- For the original arcade game called Donkey Kong, see Donkey Kong (arcade game). For the 1994 Game Boy game, see Donkey Kong (Game Boy).
Donkey Kong (ドンキーコング, Donkī Kongu) is a gorilla character from Nintendo that appeared in many video games since 1981. He is said not to be very smart. Donkey Kong was created by Shigeru Miyamoto.
History
Donkey Kong was created when Shigeru Miyamoto was assigned by Nintendo to convert Radar Scope, a poor selling arcade game in the U.S., into a game that would appeal more to Americans. The result was a major breakthrough for Nintendo and for the videogame industry. Sales of the machine were brisk, with the game becoming one of the best-selling arcade machines of the early 1980s. The gameplay itself was a large improvement over other games of its time, and with the growing base of arcades to sell to, it was able to gain huge distribution. In 1981 Falcon created a legitimate clone of Donkey Kong known as Crazy Kong for distribution in non-US markets.
In Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Nintendo Co., Ltd., MCA Universal sued Nintendo over copyright violations, claiming that Donkey Kong was a copy of King Kong. Nintendo's lawyer, Howard Lincoln, who would go on to become a Senior Vice President of the company, discovered that Universal didn't own the copyright to King Kong either, and was able to not only win the lawsuit (as well as several court appeals), but get Universal to pay the legal costs. Ironically, it was MCA Universal that previously won a lawsuit declaring King Kong was in the public domain. The case was an enormous victory for Nintendo, which was still a newcomer to the U.S. market. The case established Nintendo as a major player in the industry and arguably gave the company the confidence that it could compete with the giants of American media.[1] The case was selected as #20 on GameSpy's list of the 25 Dumbest Moments in Gaming. [1]
Because of the huge success of Donkey Kong, Nintendo of America was able to grow and release many more games in succeeding years, and had the resources necessary to release the Nintendo Entertainment System in the United States.
Overview
The name was chosen by game designer Shigeru Miyamoto as a combination of the word "Kong", since the movie King Kong had caused it 'to colloquially mean monkey' in Japan. According to Snopes, Donkey was chosen because Miyamoto intended it "to convey a sense of stubbornness." Various urban legends have circulated, saying that the actual name was to be "Monkey Kong" but was changed by accident for the American release. Snopes debunked these myths in "Donkey Wrong."
In the original Donkey Kong game, the player's character, Mario (originally called Jumpman in Japan), must jump over barrels thrown by Donkey Kong while climbing ladders up a crooked construction site to reach the top of the screen to rescue his girlfriend Pauline (who was originally called Lady in Japan). Each screen is a game stage, with stages grouping to form levels. As the player advances through each level, the degree of difficulty increases proportionately.
This game was first released in the arcades, but was ported to home video game consoles and home computers. The game was also sold as a Game & Watch unit in 1982.
The game was quite revolutionary for its time, featuring multiple, distinct levels, large colorful graphics, and a unique form of play control.
Sequels and remakes
Donkey Kong spawned two sequels, neither of which were as popular as the original arcade hit. In Donkey Kong Junior Donkey Kong was kidnapped by Mario and players had to control his son Donkey Kong Jr. to rescue him. In Donkey Kong 3 DK broke into a greenhouse and got chased out by Stanley the Bugman, who carried a spray can to protect his greenhouse from Donkey Kong's insects.
Throughout the 1980s, eight Donkey Kong games were released for the Game & Watch platform.
In 1994, Nintendo produced a sequel for Game Boy, simply called Donkey Kong. Some of its levels were based upon the Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. arcade games, the enemies from the two games also returned. Donkey Kong's, Donkey Kong Jr.'s and Pauline's character designs were updated for this game.
Successors
16-bit era (SNES)
Shortly after that, he appeared in Donkey Kong Country (in Japan, Super Donkey Kong). Donkey Kong Country was an entirely new DK franchise established by the British company Rareware which took the Donkey Kong premise in an entirely new direction. Severing DK's ties to the Mario world (until Mario Kart 64), Donkey Kong Country established a whole new world for DK, and became a showcase title to show off then-revolutionary CGI graphics.
In Donkey Kong Country, DK was the hero and he and his sidekick Diddy Kong had to save his hoard of bananas from the thieving King K. Rool and his Kremling Krew. The game was an action sidescrolling title similar to the Mario games and was enormously popular for its graphics, music and gameplay.
The sequel, Donkey Kong Country 2 (Super Donkey Kong 2 in Japan) involves DK being kidnapped by King K. Rool (now Kaptain K. Rool) and getting rescued by Diddy Kong and his girlfriend Dixie Kong, in a less cheery and a more darkly-themed game.
In Donkey Kong Country 3 (in Japan, Super Donkey Kong 3) he and Diddy both got kidnapped, and Dixie and her cousin Kiddy Kong had to save them in the final game of the series for the SNES.
