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Wikipedia

Donkey Kong

January 01, 1970

This article is about the video game franchise. For the original game, see Donkey Kong (1981 video game). For the character, see Donkey Kong (character). For other uses, see Donkey Kong (disambiguation).

Donkey Kong[a] is a video game series and media franchise created by the Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto for Nintendo. The franchise follows the adventures of Donkey Kong, a large, powerful gorilla. Donkey Kong series include the original arcade game trilogy by Nintendo R&D1; the Donkey Kong Country series by Rare and Retro Studios; and the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series by Nintendo Software Technology. Various studios have developed spin-offs in other genres such as racing and rhythm. The franchise also incorporates animation, printed media, a theme park, and merchandise.

Donkey Kong
Logo since 2010
Created byShigeru Miyamoto
Original workDonkey Kong (1981)
OwnerNintendo
Years1981–present
Films and television
Film(s)The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)
Animated series
Games
Video game(s)Donkey Kong series
Mario vs. Donkey Kong series
Audio
Original music"Aquatic Ambience"
"DK Rap"
Miscellaneous
Theme park attraction(s)Super Nintendo World
Related franchise(s)

Miyamoto designed the original 1981 Donkey Kong to salvage unsold arcade cabinets following the failure of Radar Scope (1980). It was a major success and was followed by the sequels Donkey Kong Jr. (1982) and Donkey Kong 3 (1983). The franchise went on a hiatus as Nintendo shifted its focus to the spin-off Mario franchise. Rare's 1994 reboot, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) game Donkey Kong Country, reestablished Donkey Kong as a major Nintendo franchise. Rare developed Donkey Kong games for the SNES, Game Boy, and Nintendo 64 until they were acquired by Microsoft in 2002; subsequent games have been developed by Nintendo, Retro Studios, Namco and Paon. No major Donkey Kong games have been released since Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze in 2014.

The main Donkey Kong games are platformers in which the player must reach the end of a level. Donkey Kong was initially the antagonist, but became the protagonist starting with Country. The original games featured a small cast of characters, including Donkey Kong, Mario, Pauline, and Donkey Kong Jr. Rare's games expanded the cast with friendly Kongs, such as Diddy, Cranky, Funky and Dixie, and the Kremlings, an army of antagonistic crocodiles led by Donkey Kong's nemesis King K. Rool. Mario, the protagonist of the 1981 game, became Nintendo's mascot and the star of the Mario franchise, and Donkey Kong characters appear in Mario games such as Mario Kart, Mario Party, and Mario Tennis. Donkey Kong has also crossed over with other franchises in games such as Mario & Sonic and Super Smash Bros.

Donkey Kong is one of Nintendo's bestselling franchises, with more than 65 million units sold by 2021. The original game was Nintendo's first major international success and established it as a prominent force in the video game industry. The franchise has pioneered or popularized concepts such as in-game storytelling and pre-rendered graphics, inspired other games (including clones), and influenced popular culture.

History edit

See also: List of Donkey Kong video games

1981–1982: Conception and first game edit

 
Donkey Kong creator Shigeru Miyamoto in 2013

In the late 1970s, the Japanese company Nintendo shifted its focus from producing toys and playing cards to arcade games. This followed the 1973 oil crisis having increased the cost of manufacturing toys and the success of Taito's Space Invaders (1978). In 1980, Nintendo released Radar Scope, a Space Invaders-style shoot 'em up.[1] It was a commercial failure and put the newly established subsidiary Nintendo of America in a financial crisis. Its founder, Minoru Arakawa, asked his father in-law, the Nintendo CEO Hiroshi Yamauchi, to provide a new game that could salvage the unsold Radar Scope cabinets.[2] Most of Nintendo's top developers were preoccupied, so the task went to Shigeru Miyamoto, a first-time game designer.[3][4]

Supervised by Gunpei Yokoi,[3] Miyamoto settled on a love triangle with the characters Bluto, Popeye, and Olive Oyl from the Popeye franchise, but Nintendo was unable to obtain the license.[4] Bluto evolved into a gorilla, an animal Miyamoto said was "nothing too evil or repulsive".[5] He named the character Donkey Kong—donkey to convey stubborn and kong to imply gorilla.[6] Popeye became Mario, the new protagonist, while Olive Oyl became Pauline, the damsel in distress.[4] Miyamoto named "Beauty and the Beast" and the 1933 film King Kong as influences.[5] As he lacked programming expertise, he consulted technicians on whether his concepts were possible.[7] Four programmers from Ikegami Tsushinki spent three months turning Miyamoto's concept into a finished game.[8]

Donkey Kong was one of the earliest platform games,[b] following Mario as he ascends a construction site to rescue Pauline from Donkey Kong.[10] It was released in July 1981 and became Nintendo's first major international success. The windfall of $280 million rescued Nintendo of America from its financial crisis and established it as a prominent brand in America.[11][12] Donkey Kong achieved further success in 1982, when Nintendo released a Game & Watch version and licensed it to Coleco for ports to home consoles.[13][14] It grossed $4.4 billion across various formats, making it one of the highest-grossing games of all time.[15] In 1982, Universal City Studios filed a lawsuit alleging Donkey Kong violated its trademark of King Kong. The lawsuit failed when Nintendo's lawyer, Howard Lincoln, discovered that Universal had won a lawsuit years prior by declaring that King Kong was actually in the public domain. The victory cemented Nintendo as a major force in the video game industry.[16][17]

1982–1994: Sequels and first hiatus edit

Miyamoto and his team used game mechanics and levels that could not be included in Donkey Kong as the basis for a sequel. Miyamoto wanted to make Donkey Kong the protagonist, but the sprite was too big to easily maneuver, so he created a new character, Donkey Kong Jr. The team still wanted Donkey Kong on top of the screen, so they conceived a plot in which Mario had caged him and Donkey Kong Jr. had to save him.[18] To develop Donkey Kong Jr. (1982), Nintendo reverse-engineered Ikegami's Donkey Kong code, making it the first game that Nintendo developed without outside help. Following Donkey Kong Jr.'s release, Ikegami sued Nintendo for copyright infringement. In 1990, the Tokyo High Court ruled in favor of Ikegami, and the companies reached a settlement.[8]

Donkey Kong 3, released in 1983, features shooter gameplay that departs from its predecessors. Instead of Mario, the player controls Stanley, an exterminator from the Game & Watch game Green House (1982) who must fend off Donkey Kong and a swarm of bees.[19] Donkey Kong 3 was unsuccessful,[20] as was an edutainment game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Donkey Kong Jr. Math (1983).[21] Sega obtained the license to develop a Donkey Kong game, but the game—which featured a playable Donkey Kong as a parking attendant—was canceled after Sega's David Rosen and Hayao Nakayama arranged a management buyout from Gulf and Western Industries in 1984.[22][23]

The franchise went on an extended hiatus,[20] while the spin-off Mario franchise found success on the NES, cementing Mario as Nintendo's mascot.[4] Donkey Kong's appearances in the years following Donkey Kong 3 were limited to cameos in unrelated games.[24] The 1987 Official Nintendo Player's Guide advertised a Donkey Kong revival for the NES, Return of Donkey Kong, which was never released.[20] In 1994, the first original Donkey Kong game in more than 10 years, Donkey Kong (often referred to as Donkey Kong '94), was released for the Game Boy. It begins as a remake of the 1981 game before introducing over 100 puzzle-platforming levels that incorporate elements from Donkey Kong Jr. and Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988).[25][26]

1994–1996: Rare and Donkey Kong Country edit

 
 
Rare founders Tim and Chris Stamper (left) directed the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (right) game Donkey Kong Country (1994), which reestablished Donkey Kong as a major franchise.

Around 1992, Rare, a British developer founded by the brothers Tim and Chris Stamper, purchased Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI) Challenge workstations with Alias rendering software to render 3D models.[27][28] At the time, Nintendo was embroiled in a console war with Sega, whose Genesis competed with the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES).[29] Nintendo wanted a game to compete with Sega's Aladdin (1993), which featured graphics by Disney animators,[30][31] when Lincoln learned of Rare's SGI experiments during a trip to Europe.[32] After impressing Nintendo with a demonstration,[29] Tim Stamper—inspired by Mortal Kombat's use of digitized footage in place of hand-drawn art—suggested developing a platform game that used pre-rendered 3D graphics.[28][33]

Nintendo granted the Stampers permission to use the Donkey Kong intellectual property;[33] some sources indicate that the Stampers obtained the license after Nintendo offered them its catalog of characters and they chose Donkey Kong,[27][29] though the designer Gregg Mayles recalled that it was Nintendo that requested a Donkey Kong game.[30] Nintendo figured licensing Donkey Kong posed minimal risk due to the franchise's dormancy.[33] Rare's reboot, Donkey Kong Country, featured side-scrolling gameplay that Mayles based on the Super Mario series.[30] It was the first Donkey Kong game neither directed nor produced by Miyamoto,[34] though he provided support and contributed design ideas.[30]

Donkey Kong Country was one of the first games for a mainstream home video game console to use pre-rendered graphics,[29] achieved through a compression technique that allowed Rare to convert 3D models into SNES sprites with little loss of detail.[30] Because Donkey Kong did not have much of an established universe, Rare was free to expand it, introducing Donkey Kong's sidekick Diddy Kong (who replaced Donkey Kong Jr.) and the antagonistic Kremlings.[30][35] After 18 months of development,[29] Donkey Kong Country was released in November 1994 to acclaim, with critics hailing its visuals as groundbreaking.[36][37][38][39] It was a major success,[32] selling 9.3 million copies and becoming the third-bestselling SNES game.[31][40] It reestablished Donkey Kong as a major Nintendo franchise and heralded Donkey Kong's transition from villain to hero.[41] Following the success, Nintendo purchased a large minority stake in Rare.[32]

Rare began developing concepts for a Donkey Kong Country sequel during production,[42] and Nintendo green-lit the project immediately after the success.[41] Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, released in 1995, features Diddy rescuing a kidnapped Donkey Kong and introduces Diddy's girlfriend Dixie Kong. Diddy's Kong Quest was designed to be less linear and more challenging,[43][44] with a theme reflecting Gregg Mayles' fascination with pirates.[44] Like its predecessor, Diddy's Kong Quest was a major critical and commercial success, and is the sixth-bestselling SNES game.[45] Following Diddy's Kong Quest, the Donkey Kong Country team split in two, with one half working on Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! (1996).[46] Featuring Dixie and a new character, Kiddy Kong, as protagonists, the Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! team sought to incorporate 3D-esque gameplay and Zelda-inspired role-playing elements. Although it was released late in the SNES's lifespan and after the launch of the Nintendo 64, Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! sold well.[47]

1995–2002: Franchise expansion edit

Separate Rare teams developed the Game Boy games Donkey Kong Land (1995), Donkey Kong Land 2 (1996), and Donkey Kong Land III (1997), which condensed the Country series' gameplay for the handheld game console.[31] Rare's Game Boy programmer, Paul Machacek, chose to develop Land as an original game rather than as a port of Country after convincing Tim Stamper it would be a better use of resources.[48] A port of Country was eventually released for the Game Boy Color in 2000.[49] Rare also developed a tech demo for a Virtual Boy Donkey Kong game, but it never progressed due to the system's commercial failure.[31]

 
 
Rare developed further Donkey Kong games for the Game Boy (left) and Nintendo 64 (right) throughout the late 1990s.

The first Donkey Kong game for the Nintendo 64, Diddy Kong Racing, was released as Nintendo's major 1997 Christmas shopping season product.[50] Rare originally developed it as a sequel to its NES game R.C. Pro-Am (1988), but added Diddy Kong to increase its marketability.[51] Diddy Kong Racing received favorable reviews and sold 4.5 million copies.[51][52] Two of Diddy Kong Racing's playable characters, Banjo the Bear and Conker the Squirrel, would go on to star in the Banjo-Kazooie and Conker franchises.[53]

Rare began working on Donkey Kong 64, the first Donkey Kong game to feature 3D gameplay, in 1997.[54] They conceived it as a linear game similar to the Country series, but switched to a more open-ended design using the game engine from their 1998 game Banjo-Kazooie after 18 months.[31][55] Donkey Kong 64 was released in November 1999, accompanied by a US$22 million marketing campaign.[56] It was Nintendo's bestselling game during the 1999 Christmas season and received positive reviews,[57][58] though critics felt it did not match the revolutionary impact of Donkey Kong Country.[59][60][61]

At E3 2001, Nintendo and Rare announced three Donkey Kong projects: the GameCube game Donkey Kong Racing and the Game Boy Advance (GBA) games Donkey Kong Coconut Crackers and Diddy Kong Pilot.[62][63][64] However, development costs were increasing and Nintendo opted not to acquire Rare.[65] In September 2002, Microsoft acquired Rare for $375 million,[66] making Rare a first-party developer for Xbox.[27] Nintendo retained the rights to Donkey Kong under the terms of the acquisition.[67] Donkey Kong Racing was canceled,[62] and Rare reworked Donkey Kong Coconut Crackers and Diddy Kong Pilot into It's Mr. Pants (2004) and Banjo-Pilot (2005).[68][69]

2002–2010: After Rare edit

 
The Donkey Kong games released for the GameCube were designed to use the DK Bongos peripheral.

After Microsoft acquired Rare, Nintendo relegated Donkey Kong to spin-offs and guest appearances in other franchises, such as Mario Kart, Mario Party, and Super Smash Bros.[70][71] In 2003, Nintendo and Namco released Donkey Konga (2003), a spin-off rhythm game. It was designed for the DK Bongos, a GameCube peripheral that resembles bongo drums.[72] Nintendo of America executive Reggie Fils-Aimé opposed releasing Donkey Konga, concerned it would damage the Donkey Kong brand, but it sold well and received positive reviews.[73][74] It was followed by Donkey Konga 2 (2004) and the Japan exclusive Donkey Konga 3 (2005).[71]

Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, the first main Donkey Kong game since Donkey Kong 64,[71] was released for the GameCube in 2004.[75] It returned to the Donkey Kong Country style of platforming, controlled using the DK Bongos.[76] It was directed by Yoshiaki Koizumi as the debut project of Nintendo EAD Tokyo.[77][78] Koizumi sought to create an accessible game with a simple control scheme to contrast with more complex contemporary games.[78] It received positive reviews, but was a commercial disappointment.[71] A Wii version, featuring revised Wii Remote and Nunchuk controls, was released in 2008 as part of the New Play Control! line.[79] A racing game that used the DK Bongos, Donkey Kong Barrel Blast, was developed by Paon for the GameCube, but was moved to the Wii with support for the peripheral dropped.[80] It was released in 2007 to negative reviews,[81] with criticism for its controls.[82][83]

Despite the acquisition, Rare continued to develop games for Nintendo's handheld consoles since Microsoft did not have a competing handheld.[27] It developed ports of the Country games for the GBA and Diddy Kong Racing for the Nintendo DS with additional content, released between 2003 and 2007.[84][85][86][87] Meanwhile, Paon also developed DK: King of Swing (2005) for the GBA and DK: Jungle Climber (2007) for the DS, which blend Country elements with gameplay inspired by Clu Clu Land (1984).[88] Mario vs. Donkey Kong, a spin-off series that acts as a spiritual successor to the Game Boy Donkey Kong, was developed by Nintendo Software Technology. It began with a 2004 GBA game and continued with several sequels.[89] In contrast to other post-Country games, Mario vs. Donkey Kong restored Donkey Kong's villainous role.[90]

2010–present: Retro Studios and second hiatus edit

In 2008, Miyamoto expressed interest in a Donkey Kong Country revival. Producer Kensuke Tanabe suggested that Retro Studios, which had developed the Metroid Prime series, would be suitable.[91] With Donkey Kong Country Returns, Retro sought to retain classic Country elements while refining them to create a new experience and introducing new game mechanics such as surface-clinging and simultaneous multiplayer.[92][93] Returns, the first original Country game since Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!, was released for the Wii in 2010.[41] It sold 4.21 million copies in under a month and received positive reviews,[94][95] with critics considering it a return to form for the franchise.[96][97][98] Monster Games developed a Nintendo 3DS version in 2013.[99]

Retro developed a sequel, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, for the Wii U. The Wii U's greater processing power allowed for visual elements that the team had been unable to accomplish on the Wii, such as lighting and translucency effects and dynamic camera movement.[100][101] Tropical Freeze was released in 2014 to favorable reviews,[102] but it sold poorly in comparison to Returns.[103] It achieved greater success when it was ported to the Nintendo Switch in 2018, outselling the Wii U version within a week of release.[104] Following Tropical Freeze, the Donkey Kong franchise went on another hiatus,[105] outside of the Mario vs. Donkey Kong games Tipping Stars (2015) and Mini Mario & Friends: Amiibo Challenge (2016) for the Wii U and 3DS.[106][107]

Nintendo Life reported in 2021 that Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development was working on a Switch Donkey Kong game.[105] Nintendo released a remake of the first Mario vs. Donkey Kong with new levels and cooperative gameplay for the Switch in February 2024.[108]

Story and characters edit

Main article: List of Donkey Kong characters
See also: Characters of the Mario franchise
 
Artwork for Donkey Kong (1994) and Donkey Kong 64 (1999), depicting the casts created by Nintendo and Rare

The original Donkey Kong features three characters: Donkey Kong, a large, antagonistic gorilla; Mario, the overall-wearing protagonist; and Pauline, Mario's girlfriend. Donkey Kong follows Mario as he ascends a construction site to rescue Pauline from Donkey Kong, his escaped pet ape.[10] In the sequel, Donkey Kong Jr., Mario imprisons Donkey Kong in a cage. The game introduces Donkey Kong's son, the diaper-wearing Donkey Kong Jr.[109][110] Mario, Pauline, Donkey Kong, and Jr. return in the 1994 Game Boy Donkey Kong,[111] in which Mario again must rescue Pauline from the Kongs.[26] The Game Boy game was the first Donkey Kong game to depict Donkey Kong wearing a red necktie bearing his initials, "DK".[112]

Beginning with Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong's role shifted from the antagonist to the protagonist.[41] Rare's Kevin Bayliss redesigned him;[113] alongside the red tie from the Game Boy game, he was given what GamesRadar+ described as "menacing, sunken eyes and [a] beak-like muzzle",[112] and Bayliss designed him as blocky and muscular to make animating him easier.[113] Rare's games characterize him as the descendant of the Donkey Kong character from the arcade games, who appears as the elderly Cranky Kong.[114] Cranky Kong provides scathing, fourth wall-breaking humor in which he unfavorably compares current games to older ones like the original Donkey Kong.[115][116] Donkey Kong Jr. was retired, and Nintendo's stance on whether Rare's Donkey Kong is a grown-up Donkey Kong Jr. or a separate character has been inconsistent.[114]

Rare's games moved the franchise's primary setting from a city to Donkey Kong Island,[117] an idyllic isle.[59] Because Donkey Kong did not have much of an established universe, Rare was free to expand it with new characters.[30] Donkey Kong Country introduced Diddy Kong, Donkey Kong's sidekick and nephew. Diddy's design was based on a spider monkey; he was created as a redesign of Donkey Kong Jr. but retooled into a separate character at Nintendo's request.[30] Other supporting Kong characters that Rare introduced include Funky Kong, a surfer; Candy Kong, Donkey Kong's girlfriend; Dixie Kong, Diddy's girlfriend; Kiddy, a large toddler; Tiny Kong, Dixie's sister; and Lanky Kong.[118]

The franchise's main antagonist is King K. Rool, an anthropomorphic reptilian introduced in Donkey Kong Country.[119] K. Rool leads the Kremlings, an army of crocodiles who seek to steal Donkey Kong's hoard of bananas.[49] Polygon summarized K. Rool as an archetypal game villain who "often wears disguises and invents strange gadgets for his elaborately evil schemes",[120] such as dressing as a pirate captain in Donkey Kong Country 2.[121] Other villains include the Tiki Tak Tribe, a race of floating masks that play music to hypnotize animals into stealing the banana hoard,[122][123] and the Snowmads, Viking invaders who summon a dragon to take over Donkey Kong Island.[101]

Mario, the protagonist of the 1981 game, went on to headline the Mario franchise. Although the franchises largely remain separate, they take place in the same fictional universe, and Donkey Kong and other Donkey Kong characters frequently appear as playable characters in Mario spin-offs such as Mario Kart, Mario Party, and Mario Tennis.[124][125][126] Two Rare characters, Banjo the Bear and Conker the Squirrel, were introduced in Diddy Kong Racing ahead of starring in their own games,[53] Banjo-Kazooie and Conker's Bad Fur Day (2001).[53][127]

Gameplay edit

Original series edit

Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. are early examples of the platform game genre. In both games, the player must guide the playable character (Mario in the first game, Donkey Kong Jr. in the second) to scale four levels while avoiding obstacles. The player jumps to dodge incoming obstacles (such as barrels) or cross gaps and climbs ladders or vines to reach the top of the level.[128][109] In the first game, Mario can destroy obstacles by obtaining a hammer power-up,[129] while in the second, Donkey Kong Jr. can do so by knocking pieces of fruit down from vines.[109] Points are awarded for dodging or destroying obstacles, collecting items, and completing stages quickly.[129] The player begins each game with three lives,[109] which they lose if they touch an obstacle or fall from a distance.[129]

Donkey Kong 3 departs from this gameplay: it is a shooter game in which the player controls Stanley, an exterminator who must prevent Donkey Kong from stirring up insects in his greenhouse. The player fires bug spray at Donkey Kong and enemy insects that attempt to steal Stanley's flowers. They complete levels by spraying Donkey Kong enough to force him to the top of the screen or by killing all the insects.[130]

The 1994 Game Boy game begins with the four stages from the original Donkey Kong, but after completing the fourth, the player is presented with over 100 additional stages that introduce puzzle-platform gameplay in which Mario must scout each level within a time limit to locate a key.[131] Mario can pick up and throw objects and enemies, similar to Super Mario Bros. 2, and perform acrobatics to reach otherwise inaccessible areas of the levels.[25] This gameplay would serve as the basis for Mario vs. Donkey Kong,[131] which introduces stages in which Mario must guide six Mini-Mario toys to a toy box while protecting them from hazards.[132] Mario vs. Donkey Kong's sequels make guiding the Mini-Mario toys the focus, with each stage requiring the player to do so with touchscreen controls.[133] This gameplay has been frequently compared to the strategy video game Lemmings (1991).[134]

