My bananas and my buddy, Diddy, they are gone! The Kremlings will pay! I'll hunt them down through every corner of my island, until I have every last banana from my hoard back!
Donkey Kong
Introduced in 1994 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and ported to the Game Boy Advance a decade later,
Donkey Kong Country revolutionized video gaming in many ways. Its primary innovation was the use of pre-rendered 3D sprites in a 2D
platformer. Another was the use of tandem heroes, able to switch places as needed. As well, it brought the star of
Donkey Kong back into the limelight (though the game makes it clear that
the Donkey Kong you play as is different from the original, and that the original Donkey Kong is the older and aptly named Cranky Kong).
The original trilogy on the
Super Nintendo features a developed three-part story arc. In the first game, Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong must reclaim their stolen banana hoard as well as defend their island from the invading army of
reptilian-humanoid Kremlings, who apparently want to milk the island dry of its myriad natural resources with their monstrous factories. In the second game, Donkey Kong is ape-napped and held for ransom (a ransom of bananas, of course) by the Kremlings'
master of disguise leader,
King Kaptain K. Rool, and so Diddy and his girl-friend Dixie must travel to the Kremling homeland, Crocodile Isle, to rescue him. In the third game, the Kongs' celebratory vacation in the Northern Kremisphere is cut short when the Kremlings arise once again, this time under the leadership of the mysterious Kaos (
not to be confused with that other KAOS), and the Kongs start going missing. It's up to Dixie and her enormous,
super-strong infant cousin, Kiddy Kong, to get to the bottom of things.
Donkey Kong 64, from 1999, brought the series onto the third dimension in a big way, and is considered by many to be the last "true" entry in the
Donkey Kong Country saga (although it seems the Paon games work within the same continuity). In it, King K. Rool returns with a vengeance. Figuring that if he and his people can't have Donkey Kong's island, nobody can, and so he steers an enormous high-tech warship next to it and plans to blast it right off the face of the Earth with his secret weapon, the
Blast-O-Matic. This game unites a
Five Man Band of Kongs (Donkey, Diddy, Dixie's sister Tiny, Kiddy's brother Chunky, and odd-man-out Lanky, although other familiar faces such as Cranky and Funky lend a hand along the way) who set out to find a series of 200 solid-gold giant bananas and the missing blueprints to the Blast-O-Matic in an effort to trounce the Kremlings for the final time.
Supporting NPCs in the game include:
- Cranky Kong, who reminisces about the old days of video games and gives advice;
- Funky Kong, whose jet barrels allow Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong to return to any previously completed level, and
- Candy Kong, who had a save point in the original game.
The GBA port of
Donkey Kong Country has two mini-games: Funky Kong's
Fishing Mini Game and
Candy Kong's dance studio. Also in the GBA port, the player can fill the Kongs' scrapbook by finding cameras and performing in-game feats of varying difficulty.
Donkey Kong Country had two Super Nintendo sequels, neither of which featured Donkey Kong as a playable character, though the third installment (
Dixie Kong's Double Trouble) featured a baby Kong who sort of moved like Donkey Kong. Each installment had a Game Boy counterpart under the name
Donkey Kong Land.
Land translated the pre-rendered graphics of its sister series as well as it could to the Gameboy's small, monochrome screen and usually featured new levels.
A
Racing Game Spin Off appeared as
Diddy Kong Racing. There was to be a sequel to
Diddy Kong Racing called
Donkey Kong Racing (go figure), but Rare's contract with Nintendo for usage of the Donkey Kong franchise ran out. Then Rare got bought out by Microsoft, demolishing any remaining hope that the contract might be renewed. However, Nintendo did toy with the franchise for a while, producing the
Donkey Konga trilogy of rhythm games as well as
Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, an
underrated action-platformer that is not set in the DKC continuity, but is nevertheless very reminiscent of its style. Following this, they handed the character over to Paon, a company that produces games for Nintendo's handheld consoles. Paon seems to acknowledge and refer to the
Donkey Kong Country continuity, although their plots are quite atypical; whether or not they and DKC belong to the same canon is up in the air.
Donkey Kong Country also had a short-lived French CGI-animated series based off it; several elements from this show ended up in
Donkey Kong 64. Information on the series can be found
here.
Tropes named from the
Donkey Kong Country universe:
Other tropes used:
- Abnormal Ammo: Whatever it is that Squawks the parrot is firing from his mouth. Nintendo Power says they're eggs, but they look more like nuts.
- Added Alliterative Appeal: Almost all the levels in the Donkey Kong Country series use either this trope or Sublime Rhyme for the level names.
- A Winner Is You: Conquering Donkey Kong Land nets you a single word of congratulations as the plain-text credits roll.
- Big Bad: King K. Rool
- Bonus Stage: The 2D games are absolutely loaded with hidden bonus areas of varying kinds. Finding them is often necessary for achieving Hundred Percent Completion.
- Bootstrapped Theme: DK Island Swing (also known as the Jungle Japes theme) is without a doubt the most popular music from the series, and is essentially used as the series' theme.
- Breakout Character: When Diddy proved more popular than Donkey Kong in DKC 1, he was promoted to main character status in DKC 2, only to see his sidekick Dixie overshadow him and get promoted to main character in DKC 3.
