Donkey Kong

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Donkey Kong in DK: Jungle Climber
Donkey Kong
Species	Kong
Hair color	N/A
Eye color	Black
Base	DK Island
Voiced by	Kevin Bayliss (1994-2001) Isaac Marshall (1996) Takahashi Nagasako (2005-2006)
Debut	Donkey Kong

This article is about the character Donkey Kong. For the game, see Donkey Kong (game). For the series, see Portal: Donkey Kong.

Donkey Kong is a large gorilla of a species of Kongs that live on DK Island. He first had his start back in the self titled game, Donkey Kong, as the villain. He later went on to star in his own series of games as the hero in the Donkey Kong Country series.

Background

Early Years

In Yoshi's Island DS, Baby Donkey Kong was among the many babies kidnapped by Kamek. However, he was freed and joined the Yoshis in their trip to save the other babies. Baby Donkey Kong aided the Yoshis with his great strength and vine-climbing abilities. At the end of the game he was returned to his home (a jungle hut). He was also revealed to be one of the star children, a baby born with one of the seven fallen stars.

Arcade/NES Years

Donkey Kong kidnapped the beautiful Pauline and inadvertently drew Mario into the first of his many quests. The details behind it are unknown, but Mario beat the ape after a big chase through a construction site (along with various extra locales in Donkey Kong GB) in Donkey Kong. Donkey Kong became a giant for his final battle with Mario atop a tower, but Mario was still able to defeat him.

Then the tables turned for Donkey Kong Jr. - Mario became the aggressor and locked up Donkey Kong until his son, Donkey Kong Jr., freed him. The gorilla's last 'adventure', Donkey Kong 3, involved him being sprayed with pesticide by the never-to-be-seen-again Stanley the Bugman.

The Cranky Question

Beginning with Donkey Kong Country, a new character is introduced known as Cranky Kong. This kong claims to be the original Donkey Kong (and subsequent Donkey Kong games generally support this), with the implication that the Donkey Kong seen in Donkey Kong Country is a now older Donkey Kong Jr.. However, recent games published by Nintendo and Namco have blurred this conclusion, with the implication that the Donkey Kong in recent games is the same as in all the games. Since this confusion still remains vague and is unlikely to be resolved, the contents of this article focus on the character of just Donkey Kong.

Donkey Kong Country

More about Donkey Kong became apparent in the Donkey Kong Country games. Donkey Kong enjoys a great deal of music, whether it is on his boombox or playing it on his own bongos. His girlfriend is Candy Kong, whom he amazingly has never had to save (though she had 'saved' his game before).

He then had to face his own adventures against his new nemesis, the kremling leader King K. Rool. He began training Diddy to become a new video game hero and initially treated Diddy harshly, but became more friendly towards him over time. In Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Land Donkey Kong and Diddy teamed up to stop K. Rool and save his precious banana horde. After beating him for the first time in Donkey Kong Country, Cranky complained that the game was only popular because of the Super Nintendo's fancy graphics. He lured the two young Kongs into betting that they could have a great adventure even on the technically inferior Gameboy, which caused Cranky to call over K. Rool to steal the banana horde again and set into motion the adventure of Donkey Kong Land. They battled K. Rool in several different areas of the island and ultimately thwarted him.

In Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, Donkey Kong himself was captured by K. Rool when he was lounging on the beach, and he had to be rescued by Diddy and Dixie. After being freed, the first thing he did was uppercut K. Rool to send him flying out off his aircraft, where he plunged to a presumed demise, but he survived. Donkey Kong, Diddy and Dixie watched the destruction of Crocodile Island victoriously from Donkey Kong Island. However, several months later, Donkey Kong and Diddy were both captured by K. Rool, who used them to power his robot, KAOS. Dixie and Kiddy set out to save them in Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble, and ultimately they were both saved. Donkey and Diddy also missed out on the adventure of Donkey Kong Land III when he and Diddy went out looking for the Lost World, but Dixie, Kiddy and K. Rool found it instead.

It was not until Donkey Kong 64 that Donkey Kong was back in action and had to save all the other kongs as well as retrieve his stolen Golden Bananas and prevent K. Rool from annihilating Donkey Kong Island with his new weapon of mass destruction. In this he proved his skill by using a Coconut Gun, Bongos, and more. Working as a team, the five Kongs (along with various allies) were able to thwart K. Rool's scheme and relax once more.

Donkey Kong has been less active recently, but has taken on some adventures - like fighting evil apes in Donkey Kong Jungle Beat. In DK: King of Swing, he also engaged K. Rool in another battle and chased K. Rool around after he stole the medals for the upcoming Jungle Jam Tournament and declared himself the jungle hero. Donkey Kong was ultimately able to defeat King K. Rool yet again and reclaim all of the medals.

He helped out Xananab in DK: Jungle Climber after K. Rool stole the alien's supply of the powerful Crystal Bananas. He teamed up with Cranky Kong and Diddy Kong and they pursued K. Rool all the way to the planet Plantaen where K. Rool used the Crystal Banana to become a giant. Despite his more powerful form, King K. Rool was still defeated.

