Donkey Kong

Donkey Kong in Donkey Kong Country Returns.
Donkey Kong
Species	Kong
Eye color	Black
Base	Donkey Kong Island
Relatives	Cranky Kong (grandfather) Wrinkly Kong (grandmother)
Voiced by	Kevin Bayliss (1994-2001) Isaac Marshall (1996) Takahashi Nagasako (2005-Present)
Debut	Donkey Kong (Classic DK) Donkey Kong Country (Modern DK)

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 the name of two different gorillas who are featured as the main characters of the Donkey Kong series. The original Donkey Kong was featured in several arcade games, first and most prominently as Mario's antagonist of the original Donkey Kong game. In the 1990s, Rareware introduced a new Donkey Kong, referred to as the modern Donkey Kong for the sake of disambiguation, who is descended from the arcade Donkey Kong and has acted as the protagonist of various games starting with the Donkey Kong Country series. This Donkey Kong acts as the protector of Donkey Kong Island and its banana horde. He also has his own recurring sidekick, Diddy Kong, and makes regular guest appearances in the sports and party spin-offs of the Mario games. He has also been featured in the Mario vs. Donkey Kong subseries, several games of which have him taking his turn at a light-hearted antagonistic role.

Background

Early Years

Baby Donkey Kong.

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, which was shown to be a jungle hut. He was also revealed to be one of the star children, a baby born with one of the seven fallen stars.

Baby Donkey Kong has also appeared as an unlockable character in Mario Super Sluggers.

It has never been clarified whether this is the infant version of the classic or modern Donkey Kong.

Classic Donkey Kong

Donkey Kong's glory years

Donkey Kong was firs featured in the arcade game of the same name, where he kidnapped Pauline and brought her o a construction site. Mario pursued him through different levels of the construction site, which would later be established to be part of New Donk City and ultimately defeated him by dropping the girders below him to make him fall on his head. In the 1994 Game Boy remake, this only marked the beginning of the battle, as Donkey Kong quickly recovered and snatched Pauline. He led Mario on a chase across a variety of environments while being aided by his son, Donkey Kong Junior. There was a confrontation every fourth level and a boss fight at the end of each world where Mario had to toss Donkey Kong's barrels or certain enemies back at him. The final battle took place atop a tower, where Donkey Kong became a giant (seemingly with the aid of a Super Mushroom), but Mario was still able to beat him. Donkey Kong returned to normal size and was easily pushed around by Mario, who was empowered by a Super Mushroom. This caused the Kongs to make peace with Mario and Pauline, and the four took a photo together.

The roles were later reversed, and Donkey Kong was held captive in a cage by Mario within a jungle environment in Donkey Kong Junior. Junior was able to save Donkey Kong from Mario this time and dropped Mario in the process. The Donkey Kong of this era made only one more appearance as the villain in Donkey Kong 3, where he wreaked havoc within a greenhouse with an army of insects until he was defeated by Stanley the Bugman.

Afterwards, according the the Donkey Kong Country games, the classic Donkey Kong later grew elderly and became the cantankerous old ape known as Cranky Kong. His successor was his grandson, the modern day Donkey Kong.

Modern Donkey Kong

Donkey Kong's new appearance.

The modern Donkey Kong was featured throughout the Donkey Kong Country series with a more fleshed out character than his classic counterpart. Donkey Kong is shown as an easygoing yet powerful gorilla who enjoys a great deal of music, whether it is on his boombox or playing it on his own bongos. He has a love interest named Candy Kong. His main duty, despite being occasionally lazy towards it, was protected his giant banana horde from his Kremling enemies. His carefree lifestyle made him an easy target for Cranky Kong's criticism.

His own adventures started when his banana horde was threatened by his own 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 NES's fancy graphics. He lured the two young Kongs into betting that they could have a great adventure even on the technically inferior Game Boy, 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 again.

In Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, Donkey Kong 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 several other Kongs as well as retrieving his stolen Golden Bananas and preventing K. Rool from annihilating Donkey Kong Island with his new weapon of mass destruction. In this game, he proved his skill by using a Coconut Gun, Bongos, and more. Working alongside Diddy, Tiny, Chunky and Lanky and with the help of various allies, Donkey Kong able to thwart K. Rool's scheme, reclaim his Golden Bananas and relax once more.

Donkey Kong's next adventure would be Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, where he battled a series of evil apes and other enemies. In DK: King of Swing, he chased K. Rool around the island after the Kremling 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. Next, 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 and Diddy, and together 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.