Donkey Kong Country edit

 
The Donkey Kong Country logo used until 2005

The Donkey Kong Country series features platforming gameplay in which players complete side-scrolling levels to progress, reminiscent of Nintendo's Super Mario series.[30] The player begins in a world map that tracks their progress and provides access to the themed worlds and their levels. They traverse the environment, jump between platforms, and avoid enemy and inanimate obstacles.[135] Each world ends with a boss fight with a large enemy.[136] The Country series is known for its high difficulty level and emphasis on momentum, requiring players to react to oncoming obstacles quickly to maintain flow.[137][138][139]

Players control one of the various playable Kongs, depending on the game: Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Dixie Kong, Kiddy Kong, Cranky Kong, and Funky Kong.[49][140][141] The Rare games each feature two protagonists, with one protagonist carrying over to the sequel while another is introduced,[41] while both Retro Studios games star Donkey Kong. Players primarily control one Kong, with the second increasing their health.[141] In the Rare games, the player can switch between characters if they are both on the screen. In the Retro Studios games, other characters ride on Donkey Kong's back to provide special abilities; for instance, Diddy's jetpack allows him to temporarily hover.[141]

Country's distinctive game mechanics include blasting out of cannons resembling barrels, vehicle sequences with minecarts and barrel-themed rockets,[141] levels in which the characters and foreground environments appear as silhouettes, and swinging ropes. Barrels return from the original series and can be used as weapons or broken to uncover power-ups. One variant, DK Barrels, releases a partner Kong when thrown. Each level contains collectibles such as bananas, letters that spell out K–O–N–G, balloons, and puzzle pieces. These items can be found within the main level or by discovering hidden bonus stages, where they are earned via completing a challenge.

In certain levels, the player can free an animal that provides the Kongs with special abilities, similar to the Super Mario series' Yoshi.[142] Recurring animal friends include Rambi, a rhino that can charge into enemies and find hidden entrances; Enguarde, a swordfish that can defeat enemies underwater; and Squawks, a parrot who carries the Kongs or assists in finding collectibles.[49][143] Outside the main gameplay, the Rare games' world map contains areas where players can converse with non-player characters, such as Cranky, who provide advice, collectibles, and save points.[144] The Retro Studios games replace these with shops run by Cranky in Returns and Funky in Tropical Freeze where the player can purchase items like power-ups and lives.

Other games edit

Some games without the Country branding contain similar gameplay. The Donkey Kong Land trilogy condenses the SNES Country gameplay for the Game Boy, with different level design that accounts for the system's low-quality display.[145][146] Donkey Kong 64 blends Country elements with "collect-a-thon" gameplay reminiscent of Super Mario 64 (1996) and Banjo-Kazooie (1998),[59][147] while Jungle Beat's score attack emphasis challenges players to complete levels with as many points as possible.[148] DK: King of Swing and DK: Jungle Climber are aesthetically similar to the Country games, but require players to use the shoulder buttons to grab and climb pegboards to reach the end of a level.[149]

Diddy Kong Racing and Donkey Kong Barrel Blast are kart racing games that play similarly to the Mario Kart series, though Diddy Kong Racing features an adventure mode with boss fights and Barrel Blast has the player shake the Wii Remote and Nunchuk alternatively to accelerate.[53][150] The Donkey Konga trilogy was developed by the Taiko no Tatsujin developers and features the same gameplay:[151][152] the player must hit scrolling notes to the beat of the music with accurate timing, with stylized notes corresponding to different buttons. Players build combos by hitting two or more notes; the combo ends when they miss a beat.[153]

Music edit

See also: Aquatic Ambience and DK Rap

The music for Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. was composed by Yukio Kaneoka, one of Nintendo's earliest audio engineers. Kaneoka wanted to take players on an adventure with a "pretty melody", which he compared to those in Walt Disney Productions films. He faced resistance from the designers, who wanted comical music to reflect the games' tone.[154] Hirokazu Tanaka, a sound engineer who later garnered recognition for his work on Nintendo's Metroid and Pokémon franchises, also contributed.[155]

The Donkey Kong Country series features atmospheric music that mixes natural environmental sounds with melodic and percussive accompaniments.[156] It was primarily composed by David Wise, who worked at Rare from 1985 to 2009.[157][158] After Wise moved with a portion of the Diddy's Kong Quest team to work on Project Dream, Eveline Novakovic—who composed a portion of the first Country—handled the majority of Dixie Kong's Double Trouble.[46] Wise composed a replacement soundtrack for the 2005 GBA port of Dixie Kong's Double Trouble after Rare had problems converting Novakovic's score.[159] Wise drew inspiration from Koji Kondo's Super Mario and Legend of Zelda music, Tim and Geoff Follin's Plok! (1993) soundtrack, and 1980s synthesizer-heavy rock music, dance music and film soundtracks.[157] He aimed to imitate the sound of the Korg Wavestation synthesizer.[156] Novakovic attempted to give levels a sense of purpose and drew inspiration from film composers such as Alan Silvestri and Klaus Doldinger.[46]

Graeme Norgate and Grant Kirkhope adapted Wise's Country soundtracks for the first two Donkey Kong Land games,[160][161] while Novakovic adapted the Dixie Kong's Double Trouble soundtrack for Donkey Kong Land III.[46] Novakovic was set to compose music for Donkey Kong 64,[162] but shifted to working on sound effects.[46] She was replaced by Kirkhope,[162] who composed alongside the Banjo-Kazooie games and Perfect Dark (2000).[147] Nintendo Life described Kirkhope's Donkey Kong 64 score as closer in spirit to his work on Banjo-Kazooie than Wise's Country music.[163] Donkey Kong 64's introduction features the "DK Rap", a comedy rap song which introduces the Kong characters. It was written by Donkey Kong 64's director, George Andreas, scored and recorded by Kirkhope, and performed by Andreas and Chris Sutherland, with other Rare staff joining on the chorus.[164]

Wise was unavailable during the development of Donkey Kong Country Returns, so Kenji Yamamoto took over.[41] At the request of Miyamoto and Iwata, the Returns soundtrack mostly comprises rearrangements of tracks from the original Donkey Kong Country,[138] plus some new material by Yamamoto. He focused on what Tanabe felt made Donkey Kong Country's music iconic, such as piano arrangements and the bassline.[92] Wise left Rare during Returns' development and collaborated with Yamamoto on the Tropical Freeze soundtrack. Technological advances allowed Wise to achieve a "1940s big band jazz" sound that he had been unable to produce on the SNES.[158] Beyond the Country series, Wise composed the Diddy Kong Racing soundtrack.[165] Other composers who have contributed to Donkey Kong games include Mahito Yokota, who composed for Jungle Beat,[166] and Lawrence Schwedler, who composed for Mario vs. Donkey Kong.[167]

Other media edit

Crossovers edit

Donkey Kong is represented in every game in Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. series of crossover fighting games. Donkey Kong debuted in the original Super Smash Bros. (1999) as the only heavyweight fighter, with slow but powerful attacks.[168] Diddy Kong was added as a playable fighter in Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008),[169] while King K. Rool was added in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018).[120] Smash games also feature Donkey Kong stages and music.[170][171]

Donkey Kong appears in Mario & Sonic, an Olympic Games-themed crossover between Mario and Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, as a playable character;[172] in the Wii version of Punch-Out!! (2009) as the final boss;[173] and in Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (2017), a crossover between Mario and Ubisoft's Raving Rabbids franchise, as the protagonist of an expansion pack.[174] Activision's toys-to-life game Skylanders: SuperChargers (2015) includes Donkey Kong as a playable character in the versions released on Nintendo platforms.[175]

Animated series edit

Further information: Saturday Supercade, Captain N: The Game Master, and Donkey Kong Country (TV series)

A Donkey Kong cartoon aired as part of CBS's hour-long Saturday Supercade programming block in 1983. The cartoon follows Mario and Pauline as they attempt to capture Donkey Kong after he escapes from a circus. Game Informer described the series as "abysmal... filled with bad puns and ridiculous situations".[176] Soupy Sales voiced Donkey Kong,[177] while Peter Cullen and Frank Welker (who later garnered recognition for voicing Optimus Prime and Megatron in the Transformers franchise) voiced Mario and Donkey Kong Jr.[176][178] Donkey Kong was also a recurring character in Captain N: The Game Master, a DIC Entertainment series that ran on NBC for 34 episodes between 1989 and 1991.[179][180]

Donkey Kong Country, a television series produced by the French-Canadian company Medialab Technology, ran for 40 episodes between 1997 and 1999, bridging the gap between Dixie Kong's Double Trouble and Donkey Kong 64.[181][182] Reflecting the games' pre-rendered 3D graphics, Donkey Kong Country was produced using computer animation,[182] accomplished with motion capture technology.[183] The series adopts a sitcom approach and follows Donkey Kong as he attempts to protect a magical artifact, the Crystal Coconut, from King K. Rool.[182][184] Donkey Kong Country was produced with little input from Nintendo, and was the final Western series that Nintendo licensed before it shifted to producing and importing anime.[181] The series was popular in France and Japan, though less so in the United States.[182] Retrospectively, Hardcore Gaming 101 criticized the series for lacking the adventure of the Country games,[182] while GameSpot called its aged animation "nightmare fuel" and "visually disturbing".[184]

Printed media edit

The first issue of Blip, a short-lived American comic book published by Marvel Comics in 1983, features a story in which a foolish news reporter attempts to interview Mario during the events of the original Donkey Kong. The story characterizes Donkey Kong as the result of a failed experiment to breed construction-worker gorillas.[185] Blip marked Mario's first appearance in a comic book, years before Valiant Comics' Nintendo Comics System series in the 1990s.[186] The British comics publisher Fleetway Publications published a promotional Donkey Kong Country comic in the UK in 1995,[187] while Michael Teitelbaum wrote children's book adaptations of Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong Land and Donkey Kong Country 2.[188]

Film edit

Main article: The Super Mario Bros. Movie
 
Seth Rogen voices Donkey Kong in The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023).

