Line #8 YMMV/DonkeyKong


1	For individual games and the ''Country'' subseries in general:
2
3	* ''YMMV/DonkeyKongJunior''
4	* ''YMMV/DonkeyKong3''
5	* ''YMMV/DonkeyKong94''
6	* ''YMMV/DonkeyKongCountry''
7	* ''YMMV/DiddyKongRacing''
8	* ''YMMV/DonkeyKong64''
9	* ''YMMV/MarioVSDonkeyKong''
10	* ''YMMV/DonkeyKongJungleBeat''
11	* ''YMMV/DKJungleClimber''
12	* ''YMMV/DonkeyKongBarrelBlast''
13	----
14	!!Donkey Kong franchise in general
15	* AudienceAlienatingEra: After Nintendo sold off Rare in 2002, the franchise struggled in finding a new identity for itself. Donkey Kong stopped starring in platform games and went into quirky spin-off titles that while they have their share of fans, [[SoOkayItsAverage were unimpressive]] and lacked memorability. It came to an end in 2010, when Retro Studios took over and developed ''Donkey Kong Country Returns'', which [[WinBackTheCrowd was released to wide acclaim]] and brought in a new legion of DK fans.
16	* BaseBreakingCharacter:
17	** Candy Kong. There are those who find her [[MsFanservice appealing]], and those who don't. She does get credit for being one of the original Kongs, but some fans don't really look forward to seeing Candy again due to her [[SatelliteLoveInterest questionable role]] and design.
18	** Unrelated to her status as this in ''[=DK64=]'', a few fans miss Tiny Kong's old kid design, while others much prefer her aged up redesign. You will rarely find a person who likes both designs.
19	* BrokenBase: Nintendo's tendency to reduce Donkey Kong to just another ''Mario'' sub-franchise, especially after Rare's departure. Some believe it strips away Donkey Kong's identity as an independent series and limits the use of proper ''Country'' series follow-ups, while some enjoy playing as Donkey and Diddy in Mario titles and different gameplay genres. This died down a bit when the ''Donkey Kong Country'' series was revived by Retro Studios, with negligent fans being [[VindicatedByHistory willing to give the Mario spin-offs more credit]].
20	* EnsembleDarkhorse:
21	** Stanley has a bit of a fanbase despite his obscurity.
22	** Cranky Kong and his [[BreakingTheFourthWall fourth wall-murdering]] quips have always been beloved by the fandom, to the point he eventually got PromotedToPlayable in ''Tropical Freeze''
23	** Funky Kong has always had a big fanbase, despite being one of the many side characters found in the ''Country'' games.
24	** Chunky and [[FountainOfMemes Lanky]] were fairly popular additions in ''[=DK64=]'', but outside of a few sporadic appearances, they've largely been missing for around two decades. Chunky moreso, as Lanky at least featured in ''Barrel Blast'' as a playable character.
25	** As later games have put him and his race off the spotlight, K. Rool and the Kremlings have become this, especially for older fans. Before ''finally'' making his triumphant return in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'', K. Rool's last major appearance was in ''Mario Super Sluggers'' released '''10''' years prior to ''Ultimate''.
26	* EpilepticTrees: There is a lot of fan speculation that Kiddy, Swanky and Chunky died, due to their large lack of appearances after ''Donkey Kong Country 3'' and ''Donkey Kong 64''.
27	* GrowingTheBeard: While no one will deny the impact of the original Arcade game, the release of ''Donkey Kong Country'' in 1994 was the game that officially put the ''Donkey Kong'' franchise on the map, giving DK his more iconic design and introducing his own universe of popular characters like Diddy Kong and King K. Rool, turning it from a mere footnote on the ''Mario'' franchise into something quite big on its own.
28	* MyRealDaddy:
29	** Creator/{{Rare}} is generally considered to be the true shaper of the ''Donkey Kong'' franchise for introducing DK's unique supporting cast, setting, and enemies, as otherwise the original games would have been a footnote in the birth of the ''Mario'' series. Cementing this further is the AudienceAlienatingEra the franchise suffered from 2002 to 2010, the time between when Rare left the helm, and before Retro Studios took over the franchise.
30	** While the fans have not forgotten Rare even after their buyout by Microsoft, they have also embraced Creator/RetroStudios as a "second" daddy for their work on ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryReturns'' and winning back the fandom for the then-suffering franchise.
31	* TheScrappy: Kiddy Kong is not really well-liked, no thanks to his rather ugly design, being another MightyGlacier (thus shelving Donkey Kong for the second time in a row) and having little personality of his own besides being a baby. No wonder he has never shown up in another game ever since ''Donkey Kong Country 3''. Tellingly, while Tiny Kong was initially a ReplacementScrappy for her sister Dixie, fans had the opposite reaction to Kiddy's brother Chunky.
32	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: All the Kongs that aren't Donkey, Diddy, Dixie, Cranky, and Funky, who are usually the ones to be featured in newer games post-Paon.
33	** Candy has never had a playable role anywhere despite being one of the original five Kongs of the original [=DKC=]. She was intended to appear as a playable character in ''Diddy Kong Pilot'' and more games developed by Rare, but that never released.
34	** Dixie and Tiny are sisters, but there is very little shown chemistry between them; Dixie was not in Tiny's debut game ''Donkey Kong 64'', and, similarly with Candy, Tiny was mostly sidelined after her debut until she was redesigned for ''Diddy Kong Racing DS''. She also did show up in ''VideoGame/MarioSuperSluggers'', her last known role. Newer games likely don't feature her due to gameplay redundacy considering her similar set of skills to Dixie.
35	** Lanky and Chunky Kong have been mostly absent since their debut in ''64'', even more than Tiny was. Lanky in particular is a completely unique species of Kong and has his own exclusive set of skills that no other character has, yet he only has a ''Barrel Blast'' playable role to his name. Chunky, meanwhile, is even worse, not appearing anywhere unil his cameo in the ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosMovie''. Likely, being another gorilla hero when DK already exists is tough on his prospects.
36	** Just like with Dixie and Tiny, Kiddy and Chunky, despite being brothers, have never had any screen time together (aside from the minigame in the ''Donkey Kong Country 3'' remake where he can save Chunky in the water), since Kiddy wasn't in ''Donkey Kong 64'' and they haven't made any appearances in any DK games afterward. The fans also largely believed Kiddy would be the fourth playable Kong in ''Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze'' solely de to precedent, which didn't happen.
37	** Not just King K. Rool, but also his Kremling Krew. They were fully absent in both ''Donkey Kong Country Returns'' and ''Tropical Freeze''.
38	** Most of the Animal Buddies that have only starred in one game, namely Ellie the Elephant, Rattly the Rattlesnake, Parry the Parallel Bird, and even Expresso the Ostrich and Winky the Frog.
39	!!The original arcade game
40	* AccidentalInnuendo: "HOW HIGH CAN YOU GET?"
41	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
42	** Is Donkey Kong vengefully kidnapping Pauline because Mario kept him caged up and away from his son while he was Mario's pet, or does he not realize Pauline is Mario's girlfriend and did he just grab her absentmindedly and is he just taking her with him? For that matter, is he rampaging around because he was unhappy with being locked up for so long and away from his son, or is he just rampaging around on instinct?
43	** How did DK come to be Mario's pet? Did Mario abduct him from the wild? Also, how did Mario treat him? DK is acting up, but is it because of abuse, unhappiness from being kept as a pet and away from the wild for so long, or is he just being a jerk? [[VideoGame/DonkeyKong3 The third game]] has him breaking into Stanley's greenhouse and causing trouble, so he isn't exactly a saint at this point, but did being kept as a pet fuel his rampage? In [[VideoGame/DonkeyKongJunior the second game]], Mario's clearly mistreating him, but is that only because of how he acted in the first game? Did Mario not realize that keeping DK as his pet was making the ape unhappy?
44	* CommonKnowledge: Tons.
45	** ''No version'' of the first game paints Mario and/or Pauline as being abusive toward Donkey Kong. While Mario is being mean to him in [[VideoGame/DonkeyKongJunior the second game]], that's after his rampage in the first.
46	** Donkey Kong is only an escaped circus ape in the cartoon.
47	** ''Donkey Kong Circus'' is not meant to be a prequel and doesn't even take place in a circus. The circus name is [[TheArtifact a leftover]] due to being a DolledUpInstallment of a licensed WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse and WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck game, with DK as the former and Mario as the latter.
48	* FandomEnragingMisconception: Go ahead and say that the girl in the original game is Peach. ''We dare you.'' Not helped by Peach ''actually'' replacing Pauline in the Modern version of the G&W version in ''VideoGame/GameAndWatchGallery 2''.
49	* FanNickname: The second stage, [[https://www.mariowiki.com/50m 50m]], is often called the "pie factory" because of the [[https://www.mariowiki.com/Cement_tub cement tubs]] that ride along its conveyor belts, which are themselves nicknamed "pies" after their resemblance to the dessert. Even the Nintendo Power guide for ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong64'' [[https://archive.org/details/DonkeyKong64NintendoPowerOfficialStrategyGuide/page/n121/mode/2up calls the latter]] by that name.
50	* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: The original appears to be more popular in the U.S. than in its home country of Japan. Nearly all of the notable world records are set by Americans, and not a single one by a Japanese player.
51	* GoodBadBugs:
52	** In the oldest version of the arcade game (specifically Japan set 3), Mario can [[https://youtu.be/4RNmOz_NFtY?t=14 very quickly complete 25m]] by carefully jumping off into the bottom right corner of the screen.
53	** In the NES version of 25M, Mario can bypass most of the level by climbing down the first ladder at a precise moment, wrapping around the screen and appearing at the top.
54	* HilariousInHindsight:
55	** This [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Amu1jfsM65c&ab_channel=MYSATURDAYM0RNINGS 1984 commercial for Donkey Kong cereal]] gives Mario a noticeable Italian accent not unlike the one Charles Martinet would give Mario years later. He even says [[{{Catchphrase}} "Here we go"]] at one point.