His banana horde was stolen again in Donkey Kong Country Returns, but this time by the Tiki Tak Tribe. With Diddy by his side, he fought his way across the island once again and through the various Tiki minions. At the factory, he was enraged to find that the stolen bananas were being ground up and used to power more and more Tikis. After he made his way through all the Tiki commanders, Donkey Kong and Diddy reached the tower in the volcano where their boss, Tiki Tong, awaited.

After an arduous battle, Donkey Kong defeated Tiki Tong and was immediately launched into space. Landing on the moon, Donkey Kong proceeded to punch the moon down to Earth so that it would smash Tiki Tong's tower, as well as Tiki Tong's remains. This caused a volcanic eruption that returned the moon to space and scattered the remaining bananas across the island. Donkey Kong started to fall back to the island, but luckily Diddy Kong was there to save him. It is alternately possible for Diddy Kong to be the one to finish off Tiki Tong and bring down the moon, in which case Donkey Kong shows up to catch him.

Mario and Donkey Kong

Donkey Kong capturing Pauline and re-igniting an old rivalry.

As for Mario, he and Donkey Kong were able to build up a friendship over time despite their shaky beginnings, and he often was a part of Mario's gang for the various sporting events. Despite the kinship between the two, Donkey Kong and Mario had another series of bouts which started 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 factory. After a great many battles in the vein of Donkey Kong GB, Donkey Kong ran out of Mini-Mario toys and was defeated. Mario still gave him his very own Mini-Mario toy afterwards.

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.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again! featured an alternate version of the Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2 story. It started the same, with Donkey Kong capturing Pauline and taking her to the top of the tower. However, after the Mini-Marios arrive, Donkey Kong took Pauline away, and the chase continued. When they reached Pauline at the end, it is revealed that the entire kidnapping was faked by Pauline and Donkey Kong in order to test the Mini-Mario toys.

In Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem!, Donkey Kong rushed to Super Mini-Mario World in order to obtain a Mini-Pauline toy, as free ones were given out to the first hundred customers. However, he arrived there too late and was the one hundred and first customer. Out of anger, he kidnapped Pauline again and led the Mini-Mario's on another wild good chase. The final battle involved firing Mini-Marios at Donkey Kong while he clung to a ferris wheel. After being defeated the first time, he ran off with Pauline again and led Mario on the same chase through more difficult versions of the same levels. After beating him again, Mario was able to placate Donkey Kong by giving him one of the Mini-Pauline toys. Donkey Kong proceeded to gleefully ride the ferris wheel while holding his toy.

Afterwards, the peace between Mario and Donkey Kong managed to be last, resulting in Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move. In this game, Donkey Kong did not appear as an antagonist, but he worked with Pauline as a host for the Mini-Land. Donkey Kong returned to being an antagonist and kidnapped Pauline again in Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars, but at the end of the game it turned out that this was staged in order to lure Mario into a surprise party.

Abilities

Donkey Kong in action.

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).

In the Super Smash Bros. series he has the following special moveset:

• Standard Special Move: Giant Punch- A powerful punch that first must be wound up. After the punch is prepared, Donkey Kong can hold it in for several more moments, but will eventually lose the charged power if it is not used soon.
• Side Special Move: Headbutt- Introduced in Melee. With this attack Donkey Kong slams his head down on the opponent, temporarily rooting them in the ground.
• Up Special Move: Spinning Kong- Donkey Kong spins his arms around like a helicopter rotor. This can be used to clear away nearby enemies as well as to help in preventing Donkey Kong from being knocked out of the ring.
• Down Special Move: Hand Slap- With this move Donkey Kong repeatedly slams down on the ground with his hands. Any character within range will be tossed helplessly into the air from the shock of Donkey Kong's assault, leaving them vulnerable to attack.
• Final Smash: Konga Beat- Introduced in Brawl. Inspired by Donkey Konga (although the use of the bongo drums as a weapon may have come from Donkey Kong 64), DK whips out his bongo drums and plays them; the music creates shockwaves that toss back the other players, and the size of the shockwaves can be increased by pressing the buttons in time with the beat. Donkey Kong is invulnerable during this move.

Sports

Donkey Kong was playable in the following Mario sports games:

Donkey Kong shooting hoops.

• 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, Mario Golf: Advance Tour and Mario Golf: World 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, Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart 7, Mario Kart Arcade GP DX, Mario Kart 8 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
• Tennis: Donkey Kong is playable in Mario Tennis 64, Mario Tennis GBC (through the Nintendo 64 game transfer pak), Mario Power Tennis, Mario Tennis: Power Tour, Mario Tennis Open, Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash and Mario Tennis Aces'.
• Baseball: Donkey Kong is a playable captain in Mario Superstar Baseball and Mario Super Sluggers. His team is the DK Wilds.
  • In the Challenge Mode of Mario Super Sluggers, Donkey Kong is the captain of the DK Jungle area. He at first attempts to solve the problems of the jungle area himself and constantly leaves Mario behind but eventually joins the team to help liberate his ballpark from Bowser Jr.. His special abilities outside of baseball games are breaking crates with his slamming attacks and climbing vines. Baby Donkey Kong is found hidden in a tree in the area and will join the baseball team after being discovered.
• Soccer: Donkey Kong is also a playable captain in Super Mario Strikers and in Mario Strikers Charged.
• The Olympics: Donkey Kong is playable in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games and Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, [[Mario & Sonic
• Other Sports: Donkey Kong is playable in Mario Hoops 3-on-3, Mario Sports Mix and Mario Sports Superstars.

In addition to his appearances in Mario spin-offs, there have also been several Donkey Kong spin-offs that he has appeared within. In Donkey Konga, Donkey Konga 2 and Donkey Konga 3, Donkey Kong and Diddy (later joined by Dixie) formed a career in playing bongo drums. He also had his own racing game, Donkey Kong Barrel Blast, in which his rival is a Kritter.

Mario Party

He was also playable in the first four Mario Party games - Mario Party, Mario Party 2, Mario Party 3 and Mario Party 4. Within the Story Mode of Mario Party 3, unless he is the character selected by the player, he will arrive to challenge the player's character to a Duel game for the Strength Star Stamp.

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. In the Story Mode of Mario Party DS, he and Diddy received invitations to Bowser's party with the other characters, but he was turned into stone by Dry Bones until he was restored by Mario and the others in the third board of the Story Mode. He then continued to run off in search of free food and accidentally broke Bowser's minimizer later on, restoring the others to normal size. Afterwards, he and Diddy were seen enjoying the food in the ending.

Donkey Kong continued his non-playable non-playable role in Mario Party 8 and Mario Party 9, and he had his own board in both games. Donkey Kong finally made a return appearance as a playable character in Mario Party 10 and has since been playable in Mario Party: Star Rush and Super Mario Party. He also made another appearance as an NPC in Mario Party: The Top 100.

In addition to the Mario Party games, Donkey Kong has appeared as a playable character in the similarly-themed games Itadaki Street DS and Fortune Street.

Other Appearances

Video Games

• Donkey Kong has been featured as a playable fighter in every game of the Super Smash Bros. series, appearing in Super Smash Bros., Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
  • In Melee, he has three unlockable trophies, while in Brawl, he has two trophies: one normal one and one depicting his Final Smash. He also has five different stickers which show him from Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, Mario Superstar Baseball, Mario Kart DS, Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis and with Pauline from Donkey Kong. In the 3DS/Wii U games, he has one trophy that can be earned in both versions. Beyond that, the 3DS version also has an alternate trophy for Donkey Kong as well as a trophy showcasing him with the Barrel Train from Mario Kart, and the Wii U version has a trophy for Donkey Kong's Final Smash.
  • Donkey Kong's role in Brawl's "The Subspace Emissary" begins when Bowser and his Koopas steal Donkey Kong's banana horde. Donkey Kong and Diddy pursued the Koopas and eventually recovered their bananas. However, at that time Bowser ambushed them with a Dark Cannon. Donkey Kong used a Giant Punch on Diddy to send him flying to safety while he was hit by the cannon's beam and turned into a trophy. The Donkey Kong trophy was then kept on a Smash Skiff that made its way towards the Subspace Bomb Factory. It remained there until Diddy Kong arrived with Captain Falcon and Olimar to save him later on. Donkey Kong was restored and then they all made their way through the Subspace Bomb Factory. When the bomb factory was set to explode, Donkey Kong had to drag the reluctant R.O.B. away, and after a battle with Meta Ridley, they escaped the exploding bomb factory and joined with the main party for the game's final battles against Tabuu.
• Donkey Kong appears in Punch-Out!! as the hidden final opponent, after previously having made a cameo appearance as an audience member in the arcade game).
• In Super Mario Odyssey, the city of New Donk City is named in reference to Donkey Kong and is filled with Donkey Kong-related references. The names of the city's streets and establishments are all references to Donkey Kong Country characters, and there is graffiti of Donkey Kong's original arcade appearance on one city wall. Pauline appears as the mayor, and the city is retroactively established as the setting of the original Donkey Kong game. During the festival celebrating the city's history, Mario can turn 8-bit and go through several areas based on the original arcade game, including an appearance by an 8-bit Donkey Kong.