Elements from the Donkey Kong franchise feature prominently in The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023),[189] an animated film produced by Nintendo, Illumination, and Universal Pictures.[190] Mario (Chris Pratt) and Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) seek the Kongs' help to stop Bowser (Jack Black) from invading the Mushroom Kingdom. Seth Rogen and Fred Armisen voice Donkey Kong and Cranky Kong, while other Kongs make cameo appearances and the "DK Rap" plays during Donkey Kong's introduction.[191] Donkey Kong was redesigned for the first time since Donkey Kong Country, combining elements of Rare's design and his original arcade-era design.[192][193] The Super Mario Bros. Movie received mixed reviews,[194] and Rogen received criticism for voicing Donkey Kong in his regular speaking voice.[195] The film earned over $1 billion, making it the highest-grossing film based on a video game.[190]

In November 2021, prior to The Super Mario Bros. Movie's release, reports emerged that Illumination was developing a Donkey Kong film with Rogen set to reprise his role.[196] In April 2023, Rogen said he saw "a lot of opportunity" in the prospect.[197] Eurogamer wrote that Diddy and Dixie's brief cameo in The Super Mario Bros. Movie was obvious setup for a Donkey Kong film.[189]

Theme park edit

Main article: Super Nintendo World

In September 2021, Nintendo and Universal Destinations & Experiences announced a Donkey Kong-themed expansion of the Super Nintendo World themed area at Universal Studios Japan. The area, Donkey Kong Country, is set to open in 2024 and will expand the size of Super Nintendo World by 70%. It was designed with consultation from Miyamoto and will include a roller coaster, Donkey Kong's Crazy Cart, based on the Tiki Tong boss fight from Donkey Kong Country Returns. The area will also feature a K–O–N–G letter collection game and offer Donkey Kong merchandise and food.[198][199][200]

Merchandise edit

See also: Lego Super Mario

Donkey Kong merchandise includes clothing,[201] toys such as plushes and Amiibo figures,[202][203] breakfast cereal[176] and soundtrack albums.[204][205] The Lego Group began producing Donkey Kong Lego construction toys in 2023 as a subseries within its Lego Super Mario product line.[206] The initial four sets, based on the Donkey Kong Country games, were released in August 2023.[207]

Reception and legacy edit

Commentary edit

Both Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Country are frequently cited as two of the best video games of all time; the former for its impact on the golden age of arcade video games,[208][209][210] and the latter for its "groundbreaking" usage of pre-rendered 3D graphics and atmospheric music.[211][212][213] Maxim included Donkey Kong Country at number 14 on their list of 'The 30 Best Video Game Franchises of All Time', describing the series as "some of the best platforming games on Nintendo's consoles".[214] In the 2017 book the 100 Greatest Video Game Franchises, Donkey Kong is characterized as "a symbol, representing both the timelessness and timeliness of video games".[215] Brett Cardaro of Comic Book Resources placed Donkey Kong at number 10 on his list of the '15 Best Nintendo Franchises'.[216]

Sales edit

Donkey Kong is one of Nintendo's bestselling franchises,[217] with sales reaching 65 million units by March 2021.[218] Five Donkey Kong games (Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong Land, Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!, Donkey Kong 64, and Donkey Kong Country Returns) have shipped over a million copies in Japan alone,[219] and several have been added to Nintendo's Player's Choice and Nintendo Selects bestseller lines.[220][221] Excluding rereleases and arcade games, the SNES version of Donkey Kong Country is the franchise's bestselling game, with 9.3 million copies sold worldwide, while DK: King of Swing is the worst-selling, with 280,000 copies sold worldwide.[40]

Year Game Platform(s) Sales
1981 Donkey Kong Arcade, ColecoVision, Game & Watch, Nintendo Entertainment System 15.73 million[c]
1982 Donkey Kong Jr. Arcade, Nintendo Entertainment System 1.14 million[d]
1983 Donkey Kong 3 Arcade 5,000[224]
1988 Donkey Kong Classics Nintendo Entertainment System 1.56 million[225]
1994 Donkey Kong Country Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance 13.31 million[e]
1995 Donkey Kong Land Game Boy 3.91 million[228]
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest Super Nintendo Entertainment System 5.15 million[229]
1996 Donkey Kong Land 2 Game Boy 2.35 million[230]
Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! Super Nintendo Entertainment System 3.51 million[228]
1997 Donkey Kong Land III Game Boy, Game Boy Color 1.03 million[231]
Diddy Kong Racing Nintendo 64, Nintendo DS 6.47 million[f]
1999 Donkey Kong 64 Nintendo 64 5.27 million[229]
2003 Donkey Konga GameCube 1.18 million[223]
2005 DK: King of Swing Game Boy Advance 280,000[40]
2010 Donkey Kong Country Returns Wii, Nintendo 3DS 9.44 million[g]
2014 Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze Wii U, Nintendo Switch 4.1 million[h]

Effect on the industry edit

If you can't imagine a world without Super Mario Brothers, without the NES, and maybe even without Nintendo at all, then you can't imagine a world without Donkey Kong. Both as a remarkable piece of game design and a commercial breakthrough for the single most important gaming company in Japan, Donkey Kong changed the world, and 30 years later we're still feeling its effects.

Game Developer[235]

The original Donkey Kong is regarded as one of the most important video games of all time.[236][237] Its success established Nintendo as one of the video game industry's leaders and helped it avoid the video game crash of 1983.[236][237] Computer and Video Games called Donkey Kong "the most momentous" game of 1981, as it "introduced three important names" to the industry: Nintendo, Shigeru Miyamoto, and Mario.[238] Donkey Kong also paved the way for the NES,[239] which rejuvenated the crashed Western game industry and shifted the home console market's dominance from the US to Japan.[240] The NES was largely based on the Donkey Kong arcade hardware;[239] Nintendo took a Donkey Kong arcade cabinet to the semiconductor chip manufacturer Ricoh for analysis, which led to Ricoh producing the NES's Picture Processing Unit.[241]

Donkey Kong inspired many games, including clones such as Crazy Kong (1981) and Hard Hat Mack (1983),[242] that featured a mix of running, jumping, and vertical traversal.[243] These were initially referred to as "Donkey Kong-type" or "Kong-style" games, but eventually came to be known as platformers.[243][244] While Donkey Kong was not the first platform game, VG247 wrote "it was the first to matter" by establishing the genre's template.[245] Furthermore, Donkey Kong's spirited graphics, humor, and contextualization of the gameplay with a story distinguished it from contemporary arcade games.[10] Although text-based adventure games and computer role-playing video games preceded it, Donkey Kong is regarded as the first game to use graphics to tell a story,[246] which GamesRadar+ said provided an unprecedented level of narrative depth.[236]

Donkey Kong Country's pre-rendered graphics featured a level of detail unprecedented in console games at the time,[247][248] and inspired many imitators.[24] It inspired games such as BlueSky Software's Vectorman (1995),[249] Naughty Dog's Crash Bandicoot (1996),[250] HAL Laboratory's Kirby Super Star (1996),[251] and Traveller's Tales and Sonic Team's Sonic 3D Blast (1996).[252] Country's influence has carried into more modern games such as Mekazoo (2016) and Kaze and the Wild Masks (2021);[253][254] the Australian Broadcasting Corporation credited it for demonstrating 2D games could remain relevant after the introduction of 3D.[255] Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair (2019)—developed by Playtonic Games, whose staff includes Rare alumni that worked on Country—was noted for its gameplay similarities to Country,[256] though Playtonic declined to label it a spiritual successor.[257]

The Country games established Rare as a leading video game developer and set the standard for its work.[27][258] Country originated conventions characteristic of Rare's later output, including an emphasis on collecting items,[49] irreverent humor,[115] visual appeal, and tech demo-like design.[258] Conversely, Donkey Kong 64 has been blamed for precipitating 3D platforming's decline in popularity for its excessive emphasis on collecting items.[259][260] Electronic Gaming Monthly wrote that whereas Super Mario 64 had "breathed life into the 3D platforming genre", Donkey Kong 64 had "sucked it all out".[261] Jonas Kaerlev, who developed the 3D platformer A Hat in Time (2017), said Donkey Kong 64 gave the genre a reputation for tedium that contributed to a decline in interest.[260]

Cultural impact edit

See also: Donkey Kong high score competition

Donkey Kong is one of the most iconic video game characters,[262][263] and journalists have described him as a mascot for both Nintendo and the video game industry.[264][265][266][267] In 2007, the Monster Jam racing series obtained the license to use Donkey Kong's appearance for a monster truck. The truck debuted in a December 2007 show in Minneapolis and toured with Monster Jam throughout 2008.[268] Donkey Kong appears as an antagonist in the film Pixels (2015), which pays homage to classic arcade games,[269] while the film War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) features treacherous apes nicknamed "donkeys", which director Matt Reeves confirmed was a reference to Donkey Kong.[270]

 
 
Donkey Kong high score competitors Steve Wiebe (left) and Billy Mitchell (right) feature in the documentary The King of Kong (2007).

The original Donkey Kong is a popular competitive video game. The Daily Telegraph called it "the most fiercely contested video game of all time",[271] while Polygon wrote that achieving the highest score "is probably the most coveted arcade game world record".[272] The King of Kong (2007), a documentary film directed by Seth Gordon,[273] brought Donkey Kong's competitive culture to prominence.[272] It follows two players, Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell, in their respective attempts to obtain and maintain the world record.[273] The Telegraph described Donkey Kong competition as bitter and said the heated rivalries between players contribute to the game's lasting appeal.[271] The Donkey Kong Country games are also popular in the video game speedrunning community.[274]

IGN said that Donkey Kong Country's soundtrack contributed to an increased appreciation for video game music as an art form, and musicians such as Trent Reznor and Donald Glover have praised it.[275] Glover sampled "Aquatic Ambience" in his 2012 song "Eat Your Vegetables", to which Wise expressed approval.[276] OverClocked ReMix has released Donkey Kong remix albums including contributions from Wise, Beanland, and Kirkhope.[277] Curse of the Crystal Coconut, a 2020 pirate metal album by the Scottish heavy metal band Alestorm, contains numerous references to the Donkey Kong franchise, including its title; those who pre-ordered the album had a chance to win an Alestorm-branded Nintendo 64 with a copy of Donkey Kong 64.[278]

Donkey Kong has been noted for its active fandom.[117][279] Nintendo Life described one fansite, DK Vine, as "highly respected".[105] The franchise's lack of storytelling has led fans to theorize its fictional chronology. Kotaku described one theory, which postulates that Donkey Kong Jr. was killed in a violent, off-screen conflict to explain his absence in the Country series, as "a fascinating example of how fandoms can run away with the smallest bits of narrative available" to rationalize inconsistencies.[117] A team of fans led by animator Alex Henderson released DKC: Curse of the Crystal Coconut, an animated tribute short film, in 2021 to commemorate the franchise's 40th anniversary and the Donkey Kong Country television series' 25th anniversary.[280] Several voice actors from the Country television series reprised their roles for DKC: Return to Krocodile Isle, a follow-up animation released in 2023.[281]

In the years following the original Donkey Kong's release, the phrase "it's on like Donkey Kong" entered pop culture vernacular.[282] The phrase has been used in television series, films, music, and news headlines;[283][284] it is typically used to say something is "going down".[285] It was popularized by the rapper Ice Cube, who used the phrase in his song "Now I Gotta Wet'cha" (1992), though it is unclear if he coined it.[285][286] Nintendo filed a trademark request for the phrase with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in November 2010 as part of its marketing push for Donkey Kong Country Returns.[283]

