A 16-person team, with many members recruited from Rare's Banjo group, finished the game in 1999, when it was published by Nintendo in North America in November and worldwide in December. Rare, which had previously created the Donkey Kong Country games, began working on Donkey Kong 64 in 1997, although production restarted halfway through the three-year development cycle. In a separate multiplayer mode, up to four players can compete in deathmatch and last man standing games. The player completes minigames and puzzles as five playable Kong characters-each with their own special abilities-to receive bananas and other collectibles. As the gorilla Donkey Kong, the player explores the themed levels of an island to collect items and rescue his kidnapped friends from King K.
It is the first Donkey Kong game to feature 3D gameplay. Donkey Kong 64 is a 1999 adventure platform game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64.
