by Jomingo
»
March 8th, 2010, 8:14 am » Short link
Here are my suggestions:
-Having two antagonists only works one way, having "Karny Kong" be the antagonist for the majority of the game only to reveal that he was being manipulated or controlled by K. Rool in the end, a la DKC3.
-If Karny Kong is meant to be the generic evil doppelganger archetype (ie. Wario, Shadow, etc), then perhaps his initials should be DK to match Donkey, and also perhaps he could be given a tie reminiscent of DK's (only a different color, and rougher/more torn looking)
-I like Barang Kong except that his name doesn't follow the pattern that every Kong's name has followed, and that is that it ends in -y, ex. Donkey, Cranky, Funky, Diddy, etc. If he was given a name that fits the formula better than that would be better.
-Also, don't go crazy with the evil Kongs. Having a couple is good, having them be the majority of the games enemies would not work well. The Kremlings are the antagonists, no matter who happens to be giving them the orders. It might be going overboard to make more than two or three new Kongs in one game.
As far as the story goes, it seems logical that "Karny Kong" has some sort of grudge against DK; most likely he wants to be King of the Apes. So naturally, he steals the banana hoard. Now, having him kidnap a couple of Kongs (possibly the ones that were guarding the hoard?) seems necessary, but I've never been a fan of the rather popular idea of the antagonist kidnapping every Kong and then having you save them one world at a time. That doesn't work well because you need the basics to run the Kong Helper shops and what have you. I think it would work best to have just Dixie and Diddy kidnapped, and have DK and Kiddy be the playable protagonists.
Here's an example of a possible storyline: DK's relaxing when Funky, along with Kiddy Kong, approaches him wondering where Dixie Kong is. DK last left her (along with Diddy) guarding the banana hoard. Funky was wondering where she was because she was supposed to baby sit Kiddy. The three of them decide to visit the banana hoard to see if she's there, and when they arrive they find the hoard missing and a poorly written note from a so called Karny Kong stating that he and his new crocodile friends have taken the hoard and the two Kongs and that he is now the King of the Apes. DK now sets out to retrieve his hoard along with Kiddy, and to save his two friends, though along the way he realizes that the plot was fabricated by K. Rool the whole time to distract them as he makes some sort of large weapon or something that will destroy DK Island. The "final" boss will be Karny of course, whom after being defeated will reveal to you that he was tricked by K. Rool, who will then storm in to reveal his plan. Upon completion of the Lost world (which is possibly inside a large explosive facility built right in to the DK island head) you will reach K. Rool and have the real final boss fight and defeat him. Or something like that.
For the timeline of the game it would work best in my opinion to have the game take place one year after DKC3 (just like every DKC went), and to include Wrinkly in her living form. There's really no need to explain her death in this game, which is what a lot of DKC4 projects try to do. Also, there's no need to reference the DK64 Kongs. If it were me I'd make this game as DKC4 with no mention or reference to the events of DK64, rather than trying to patch the events between the two games.
Finally, about the overworld map. I think it would work best for the game to take place on DK Island like the first game, but you would visit different environments around the Island that weren't visited in the first game. I don't know if you should include the Brother's Bear or not, it doesn't really matter to me.