Notes edit

  1. ^ Japanese: ドンキーコング, Hepburn: Donkī Kongu, [doŋ.kiː koŋ.ɡɯ]
  2. ^ Although Universal's Space Panic preceded Donkey Kong by a year, Red Bull wrote that Donkey Kong is generally considered the first "true" platform game for introducing the ability to jump.[9]
  3. ^ Sales breakdown:
    • Arcade: 60,000[4]
    • ColecoVision: 6 million[222]
    • Game & Watch: 8 million[13]
    • NES: 1.13 million[223]
  4. ^ Sales breakdown:
  5. ^ Sales breakdown:
  6. ^ Sales breakdown:
  7. ^ Sales breakdown:
  8. ^ Sales breakdown:
    • Wii U: 2.02 million[227]
    • Switch: 2.08 million[234]

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Works cited edit

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January 01, 1970
donkey, kong, this, article, about, video, game, franchise, original, game, 1981, video, game, character, character, other, uses, disambiguation, video, game, series, media, franchise, created, japanese, game, designer, shigeru, miyamoto, nintendo, franchise, . This article is about the video game franchise For the original game see Donkey Kong 1981 video game For the character see Donkey Kong character For other uses see Donkey Kong disambiguation Donkey Kong a is a video game series and media franchise created by the Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto for Nintendo The franchise follows the adventures of Donkey Kong a large powerful gorilla Donkey Kong series include the original arcade game trilogy by Nintendo R amp D1 the Donkey Kong Country series by Rare and Retro Studios and the Mario vs Donkey Kong series by Nintendo Software Technology Various studios have developed spin offs in other genres such as racing and rhythm The franchise also incorporates animation printed media a theme park and merchandise Donkey KongLogo since 2010Created byShigeru MiyamotoOriginal workDonkey Kong 1981 OwnerNintendoYears1981 presentFilms and televisionFilm s The Super Mario Bros Movie 2023 Animated seriesSaturday SupercadeCaptain N The Game MasterDonkey Kong CountryGamesVideo game s Donkey Kong seriesMario vs Donkey Kong seriesAudioOriginal music Aquatic Ambience DK Rap MiscellaneousTheme park attraction s Super Nintendo WorldRelated franchise s MarioBanjo KazooieConker Miyamoto designed the original 1981 Donkey Kong to salvage unsold arcade cabinets following the failure of Radar Scope 1980 It was a major success and was followed by the sequels Donkey Kong Jr 1982 and Donkey Kong 3 1983 The franchise went on a hiatus as Nintendo shifted its focus to the spin off Mario franchise Rare s 1994 reboot the Super Nintendo Entertainment System SNES game Donkey Kong Country reestablished Donkey Kong as a major Nintendo franchise Rare developed Donkey Kong games for the SNES Game Boy and Nintendo 64 until they were acquired by Microsoft in 2002 subsequent games have been developed by Nintendo Retro Studios Namco and Paon No major Donkey Kong games have been released since Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze in 2014 The main Donkey Kong games are platformers in which the player must reach the end of a level Donkey Kong was initially the antagonist but became the protagonist starting with Country The original games featured a small cast of characters including Donkey Kong Mario Pauline and Donkey Kong Jr Rare s games expanded the cast with friendly Kongs such as Diddy Cranky Funky and Dixie and the Kremlings an army of antagonistic crocodiles led by Donkey Kong s nemesis King K Rool Mario the protagonist of the 1981 game became Nintendo s mascot and the star of the Mario franchise and Donkey Kong characters appear in Mario games such as Mario Kart Mario Party and Mario Tennis Donkey Kong has also crossed over with other franchises in games such as Mario amp Sonic and Super Smash Bros Donkey Kong is one of Nintendo s bestselling franchises with more than 65 million units sold by 2021 The original game was Nintendo s first major international success and established it as a prominent force in the video game industry The franchise has pioneered or popularized concepts such as in game storytelling and pre rendered graphics inspired other games including clones and influenced popular culture Contents 1 History 1 1 1981 1982 Conception and first game 1 2 1982 1994 Sequels and first hiatus 1 3 1994 1996 Rare and Donkey Kong Country 1 4 1995 2002 Franchise expansion 1 5 2002 2010 After Rare 1 6 2010 present Retro Studios and second hiatus 2 Story and characters 3 Gameplay 3 1 Original series 3 2 Donkey Kong Country 3 3 Other games 4 Music 5 Other media 5 1 Crossovers 5 2 Animated series 5 3 Printed media 5 4 Film 5 5 Theme park 5 6 Merchandise 6 Reception and legacy 6 1 Commentary 6 2 Sales 6 3 Effect on the industry 6 4 Cultural impact 7 Notes 8 References 8 1 Citations 8 2 Works cited 9 External linksHistory editSee also List of Donkey Kong video games 1981 1982 Conception and first game edit nbsp Donkey Kong creator Shigeru Miyamoto in 2013 In the late 1970s the Japanese company Nintendo shifted its focus from producing toys and playing cards to arcade games This followed the 1973 oil crisis having increased the cost of manufacturing toys and the success of Taito s Space Invaders 1978 In 1980 Nintendo released Radar Scope a Space Invaders style shoot em up 1 It was a commercial failure and put the newly established subsidiary Nintendo of America in a financial crisis Its founder Minoru Arakawa asked his father in law the Nintendo CEO Hiroshi Yamauchi to provide a new game that could salvage the unsold Radar Scope cabinets 2 Most of Nintendo s top developers were preoccupied so the task went to Shigeru Miyamoto a first time game designer 3 4 Supervised by Gunpei Yokoi 3 Miyamoto settled on a love triangle with the characters Bluto Popeye and Olive Oyl from the Popeye franchise but Nintendo was unable to obtain the license 4 Bluto evolved into a gorilla an animal Miyamoto said was nothing too evil or repulsive 5 He named the character Donkey Kong donkey to convey stubborn and kong to imply gorilla 6 Popeye became Mario the new protagonist while Olive Oyl became Pauline the damsel in distress 4 Miyamoto named Beauty and the Beast and the 1933 film King Kong as influences 5 As he lacked programming expertise he consulted technicians on whether his concepts were possible 7 Four programmers from Ikegami Tsushinki spent three months turning Miyamoto s concept into a finished game 8 Donkey Kong was one of the earliest platform games b following Mario as he ascends a construction site to rescue Pauline from Donkey Kong 10 It was released in July 1981 and became Nintendo s first major international success The windfall of 280 million rescued Nintendo of America from its financial crisis and established it as a prominent brand in America 11 12 Donkey Kong achieved further success in 1982 when Nintendo released a Game amp Watch version and licensed it to Coleco for ports to home consoles 13 14 It grossed 4 4 billion across various formats making it one of the highest grossing games of all time 15 In 1982 Universal City Studios filed a lawsuit alleging Donkey Kong violated its trademark of King Kong The lawsuit failed when Nintendo s lawyer Howard Lincoln discovered that Universal had won a lawsuit years prior by declaring that King Kong was actually in the public domain The victory cemented Nintendo as a major force in the video game industry 16 17 1982 1994 Sequels and first hiatus edit Miyamoto and his team used game mechanics and levels that could not be included in Donkey Kong as the basis for a sequel Miyamoto wanted to make Donkey Kong the protagonist but the sprite was too big to easily maneuver so he created a new character Donkey Kong Jr The team still wanted Donkey Kong on top of the screen so they conceived a plot in which Mario had caged him and Donkey Kong Jr had to save him 18 To develop Donkey Kong Jr 1982 Nintendo reverse engineered Ikegami s Donkey Kong code making it the first game that Nintendo developed without outside help Following Donkey Kong Jr s release Ikegami sued Nintendo for copyright infringement In 1990 the Tokyo High Court ruled in favor of Ikegami and the companies reached a settlement 8 Donkey Kong 3 released in 1983 features shooter gameplay that departs from its predecessors Instead of Mario the player controls Stanley an exterminator from the Game amp Watch game Green House 1982 who must fend off Donkey Kong and a swarm of bees 19 Donkey Kong 3 was unsuccessful 20 as was an edutainment game for the Nintendo Entertainment System NES Donkey Kong Jr Math 1983 21 Sega obtained the license to develop a Donkey Kong game but the game which featured a playable Donkey Kong as a parking attendant was canceled after Sega s David Rosen and Hayao Nakayama arranged a management buyout from Gulf and Western Industries in 1984 22 23 The franchise went on an extended hiatus 20 while the spin off Mario franchise found success on the NES cementing Mario as Nintendo s mascot 4 Donkey Kong s appearances in the years following Donkey Kong 3 were limited to cameos in unrelated games 24 The 1987 Official Nintendo Player s Guide advertised a Donkey Kong revival for the NES Return of Donkey Kong which was never released 20 In 1994 the first original Donkey Kong game in more than 10 years Donkey Kong often referred to as Donkey Kong 94 was released for the Game Boy It begins as a remake of the 1981 game before introducing over 100 puzzle platforming levels that incorporate elements from Donkey Kong Jr and Super Mario Bros 2 1988 25 26 1994 1996 Rare and Donkey Kong Country edit nbsp nbsp Rare founders Tim and Chris Stamper left directed the Super Nintendo Entertainment System right game Donkey Kong Country 1994 which reestablished Donkey Kong as a major franchise Around 1992 Rare a British developer founded by the brothers Tim and Chris Stamper purchased Silicon Graphics Inc SGI Challenge workstations with Alias rendering software to render 3D models 27 28 At the time Nintendo was embroiled in a console war with Sega whose Genesis competed with the Super Nintendo Entertainment System SNES 29 Nintendo wanted a game to compete with Sega s Aladdin 1993 which featured graphics by Disney animators 30 31 when Lincoln learned of Rare s SGI experiments during a trip to Europe 32 After impressing Nintendo with a demonstration 29 Tim Stamper inspired by Mortal Kombat s use of digitized footage in place of hand drawn art suggested developing a platform game that used pre rendered 3D graphics 28 33 Nintendo granted the Stampers permission to use the Donkey Kong intellectual property 33 some sources indicate that the Stampers obtained the license after Nintendo offered them its catalog of characters and they chose Donkey Kong 27 29 though the designer Gregg Mayles recalled that it was Nintendo that requested a Donkey Kong game 30 Nintendo figured licensing Donkey Kong posed minimal risk due to the franchise s dormancy 33 Rare s reboot Donkey Kong Country featured side scrolling gameplay that Mayles based on the Super Mario series 30 It was the first Donkey Kong game neither directed nor produced by Miyamoto 34 though he provided support and contributed design ideas 30 Donkey Kong Country was one of the first games for a mainstream home video game console to use pre rendered graphics 29 achieved through a compression technique that allowed Rare to convert 3D models into SNES sprites with little loss of detail 30 Because Donkey Kong did not have much of an established universe Rare was free to expand it introducing Donkey Kong s sidekick Diddy Kong who replaced Donkey Kong Jr and the antagonistic Kremlings 30 35 After 18 months of development 29 Donkey Kong Country was released in November 1994 to acclaim with critics hailing its visuals as groundbreaking 36 37 38 39 It was a major success 32 selling 9 3 million copies and becoming the third bestselling SNES game 31 40 It reestablished Donkey Kong as a major Nintendo franchise and heralded Donkey Kong s transition from villain to hero 41 Following the success Nintendo purchased a large minority stake in Rare 32 Rare began developing concepts for a Donkey Kong Country sequel during production 42 and Nintendo green lit the project immediately after the success 41 Donkey Kong Country 2 Diddy s Kong Quest released in 1995 features Diddy