Conceived by Shigeru Miyamoto in 1981, Donkey Kong became one of the most well-known and beloved franchises in the world of arcade games and video game history in general (In 1994, Donkey Kong Country became the bestselling Nintendo game not bundled with the console).
Here are some facts about the adventurous gorilla character.
Cut scenes
Donkey Kong was the first game to tell a story via cut scenes, something almost every game does today.
Don't leave him alone for too long
If Donkey Kong is left alone for too long in the Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D he’ll break out a DS-like device and start playing a game that uses the original Donkey Kong sound effects.
It's a horse!
Donkey Kong’s movements are based on those of a horse, not a Gorilla as the developers thought the Gorillas moves weren’t up to scratch.
Animals in the game
EnGuarde the Swordfish, Squawks the Parrot and Rattly the Rattlesnake are 3 of the 11 animal characters who appear in Donkey Kong Country.
What?!!
Mario is actually Donkey Kong’s abusive owner and is the villain of the game series. In Donkey Kong Jr. Mario is keeping Donkey Kong caged up.
Most in-game collectibles
Donkey Kong 64 has the world record for the most in-game collectibles of any game today with a total of 3821.
It's not Peach
Mario’s princess in Donkey Kong isn’t that of Super Mario’s Princess Peach. She’s called Pauline or “the lady”. Pauline is based on the woman in the King Kong films.
More than one version
There are over 35 different versions of Donkey Kong including Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Jungle Beat as well as collaborations with other characters like Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars.
A TV show
Donkey Kong’s TV show ‘Donkey Kong Country‘, based on the SNES classic, Aired in France and the US in 1997 and 1998 respectively, lasted 2 seasons with 40 episodes.
A villain again
Donkey Kong made his film debut in the 2015 blockbuster ‘Pixels‘, acting as Adam Sandler and crew’s biggest enemy.
The creator didn't like it too much
Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of the game franchise, hated Donkey Kong Country so much that he publicly said “Donkey Kong Country proves that players will put up with mediocre gameplay as the art is good”.
It was a different game
Donkey Kong was initially pitched as a boxing game called Donkey Kong Country with a new 3D visuals style, the
creators Rare pitched the idea to Miyamoto and Genyo Takeda and they
gave the nod to create a game with this style of graphics. Donkey Kong,
15 years later, appeared in Punch-Out!! For the Wii as an unlockable character.
The name
The
name “Donkey Kong” comes from a mash-up of “King-Kong”- a Japanese
phrase used across the country for a gorilla, and the first English word
the character's creator Miyamoto used to describe “Stubborn and dumb”.
Legal issues
In 1982, Universal Studios sued Nintendo over the use of Donkey Kong as it was very similar to their franchise King Kong. The
case was dropped later because ‘King Kong‘
however was in the public domain, and Universal found themselves having to pay Nintendo’s legal fees!
A kong not from the family
Manky Kong, the villain, is the only “Kong” not to be part of the Donkey Kong family.
Mario had a different name
In the early Donkey Kong game, well-known Mario was actually called Jumpman.
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