- Brother Chuck: Chunky and Kiddy Kong haven't been showing up in any recent games, not even a Mario game. This is despite Kiddy Kong being announced to return in Donkey Kong Racing (which never came to be in the end).
- Don't forget Rattly the Rattlesnake. Winky and Expresso at least got a Shout Out here and there...
- The Caligula (K. Rool)
- Convection Schmonvection (Crocodile Cauldron from DKC 2)
- Crosshair Aware
- Crowning Music Of Awesome (Many songs, especially Stickerbrush Symphony.)
- Death Throws
- The Dragon: KAOS.
- Exploding Barrels
- Everything Trying To Kill You: Subverted in a rather interesting fashion. There are enemies trying to kill you for no obvious reason (Zingers, Armys), but there are also numerous small animals that can be seen crawling, hopping, flying, or swimming around the levels. The latter have no effect on you; they're just scenery.
- Follow The Money
- Freud Was Right: The thrusting motion that Donkey Kong makes when he's riding Enguarde... he seems to be enjoying himself a little too much. See Good Bad Bugs below for more.
- Fungus Humongous: Fungi Forest.
- Gimmick Level (lots of them, especially in the later games)
- Good Bad Bugs: A glitch
in the first game's level can cause Rambi's sprites to be mistakenly replaced with a copy of the player's character with a messed-up palette. This can be combined with another glitch which causes Donkey Kong to get stuck in a certain animation while riding "himself", making the situation resemble something else...
- Gotta Catch Em All: DK 64, so very, very much. It is a Rare-made 3D platformer, after all.
- Guide Dang It: The locations of some of the bonus rooms.
- Huge Rider Tiny Mount: Donkey Kong and Winky, later Kiddy and Squawks and Squitter. Rattly got off easy...
- Hundred Percent Completion: Played with. DKC 1 actually goes up to 101%, DKC 2 goes up to 102%, and later games take it even higher.
- Hype Backlash (While generally well-received, the original game suffered this in some circles)
- Invincible Minor Minion: Clambos and red Zingers.
- Kaizo Trap: King K.Rool loves this. There's fake credits in the middle of the final fight in the first game, and his last attack can kill you after you beat him in the second game.
- King Mook: Every boss in DKC 1 except for K. Rool; Krow and King Zing in DKC 2.
- Well, arguably even K. Rool. He's the king of the Kremlings, and Kremlings serve as mooks...
- Barbos from DKC 3. Also, Kleever is presumably a giant Kutlass that lives in lava. They have the same blade, and during the first phase of the boss, you can see a hand holding it, with its arm going into the lava.
- Legacy Character: Cranky Kong is the DK from the early 1980s arcade games.
- Level Ate: Sweet Paradise from Donkey Kong Jungle Beat.
- Lighthouse Point: There is one in Gloomy Galleon in Donkey Kong 64.
- Live Item: The Banana Birds.
- The Lost Woods: Vine Valley in DKC 1, Gloomy Gulch in DKC 2, and Kremwood Forest in DKC 3.
- Mad Scientist: K. Rool(enstein) in DKC 3.
- Cranky is depicted this way in Donkey Kong 64, providing powerups in the form of potions.
- Make My Monster Grow: King K. Rool at the end of Jungle Climber.
- Medium Awareness: Cranky Kong is constantly complaining about the game's graphics, recalling the "good old days" (he was the original Donkey Kong from the arcade games).
- Meta Guy: Cranky Kong.
- Monogender Monsters: The Kremlings, though finally subverted in Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast/Jet Race.
- Misguided Missile
- MST 3 K Mantra: It's probably best not to ask how a parrot can fly around while holding two apes in his claws.
- From Brian Sulpher's You Tube talkthrough of DKC 2: "If you step on (Clapper), he will cool down the water for you. Not sure how that works, but then again, these are monkeys who wear clothing who ride animals and bust through walls and collect coins and battle reptiles who think they're pirates. So again, we should not apply too much logic to this."
- How can Diddy be Donkey Kong's nephew when they're completely different types of apes?
- Names To Run Away From Really Fast: King K Rool (Cruel AND a Hard K sound in the name), and pretty much every single villain in the entire series.
- Needs More Love: This series was probably hit hardest by Rare being bought by Microsoft, with quite a few critics jumping on the bandwagon and saying it was never 'that good', possibly based on an early Miyamoto quote from the days just before Yoshis Island (which he eventually retracted). Not to mention Nintendo Power (and many other game magazines) and their somewhat non mention/insulting of anything by Rare...
- Nightmare Fuel: It's hard to find more depressing game-over scenes.
- And let's not forget "GET OUT!" from DK 64.
- And whatever is making that sound in the catacombs of Creepy Castle. And the ghostly laughter you hear while exploring the Ball Room. Oh, and let's not forget that at one point in the stage you use giant disembodied "Frankenstein's Monster" hands as platforms.
- While we're on the subject of DK 64: MAD JACK. Dark room? Check. Small platforms raised to great heights? Check. A Creepy Doll? Oh yes. A Monster Clown Creepy Doll? Hell yeah. Evil Laughter every freaking minute? Come on! It's like Rare went out of their way to encompass every single childhood phobia in the book in one single boss!
- The Stop & Go Station stage from DKC 1 and Haunted Hall from DKC 2. Know somebody who makes fun of you for playing a platformer featuring cartoon apes and monkeys? Show 'em these stages. