It’s Mr. Pants / Donkey Kong Coconut Crackers [GBA - Beta]

The game was originally revealed as Donkey Kong Coconut Crackers. It featured an isometric gameplay grid and Donkey Kong-themed levels and modes. The isometric view was scrapped because it was thought to be too awkward to see where puzzle pieces near the back of the board were. The game itself received the Mr. Pants theme due to Rare being bought out by Microsoft in 2002. (Nintendo holds the rights to Donkey Kong.) It was presented at E3 2001 by Rare, which at the time was a second-party developer for Nintendo, along with other projects for Nintendo platforms that have since been cancelled, such as Donkey Kong Racing and Diddy Kong Pilot, which became Banjo-Pilot).

The ‘Crayon Snake’ that circles around the board in Marathon Mode eating the game pieces was originally called the ‘Pants Snake’. THQ thought that this was a bit too risqué and requested the name change. – [info from Wikipedia]

[Thanks to sba sb3002 for these images!]

Beta Images (DK Coconut):

 

Final Version (It’s Mr Pants):

 

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