Did Donkey Kong Almost Get Owned By Rare?

[JrDude]

I was just thinking... In SSBMelee, Diddy Kong wasn't a trophy because of Rare being sold to Microsoft or something. When they got custody to Diddy back, they always had a Nintendo logo on his hat, did they have to do that? With that said, it seems like Rare half-owned the Donkey Kong games (besides the original one). If Nintendo didn't make the original Donkey Kong and Rare somehow still made the Kong games, would we be seeing the Kongs on the XBox? X_x
(Wow, 3 Kong threads so quickly :P)

[Nayrman]

Rare never owned the rights to anything Donkey Kong related.
While they may have developed Donkey Kong Country 1-3 and DK64, they never owned any rights to the characters, or games themselves. It's like how Camelot made Golden Sun but they don't have any rights to the name/characters since they're owned by Nintendo.

Diddy wasn't a trophy because Sakurai was stupid and forgot him.
However, Rare does own the rights to Banjo-Kazooie and Conker because they owned the publishing rights since it's a self made game. So when Nintendo sold Rare, they sold those to characters as well. However, since they were on Nintendo's system and have the Nintendo logo in them, Big N did have legitimate complaints to them being on XBLA, however because Rare owns publishing, there's nothing Nintendo can really do.

[Doodle]

Nintendo first created Donkey Kong, so they'll always have the rights to anything related to it.
If Rare created Donkey Kong, he might be on the 360 right now. D:
Though at least he would be getting some decent games. :\

[JrDude]

But then why does Diddy have a Nintendo logo on his hat now?

[Nayrman]

But then why does Diddy have a Nintendo logo on his hat now?

because the graphics can handle it now.
I honestly don't know. probably some stupid reason overall

[DededeCloneChris]

But then why does Diddy have a Nintendo logo on his hat now?

Just as some sort of funny mention.
Diddy publishes Nintendo. ;)

[JrDude]

I'm sure there's a hidden reason behind the missing Diddy trophy in Melee, and the Nintendo logo on Diddy's hat.

[Macawmoses]

But yeah, Nintendo has always owned them...all of the Kongs, even Kongs they created. The Nintendo issue is just likely a reference to the fact they feel compelled to prove ownership of Diddy.