King Krusha K. Rool: Donkey Kong 64's Horrifying Buffoon -- Designing For Donkey Kong December
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 พ.ย. 2024
- King K. Rool is absolutely fantastic, every single time the guy appears it's a delight to see what he's gonna do. Donkey Kong 64 might just be his best appearance in the whole series, personality-wise. In a game filled to the brim with goofy cartoon comedy, K. Rool remains an anchor of legitimate tension for the entire game... and for his trouble, gets blasted by the Kongs in one of the most brutal clownings that a final boss has endured. But it's all in GREAT fun as while DK64 doesn't nail everything, tone is something it gets right ALL the time, and K. Rool's big boxing match is the perfect embodiment of that.
Donkey Kong December Playlist: • Designing For: Donkey ...
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Patreon: / designingfor
Twitter: / designing4games
Discord: / discord
Director/Writer/Voice Over/Footage: Tommy Eyler/Pyrrhickong ( / pyrrhickong )
Video Editing/Additional Direction/Script Editing: AuthorMan ( / authorman )
Intro Animation By: / @tarvouldsquest
Intro Theme By: / tracks
I love how Chunky goes through sort of development in DK64’s plot, at the beginning he’s a coward who’s afraid of heights, and pretty much begs a boss to spare him, but at the end, of the game he’s ready to take on K. Rool and manages to be the hero of DK isle! I really dislike that he never returned afterwards because he’s one of if not the most underrated Kong in the family.
I mean,
And then there's chunky! He's dead.
Dk! Chunky's dead!
Chunky Kong was found dead in his house in 2018
conversely, k. rool gets repeatedly humiliated. even at his most threatening, his best-laid plan yet, he STILL couldn't win. and he got swatted out of the sky for trying to escape with his dignity. the boxing match is less "k. rool is being goofy" to "oh god he's slipped off the deep end." even the music is still immensely threatening, showing that k. rool is absolutely, positively at the end of his ropes, the mask of sanity he kept all game is peeled off his face like a banana. the boxing match was likely a last-minute attempt for k. rool to get SOME kind of victory today.
and the fact that this game was his last major appearence til smash ultimate shows that he was beaten so badly here that it mentally broke him.
just imagine him at the bar in conker's bad fur day exclaiming in a drunken stuper: "in my home country i am a KING! now look at how mighty i've fallen..."
Chunky died on the way back to DK Isle.
@@supersmashbro596 well he was the final boss in King of Swing,Jungle Climber, also playable in barrel blast and super sluggers. Speaking of, idk why they stopped using more of the Kong fam after the Wii era, at the very least more mario spin offs can be a nice home for them while we wait for more DK after Tropical Freeze.
I feel like not enough people bring up the fact that K Rool somehow manages to fit a boxing ring and audience inside his one-man escape jet. Dude has Time Lord technology and uses it for this.
Why? Because he can.
Eh, Logic I guess..
It's almost like K. Rool's already fragile sanity after DKC3 was on it's last leg's, and after the Blast-O-Matic was disabled he finally snapped and has gone insane!
A giant armadillo with cannons that rolls up to flatten you.
A dragonfly, emphasis on dragon, throws fireballs at you and tries to get revenge by sinking the battlefield into the lava.
A giant rejected quack in the box tries to slam you and shoots fireballs at you. And can turn invisible.
A giant pufferfish is fought in a dark stormy night.
And a giant kut out of the mad king is fought at night sends fire at you, can make fakes to trick you into firing your kong out of the stage.
Then we fight in a silly boxer fight that is lit up. We get so use to fighting in dark areas, it surprises us when fight him in big bright stage instead.
