Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is a decade old now, and with developer Retro Studios busy with Metroid Prime 4, it doesn’t look like the 2D platformer is going to get a follow-up anytime soon. Interestingly enough, however, if things had gone differently, the acclaimed sidescrolling platformer may have been succeeded by a new 3D entry- and one developed by an external studio, no less.
That’s as per YouTube channel DidYouKnowGaming, which has claimed in a recently uploaded video that Activision-owned studio Vicarious Vision – which has plenty of experience with 3D platformers like Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy and multiple Skylanders games – was, at one point, working on a new 3D Donkey Kong game for the Nintendo Switch.
The game was allegedly being designed as a platformer that would have placed an emphasis on movement and traversal mechanics, with quite a bit of emphasis being placed on rail grinding, which Donkey Kong, being Donkey Kong, would have done on jungle vines instead of actual rails.
The game, allegedly codenamed Freedom, never managed to get past the very early stages of development, the video claims, and after about six months of work, it was allegedly cancelled in 2016, with Vicarious Visions instead being directed to provide support work on Call of Duty titles. In the same video, it’s Activision also rejected a Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 pitch by the studio in favour of Call of Duty support work.
In 2021, Vicarious Visions was folded into Blizzard Entertainment, before being renamed as Blizzard Albany later in the year. The studio has since worked on Diablo 2: Resurrected and Diablo 4.