Information AboutDonkey Kong |
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to present.]] is a Gorilla character from Nintendo that appeared in many Video Games since 1981. ''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 's '' The 25 Dumbest Moments in Gaming ''. Due to 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 Level s. 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 Console s and Home Computer s. 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 Remake of the original game for the Game Boy (called "Game Boy Donkey Kong" in-game, also known under the informal title of ''" Donkey Kong 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 3D CGI graphics. In ''Donkey Kong Country'', DK was the hero and he and his sidekick Diddy Kong had to save his hoard of Banana s 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. Some sources, such as '' Nintendo Power '', suggest that the Donkey Kong in the ''Country'' series was the son of Cranky Kong , the original Donkey Kong from the arcade game, which would equate him with Donkey Kong Junior. Other sources, including the manual of ''Donkey Kong Country'' 1 and in-game dialogue from other games in the series, suggest that the Donkey Kong in ''Donkey Kong Country'' is Cranky's grandson and the son of Donkey Kong Junior. This is also contradicted by the in-game dialogue from '' and Zeldas in the Legend Of Zelda series, the player really has no choice but to ignore all given stories and form their own personal conclusions as to which character is who. The official sequel, '' Donkey Kong Country 2 '' (''Super Donkey Kong 2'') involves Donkey 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 oringinal 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. 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 '' and ''Conker's Pocket Tales''. 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, Enguard, 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 ''. ''.]]'''' 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 '''', '' 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. Mario catches him and chases him endlessly until he takes the dolls back. ANIMATED SERIES Segments of " Saturday Supercade " featured Donkey Kong, along with Mario and Pauline (here billed as Mario's niece). The show aired from 1983 into 1984 on CBS. The original version of Donkey Kong had appeared on '''' (and its spin-off comic book). There, he was shown to be the size of a large building. 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 ''. A CG animated cartoon "Donkey Kong (DONKEY KONG)" of the U.S.-made work to which the character that appeared in the ''Donkey Kong Country'' series performed was broadcast in TV Tokyo in 1999. Donkey Kong appears in two '' The Simpsons '' episodes:
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 . VOICE ARTISTS
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