Mario and Donkey Kong

Donkey Kong appeared to become friendlier with Mario as time went on. He joined Mario's gang in the various sports games. Despite the kinship between the two, Donkey Kong and Mario had another bout in Mario vs. Donkey Kong when Donkey Kong became obsessed with the Mini-Mario toys and decided to steal a bunch of them for himself by attacking the toy factor. After a great many battles, he ran out of Mini-Mario toys and was defeated. But, ever the generous, Mario gave him his very own Mini-Mario toy for himself.

A second tussle ensued in Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis. This time, Donkey Kong attended the grand opening of Super Mini-Mario World and fell in love with Pauline, who was there to cut the ribbon. He attempted to offer her a Mini-Donkey Kong toy, but Pauline instead grabbed a Mini-Mario toy offered by Mario and rubbed it against her face. Furiously jealous, Donkey Kong kidnapped Pauline and took her to the roof of the Super Mini-Mario World. There he showered her with presents and tea. Mario eventually found him with the help of the Mini-Mario toys. Donkey Kong reluctantly surrendered, but his spirits were lifted after Pauline kissed the Mini-Donkey Kong toy. Mario, Pauline and Donkey Kong proceed to conduct an orchestra of the various toys.

Abilities

Donkey Kong is naturally known for his great strength and weight, but as a side effect he is often shown to be slow. His special abilities shown in Donkey Kong 64 are:

• Gorilla Grab- With this move, Donkey Kong can grab and pull several levers.
• Baboon Blast- After learning this move, Donkey Kong can be fired from special Donkey Kong pads to special Barrel Cannon areas.
• Strong Kong- After entering special Donkey Kong barrels, Donkey Kong is made temporarily invincible. This move is sustained by Crystal Coconuts.

Additionally in Donkey Kong 64, his personal weapon is the Coconut Gun, and his musical instrument is the bongo drums (which precedes his Donkey Konga career).

Sports

Donkey Kong was playable in the following Mario sports games:

• Golf: Donkey Kong is playable in Mario Golf 64 (where he is unlocked by collecting thirty stars in Ring Shot Mode), Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour and Mario Golf: Advance Tour. He also appears in Mario Golf GBC.
• Kart Racing: Donkey Kong is playable in Mario Kart 64, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Mario Kart Arcade GP, Mario Kart DS, Mario Kart Arcade GP 2, and Mario Kart Wii.
• Tennis: Donkey Kong is playable in Mario Tennis 64, Mario Tennis GBC (through the Nintendo 64 game transfer pak), Mario Power Tennis and Mario Tennis: Power Tour.
• Baseball: Donkey Kong is a playable captain in Mario Superstar Baseball, and he will be returning in Super Mario Stadium Baseball.
• Soccer: Donkey Kong is also a playable captain in Super Mario Strikers and in Mario Strikers Charged.
• Basketball: Donkey Kong is playable in Mario Hoops 3-on-3.

He was also playable in the first four Mario Party games - Mario Party, Mario Party 2, Mario Party 3 and Mario Party 4. Starting in Mario Party 5, however, Donkey Kong became a nonplayable character who held minigames at his space. He would also punch out Bowser if he ever approached his space. Donkey Kong continued serving this role in Mario Party 6 and Mario Party 7. Donkey Kong returns to this non-playable role in Mario Party 8 but also has his own board.

Donkey Kong has also has his own sporting events and side jobs; in Donkey Konga, Donkey Konga 2 and Donkey Konga 3, Donkey Kong and Diddy (and later Dixie) formed a career in playing bongo drums. He will also be featured in his own racing game, Donkey Kong Barrel Blast.

Other Major Roles

Video Games

• Donkey Kong appears as a playable character in Super Smash Bros., Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. In Melee he has three unlockable trophies.

Other Media

• Donkey Kong's first non-game appearance was in the Donkey Kong segments of the old Saturday Supercade cartoon series. There he was constantly being chased by Mario and Pauline (with Donkey Kong being portrayed as the protagonist this time), and he would often wind up getting into classic cartoon situations and saving Pauline somehow. DK was voiced by legendary comedian Soupy Sales.
• Donkey Kong appeared in the Captain N series, where he resided in Kongo Land and was a loose cannon, attacking both the good guys and the bad guys. He was also portrayed as being gigantic.
• In the 1990's, he starred in his own French Computer Animated show titled "Donkey Kong Country" that was, of all things, a musical. As its name suggested, it was based on Rareware's games and thus included characters such as Diddy, Cranky, Candy and King K. Rool along with original characters. It lasted for two seasons and became surprisingly popular in Japan. He was voiced by Richard Eastwood in this series.

Trivia

• The story behind Donkey Kong's name: Shigeru Miyamoto wanted a name that meant "stubborn ape". He got "donkey" from an English dictionary, and Kongs are what gorillas are often called in Japan.
• DK has made a few quasi-cameos in other Mario games. For example, in SMRPG there is a chained gorilla called Guerilla that bears a striking resemblance. There is also a skeleton ape in Mario & Luigi obviously based on him.
• The relation to Cranky Kong is hard to figure out. Some references point to him as grandfather and others to father.
• Although Donkey Kong is mentioned in Donkey Kong Land III's instruction manual story, he is not seen in the actual game.