K. Rool

King K. Rool in DK: King of Swing.
K. Rool
Species	Kremling
Eye color	Black
Voiced by	Kevin Bayliss (1994-1996) Chris Sutherland (1999-2005) Toshihide Tsuchiya (2007-Present)
Debut	Donkey Kong Country

K. Rool is the evil leader of the Kremlings who has appeared as one of the most prominent villains of the Donkey Kong series. Though he is most often known as King K. Rool, he is known for having several appearances where he changed his look and took on different themed personas, such as Kaptain K. Rool and Baron K. Roolenstein.

Background

Donkey Kong Country

He first appeared as King K. Rool in Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Land. Leading an army of Kremlings from Crocodile Island to the Donkey Kong Island aboard his flagship, the Gangplank Galleon, he sent out his men to steal all the island's bananas. He was beaten by the team of Donkey Kong and Diddy aboard the Gangplank Galleon and was just barely able to escape. Cranky later invited him to steal the bananas again in Donkey Kong Land, since Cranky had made bet that Donkey and Diddy couldn't repeat their previous adventure on the graphically inferior Game Boy. This time K. Rool brought different minions and fought the Kongs in a blimp over the island's Great Ape City, but he lost that round as well.

Returning to Crocodile Island, K. Rool donned a pirate costume, armed himself with a blunderbuss, and called himself Kaptain K. Rool. All his underlings seemed to undergo pirate reformations as he prepared his next scheme. In Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, K. Rool kidnapped Donkey Kong himself off the beach of Donkey Kong Island and held him prisoner on Crocodile Island. He then sent the rest of the Kongs a ransom note demanding the bananas in return for Donkey Kong's life. But Diddy Kong and Dixie decided to take the bananas back themselves. They beat K. Rool in his Flying Krock airship, saved Donkey Kong and tossed the kaptain to the Krem-Sharks. K. Rool was not finished yet. He retreated to the Lost World beneath Crocodile Island, where he fought Diddy and Dixie one last time. The battle ended with K. Rool being tossed into the mysterious glowing light of Krocodile Kore. This caused a reaction that destroyed the entire island. It is unknown how K. Rool escaped, but he lived to menace the kongs again.

In Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble, K. Rool decided to work in the background with his new disguise of Baron K. Roolenstein, which was mad scientist-htemed. He hid within his castle in KAOS Kore, where he created a robot named KAOS to act as the new Kremling leader. After trapping the Banana Bird Queen behind a giant magical slab, he kidnapped Donkey and Diddy, keeping them imprisoned within KAOS's body. However, he overlooked Dixie. Together, Dixie and Kiddy confronted and defeated K. Roolenstein, chasing him to his Knautilus submarine in Krematoa. After being beaten again, Roolenstein tried to flee in the Kongs' Hovercraft, but he was finally stopped when he was trapped in the egg of the Banana Bird Queen.

Soon afterwards, the Northern Kremisphere was tossed into a frenzy to search for the mysterious Lost World (unrelated to Crocodile Island's Lost World), which was said to hold great treasure. K. Roolenstein made his way there in Donkey Kong Land III, leaving a trail of Kremlings and bosses from the previous adventure to prevent anyone from following him. Regardless of his plan, Dixie and Kiddy fought through the Kremlings to confront K. Roolenstein in Tin Can Valley. Once more, Roolenstein fled to the Lost World, and once more he was chased down and defeated. Roolenstein was impressed by efforts of the Kongs and rewarded them with a Time Trial mode.

The Return of the King

K. Rool later returned to his original "king" get-up. In Donkey Kong 64, he planned to completely destroy Donkey Kong Island with his Blast-o-Matic cannon, which was located on his mechanical sea fortress. But when the machine was shut down in a crash, the Kremlings needed to stall the Kongs while the Blast-o-matic was being repaired. So K. Rool had his mean steal the banana horde, included the Golden Banana, and he also apenapped four of Donkey Kong's friends. That still was not enough, as DK undid all his tricks in time to raid the sea fortress with the aid of Snide, a weasel technician whom K. Rool had fired. In revenge, Snide had disabled the Blast-o-Matic long enough for the Kongs to turn it off permanently.

K. Rool tried to escape in his King Kruiser II, but he forgot another loose end: K. Lumsy, a giant Kremling whom he had imprisoned for being good. The freed Lumsy unknowingly swatted the King Kruiser right out of the sky. The Kongs proceeded to enter the crashed Krusier and found K. Rool waiting in a boxing ring. He had put on boxing equipment and fought them under the name of Krusha K. Rool. The Kongs worked together to use their different abilities to take down K. Rool. In the aftermath of the battle, Candy distracted Rool while Funky booted him off the island (literally, with a boot gun).

Post-Rare Appearances

King K. Rool once again tried terrorizing the Kong family in DK: King of Swing. Riding a small hovering vehicle, he stole all of the medals from the island's Jungle Jam competition so that he would be named Jungle Hero instead of Donkey Kong. He accidentally dropped the medals at various locations across the island and retreated to his K. Kruizer III. Donkey Kong encountered K. Rool at the end of the fourth world. K. Rool first raced again Donkey Kong, and then they battled. After K. Rool was beaten, Donkey Kong received the last of the stolen DK coins. He was also an unlockable playable character in the game.

