Dixie Kong

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Dixie Kong
Dixie Kong
Game series	Donkey Kong series
First game	Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (1995)
Creator(s)	Rare
Voice actor(s)	Kevin Bayliss (video games), Louise Vallance (TV show)

Dixie Kong is a fictional video game character in the Donkey Kong series. She was created by Rareware to be the second playable character in Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest for the SNES, and is owned by Nintendo. Identifiable by her pink beret and long ponytail, arguably her most famous attribute is the ability to slow her descent and glide farther by whirling her ponytail in a similar fashion to helicopter blades. Her ponytail can also be used to lift various objects, such as barrels, and carry them 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.

[edit] Origins: 1995 - 1997

Dixie Kong made her first appearance in the SNES platform game Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest. 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 generally seen more as Diddy's quest rather than hers, the female Kong proved herself to be just as capable and enthusiastic as her more established partner. At the conclusion of the game, K. Rool was inadvertently blasted into the sacred Kremling energy source, clogging the flow until it built up in a massive explosion. It looked like the Kremlings were finished, but they returned in Donkey Kong Land 2 for the Game Boy, 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 Country games, 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 Donkey Kong had to go out and release him. In Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!, 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 is embedded with a pin containing the Rareware logo on it, a symbolistic complement to Diddy Kong's "Nintendo" hat. When appearing now, Dixie no longer wears this pin, due to Rareware developing for Microsoft.

Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! saw Dixie Kong take 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 trapped in KAOS, a giant robot who DKU believed to be the new Kremling ruler. In fact, K. Rool - now appearing in the new mad scientist persona of Baron K. Roolenstein — was secretly controlling KAOS from behind the scenes. K. Rool had kidnapped the two Kongs in their sleep to use their cerebral energies to power the robot. Dixie and Kiddy defeated both KAOS and K. Rool, successfully liberating Donkey and Diddy and becoming heroes. 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. She was not seen wearing her kneepads, and, as with her more recent video game appearances, 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.

[edit] Limbo: 1997 - 2004

After Donkey Kong Land III, the Dixie character would go on a seven-year hiatus. Most fans expected her to return in 1999's Donkey Kong 64, but Rare decided early on in development that, aside from three brand new controllable characters, only characters featured in the original Donkey Kong Country would appear. ^{[citation needed]} (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. This decision displeased some fans (on the fact that Tiny was a rip off of their own character), and Dixie's exclusion would serve as a large criticism of the game. ^{[citation needed]} 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 made an actual appearance. (Incidentally, Diddy Kong did not appear and did not even have a trophy.) 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 either scrapped, or to be done with the characters and elements in from other Rare franchises. For example, in the case of Diddy Kong Pilot, Dixie and the others were replaced with Banjo-Kazooie series regulars and the game was renamed as Banjo-Pilot.

[edit] The Return: 2004 - Present

Dixie finally returned in the 2004 Game Boy Advance port of Donkey Kong Country 2, developed by Rare, who still maintain a working relationship with Nintendo in the handheld market. The game retold the story of Dixie's first adventure, but it featured several new minor elements, such as a new boss fight, new mini-games, and a surprise cameo by Tiny Kong.

Dixie was brought back in 2005, in the new spin-off game Donkey Konga 2 for the Nintendo GameCube. Donkey Konga 2, sequel to the original Donkey Konga, was a rhythm game using the DK Bongos and featuring Dixie, Donkey, Diddy, and others. The same year, Dixie appeared in her first Mario game, Mario Superstar Baseball, as a secret character. She was a playable member of "Team Donkey Kong", unlockable by finishing the Challenge Mode as DK. She then went on to appear as a playable character in Paon's DK: King of Swing for the Game Boy Advance and the Japan-only sequel to Donkey Konga 2, Donkey Konga 3. Dixie has also appeared in her second Mario game, Mario Hoops 3-on-3 in 2006. She had a special move called "Dixie's Barrel Oop" [1] in the game. She is set to appear as a playable character in the bongo racing game DK Bongo Blast for the Wii.

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