In January 2026, an update to Donkey Kong Country Returns HD was released, implementing Dixie Kong as a playable character. This results in the game having three out of four playable characters featured in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, missing only Cranky Kong.

The update contains unused graphics in its files that appear as Cranky Kong's icon and barrel, but crossed out hastily with a pink X. This suggests that at some point during the development of the update, Cranky Kong was also considered to be added, but was scrapped, and one of the developers marked the icon and barrel as unused instead of deleting them outright.

Top: artwork used for an officially licensed 2026 Mario Kart World T-shirt from Japan. It is a 2D rendition of a promotional render for the game.

Bottom: the original render, for comparison.

Got to work on commissions and forgot to check the requests teehee, but here you go!

request デ・キルコ & ド・ジッコ🇫🇷🇮🇹🍝

Artwork of Diddy Kong and Dixie Kong's end-of-level animations seen in Donkey Kong Country 2, drawn by Steve Mayles, the game’s character designer.