Don’t forget the dragonfly also has Hanna barbera Godzilla’s roar
my theory: having his blast o matic permenently shut down and being swatted out of the sky in his attempt to escape by an angry kaiju kremling might have sent the guy deeper into his insanity. to hell with the menace, the grandios schemes, kidnapping... now he just wants to challenge dk and co. to a duel to prove to his henchmen and himself that HE'S the king of the islands.
he jumped off the slippery slope and embraced his madness he's been holding back the entire game. even getting deathly serious didn't work. to hell with it, he will get SOME sort of victory today.
he dons his boxing gear and goes through an offscreen montage while waiting for his hated nemesis to examine the ruins of his ship.
hes so angry at his circumstance that he's reduced to laughter. his battle music is still IMMENSELY threatening for how silly he's dressed, which just describes just how frustrated he is he can't destroy even a pebble of dk island. how he can't keep even one kong kidnapped for a few hours, not a single golden banana in his horde. he can't even keep his own henchmen from turning on him.
his eye tic is redder than its ever been. and here he is, the mighty king of the kremlings, reduced to slapstick. theres a reason why he isn't in dkcr. this defeat was just THAT spectacular that it broke him. it only took his appearence in smash bros, over 20 years later, did he come out of retirement. this was k. rools darkest hour, his grandest blunder, and quite possibly the most entertaining failure yet.
next dkc game, we need the big guy back to basics.
well, it's perfectly in character that K.Rool loves to put on a costume
The K Rool fight is one of my favorite boss fights on the N64 it’s so good
2:22 Imagine you're alone in a huge public bathroom at night, all the lights suddenly go out, and you hear this from the other end of the room.
DK64 was my first videogame and a bonding experience between me and my father when I was younger. I have to say, considering how much the game over sequence straight up horrified me, the ending where we not only beat the big palooka but utterly humiliate him was utterly cathartic. Also Lanky and Chunky are extremely underrated, fight me.
Why would I fight you about something I agree with? Chunky was my favorite and Lanky was pretty cool too.
You're lucky you got to beat it as a kid! My dad bought the cheat book and we STILL couldn't beat the ending. Tiny's part was a mess LOL
@@drewjensen2798 Haha, I understand completely. I also remember that when I was real young I had this habit of accidentally deleting save files somehow. My dad must have been real frustrated with all the times I'd done that!
This. This is exactly why K Rool is one of my favorite villains of all time. He’s incredibly menacing, yet in a very cartoonish, over the top way. Legitimately scary while being a huge goofball. There are a few characters that can make me laugh while being terrified of them at the same time. It may be a stretch, but the joker from Batman, or Aku from samurai Jack Might be some close seconds.
Being hilarious and threatening at the same time is the secret spice.
It is genuinely kind of insane just what sheer quantity of content you're managing to press out. How are you still stringing these together in time??
I like to think he assembled a buffer over the past year.
Instead of, y'know, killing himself.
@@EGRJ He also mentioned at the beginning of the month that he has multiple guest editors working on these videos.
Balancing between four editors and starting work on this in July, yeah. Real tough actually getting stuff still made for that six month stretch in addition, though; writing and recording dozens of scripts in September was really rough I won't lie!
@@DesigningFor Holy crap, that's so unnecessarily extra and I respect the hell out of it- and to think the content itself doesn't even feel rushed!! You should feel free to treat yourself and your team well after this if you wanna give us a wait, this is some seriously admirable dedication to your work right here. ^^
@@DesigningFor HELP I NEED TO POO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great video. In greater Nintendo-verse headcannon, K. Rool's Blast-o-Matic inspired Lash of Black Hole in Advance Wars to create a similar weapon
OH MY GOD, SOMEBODY FINALLY PUT MY THOUGHTS ON K. ROOL IN DK64 INTO WORDS. The utter threat he poses for 99% of the game, all out of the window during his battle, because his plan is already over. The utter humiliation he faces in the fight is as cathartic as it is fitting. With all that said, I'd like to see the other half of DK64's finale, and it's well, finality, in Hideout Helm. I feel like Helm is an incredibly underrated final level, which allows the game to have the finale be both serious and goofy.
Except he wasn't the only one; King J.Grim already said his piece on what happened to K. Rool, at least from the King's perspective before being added to Smash. In fact, King J. Grim said that he LOST his sanity; so he's not sane at all in this game.
@@robbiewalker2831 given what happens during the trilogy, id lose my sanity too
Completely agree with you, Hideout Helm needs to be covered. Between the music, the scenario, and just the overall bleak environment, I don't think there's a time I've ever felt more nervous in my life. Even though I collected all the blueprints in the several playthroughs I've done, every time I fucked up in one of the minigames, it would stress me the hell out, and although I hated it at the time, when I look back on it, I love it. It's just so incredibly well done.