The Donkey Kong Land trilogy for the Game Boy were smaller and slightly modified versions of the "Country" games. In addition, Donkey Kong Country was ported to the Game Boy Color. The entire Donkey Kong Country trilogy has also been ported to the Game Boy Advance.
64-bit era (N64)
A successful Nintendo 64 sequel was also developed. In Donkey Kong 64 DK once again had the starring role as he joined forces with Diddy Kong, Tiny Kong, Lanky Kong, and Chunky Kong to save Donkey Kong Island from destruction at the hand of the Kremlings. An easter egg can be found that contains the original Donkey Kong arcade.
Mario Kart 64 reintroduced DK to Mario's world. Since then, he has appeared in every outing featuring Mario's all-star cast. In the Mario Party series, he was a playable character in all three titles released for the N64. He was also a selectable character in Super Smash Bros.. In nearly all of these games, Donkey Kong is usually presented as a powerful and heavy character, but slow and cumbersome.In every sport game and Super Smash Bros Melee he's second only to Bowser in Weight and Power, although he can lift and carry around barrels and crates. Something not even Bowser can do.
While still under Rare's influence, numerous spin-offs of Donkey Kong were created. Diddy Kong Racing, released in 1997, guest-starred Banjo of the Banjo-Kazooie games and Conker the Squirrel of Conker's Bad Fur Day, Conker's Pocket Tales, and Conker: Live and Reloaded. While Diddy Kong Racing was these characters' first appearance in a game, they were already famous for being in development with the first installments of their own highly anticipated franchises (the instruction manual even describes them as taking a break from their own games in order to assist Diddy on his quest.)
Sixth-generation era (GameCube)
A demo for a Donkey Kong game on the GameCube, Nintendo's sixth generation console, was shown at SpaceWorld 2001. The game was called Donkey Kong Racing and showed various characters, including Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, and Taj the Genie racing on Ellie, Expresso, Rambi, Enguarde, and Zinger, and presumably, Necky, Army, and Chomps Jr. that had been introduced in previous Donkey Kong games by Rare.
Following the sale of Rare to Microsoft in 2002, Rare announced that they were concentrating their efforts on Xbox games, although they have continued to support Nintendo's portable consoles, the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS. This decision is due to the fact that Microsoft does not have its own portable console in direct competition. No further information about Donkey Kong Racing has since been released, leading the game to be classified as cancelled.
Rare's ownership change led to numerous changes. Donkey Kong: Coconut Crackers was originally developed by Rare for the Game Boy Advance, but was eventually released as It's Mr. Pants after the Microsoft purchase. Likewise, Banjo Pilot was originally titled Diddy Kong Pilot, but altered following the Microsoft acquisition.
Donkey Konga was released for the GameCube in 2004. Created by Namco, this musical rhythm action game relied upon use of the DK Bongos accessory (purchasable separately or included, depending on the package) to hit a beat in time with the tune. The tunes included pop songs and themes from some previous Nintendo games. Its sequel, Donkey Konga 2, was released in 2005, while Japan got Donkey Konga 3.
Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat was released in Japan in December 2004 and elsewhere in 2005. Donkey Kong fights Dread Kong, Ninja Kong, Karate Kong, and Sumo Kong. This platform game used the aforementioned DK Bongos as a controller; tapping one drum repeatedly made Donkey Kong run, tapping both at the same time made him jump, tapping both alternately made him attack, and clapping or blowing in to the microphone caused an explosion, shown by a ripple in the screen, attracting assorted jewels or clearing obstacles to progress. A standard GameCube controller could be used instead of the konga drums.
Donkey Kong also starred in the respective sequels to the N64 games, such as Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and the slew of sports titles. He made his last playable appearance in Mario Party 4 before being relegated to an incidental character on the game board. He was also featured on the Game & Watch Gallery handheld series.
Nintendo's first title after Rare left was Mario vs. Donkey Kong, a return to the earlier arcade-style games. While its style was that of the original games, the Rare design for Donkey Kong carried over. Donkey Kong originally started out a villain and returns to being one in this game. Wanting a mini-Mario doll, he walks on over to the toy store to see that they're sold out. He terrifies the Toads at the factory and steals the toys. This sets up the game's plot, where Mario chases Donkey Kong endlessly until he takes the dolls back.
Donkey Kong then starred in DK-King of Swing, which featured gameplay similar to Clu Clu Land. He will be appearing again in the recently announced DK Bongo Blast.
Donkey Kong's only appearance in a DS game so far has been Mario Kart DS. He's set to appear in the games Mario Hoops 3-on-3, DK-King of Swing DS, Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis, and Yoshi's Island 2. The latter will feature him as his baby self which causes a lot of confusion among Donkey Kong fans as Donkey Kong Jr is the original Baby Donkey Kong.
