Dixie Kong

Encyclopedia : D : DI : DIX : Dixie Kong

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Dixie Kong is one of the playable characters in many of the Donkey Kong games. She was created by Rareware to be the second controllable character in . Identifiable by her pink beret and long ponytail, her most famous attribute is the ability to slow her descent and glide farther by whirling her ponytail like helicopter blades. She also uses this ponytail to lift barrels and other objects over her head. She has a younger sister named Tiny Kong, her boyfriend is Diddy Kong, and her cousins are Chunky Kong and Kiddy Kong.

Origins: 1995 - 1997

As the girlfriend of Diddy Kong, she was just as enthusiastic of an adventurer as her boyfriend was. In Donkey Kong Country 2, Dixie and Diddy Kong had to journey to Crocodile Isle to rescue Donkey Kong from the clutches of Kaptain K. Rool. While this was seen more as Diddy's hero quest than a validation of Dixie's worthiness, the female Kong proved herself to be just as capable as her more established partner. At the conclusion of the game, K. Rool was inadvertenly blasted into the sacred Kremling energy source, clogging the flow until it built up in a massive explosion. Crocodile Isle was destroyed and it looked like the Kremlings were finished, but they returned in Donkey Kong Land 2, as did Crocodile Isle, to kidnap Donkey Kong yet again. Dixie set off with Diddy once again, and the end of the adventure yielded the same results as the first time, save for the fact that K. Rool's fate was more ambiguous.

As opposed to the first and third Donkey Kong Countries, Dixie is the first sidekick character to not have a reasonable introduction in game. In Donkey Kong Country, it was explained in the manual (and the game itself on the GBA version) that Diddy was imprisoned in a DK barrel, and DK had to go out and release him. In Donkey Kong Country 3, Kiddy joins Dixie as soon as she enters Funky's Rentals. However, in Donkey Kong Country 2, Dixie is mentioned in the beginning story of the game, but strangely appears in a DK barrel at the beginning of the game without any explanation as to why.

It was in this game that Dixie Kong's beret was embedded with a pin with the Rareware logo, a symbolistic compliment to Diddy Kong with the "Nintendo" Hat. With Rareware now developing for Microsoft, however, the pin is nowhere to be found.

In , Dixie Kong took on the starring role. The storyline of the game revolved around vacationers Donkey and Diddy Kong going missing in the Northern Kremisphere. With no word from the duo for days, as well as Kremlings suddenly appearing in the area, Dixie decided to investigate their disappearance. Upon arrival, Funky Kong advised her to take her hulking toddler cousin, Kiddy Kong, with her for assistance. As it turns out, DK and Diddy were being used as the brains for KAOS, the giant cyborg that was believed to be the new Kremling ruler. In fact, K. Rool, still alive after the events of Donkey Kong Land 2, was secretly controlling KAOS from behind the scenes and had kidnapped the two Kongs in their sleep to use their cerebral energies to power the robot. Dixie and Kiddy defeated KAOS and K. Rool — now appearing in the new mad scientist persona of Baron K. Roolenstein — and liberated DK and Diddy from their mechanical prison. Dixie was now every bit the hero that Diddy was. She again partnered up with Kiddy in Donkey Kong Land III. When DK and Diddy took off to find the Lost World in a prize-packed contest without asking her to tag along, Dixie decided to try and one-up them by joining with Kiddy once again and beating them to the punch. Unfortunately, the Kremlings were also trying to find it, as was K. Rool himself. Eventually, after a final showdown with K. Rool in the Lost World, Dixie and Kiddy claimed victory in the contest.

Dixie was also a semi-regular on the Donkey Kong Country television cartoon, where she was voiced by Louise Vallance. On the show, Dixie's fur was a lighter shade of brown, and her shirt was blue with a picture of a flower on it, similar to her sister Tiny's outfit. Also, she did not have her kneepads, and as with her more recent appearances in the games, the Rareware logo was not on her hat. Here, she was often losing her pets, such as Crabby the Crab and Thermidore the Lobster. She also seemed to have a crush on Funky Kong sometimes and once brought in K. Rool's general, Klump, after K. Rool had (temporarily) fired him. Notably, Dixie is the only character featured on the animated series to directly come from Donkey Kong Country 2.

Limbo: 1997 - 2004

After Donkey Kong Land III, the Dixie character would go on a seven-year hiatus. Most fans thought she would return in 1999's Donkey Kong 64, but Rare decided early on in development that only characters that appeared in the original Donkey Kong Country would appear. (This rule would be broken later in the game's progress, as Wrinkly Kong was also included.) Instead, Rare created Tiny Kong, the little sister of Dixie. Many fans were outraged at this decision, and Dixie's exclusion would serve as one of the biggest criticisms of the game. Realizing how popular the character actually was, Rare made plans to bring her back in the Game Boy Advance title Diddy Kong Pilot.

In 2001, Dixie's likeness was made into a trophy in the GameCube fighting game Super Smash Bros. Melee, but the character never put in an actual appearance. The Rare logo was removed from her hat. Months later in September 2002, Rare was purchased by Microsoft and all of their Donkey Kong projects were stripped of the characters and elements in favor of characters and environments from other Rare franchises. In the case of Diddy Kong Pilot, Dixie and the others were replaced with Banjo-Kazooie series regulars. Some wondered if Nintendo and the new game developers they would put in charge of making Donkey Kong games would ever use Dixie Kong again.

The GameCube Years: 2004 - Present

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Dixie finally returned in the 2004 Game Boy Advance port of Donkey Kong Country 2, which was still developed by Rare, which still maintained a working relationship with Nintendo to do the remodeled Game Boy Advance versions of the DKC games. The game retold the story of Dixie's first adventure, but it featured several new elements — such as the return of Tiny Kong, who made a surprise cameo in a Funky Kong mini-game.

She was brought back in a full-fledged new game in 2005's Donkey Konga 2 for the Nintendo GameCube, which put her alongside DK and Diddy in a bongo-beating music game. The same year, Dixie appeared in her first Mario game, Mario Superstar Baseball, as a secret character, unlockable by finishing the Challenge Mode as Donkey Kong. She then went on to appear as a playable character in PAON's DK King of Swing for the Game Boy Advance. Dixie also appears in the Japan-only game Donkey Konga 3. Dixie is set to appear in her second Mario game, Mario Hoops 3-on-3. Most recently, she has been set to star in the bongo racing game DK Bongo Blast for the Gamecube and may be featured on the new Diddy Kong Racing title for DS.

 

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