In DK: Jungle Climber. When the peaceful alien Xananab arrived, K. Rool and his kremling managed to steal the Crystal Bananas from the peaceful alien Xananab, which gave them extraordinary power. Donkey Kong and Diddy agreed to help Xananab to retrieve the Crystal Bananas, and the battle began anew. From that point on, K. Rool was pursued through various islands up until they reached the King Kruiser IV, where K. Rool eluded Donkey Kong yet again by jumping into a wormhole to Plantaen, the homeworld of Xananab.

Donkey Kong and his companions eventually caught up with him on that alien world. K. Rool had already sent all his minions against Donkey Kong, so he attacked Donkey Kong in a battle very reminiscent to their battle in King of Swing. When K. Rool was defeated, he used his last remaining Crystal Banana to transform into a gigantic version of himself. In this form, he could breathe fire and used his large hands to seize Donkey Kong in attempts to crush him. However, he was still defeated and following the Kong's victory feast, he was towed back to their original world.

K. Rool has been absent from Donkey Kong Country Returns and its sequel, in favor of pitting Donkey Kong against new enemies instead.

Sports

King K. Rool made a minor appearance in one of the minigames of Donkey Konga, in which he was jumped by a bongo-wielding Donkey Kong while trying to hide in a series of interconnected holes. In Donkey Kong Barrel Blast, he appeared as a playable character who was unlocked by beating him in Candy's Challenge 31, and Cranky Kong was his designated rival.

He made his Mario spots debut in Mario Super Sluggers as an unlockable team player. He was found in the DK Jungle area of the game's Challenge Mode, where he was sleeping behind a waterfall until his Kritter minions were defeated. Their defeat activated switches which stopped the waterfall and revealed K. Rool. This also woke him up and caused him to angrily engage Mario's team in a baseball game. After being defeated, he would be amused by their style and joined the baseball team with his Kritters, but he was quick to assure them that this alliance did not extend beyond baseball games.

Other Appearances

Video Games

• In the Super Smash Bros. series, K. Rool costume was made available for Mii Brawlers starting in in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U (where it was initially DLC), and K. Rool himself later was added as a playable fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He appeared as King K. Rool, but some of his moves used accessories from his disguises such as Kaptain K. Rool's blunderbuss, Baron K. Roolenstein's propeller and Krusha K. Rool's boxing gloves. He is known as the second-heaviest of the fighters, behind Bowser.
  • In Ultimate, he was an unlockable character who could be unlocked through the game's variable-based system of unlocking characters or by awakening him in Adventure Mode (where he is found in part of the Mysterious Dimension). His Classic Mode route, "Super Heavyweight Class", features K. Rool fighting the game's other heaviest characters, with the boss fought at the end of the route being Galleom.
  • Throughout the series, K. Rool has also been represented by a trophy in Super Smash Bros. Melee, a trophy and a sticker (from Donkey Kong 64) in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, a trophy in the 3DS/Wii U game and three Spirits in Ultimate. One Spirit is King K. Rool's Fighter Spirit, which is gained through his completion of Classic Mode, and the other two are Primary Spirits for Kaptain K. Rool and Baron K. Roolenstein. K. Rool's boss theme from Donkey Kong Country is also part of the soundtrack for several of the games.

In Other Media

• King K. Rool appears in the computer-animated Donkey Kong Country series as the main villain in nearly every episode. His main minions are Klump and Krusha. He is shown in a somewhat bumbling manner, and all his schemes revolve around stealing the Crystal Coconut from Donkey Kong, based in a cave on the island. One episode went into his background by revealing him to be a former friend of Cranky Kong.

Canceled Appearances

• He was also set to appear in Diddy Kong Pilot as a playable racer prior to its cancellation. In a screenshot from an early build of the game, he was seen wearing an old-fashioned aviator's uniform, continuing the trend of his wearing different costumes in most of his appearances. However, the last-known build of the game depicted him in his standard king garb instead. In that build, he was the leader of Team Krem, which contained the game's Kremling characters.

Trivia

• K. Rool's name is a simple pun on the word "cruel".
• Gregg Mayles, one of the designers who created K. Rool, has stated that the "K." was never intended to stand for any specific name, and that from an in-universe perspective, K. Rool most likely added it to his name in order to inflate his ego. He also remarked that it could easily stand for "something tonal like 'Kremling', or something deliberately out of character like Keith".
• He went through several changes in early stages of development of Donkey Kong Country. The original proposal for the game featured Wario as the villain, but Nintendo wanted a new villain to be used instead. The first concept of a Kremling villain was a lanky blue one named Korporal Krizzle who stole Donkey Kong's Golden Banana. The villain was later replaced by K. Rool,, but he was initially known simply as Krudd and then was called Kommander K. Rool before the developers settled on King K. Rool.
• He may have been inspired by King Koopa as seen in the Super Mario Bros. Super Show. The two share a physical resemblance, and King Koopa also has a variety of costume changes in the same vein as K. Rool.
• King K. Rool was playable for the first time in the Jungle Jam mode of DK: King of Swing, where he could be unlocked by collecting all of the gold medals.
• K. Roolenstein briefly mentions having a wife in Donkey Kong Country 3, with the implication that she is a housewife. However, it is uncertain if that is supposed to be canon as the line exists as a comedy reference.
• In Jungle Climber, K. Rool claims to not even like bananas.
• In Super Mario Odyssey, he is referenced in the form of a street name in New Donk City called "Krool Street".
• His trophy description in Brawl makes the strange error of calling Kaptain K. Rool the brother of King K. Rool.