@@carnage0685 If you haven't seen Veegie's retrospective on Donkey Kong 64, he does an amazing job covering what makes Hideout Helm great in that, from breaking down the music to how it utilizes all of the Kongs. I'd love to cover it, but I feel like I would just be copying his homework if I did!
@@DesigningFor Oops nevermind I didn't read this comment, LOL. Maybe you could cover Crocodile Isle (from DK64, not DKC2) instead? Unsure if that would be enough material for a full video, though.
K.rool really needs to make a return to a mainline game. If we ever get a 3rd DKC returns. He should definitely be the main villain again.
Heck, in tropical freeze. I was 100% expecting the new villain to just be K.rool in disguise again. That would have been the perfect twist
I personally love DK 64, even with all of its flaws and the final battle is the cherry on top. It's funny how K.Rool goes from Dr. Claw to goofy boxer at the end. I never thought about how the fight with King Krusha Rool is the perfect way to encapsulate DK 64's cartoonish nature. The fight is still amazing since every playable kong gets a chance to fight and further humiliate the kremling king. I find DK 64's final battle to be quite underrated when compared to DKC 1 and 2. DK 64 may have some major issues, but I feel like its final fight is worth it in the end, at least to me.
It's honestly very interesting to have King K. Rook be beaten by humiliation since, as a man to fear, he can't be as good if you strip him away from that fear factor.
It's a grand Kong fam taking on the croc battle. Even unplayable Candy and Funky chime in to finish him.
Don't forget the true finale. After taking a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Kongs and getting booted, he crashes into the prison of K. Lumsy. Lumsy was imprisoned by the cruel king for having a tender heart, and fears K. Rools wrath in spite being 3 times the kings size. But now that the island smashing softie has been unleashed by the Kongs, no longer intimidated by the reptilian royal, he proceedes to (off screen) pummel the ever living snot out of his former tormentor, serving as one final insult to Rool's pride. After all, the only thing more demeaning to K.Rool than being thwarted by his arch enemies is being effortlessly beaten up by what he considers a wimpy, soft hearted loser.
The way you describe this fight reminds me of a method in dealing with trauma; Downplaying the fear.
Common methods of downplay include making an absolute mockery of the source until it stops being scary.
In a way, K. Rool is thwarted in the same manner; He starts out by being an intimidating menace, but is always thwarted in cartoonish fashions, ending up as a laughing stock by the end.
As a king, DK/Diddy pounced on K. Rool’s head when he was left open during the crown toss. As a pirate, his blunderbuss blew up in his face whenever it was forcibly jammed by Diddy/Dixie throwing the cannonballs back into the gun’s barrel. As a Scientist, K. Rool was repeatedly pummelled with wooden barrels and electrocuted by Dixie/Kiddy.
In this manner, King Krusha K. Rool is the king of nightmares. The Kongs can’t hope to face him head-on, so they resort to making an absolute mockery of the supervillain to even the playing field, all until he stops being an actual threat. And it makes sense why he’s stopped appearing in the series; He’s been wrung dry, lost all of his intimidation factor, after being subjected to so much slapstick. The trauma…is no more.
So a method of dealing with trauma is making said source of trauma a laughing stock?
So lets say somebody’s as scared of fnaf.
By that logic making an sfm animation of the steely Dan beatdown where steely Dan is played by one of the animatronics.
@@peytonreed937
Precisely. By replacing the negative emotional stimuli with a positive one, you can weaken, let alone erase, the essence of fear from that aspect of cognitive association.
@@KurenaiHideyoshi it’s like say, if you were scared of a certain pokemon. And then you play with that Pokémon in Pokémon amie, or see fanart of them being total sweethearts.
To annoy a king so thoroughly that he drags himself off his throne.
A few years ago I made a D&D character that was a crocodilian Lizard Folk took me a bit to realize I just made my man K.Rool
Do NOT abbreviate King Krusha K.Rool
I found why.....