rescuing a kidnapped Donkey Kong and introduces Diddy s girlfriend Dixie Kong Diddy s Kong Quest was designed to be less linear and more challenging 43 44 with a theme reflecting Gregg Mayles fascination with pirates 44 Like its predecessor Diddy s Kong Quest was a major critical and commercial success and is the sixth bestselling SNES game 45 Following Diddy s Kong Quest the Donkey Kong Country team split in two with one half working on Donkey Kong Country 3 Dixie Kong s Double Trouble 1996 46 Featuring Dixie and a new character Kiddy Kong as protagonists the Dixie Kong s Double Trouble team sought to incorporate 3D esque gameplay and Zelda inspired role playing elements Although it was released late in the SNES s lifespan and after the launch of the Nintendo 64 Dixie Kong s Double Trouble sold well 47 1995 2002 Franchise expansion edit Separate Rare teams developed the Game Boy games Donkey Kong Land 1995 Donkey Kong Land 2 1996 and Donkey Kong Land III 1997 which condensed the Country series gameplay for the handheld game console 31 Rare s Game Boy programmer Paul Machacek chose to develop Land as an original game rather than as a port of Country after convincing Tim Stamper it would be a better use of resources 48 A port of Country was eventually released for the Game Boy Color in 2000 49 Rare also developed a tech demo for a Virtual Boy Donkey Kong game but it never progressed due to the system s commercial failure 31 nbsp nbsp Rare developed further Donkey Kong games for the Game Boy left and Nintendo 64 right throughout the late 1990s The first Donkey Kong game for the Nintendo 64 Diddy Kong Racing was released as Nintendo s major 1997 Christmas shopping season product 50 Rare originally developed it as a sequel to its NES game R C Pro Am 1988 but added Diddy Kong to increase its marketability 51 Diddy Kong Racing received favorable reviews and sold 4 5 million copies 51 52 Two of Diddy Kong Racing s playable characters Banjo the Bear and Conker the Squirrel would go on to star in the Banjo Kazooie and Conker franchises 53 Rare began working on Donkey Kong 64 the first Donkey Kong game to feature 3D gameplay in 1997 54 They conceived it as a linear game similar to the Country series but switched to a more open ended design using the game engine from their 1998 game Banjo Kazooie after 18 months 31 55 Donkey Kong 64 was released in November 1999 accompanied by a US 22 million marketing campaign 56 It was Nintendo s bestselling game during the 1999 Christmas season and received positive reviews 57 58 though critics felt it did not match the revolutionary impact of Donkey Kong Country 59 60 61 At E3 2001 Nintendo and Rare announced three Donkey Kong projects the GameCube game Donkey Kong Racing and the Game Boy Advance GBA games Donkey Kong Coconut Crackers and Diddy Kong Pilot 62 63 64 However development costs were increasing and Nintendo opted not to acquire Rare 65 In September 2002 Microsoft acquired Rare for 375 million 66 making Rare a first party developer for Xbox 27 Nintendo retained the rights to Donkey Kong under the terms of the acquisition 67 Donkey Kong Racing was canceled 62 and Rare reworked Donkey Kong Coconut Crackers and Diddy Kong Pilot into It s Mr Pants 2004 and Banjo Pilot 2005 68 69 2002 2010 After Rare edit nbsp The Donkey Kong games released for the GameCube were designed to use the DK Bongos peripheral After Microsoft acquired Rare Nintendo relegated Donkey Kong to spin offs and guest appearances in other franchises such as Mario Kart Mario Party and Super Smash Bros 70 71 In 2003 Nintendo and Namco released Donkey Konga 2003 a spin off rhythm game It was designed for the DK Bongos a GameCube peripheral that resembles bongo drums 72 Nintendo of America executive Reggie Fils Aime opposed releasing Donkey Konga concerned it would damage the Donkey Kong brand but it sold well and received positive reviews 73 74 It was followed by Donkey Konga 2 2004 and the Japan exclusive Donkey Konga 3 2005 71 Donkey Kong Jungle Beat the first main Donkey Kong game since Donkey Kong 64 71 was released for the GameCube in 2004 75 It returned to the Donkey Kong Country style of platforming controlled using the DK Bongos 76 It was directed by Yoshiaki Koizumi as the debut project of Nintendo EAD Tokyo 77 78 Koizumi sought to create an accessible game with a simple control scheme to contrast with more complex contemporary games 78 It received positive reviews but was a commercial disappointment 71 A Wii version featuring revised Wii Remote and Nunchuk controls was released in 2008 as part of the New Play Control line 79 A racing game that used the DK Bongos Donkey Kong Barrel Blast was developed by Paon for the GameCube but was moved to the Wii with support for the peripheral dropped 80 It was released in 2007 to negative reviews 81 with criticism for its controls 82 83 Despite the acquisition Rare continued to develop games for Nintendo s handheld consoles since Microsoft did not have a competing handheld 27 It developed ports of the Country games for the GBA and Diddy Kong Racing for the Nintendo DS with additional content released between 2003 and 2007 84 85 86 87 Meanwhile Paon also developed DK King of Swing 2005 for the GBA and DK Jungle Climber 2007 for the DS which blend Country elements with gameplay inspired by Clu Clu Land 1984 88 Mario vs Donkey Kong a spin off series that acts as a spiritual successor to the Game Boy Donkey Kong was developed by Nintendo Software Technology It began with a 2004 GBA game and continued with several sequels 89 In contrast to other post Country games Mario vs Donkey Kong restored Donkey Kong s villainous role 90 2010 present Retro Studios and second hiatus edit In 2008 Miyamoto expressed interest in a Donkey Kong Country revival Producer Kensuke Tanabe suggested that Retro Studios which had developed the Metroid Prime series would be suitable 91 With Donkey Kong Country Returns Retro sought to retain classic Country elements while refining them to create a new experience and introducing new game mechanics such as surface clinging and simultaneous multiplayer 92 93 Returns the first original Country game since Dixie Kong s Double Trouble was released for the Wii in 2010 41 It sold 4 21 million copies in under a month and received positive reviews 94 95 with critics considering it a return to form for the franchise 96 97 98 Monster Games developed a Nintendo 3DS version in 2013 99 Retro developed a sequel Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze for the Wii U The Wii U s greater processing power allowed for visual elements that the team had been unable to accomplish on the Wii such as lighting and translucency effects and dynamic camera movement 100 101 Tropical Freeze was released in 2014 to favorable reviews 102 but it sold poorly in comparison to Returns 103 It achieved greater success when it was ported to the Nintendo Switch in 2018 outselling the Wii U version within a week of release 104 Following Tropical Freeze the Donkey Kong franchise went on another hiatus 105 outside of the Mario vs Donkey Kong games Tipping Stars 2015 and Mini Mario amp Friends Amiibo Challenge 2016 for the Wii U and 3DS 106 107 Nintendo Life reported in 2021 that Nintendo Entertainment Planning amp Development was working on a Switch Donkey Kong game 105 Nintendo released a remake of the first Mario vs Donkey Kong with new levels and cooperative gameplay for the Switch in February 2024 108 Story and characters editMain article List of Donkey Kong characters See also Characters of the Mario franchise nbsp Artwork for Donkey Kong 1994 and Donkey Kong 64 1999 depicting the casts created by Nintendo and Rare The original Donkey Kong features three characters Donkey Kong a large antagonistic gorilla Mario the overall wearing protagonist and Pauline Mario s girlfriend Donkey Kong follows Mario as he ascends a construction site to rescue Pauline from Donkey Kong his escaped pet ape 10 In the sequel Donkey Kong Jr Mario imprisons Donkey Kong in a cage The game introduces Donkey Kong s son the diaper wearing Donkey Kong Jr 109 110 Mario Pauline Donkey Kong and Jr return in the 1994 Game Boy Donkey Kong 111 in which Mario again must rescue Pauline from the Kongs 26 The Game Boy game was the first Donkey Kong game to depict Donkey Kong wearing a red necktie bearing his initials DK 112 Beginning with Donkey Kong Country Donkey Kong s role shifted from the antagonist to the protagonist 41 Rare s Kevin Bayliss redesigned him 113 alongside the red tie from the Game Boy game he was given what GamesRadar described as menacing sunken eyes and a beak like muzzle 112 and Bayliss designed him as blocky and muscular to make animating him easier 113 Rare s games characterize him as the descendant of the Donkey Kong character from the arcade games who appears as the elderly Cranky Kong 114 Cranky Kong provides scathing fourth wall breaking humor in which he unfavorably compares current games to older ones like the original Donkey Kong 115 116 Donkey Kong Jr was retired and Nintendo s stance on whether Rare s Donkey Kong is a grown up Donkey Kong Jr or a separate character has been inconsistent 114 Rare s games moved the franchise s primary setting from a city to Donkey Kong Island 117 an idyllic isle 59 Because Donkey Kong did not have much of an established universe Rare was free to expand it with new characters 30 Donkey Kong Country introduced Diddy Kong Donkey Kong s sidekick and nephew Diddy s design was based on a spider monkey he was created as a redesign of Donkey Kong Jr but retooled into a separate character at Nintendo s request 30 Other supporting Kong characters that Rare introduced include Funky Kong a surfer Candy Kong Donkey Kong s girlfriend Dixie Kong Diddy s girlfriend Kiddy a large toddler Tiny Kong Dixie s sister and Lanky Kong 118 The franchise s main antagonist is King K Rool an anthropomorphic reptilian introduced in Donkey Kong Country 119 K Rool leads the Kremlings an army of crocodiles who seek to steal Donkey Kong s hoard of bananas 49 Polygon summarized K Rool as an archetypal game villain who often wears disguises and invents strange gadgets for his elaborately evil schemes 120 such as dressing as a pirate captain in Donkey Kong Country 2 121 Other villains include the Tiki Tak Tribe a race of floating masks that play music to hypnotize animals into stealing the banana hoard 122 123 and the Snowmads Viking invaders who summon a dragon to take over Donkey Kong Island 101 Mario the protagonist of the 1981 game went on to headline the Mario franchise Although the franchises largely remain separate they take place in the same fictional universe and Donkey Kong and other Donkey Kong characters frequently appear as playable characters in Mario spin offs such as Mario Kart Mario Party and Mario Tennis 124 125 126 Two Rare characters Banjo the Bear and Conker the Squirrel were introduced in Diddy Kong Racing ahead of starring in their own games 53 Banjo Kazooie and Conker s Bad Fur Day 2001 53 127 Gameplay editOriginal series edit Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr are early examples of the platform game genre In both games the player must guide the playable character Mario in the first game Donkey Kong Jr in the second to scale four levels while avoiding obstacles The player jumps to dodge incoming obstacles such as barrels or cross gaps and climbs ladders or vines to reach the top of the level 128 109 In the first game Mario can destroy obstacles by obtaining a hammer power up 129 while in the second Donkey Kong Jr can do so by knocking pieces of fruit down from vines 109 Points are awarded for dodging or destroying obstacles collecting items and completing stages quickly 129 The player begins each game with three lives 109 which they lose if they touch an obstacle or fall from a distance 129 Donkey Kong 3 departs from this gameplay it is a shooter game in which the player controls Stanley an exterminator who must prevent Donkey Kong from stirring up insects in his greenhouse The player fires bug spray at Donkey Kong and enemy insects that attempt to steal Stanley s flowers They complete levels by spraying Donkey Kong enough to force him to the top of the screen or by killing all the insects 130 The 1994 Game Boy game begins with the four stages