides Online and get good but he's not just sitting back and letting his knowledge do all the Talking he's actively contributing Donkey Kong Country Returns sees him setting up shop to make things easier on his grandson glad to help Donkey Kong avoid death and save their home in return for a modest monetary profit Mario plus Rabbids would introduce rabid cranky and as the Rabbids are exaggerations of the negative traits of whoever they're based off of the crotch the old bunny is basically just a mute version of dkc one cranky all ego and old man jokes with no restraint the worst version of cranky is just cranky but he's grown since that nothing's showing that more than how much of himself he's willing to put into a game first bound completely to a chair then up to a walker restrained or walking around a single room able to stand up under his own power and move about slowly okay and manly he goes back to the chair here but after that [Music] after years of complaining and hinting and decrying every single game he appears in finally cranky would join in the fun as an equal member to all the other Kongs and he hasn't become any less cranky to do it he's still a negative old grump but finally cranky is willing to embrace not being the name and draw of the Donkey Kong series that all games should hold up to his standard but a member of the Kong family willing to contribute and do his part in the present it is really fun I mean I like Scrooge McDuck a lot that's awful kind of you that is what I love most about Cranky Kong he's a joke played at Nintendo's expense the dinosaurs who own a rotting IP long past its Glory Days while simultaneous heinously being a joke on rare the upstart developers trying to live up to The Prestige of that rotting dinosaur he tears down both sides with equal Glee representing the potential failures of both in a self-deprecating manner and somehow both come out the other side smiling growing closer through the good-natured banter never for any joke in the book and the joke's on them because I wrote the book Shigeru Miyamoto is a huge fan of this character requesting that Retro Studios specifically keep cranky in Donkey Kong Country Returns when they were considering what to hold on to while Reviving the franchise Donkey Kong Country grew to be a fantastic series that represented the bond between the two companies doing more with the brand than either could have done separately and while Nintendo and rare have since parted ways crank key is still here yelling about the days gone by but a little Wiser from the journey more willing to help out and show new whippersnappers what Donkey Kong Country was all about Cranky Kong is about as simple of a joke character as you can get but behind the beard and sarcastic wit and his wife dying and burning in hell or something deeper a cantankerous spirit that cannot be silenced and defines the Donkey Kong brand as a whole and that is always worth ranting about do not leave me alone I'm busy [Music] thank you

Channel: Designing For

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Keywords: Designing For, Game Analysis, Video Essay, Video Game Analysis, Game Review, Cranky, Cranky Kong, DKC, Character Analysis, Breakdown, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong Country 2, Donkey Kong Country 3, Donkey Kong 64, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, Tropical Freeze, Tropical Freeze Cranky, Donkey Kong December, Mario Movie, Who Is Cranky, Donkey Kong Timeline, Donkey Kong Jr, Diddy, DK64, DKC2, Manual, Donkey Kong Land, dunkey, Funny, Best Nintendo, Rare, Rareware

Id: vsvNE-v9z6Q

Length: 16min 44sec (1004 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 31 2022