The developers were British, they get some slack for that.
After DK 64 he was just desperate. He wanted to make the lives of the Kongs bad in DK King of Swing and accidentaly faces them again in DK jungle climber, where he stole the cristal bananas and planned to take his glory back. He was especially insane during the final battle, actually using the cristal banana and there he really wanted to get rid of DK once and for all there. King K rools story is just sad in general, with his loss in DK64 his big downfall began.
i just completed this game 101% and i love K.Rool in this game! i was so scared as a kid! i really love this game, its my favourite DK game! i know its flaws.. but thank you D4
I’ve been saying for years I always thought Banjo-Kazooie and DK6’s villains were complete opposites when it comes to intimidation vs goofiness, but their final battles swapped entirely in tone
What I can appreciate most about DK64's final fight thematically is that ultimate sense of finality.
K. Rool's invasion and seizure of resources? Failed.
His kidnapping and ransom plot? Backfired spectacularly, but he still had his dignity.
His kidnapping and brainwashing scheme? Ultimately ruined probably the best thing he had going for him.
It's a bit natural that The King might be a little unhinged after taking the L three times in a row when he started it all three of those times, thus he decides "Forget the Bananas, let's just nuke them." In the most deathly serious "I am actually going to KILL my arch-nemesis this time" manner imaginable.
So what better way to make damn sure he *never* tries this or anything like it ever again than by absolutely destroying his dignity and credibility right in front of the very troops he inspires and intimidates? After this, King K. Rool had *nothing* left, so I find it ultimately fitting that he was more or less retired as the series villain after this.
Lying in wait for nearly the next two decades before emerging from the shadows, rested, recharged, and bringing everything and the kitchen sink to the table to put the royal smackdown on his rivals once and for all?
It's funny too how K.Rool's sinister reputation is based on his unrelenting hatred of the Kong family, and yet somehow all it takes is Kandy Kong to show some leg and do a gorilla hair whip and he goes gaga over her?? Now if there was a reptile blonde bombshell, that would be different, but c'mon...
King Krusha K. Rool. One of four final bosses I have fought and not beaten. One day, one day.
Gotta be my favourite final boss fight after Gruntilda.
I gotta say. I love your editing
I actually own a phone case of king dedede vs king krool and the thumbnail reminds me a lot of it lmao
One of my favorite boss fights of all time, I always liked how each kong got a turn. As a kid I never fought a more satisfying final boss to such a huge game.
If I did have any qualms, it would be that DK's phase felt a bit plain, but it is the starting one so I suppose that's to be expected.
Great video! (As per usual)
I appreciate this fight with K Rool as well.
I mean yeah, I appreciate that his is taken very seriously in almost the entire game: Laser guns to destroy DK island it's a james bond plan all right, threatens and executes his lackeys, he's a crazy tyrant. But then after being stopped seeks to escape but his escape ship is taken down. He is forced to do this. Is it like K rool just saying, Do you wanna fight monkeys? Okay we fight but we do it on my terms: So yes he falls back to old habits, new name and suit, arena and his lackeys cheering him on, wanting to show he's the boss of bosses. It is magnificent.
0:24 I like how this implies Mega Man’s nemesis is Napalm Man.
i honestly cannot thank you enough for this donkey kong december content. you are amazing
This fight looks amazing, I wish I could play back😢
Thank you so fucking much for making this video. Ever since I was like, 5 or 6 back in 2005, I've always noticed there was something special about the cutscenes with K. Rool. I always had a strange fascination with them, that my mind back then was too underdeveloped (smooth brain) to really pin down, but over the next 7 or 8 years or so, I fully came to the realization that it was because he was just absolutely terrifying and menacing in all of his appearances (I didn't learn I could glitch past the fucking Nintendo Coin door in Hideout Helm until like, 2012, so I don't think I ever saw the showdown with him in the boxing ring).
