Is one of the first two Video Games to have the Newly Introduced E10+ Rating by the ESRB that was created on October 1st 2004 after the complaints about violence and gore in games such as Pikmin 2 (2004) and the video game adaptation of Shark Tale (2004) both of which were rated E (Everyone) the other being The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge (2004) released on November 19th 2004 this game was released on December 16th 2004.
During the E3 Demos of the game, Grant Kirkhope's voice samples from Donkey Kong 64 (1999) were used for Donkey Kong, but in the final game, Takashi Nagasako voiced the character.
One of the bosses in this game, Karate Kong, is voiced by Hironori Miyata, the current voice of Ganondorf from the Legend of Zelda series. Coincidentally, Takashi Nagasako, the voice actor for Donkey Kong in this game and in the current Donkey Kong series, had previously voiced Ganondorf in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.
This is the first Donkey Kong game since Donkey Kong for the Game Boy to not feature Diddy Kong.