List of Donkey Kong 64 pre-release and unused content

This is a list of beta elements for the game Donkey Kong 64.

Early iteration

 * The game was originally announced in the July 1997 issue of Dengeki Nintendo which stated it was named "Ultra Donkey Kong" and that it was developed exclusively for the 64DD add-on . The game was referred to by a number of names during production (including Donkey Kong World, Donkey Kong Universe and the aforementioned Ultra Donkey Kong) although according to Leigh Loveday, all of these names were invented by other parts of the industry.

General

 * The game was originally intended to use up to 4 megabytes, but a bug caused this build to randomly crash. Unable to locate the glitch, Rare decided to increase the cartridge size and bundle the N64 Expansion Pak as a quick fix.
 * Early screenshots of Donkey Kong 64 showed that DK's Tree House originally had a shower stall in it with a poster of Banjo and Kazooie on it. Also, the boss Mad Jack was originally known as "Junk-in-the-Box" and was also drastically different in appearance. Mad Jack/Junk-in-the-Box was also originally a mini-boss fought in the R&D Room in Frantic Factory instead of being a full boss fought at the area's end.
 * The weapons the Kongs wielded in earlier builds looked like real-world weapons instead of the wooded, somewhat cartoonish ones seen in the final version of the game Donkey Kong's Coconut Shooter resembled a double-barreled shotgun while Diddy Kong's Peanut Popguns resembled actual pistols. It's unknown if the weapons were changed for the E-rating or they were merely placeholders.
 * Several enemies were dropped from the game, including a Re-Koil, a vulture, an insect, a robotic fish, and an armadillo.

Not For Resale demo cartridge
A demo cartridge was produced to exhibit the game in retail stores. It contains the second Dogadon fight, the Mine Cart-riding sequence in Jungle Japes and a boss fight with Army Dillo. This demo features a few differences from the final build.

Text and interface

 * Squawks dialogue after completing the Mine cart minigame is different and shorter.

Audio

 * Dogadon has a different sound effect for his spitting attack.
 * The theme played after defeating a boss is different from the final build.
 * Army Dillo has a different voice and several fully acted lines cut from the final version.

Gameplay

 * A counter for a silver Balloon item (which act as an extra life) appears to the left of the life counter. The balloon cannot be collected through the normal course of the demo, but it is present in a debug room left on the cartridge.
 * For the Mine cart minigame, the player has to collect 70 coins rather than 50 as in the final version.
 * Though fought in Jungle Japes, Army Dillo has the same attack patterns as the Crystal Caves rematch in the final build.

Box Art

 * The game's original box art before being released depicted only Donkey Kong in a jungle background before being replaced with a group picture of all five Kongs riding on the minecart in the jungle. However, the cartridge artwork still retains the original prototype box art.

Unused text

 * An unused line of menu text reads "Ice Key", which can be seen in the pause menu via a Gameshark code. The Ice Key is one of the elusive Stop 'N' Swop items from Rareware's earlier title Banjo-Kazooie, which suggests that Donkey Kong 64 was originally intended to be compatible with the feature.