56	** In 1982, Creator/{{Universal}} had [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_City_Studios,_Inc._v._Nintendo_Co.,_Ltd.#/search attempted to sue Nintendo]] over Donkey Kong, which they claimed was a violation of their copyright on ''Film/KingKong'' (which Universal ended up losing due to not actually owning the rights to King Kong). This becomes hilarious knowing that a few decades later, Universal would end up working right alongside Nintendo on the Ride/SuperNintendoWorld themed land at Ride/UniversalStudios, and ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosMovie'', both of which happen to feature DK himself and elements from the ''Donkey Kong'' series.
57	* MorePopularSpinoff:
58	** The entire ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' series, to where Nintendo themselves and most fans celebrate the anniversary of said franchise rather than Mario's first video game appearance.
59	** Obviously, the ''Donkey Kong Country'' games, to the point where all of Donkey Kong's appearances from that game onwards use his appearance from there, plus the inclusion of characters like Diddy Kong and King K. Rool in games outside of the ''Donkey Kong Country'' series.
60	* NewerThanTheyThink: The game's theme tune, which would later be memorably updated into the theme for ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'', actually wasn't in the arcade original. It was added for the NES port.
61	* NightmareFuel:
62	** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1cXSPnBXmE DOS version]]: due to color limitations, Donkey Kong looks more like a demon than a gorilla, [[NothingIsScarier there is no background music]], and the slowed down death jingle is even more unsettling than the original one.
63	** In comparison to the comedic tone of the commercials for ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongJunior'' and ''VideoGame/MarioBros'', the [[https://youtu.be/NzFCXfjuNjI commercial]] for the home release of ''Donkey Kong'' is really unsettling thanks to its dramatic background music and its sense of DramaticIrony with Mario not aware that Donkey Kong has broken into the house, with Pauline trying to get his attention as desperately as possible. Really, replace Donkey Kong with a serial killer, and it almost looks like something out of ''Film/{{Psycho}}''.
64	* PortingDisaster:
65	** The Intellivision version with its blocky graphics, limited number of screens, and terrible controls. So bad that it was purposely blocked from being played on the updated Intellivision II by its hardware. Carl Mueller Jr. created an updated version with better graphics, more screens, and even additional characters you can play as.
66	** The Atari 2600 version hits pretty much every critique as the Intellivision version, with its take on Donkey Kong being described as "a gingerbread man throwing cookies at you." It's widely theorized that these ports were deliberately gimped by Coleco to make their version look better, as on top of looking infinitely worse, they also came out six months later.
67	** Really, ''Donkey Kong'' as a whole was notorious for having tons of these, due to being PortOverdosed in the early 80s and having rather finicky requirements. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ya9i26nFgE The IBM version]] tends to bottom out, though, due to its lack of colors, slow speed, and a Donkey Kong sprite that looks right out of a bad creepypasta, with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WP5Pqfcrb4 the ZX Spectrum version]] putting in a strong case due to its lack of music, earsplitting sound effects, baffling Mario sprite, and generally looking ugly as sin. The Colecovision version was largely sold on the basis of being somewhat passable compared to all the other garbage ports, and the NES version was a step up from that.
68	** Even the NES version was infamously lacking, omitting the 50m stage and some cutscenes and animations. ''Donkey Kong: Original Edition'' is essentially an authorised GameMod reinstating some of these elements into the NES version while keeping its own bells and whistles, leaning it more as a PolishedPort, though it still lacks certain parts like the introduction cutscene.
69	* SequelDisplacement: Many people born in modern times think that [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] debuted with ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'' (doesn't help that Nintendo doesn't acknowledge Mario's debut in Donkey Kong but heavily markets his debut in the Super Mario Bros as if it was his own birthday). There's also a small group of people who think, or at least once thought, that Donkey Kong made his debut in ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry1''. Technically they're right, but it was the current Donkey Kong, with the original Donkey Kong debuting as Cranky Kong.
70	* SignatureScene: Every time the original arcade game is referenced, parodied or mentioned in popular culture, it's always in the form of the first screen with the slanted girders, the ladders, and the rolling barrels.
71	* SpiritualAdaptation: The original arcade game was created after Nintendo failed to license ''WesternAnimation/{{Popeye}}''. Ironically enough, after the success of ''Donkey Kong'', Nintendo created an officially licensed ''VideoGame/{{Popeye}}'' game.
72	* SuspiciouslySimilarSong:
73	** The music played during Kong's initial climbing resembles the theme from ''Franchise/{{Dragnet}}''. The music while Mario is swinging a hammer less closely resembles ''{{Film/Rocky}}'''s theme. The main background music resembles the bridge of "Splish Splash".
74	** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_habrVjAGs 25m theme]] is lifted straight from the bassline of Music/TheBeatles's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZnm_s3wZeo "The Ballad of John and Yoko"]].
75	* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Some were very disappointed by the removal of the pie level from the NES port. Given that ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongJunior'' would later have all four of its levels intact, it raises the question of why the first game's port couldn't handle an extra level.

Context YMMV / DonkeyKong