Ever since then, every once in a while I'd come back to watch all of his pre-boxing ring cutscenes, and just admire them. Sometimes, I'd even gush to my friend groups about them, and I think the biggest reason why I'd do that was because I never heard it brought up or mentioned anywhere else. K. Rool put on this terrifying, menacing performance, and then essentially disappeared from gaming (not counting the GBA DKC ports) for what seemed like, and what very well could have been, forever. Even when DKC was revived and made its 'grand' return, with a lot of people from Rare working at Retro Studios, and even getting David Wise and Grant Kirkhope back, K. Rool was absent. I remember being so fucking pissed that he didn't come back, and he didn't have any luck in Smash Bros. either. I'd wanted him in since Brawl, then wanted him and Ridley for Smash 4. When all I got was a Mii wearing him as a skinsuit, again, I was so pissed.
I still can't believe he finally came back in Ultimate. I was eyeing the game after Ridley's reveal, but as soon as I heard he had been revealed, and went to see the video, I immediately went to Gamestop personally and preordered the game. My life is pretty shit- I have depression, and I'm all kinds of fucked up from things people have done to me, but thinking about K. Rool and his return and portrayal in Smash Ultimate is one of the few things I can think about that makes me feel a sense of joy. Seeing Ridley show up was great, but seeing K. Rool return felt fucking personal to me. I've watched all of your videos on him in Smash Ultimate, and all of your Donkey Kong videos in general (As well as numerous other videos on your channel), but I never really expected you to cover his portrayal in Donkey Kong 64. I don't know if you'll ever have the time to read this long ass comment, but this video is just the icing on the cake for me, so thank you so much. It just completely makes my day- Maybe even makes my life, lol. You're just amazing.
No problem, the guy means a lot to me, too. I have to keep finding any excuse I can to make videos about him!
@@DesigningFor Absolutely awesome. Also, I hope that one of the videos you had produced for this month covers Hideout Helm. The atmosphere of the level is incredible. If it's not something that ends up being covered this December, then I definitely think you should looking into doing a video on it in the future!
It all fits his steady descent into multiple personality madness the Country games before had demonstrated. First he's a King, then he's a pirate Kaptain, then he's an evil scientist who changed his name into something utterly silly. Heck, in one of the Gameboy games his motive is forth wall breaking. Cranky Kong calls him up to arrange banana theft to challenge his son to proving he can have a good game with Gameboy graphics, and K.Rool obliges!
So now, when the best revenge he can imagine is to simply humiliate the Kongs, he invents yet another persona: grandiose Apollo Creed style showman. THIS is how he tries to humiliate the kongs, a fight in front of the world. I wonder what Mario thought of all that...
And I'll say it again, I loved DK64. I played it before I played Banjo Kazooie back in the day, so that does play a part in things, but still even with the overabundance of collectibles requiring all that backtracking, I still enjoyed the game and I still nailed 101%. I just... look I've played through Banjo Kazooie and Mario 64 multiple times since then, but when I look at DK64 and Tooie, I get a little tired. A fun experience once, I'd say.
Lovin Donkey Kong December. Keep it comin'!
There are so many aspects of DK I couldn't beat as a kid and this is one of them! King. K. Rool kicked my fucking ass as a kid! It was Tiny's part that was the worst. The lag destroyed me lol.
Great vid! Love to see more donkey kong video on it and hopefully the new movie adds more games and lore for them
Never really got far during my playthroughs, but I watched one of my mates struggle against K. Rool for a good three days.
Here's hoping they'll bring K. Rool into the Donkey Kong movie
7:53
I wouldn't say "Silent Hill 2" or "System Shock 2" were overdramatic. Quite the opposite actually. Both were brilliant, genre-defining games for their retrospective genres and helped push Video Games in a more serious direction, something it needed for a while. Whilst the final battle in SS2 with SHODAN is pretty disappointing, SHODAN herself is an incredibly iconic villain. Maria is also a fantastic tragic villain in "Silent Hill 2" that really dived deep into the whole Psychological Horror genre (specifically the Psychological part).
All these games can be appreciated on their own merits and they're all classics in their respective genres.
My apologies, I did not mean to imply that those games in specific were filled with melodrama or that their narratives were, in any way, unearned. I more meant to say they were part of a cultural shift in games that often embodied overdramatization, or that games following in their footsteps would overdramatize and orercompensate for (See: a lot of Bioshock, Silent Hill games after 3 except maybe Shattered Memories but even there too). My bad for wording that weirdly!