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, and featured Donkey Kong as the destined protector of the Crystal Coconut. As the show's title 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.

Canceled Appearances

• There were two NES games related to the Arcade Donkey Kong that were canceled. One was Return of Donkey Kong, of which almost no details were available aside from being a sequel to the arcade games that featured Mario (and possibly was the forerunner to Donkey Kong GB). The other was Donkey Kong no Ongaku Asobi (Donkey Kong's Fun with Music) which would work as a follow-up to Donkey Kong Jr. Math, but instead featuring the cast of the original Donkey Kong conducting music in Music Quiz and composition mode. In this game, Donkey Kong played guitars while Donkey Kong Jr. played an actual drumset.
• Donkey Kong had several Gamecube/GBA appearances that were canceled after Rare was bought out by Microsoft in 2001: Donkey Kong Coconut Crackers (which would have featured him in a puzzle environment and was retooled into It's Mr. Pants), Diddy Kong Pilot (where Donkey Kong was confirmed as a playable racer; this would be retooled into Banjo-Pilot) and Donkey Kong Racing (a Gamecube game would have been a racing game using the animal buddies).
• He was intended to appear as a playable character in the original Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games but was cut, although his model has been discovered through hacking. He has since been included in its sequels.

Trivia

• The story behind Donkey Kong's name is that Shigeru Miyamoto wanted a name that meant "stubborn ape". He apparently learned about the word "donkey" from an English dictionary, which can be used to mean "stubborn" while in Japan gorillas are often referred to with the word 'kong' in reference to the film King Kong.
• Donkey Kong's modern design, which adds the red tie, has commonly been attributed to Rareware and has been used as a way to differentiate between the classic and modern Donkey Kongs. The truth is that the red-tied Donkey Kong was designed by Shigeru Miyamoto for Donkey Kong GB, which features the classic Donkey Kong. Thus, the tie is shown to have been worn by both versions of Donkey Kong.
• There have been several references to Donkey Kong within Mario games. For example, in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars there is a chained gorilla enemy known as Chained Kong that bears a striking resemblance to Donkey Kong. There is also a skeleton ape in Mario & Luigi. Both of these instances pay homage to the first level of Donkey Kong by having the Donkey Kong-like character throwing barrels that Mario must jump over. Even Bowser paid homage in Super Mario 3D Land.
• Diddy Kong has also sometimes been referred to as Donkey Kong's nephew, although the instruction manual for Donkey Kong 64 clarifies that Diddy is his "nephew wannabe". Aside from Cranky and Wrinkly, remains uncertain which (if any) of the Kongs are related to Donkey Kong through blood.
• The first Mario vs. Donkey Kong and Super Smash Bros. Melee both presented Donkey Kong as if the modern and classic Donkey Kongs were the same person, seemingly retconning the idea introduced by the then-recently-departed Rare that the classic Donkey Kong had become Cranky Kong and that the modern Donkey Kong was descended from him. However, both of these games' sequels would later enforce the Rare's idea instead: in the second Mario vs. Donkey Kong, the modern Donkey Kong meets Pauline for the first time, while in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Solid Snake's Codec conversation about Donkey Kong refers to this Donkey Kong as being the original's grandson, and Donkey Kong's trophy in this game does not list any of the arcade games. This seems to indicate that Nintendo is retaining Rare's canon, although there have otherwise been no direct mentions of Cranky being the original Donkey Kong in later games.
• Although Donkey Kong is mentioned in Donkey Kong Land III's instruction manual story, he is not seen in the actual game. That makes it the only title out of the Country or Land games in which he does not appear at all.
• Within the first Country and Land series, Donkey Kong is notable for only appearing in a playable role in the first installment of each (and Donkey Kong 64 if that is being counted as an extension of those series), despite being the title character. He is kidnapped or otherwise absent in all of the sequels.