from the original Donkey Kong but after completing the fourth the player is presented with over 100 additional stages that introduce puzzle platform gameplay in which Mario must scout each level within a time limit to locate a key 131 Mario can pick up and throw objects and enemies similar to Super Mario Bros 2 and perform acrobatics to reach otherwise inaccessible areas of the levels 25 This gameplay would serve as the basis for Mario vs Donkey Kong 131 which introduces stages in which Mario must guide six Mini Mario toys to a toy box while protecting them from hazards 132 Mario vs Donkey Kong s sequels make guiding the Mini Mario toys the focus with each stage requiring the player to do so with touchscreen controls 133 This gameplay has been frequently compared to the strategy video game Lemmings 1991 134 Donkey Kong Country edit nbsp The Donkey Kong Country logo used until 2005 The Donkey Kong Country series features platforming gameplay in which players complete side scrolling levels to progress reminiscent of Nintendo s Super Mario series 30 The player begins in a world map that tracks their progress and provides access to the themed worlds and their levels They traverse the environment jump between platforms and avoid enemy and inanimate obstacles 135 Each world ends with a boss fight with a large enemy 136 The Country series is known for its high difficulty level and emphasis on momentum requiring players to react to oncoming obstacles quickly to maintain flow 137 138 139 Players control one of the various playable Kongs depending on the game Donkey Kong Diddy Kong Dixie Kong Kiddy Kong Cranky Kong and Funky Kong 49 140 141 The Rare games each feature two protagonists with one protagonist carrying over to the sequel while another is introduced 41 while both Retro Studios games star Donkey Kong Players primarily control one Kong with the second increasing their health 141 In the Rare games the player can switch between characters if they are both on the screen In the Retro Studios games other characters ride on Donkey Kong s back to provide special abilities for instance Diddy s jetpack allows him to temporarily hover 141 Country s distinctive game mechanics include blasting out of cannons resembling barrels vehicle sequences with minecarts and barrel themed rockets 141 levels in which the characters and foreground environments appear as silhouettes and swinging ropes Barrels return from the original series and can be used as weapons or broken to uncover power ups One variant DK Barrels releases a partner Kong when thrown Each level contains collectibles such as bananas letters that spell out K O N G balloons and puzzle pieces These items can be found within the main level or by discovering hidden bonus stages where they are earned via completing a challenge In certain levels the player can free an animal that provides the Kongs with special abilities similar to the Super Mario series Yoshi 142 Recurring animal friends include Rambi a rhino that can charge into enemies and find hidden entrances Enguarde a swordfish that can defeat enemies underwater and Squawks a parrot who carries the Kongs or assists in finding collectibles 49 143 Outside the main gameplay the Rare games world map contains areas where players can converse with non player characters such as Cranky who provide advice collectibles and save points 144 The Retro Studios games replace these with shops run by Cranky in Returns and Funky in Tropical Freeze where the player can purchase items like power ups and lives Other games edit Some games without the Country branding contain similar gameplay The Donkey Kong Land trilogy condenses the SNES Country gameplay for the Game Boy with different level design that accounts for the system s low quality display 145 146 Donkey Kong 64 blends Country elements with collect a thon gameplay reminiscent of Super Mario 64 1996 and Banjo Kazooie 1998 59 147 while Jungle Beat s score attack emphasis challenges players to complete levels with as many points as possible 148 DK King of Swing and DK Jungle Climber are aesthetically similar to the Country games but require players to use the shoulder buttons to grab and climb pegboards to reach the end of a level 149 Diddy Kong Racing and Donkey Kong Barrel Blast are kart racing games that play similarly to the Mario Kart series though Diddy Kong Racing features an adventure mode with boss fights and Barrel Blast has the player shake the Wii Remote and Nunchuk alternatively to accelerate 53 150 The Donkey Konga trilogy was developed by the Taiko no Tatsujin developers and features the same gameplay 151 152 the player must hit scrolling notes to the beat of the music with accurate timing with stylized notes corresponding to different buttons Players build combos by hitting two or more notes the combo ends when they miss a beat 153 Music editSee also Aquatic Ambience and DK Rap The music for Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr was composed by Yukio Kaneoka one of Nintendo s earliest audio engineers Kaneoka wanted to take players on an adventure with a pretty melody which he compared to those in Walt Disney Productions films He faced resistance from the designers who wanted comical music to reflect the games tone 154 Hirokazu Tanaka a sound engineer who later garnered recognition for his work on Nintendo s Metroid and Pokemon franchises also contributed 155 The Donkey Kong Country series features atmospheric music that mixes natural environmental sounds with melodic and percussive accompaniments 156 It was primarily composed by David Wise who worked at Rare from 1985 to 2009 157 158 After Wise moved with a portion of the Diddy s Kong Quest team to work on Project Dream Eveline Novakovic who composed a portion of the first Country handled the majority of Dixie Kong s Double Trouble 46 Wise composed a replacement soundtrack for the 2005 GBA port of Dixie Kong s Double Trouble after Rare had problems converting Novakovic s score 159 Wise drew inspiration from Koji Kondo s Super Mario and Legend of Zelda music Tim and Geoff Follin s Plok 1993 soundtrack and 1980s synthesizer heavy rock music dance music and film soundtracks 157 He aimed to imitate the sound of the Korg Wavestation synthesizer 156 Novakovic attempted to give levels a sense of purpose and drew inspiration from film composers such as Alan Silvestri and Klaus Doldinger 46 Graeme Norgate and Grant Kirkhope adapted Wise s Country soundtracks for the first two Donkey Kong Land games 160 161 while Novakovic adapted the Dixie Kong s Double Trouble soundtrack for Donkey Kong Land III 46 Novakovic was set to compose music for Donkey Kong 64 162 but shifted to working on sound effects 46 She was replaced by Kirkhope 162 who composed alongside the Banjo Kazooie games and Perfect Dark 2000 147 Nintendo Life described Kirkhope s Donkey Kong 64 score as closer in spirit to his work on Banjo Kazooie than Wise s Country music 163 Donkey Kong 64 s introduction features the DK Rap a comedy rap song which introduces the Kong characters It was written by Donkey Kong 64 s director George Andreas scored and recorded by Kirkhope and performed by Andreas and Chris Sutherland with other Rare staff joining on the chorus 164 Wise was unavailable during the development of Donkey Kong Country Returns so Kenji Yamamoto took over 41 At the request of Miyamoto and Iwata the Returns soundtrack mostly comprises rearrangements of tracks from the original Donkey Kong Country 138 plus some new material by Yamamoto He focused on what Tanabe felt made Donkey Kong Country s music iconic such as piano arrangements and the bassline 92 Wise left Rare during Returns development and collaborated with Yamamoto on the Tropical Freeze soundtrack Technological advances allowed Wise to achieve a 1940s big band jazz sound that he had been unable to produce on the SNES 158 Beyond the Country series Wise composed the Diddy Kong Racing soundtrack 165 Other composers who have contributed to Donkey Kong games include Mahito Yokota who composed for Jungle Beat 166 and Lawrence Schwedler who composed for Mario vs Donkey Kong 167 Other media editCrossovers edit Donkey Kong is represented in every game in Nintendo s Super Smash Bros series of crossover fighting games Donkey Kong debuted in the original Super Smash Bros 1999 as the only heavyweight fighter with slow but powerful attacks 168 Diddy Kong was added as a playable fighter in Super Smash Bros Brawl 2008 169 while King K Rool was added in Super Smash Bros Ultimate 2018 120 Smash games also feature Donkey Kong stages and music 170 171 Donkey Kong appears in Mario amp Sonic an Olympic Games themed crossover between Mario and Sega s Sonic the Hedgehog franchise as a playable character 172 in the Wii version of Punch Out 2009 as the final boss 173 and in Mario Rabbids Kingdom Battle 2017 a crossover between Mario and Ubisoft s Raving Rabbids franchise as the protagonist of an expansion pack 174 Activision s toys to life game Skylanders SuperChargers 2015 includes Donkey Kong as a playable character in the versions released on Nintendo platforms 175 Animated series edit Further information Saturday Supercade Captain N The Game Master and Donkey Kong Country TV series A Donkey Kong cartoon aired as part of CBS s hour long Saturday Supercade programming block in 1983 The cartoon follows Mario and Pauline as they attempt to capture Donkey Kong after he escapes from a circus Game Informer described the series as abysmal filled with bad puns and ridiculous situations 176 Soupy Sales voiced Donkey Kong 177 while Peter Cullen and Frank Welker who later garnered recognition for voicing Optimus Prime and Megatron in the Transformers franchise voiced Mario and Donkey Kong Jr 176 178 Donkey Kong was also a recurring character in Captain N The Game Master a DIC Entertainment series that ran on NBC for 34 episodes between 1989 and 1991 179 180 Donkey Kong Country a television series produced by the French Canadian company Medialab Technology ran for 40 episodes between 1997 and 1999 bridging the gap between Dixie Kong s Double Trouble and Donkey Kong 64 181 182 Reflecting the games pre rendered 3D graphics Donkey Kong Country was produced using computer animation 182 accomplished with motion capture technology 183 The series adopts a sitcom approach and follows Donkey Kong as he attempts to protect a magical artifact the Crystal Coconut from King K Rool 182 184 Donkey Kong Country was produced with little input from Nintendo and was the final Western series that Nintendo licensed before it shifted to producing and importing anime 181 The series was popular in France and Japan though less so in the United States 182 Retrospectively Hardcore Gaming 101 criticized the series for lacking the adventure of the Country games 182 while GameSpot called its aged animation nightmare fuel and visually disturbing 184 Printed media edit The first issue of Blip a short lived American comic book published by Marvel Comics in 1983 features a story in which a foolish news reporter attempts to interview Mario during the events of the original Donkey Kong The story characterizes Donkey Kong as the result of a failed experiment to breed construction worker gorillas 185 Blip marked Mario s first appearance in a comic book years before Valiant Comics Nintendo Comics System series in the 1990s 186 The British comics publisher Fleetway Publications published a promotional Donkey Kong Country comic in the UK in 1995 187 while Michael Teitelbaum wrote children s book adaptations of Donkey Kong Country Donkey Kong Land and Donkey Kong Country 2 188 Film edit Main article The Super Mario Bros Movie nbsp Seth Rogen voices Donkey Kong in The Super Mario Bros Movie 2023 Elements from the Donkey Kong franchise feature prominently in The Super Mario Bros Movie 2023 189 an animated film produced by Nintendo Illumination and Universal Pictures 190 Mario Chris Pratt and Princess Peach Anya Taylor Joy seek the Kongs help to stop Bowser Jack Black from invading the Mushroom Kingdom Seth Rogen and Fred Armisen voice Donkey Kong and Cranky Kong while other Kongs make cameo appearances and the DK Rap plays during Donkey Kong s introduction 191 Donkey Kong was redesigned for the first time since Donkey Kong Country combining elements of Rare s