Rare Island Chain

The Rare Island Chain refers to the chain of islands that all feature a general lack of humans as well as intelligent animals with the ability in many cases to talk.

History
First created in Donkey Kong Country, the Rare Island Chain was slowly expanded in subsequent games. It wasn't until Diddy Kong Racing when this concept really came into existence; Diddy Kong Racing showed that Banjo, Conker and Timber all lived in relatively close islands that all feature their own live breathing worlds with talking animals. Each island features one dominant species as well as various others.

Among these islands are Donkey Kong Island, Crocodile Isle, Northern Kremisphere, Isle O' Hags, Willow Woods, Timber's Island, The Fruit Kingdoms of Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, the Sun Sun Islands of DK Jungle Climber, and many more. Just exactly how much this concept is still in place is debatable as Rare no longer creates Donkey Kong games, but it was definitely implied to be in existence at the time of Diddy Kong Racing and there has been nothing since then to discredit this.

How exactly the Mushroom Kingdom fits into the picture is a bit shady. It is implied in various games that the Rare Island Chain is on our own Earth which would make the Mushroom Kingdom in a separate universe, possibly connected by warp pipe, however, their exact relation is unknown.

Locations
The most prominent area of this chain of Island is Donkey Kong Island, the home of the Kongs. It includes all of the small islands that shoot off from it including the Banana Fairy Island, and many others found in mini games or other similar segments. It also includes Crocodile Isle from Donkey Kong Country 2, this island is another prominent one until it was sunk in DKC2 and again for good in Donkey Kong Land 2.

It was later built again in the shape of it's former self in Donkey Kong 64, its fate after this game is unknown, but it is thought to still be up as the primary home for the Kremlings.