We have fond memories of Diddy Kong Racing on Nintendo 64, and were excited about the brief footage released for Donkey Kong Racing some 13 years ago on Nintendo's Gamecube. The trailer showed the Kong family riding around on animals rather than racing in vechiles, but the game never got published and Rare changed owners.
Lead designer Lee Musgrave has revealed what happen in conversation with Nintendo Life.
Musgrave explains that they couldn't continue working on the game once Nintendo was out of the picture and Microsoft took over as owner. Slowly but surely the components of what once was Donkey Kong Racing turn into something entirely different. The player was to take care of his or her animals, the jungle was replaced with savannah and soon the Tamagotchi-esque aspects were more important than the racing. Musgrave described it as "a cute version of Grand Theft Auto set in Africa". This trailer will give you an idea of what Sabreman Stampede was all about.
Eventually Sabreman Stampede also got cancelled, and Musgrave seems to be of the opinion that it perhaps was for the best as the development "went off into the woods a little bit".
Will we ever see another racing game starring the Kong family? Let's hope so. It's long overdue.