design and his original arcade era design 192 193 The Super Mario Bros Movie received mixed reviews 194 and Rogen received criticism for voicing Donkey Kong in his regular speaking voice 195 The film earned over 1 billion making it the highest grossing film based on a video game 190 In November 2021 prior to The Super Mario Bros Movie s release reports emerged that Illumination was developing a Donkey Kong film with Rogen set to reprise his role 196 In April 2023 Rogen said he saw a lot of opportunity in the prospect 197 Eurogamer wrote that Diddy and Dixie s brief cameo in The Super Mario Bros Movie was obvious setup for a Donkey Kong film 189 Theme park edit Main article Super Nintendo World In September 2021 Nintendo and Universal Destinations amp Experiences announced a Donkey Kong themed expansion of the Super Nintendo World themed area at Universal Studios Japan The area Donkey Kong Country is set to open in 2024 and will expand the size of Super Nintendo World by 70 It was designed with consultation from Miyamoto and will include a roller coaster Donkey Kong s Crazy Cart based on the Tiki Tong boss fight from Donkey Kong Country Returns The area will also feature a K O N G letter collection game and offer Donkey Kong merchandise and food 198 199 200 Merchandise edit See also Lego Super Mario Donkey Kong merchandise includes clothing 201 toys such as plushes and Amiibo figures 202 203 breakfast cereal 176 and soundtrack albums 204 205 The Lego Group began producing Donkey Kong Lego construction toys in 2023 as a subseries within its Lego Super Mario product line 206 The initial four sets based on the Donkey Kong Country games were released in August 2023 207 Reception and legacy editCommentary edit Both Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Country are frequently cited as two of the best video games of all time the former for its impact on the golden age of arcade video games 208 209 210 and the latter for its groundbreaking usage of pre rendered 3D graphics and atmospheric music 211 212 213 Maxim included Donkey Kong Country at number 14 on their list of The 30 Best Video Game Franchises of All Time describing the series as some of the best platforming games on Nintendo s consoles 214 In the 2017 book the 100 Greatest Video Game Franchises Donkey Kong is characterized as a symbol representing both the timelessness and timeliness of video games 215 Brett Cardaro of Comic Book Resources placed Donkey Kong at number 10 on his list of the 15 Best Nintendo Franchises 216 Sales edit Donkey Kong is one of Nintendo s bestselling franchises 217 with sales reaching 65 million units by March 2021 218 Five Donkey Kong games Donkey Kong Country Donkey Kong Land Donkey Kong Country 3 Dixie Kong s Double Trouble Donkey Kong 64 and Donkey Kong Country Returns have shipped over a million copies in Japan alone 219 and several have been added to Nintendo s Player s Choice and Nintendo Selects bestseller lines 220 221 Excluding rereleases and arcade games the SNES version of Donkey Kong Country is the franchise s bestselling game with 9 3 million copies sold worldwide while DK King of Swing is the worst selling with 280 000 copies sold worldwide 40 Year Game Platform s Sales 1981 Donkey Kong Arcade ColecoVision Game amp Watch Nintendo Entertainment System 15 73 million c 1982 Donkey Kong Jr Arcade Nintendo Entertainment System 1 14 million d 1983 Donkey Kong 3 Arcade 5 000 224 1988 Donkey Kong Classics Nintendo Entertainment System 1 56 million 225 1994 Donkey Kong Country Super Nintendo Entertainment System Game Boy Color Game Boy Advance 13 31 million e 1995 Donkey Kong Land Game Boy 3 91 million 228 Donkey Kong Country 2 Diddy s Kong Quest Super Nintendo Entertainment System 5 15 million 229 1996 Donkey Kong Land 2 Game Boy 2 35 million 230 Donkey Kong Country 3 Dixie Kong s Double Trouble Super Nintendo Entertainment System 3 51 million 228 1997 Donkey Kong Land III Game Boy Game Boy Color 1 03 million 231 Diddy Kong Racing Nintendo 64 Nintendo DS 6 47 million f 1999 Donkey Kong 64 Nintendo 64 5 27 million 229 2003 Donkey Konga GameCube 1 18 million 223 2005 DK King of Swing Game Boy Advance 280 000 40 2010 Donkey Kong Country Returns Wii Nintendo 3DS 9 44 million g 2014 Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze Wii U Nintendo Switch 4 1 million h Effect on the industry edit If you can t imagine a world without Super Mario Brothers without the NES and maybe even without Nintendo at all then you can t imagine a world without Donkey Kong Both as a remarkable piece of game design and a commercial breakthrough for the single most important gaming company in Japan Donkey Kong changed the world and 30 years later we re still feeling its effects Game Developer 235 The original Donkey Kong is regarded as one of the most important video games of all time 236 237 Its success established Nintendo as one of the video game industry s leaders and helped it avoid the video game crash of 1983 236 237 Computer and Video Games called Donkey Kong the most momentous game of 1981 as it introduced three important names to the industry Nintendo Shigeru Miyamoto and Mario 238 Donkey Kong also paved the way for the NES 239 which rejuvenated the crashed Western game industry and shifted the home console market s dominance from the US to Japan 240 The NES was largely based on the Donkey Kong arcade hardware 239 Nintendo took a Donkey Kong arcade cabinet to the semiconductor chip manufacturer Ricoh for analysis which led to Ricoh producing the NES s Picture Processing Unit 241 Donkey Kong inspired many games including clones such as Crazy Kong 1981 and Hard Hat Mack 1983 242 that featured a mix of running jumping and vertical traversal 243 These were initially referred to as Donkey Kong type or Kong style games but eventually came to be known as platformers 243 244 While Donkey Kong was not the first platform game VG247 wrote it was the first to matter by establishing the genre s template 245 Furthermore Donkey Kong s spirited graphics humor and contextualization of the gameplay with a story distinguished it from contemporary arcade games 10 Although text based adventure games and computer role playing video games preceded it Donkey Kong is regarded as the first game to use graphics to tell a story 246 which GamesRadar said provided an unprecedented level of narrative depth 236 Donkey Kong Country s pre rendered graphics featured a level of detail unprecedented in console games at the time 247 248 and inspired many imitators 24 It inspired games such as BlueSky Software s Vectorman 1995 249 Naughty Dog s Crash Bandicoot 1996 250 HAL Laboratory s Kirby Super Star 1996 251 and Traveller s Tales and Sonic Team s Sonic 3D Blast 1996 252 Country s influence has carried into more modern games such as Mekazoo 2016 and Kaze and the Wild Masks 2021 253 254 the Australian Broadcasting Corporation credited it for demonstrating 2D games could remain relevant after the introduction of 3D 255 Yooka Laylee and the Impossible Lair 2019 developed by Playtonic Games whose staff includes Rare alumni that worked on Country was noted for its gameplay similarities to Country 256 though Playtonic declined to label it a spiritual successor 257 The Country games established Rare as a leading video game developer and set the standard for its work 27 258 Country originated conventions characteristic of Rare s later output including an emphasis on collecting items 49 irreverent humor 115 visual appeal and tech demo like design 258 Conversely Donkey Kong 64 has been blamed for precipitating 3D platforming s decline in popularity for its excessive emphasis on collecting items 259 260 Electronic Gaming Monthly wrote that whereas Super Mario 64 had breathed life into the 3D platforming genre Donkey Kong 64 had sucked it all out 261 Jonas Kaerlev who developed the 3D platformer A Hat in Time 2017 said Donkey Kong 64 gave the genre a reputation for tedium that contributed to a decline in interest 260 Cultural impact edit See also Donkey Kong high score competition Donkey Kong is one of the most iconic video game characters 262 263 and journalists have described him as a mascot for both Nintendo and the video game industry 264 265 266 267 In 2007 the Monster Jam racing series obtained the license to use Donkey Kong s appearance for a monster truck The truck debuted in a December 2007 show in Minneapolis and toured with Monster Jam throughout 2008 268 Donkey Kong appears as an antagonist in the film Pixels 2015 which pays homage to classic arcade games 269 while the film War for the Planet of the Apes 2017 features treacherous apes nicknamed donkeys which director Matt Reeves confirmed was a reference to Donkey Kong 270 nbsp nbsp Donkey Kong high score competitors Steve Wiebe left and Billy Mitchell right feature in the documentary The King of Kong 2007 The original Donkey Kong is a popular competitive video game The Daily Telegraph called it the most fiercely contested video game of all time 271 while Polygon wrote that achieving the highest score is probably the most coveted arcade game world record 272 The King of Kong 2007 a documentary film directed by Seth Gordon 273 brought Donkey Kong s competitive culture to prominence 272 It follows two players Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell in their respective attempts to obtain and maintain the world record 273 The Telegraph described Donkey Kong competition as bitter and said the heated rivalries between players contribute to the game s lasting appeal 271 The Donkey Kong Country games are also popular in the video game speedrunning community 274 IGN said that Donkey Kong Country s soundtrack contributed to an increased appreciation for video game music as an art form and musicians such as Trent Reznor and Donald Glover have praised it 275 Glover sampled Aquatic Ambience in his 2012 song Eat Your Vegetables to which Wise expressed approval 276 OverClocked ReMix has released Donkey Kong remix albums including contributions from Wise Beanland and Kirkhope 277 Curse of the Crystal Coconut a 2020 pirate metal album by the Scottish heavy metal band Alestorm contains numerous references to the Donkey Kong franchise including its title those who pre ordered the album had a chance to win an Alestorm branded Nintendo 64 with a copy of Donkey Kong 64 278 Donkey Kong has been noted for its active fandom 117 279 Nintendo Life described one fansite DK Vine as highly respected 105 The franchise s lack of storytelling has led fans to theorize its fictional chronology Kotaku described one theory which postulates that Donkey Kong Jr was killed in a violent off screen conflict to explain his absence in the Country series as a fascinating example of how fandoms can run away with the smallest bits of narrative available to rationalize inconsistencies 117 A team of fans led by animator Alex Henderson released DKC Curse of the Crystal Coconut an animated tribute short film in 2021 to commemorate the franchise s 40th anniversary and the Donkey Kong Country television series 25th anniversary 280 Several voice actors from the Country television series reprised their roles for DKC Return to Krocodile Isle a follow up animation released in 2023 281 In the years following the original Donkey Kong s release the phrase it s on like Donkey Kong entered pop culture vernacular 282 The phrase has been used in television series films music and news headlines 283 284 it is typically used to say something is going down 285 It was popularized by the rapper Ice Cube who used the phrase in his song Now I Gotta Wet cha 1992 though it is unclear if he coined it 285 286 Nintendo filed a trademark request for the phrase with the U S Patent and Trademark Office in November 2010 as part of its marketing push for Donkey Kong Country Returns 283 Notes edit Japanese ドンキーコング Hepburn Donki Kongu doŋ kiː koŋ ɡɯ Although Universal s Space Panic preceded Donkey Kong by a year Red Bull wrote that Donkey Kong is generally considered the first true platform game 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nbsp 1980s nbsp Video games nbsp Japan Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Donkey Kong amp oldid 1221484874, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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