Donkey Kong Catch-Up: From fighting Mario to punching rocks

If you're new to Donkey Kong or just want to look back and reminisce, here's a brief stroll down memory lane.

Nintendo’s first big swing after Mario Kart World is Donkey Kong Bananza, a new 3D platformer from the studio that brought us Super Mario Galaxy. If our review here at Shacknews is any indication, Bananza is a banger. And unfortunately – keep in mind I’m saying this as a fan – Donkey Kong hasn’t exactly been a poster boy for bangers in a long time. So I’d forgive you if you’re coming into this new game unaware of DK’s past achievements. Perhaps you missed out on some of the greatest hits because you weren’t one of the ten people who bought a Wii U (can’t blame you). Perhaps you’re just a youngster and don’t go back to older classics (a mistake).

Either way, if you’re curious about where this large, tie-wearing primate came from, or what he has been up to since the original Donkey Kong (hard to miss that one), we figured it would be fun to play a little game I dubbed “DK Catch-Up.” I’m writing a retrospective, is what I’m saying. Please clap. We’ll talk more about clapping in a bit.

I’ve broken up Donkey Kong history into loose “eras,” although there is some overlapping if you look at it all on a timeline. But there are several distinct ways in which Nintendo used DK over the years, and each one is interesting for their own reasons. You know, for better or worse. Let’s get into it.

Arcade OG

Donkey Kong started here, and put Nintendo on the map. This version of DK had a cute, semi-realistic look, with soft features and a brilliant smile, despite starting off his career as a villain. Of course he was much more menacing in-game, with a powerful grimace and an iconic sound effect like a factory siren running out of batteries. You played as Mario, chasing DK up construction towers to rescue Pauline from his King Kong-style clutches. In the sequel, Mario is the bad guy, capturing DK while you play as Donkey Kong Jr. swinging across vines and avoiding crocodiles on the way to the rescue.

Despite Donkey Kong’s cultural impact at the time, Nintendo’s later success with Super Mario Bros. meant DK sat on the sidelines until an outside company got involved with a divisive reboot. Still, at least two classic arcade games came from this era that are fairly easily playable today. The original game is so good there’s a genuinely intense documentary about it. Donkey Kong 3… also exists. You play as a random, blue collar dude attacking DK with bug spray. It’s a mess.

The original also got an elaborate remake on the Game Boy, which is widely known as one of the best games for the original Game Boy, and arguably still the best DK game.

Rare, with an attitude

UK developer Rare, previously known for stuff like WWF games and Battletoads on the NES, somehow convinced Nintendo to hand over Donkey Kong. DK was entirely redesigned with a bit of 90s edge, and was an early example of 3D graphics for the Super Nintendo. The darker tone and visual style was divisive for many (especially within Nintendo itself), but the Donkey Kong Country series is remembered fondly thanks to elements like David Wise’s unfathomably brilliant soundtracks, massive boss battles, and a goofy sense of humor.

Donkey Kong enjoyed being a bigger deal again for a while, with a smaller team at Rare developing a series of Game Boy games (Donkey Kong Land), a popular racing adventure game starring Diddy Kong, and the infamous Donkey Kong 64. There was even an absolutely bizarre cartoon series, which some of us remember fondly, and others wish they could banish from their brain juices. Unfortunately several other games were cancelled along the way, and by the time Nintendo’s next console was ready, well, keep reading.

Gimmick Kong

After Rare parted ways with Nintendo to go work… elsewhere, Donkey Kong was in a rough spot. DK as a series was lost, and ended up being the laboratory of horrors for any weird gimmicks Nintendo came up with. Donkey Konga was a music game that came with a set of plastic bongo drums you had to literally clap at, a concept that was almost used for a racing game before Donkey Kong Barrel Blast was moved to the Wii to die a more peaceful death.

You also saw stuff like DK: King of Swing and its sequel Jungle Climber, in which you used the shoulder buttons to guide our once prideful gorilla up a series of obstacles like a weird pseudo-sequel to Clu Clu Land. Other games appeared during this time such as the fondly-remembered Jungle Beat, but Nintendo sadly was unable or unwilling to give our boy the star treatment he once had. Until history repeated itself.

Uninvited from the party

But before we move on, we have to acknowledge where most people (especially younger gamers) probably recognize Donkey Kong from. Party games! DK, as a Nintendo original, was and continues to be a regular in Mario Kart, Mario sports titles, and Mario Party. Well, for the most part. Nintendo was so disrespectful to the man/monkey who made it that he was actually removed from the Mario Party roster for a whopping four games, not being playable outside of a specific mode in Mario Party 4, then missing entirely until Mario Party 10. An outrage, if you ask me. Imagine doing this to one of the cover athletes from Mario Hoops, one of the best basketball games ever made. Unbelievable.

Misunderstood King

Nintendo finally saw the error of its ways, and worked with Retro Studios to orchestrate a comeback with Donkey Kong Country Returns on the Wii. Naturally, instead of joyously losing their minds most people were upset Returns wasn’t a new Metroid Prime and were happy to dismiss this one right out of the gate. It had problems, like far too gimmicky Wii controls, but Retro did a lot of work to pick up where Rare left off back in the day. A sequel, Tropical Freeze for the Wii U, even brought back legendary composer David Wise for the soundtrack. Unfortunately Tropical Freeze launched for Wii U, where nothing could save any game, regardless of how good it was.

Both games were ported to Switch however, and I wholeheartedly recommend both of them.

Hollywood Makeover

The last new Donkey Kong game before now (ports aside) was technically Mini Mario & Friends: Amiibo Challenge, which dropped in 2016, making Donkey Kong Bananza the end of a nearly decade-long hiatus. Part of the impetus for ending that losing streak seems to have been the Super Mario Bros. Movie, which prominently featured Donkey Kong and went a long way to restore his star power. DK is supposedly getting his own movie now, but in the meantime Nintendo took the opportunity to, along with the Switch 2 launch, seemingly reboot the character.

DK got a whole design refresh, keeping distinct features from Rare’s design but sanding off some of the old edges. He has a more expressive, cartoony vibe now, which is a huge part of Donkey Kong Bananza. He makes so many funny faces in that game, folks. He’s also teaming up with a child version of Pauline, which appears to be shaking up the… Donkey Kong lore (yikes) situation as well. It’s a whole new ballgame for ol’ DK, and hopefully this time people show up and give Nintendo a reason to keep up the momentum.