There is a commonly-told story that when DKC was first revealed at a trade show (CES 94), the press and public assumed that it was designed for Nintendo's "new console or new add-on". And then when it was revealed that the game was simply a 16-bit SNES game, it blew minds.

Anyway, here's some great footage from those days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j1f9SVEDw8