Seventh-generation era (Wii)
Not much is known about Donkey Kong for the Wii except he will get his own game in it (See Donkey Kong Wii).
Animated series
Segments of "Saturday Supercade" featured Donkey Kong, along with Mario and Pauline (here billed as Mario's niece), who tried to recapture Donkey Kong, who had escaped Mario's circus. The show aired from 1983 into 1984 on CBS.
The original version of Donkey Kong had appeared on Captain N: The Game Master (and its spin-off comic book). There, he was shown to be about 20-30 feet tall.
A computer generated animated television series that lasted 40 episodes was produced in 1996 by a French animation studio, released in North America as simply Donkey Kong Country.
Donkey Kong appears in two The Simpsons episodes:
- In "The Springfield Files", he appears as a guest at a local arcade. When the turnout is low the owner replys he's "just not a draw anymore." Donkey Kong replies by throwing a barrel at him and bowling him over. "Hey! He's still got it!".
- In "Marge Be Not Proud", Nelson, Jimbo, Dolph, and Kearney try to convince Bart to steal a video game ("Duuuh, it's the company's fault for making you want it so much!").
In the first episode of Groening's other animated series Futurama, "Space Pilot 3000", Fry is seen playing a game called "Monkey Fracas Jr." (an obvious parody of DK sequel Donkey Kong Jr.), which deviates from its apparent space shooter format with the appearance of a Donkey Kong-esque character (virtually the same except that this version wears a loincloth) as a level boss. In a later episode, "Anthology of Interest II", the same character, this time specifically identified as Donkey Kong ("Ambassador" Donkey Kong, in fact, from the planet Nintenduu 64), appears along with Mario and other classic game characters like Pac-Man and Q-bert. Also, he can be seen for a short moment in A Bicyclops built for two, is referenced by Leela in The Birdbot of Ice-catraz when she calls Zoidberg and Fry Kong Donkeys, and in the final episode, The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings, a student playing a holophone version of Fur Elise portrays Beethoven jumping over barrels in the style of Donkey Kong arcade.
Pop Culture
- As a gaming mainstay, Donkey Kong is one of the few video game characters to be referenced in other media. A popular slang phrase related to Donkey Kong is the phrase "it's on like Donkey Kong", derived from "it's on", which means something (usually exciting) is about to get started. The phrase was first used by rapper Ice Cube in his song "Now I gotta Wet' cha" off of the Predator album.
- Donkey Kong is also referred to in the country song Honkytonk Badonkadonk by Trace Adkins.
- The Donkey world record is 1,047,200 points achieved by Billy Mitchell of Hollywood, FL, on June 7, 2004, according to the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard.
- In his recent single, "Googly Moogly", featuring The Three 6 Mafia, Project Pat references Donkey Kong with the following line:
"That ain't a monkey hanging on your back; that's Donkey Kong!"
Baby Donkey Kong
A younger version of Donkey Kong, will appear in the upcoming Yoshi's Island 2 for the Nintendo DS. Baby is actually pronounced "behbeh" on the game, highlighting Donkey Kong's dialect.
Baby Donkey Kong has caused a lot of confusion among fans of the Donkey Kong Country series as Donkey Kong Junior was essentially Baby Donkey Kong. By adding a second Baby Donkey Kong speculation of Swanky Kong (Donkey Kong Country 3) being Donkey Kong Junior has risen leading us to believe that he gave up adventure work for the glits and glammer of game shows.
Voice Artists
- In the Saturday Supercade, Donkey Kong was voiced by Soupy Sales.
- In Mario Kart 64, his voice was provided by Isaac Marshall.
- In the animated series adaption of Donkey Kong Country, he was voiced by Richard Yearwood.
- In Donkey Kong Jungle Beat and onwards, he is voiced by veteren seiyuu Takashi Nagasako.
References
- ^ Sheff, David (1999). Game Over: Press Start to Continue: The Maturing of Mario. p. 127. Wilton, Connecticut: GamePress.
See also
External links
- Official
- Other
- MobyGames' entry for the Donkey Kong Games Series
- Twin Galaxies Scoreboard for Donkey Kong
- The Killer List of Video Games entry on the original Donkey Kong
- Donkey Kong Universe - A fansite that links Donkey Kong to other video game franchises like Banjo-Kazooie and Conker
- DKong Megasite - Another fansite covering Donkey Kong from the Arcade to the SNES and beyond
- Nintendo's announcement of Donkey Konga 3
- Donkey Kong Flash game
- Donkey Kong Anime website: using Web Archive
- Donkey Kong Database
- The History of Donkey Kong
- Article at The Dot Eaters, detailing a history of Nintendo and Donkey Kong
- Super Mario Wiki
- Donkey Kong galaxy a Donkey Kong fan-site
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