/vr/ - Retro Games

So Funky Kong's entire purpose in DKC1 and 2 is to give you a way to return to the world map and go back to previous stages. Apparently the concept of "pressing the B button to go to the previous menu" did not occur to Rare, despite this being something that already existed in video games at the time. So instead, they created an NPC to be used solely for this purpose.
It's really weird, but on the other hand, it gave us one of the coolest characters in the Donkey Kong series with the greatest theme song ever, so I can't complain too much.