I Really hope that the rumors of a new DK game are true. Of course,if they are, then we are long overdue for a Glorious Return of the King of the Kremlin Krew!
Wait, is Krusha what the K stands for? Lol. What’s the extra K?
@@JohnBurnuke oh shit you’re right lmfao I always just remember the K standing for Krusha, never realized the extra K all these years. Lmfao. Good ol’ Rareware naming stupidity, gotta love it 🥰🐊🥊
It’s a low point BUT YOU LOVE BECUSE WERE IN THE YEAR OF EDGE LORDS
It's a bit strange how Chunky would be the one to take down King K Rool for good in a battle instead of DK who is the main hero of the game.
I feel like it was supposed to be a low point
Every time I hear a hard “C” word, I’m imagining that you wrote the word in the script by replacing the the “C” with a “K”
God i love this fight
*AND THEN THERE'S CHUNKY!!*
HE'S Dead.
You mean "Alive". He returned in the Super Mario Bros Movie and he was alive in it, so you were wronged
@@Scrat-rs5ud
That movie was shit.
@@Scrat-rs5ud
That movie was shit, so it's not real.
It IS real. I've watched it, and it came out on March 29, 2023 (Nintendo and Illumination Studios have created this movie)
@@Scrat-rs5ud
By that strain of logic, "Hotel Mario" for the Philips CDI is also real to the Mario canon.
Man they really should make this game again but like, better
they have, people on etsy sell cartridges with rom hacked vers of dk 64, with the ability to use the tag barrel anywhere.
Honestly, I didn't know K Rool had a wife
Hey, is it just me, or did the thumbnail change for this video from the boxing match poster to a random shot of K. Rool? I preferred the old one, but if this new one was selected on purpose then I understand. It might also just be a bug on my side, I dunno!
Yeah I don't know, it did on my end as well. I've changed it back insofar as I can tell, no idea why it changed.
Honestly DK64 doesn't get enough credit in general. It's a messy game to be sure but it's messy because it tries to do so much. Lots of far less grandly scaled games have tried and failed far more than this one does.
banjo tooie was dk64 if dk64 was more fully realized and less back tracky
@@taelrmade Yes and? Banjo-Kazooie was Tooie with better levels and pacing. That doesn't mean Tooie isn't also a good game.
@@swampert564 tooie eclipses kazooie
@@taelrmade No it doesn't. Tooie is a good game, Kazooie is an exceptional one. Dense and consistently great worlds trump the connected but more generic mess that are Tooie's. Kazooie is a treat, Tooie is a chore.
As much as people bash on DK64 for many reasons, i can't deny that i like the silliness of it.
I never felt those complaints. Drives me nuts when people criticize one of my favorite games.
#CHUNKYSWEEP
Yeaaaah
Let's get this video to a lot of views in the first hour so that it gets love from youtube
Algorithm bless this video which i liked even before watching it because it's that good
Seriously, sometimes i end up pissed off because i can't like it again after watching it, fix that youtube
Lots of words lots of engagement, yadda yadda
#ChunkySweep
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Honestly, I respectfully disagree. I feel like this whole final boss was an extremely out of nowhere tonal shift from how dead serious we’ve seen from K. Rool in every moment prior in the game to him being turned into a complete laughingstock “Looney Tunes” joke that is humiliated so badly at the very last second of the game. It just feels………… disappointing and tonally inconsistent. That they built up K. Rool throughout the grand majority of DK 64 to this time not be playing around and being dead-set and serious about accomplishing his devious goals……… only for him to be turned into a goofy Saturday morning cartoon villain straight out of a rejected Looney Tunes cartoon for when you actually fight him at the very last second. GRUNTILDA out of all villains was taken more seriously for during both of her boss fights in Kazooie and Tooie. This just feels like an insult to the character that K. Rool was being built up to throughout the majority of the game only to then just shit all over him and make him a complete joke. I get what they were going for, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.
you want seriousness in a game with guns that fire fruit?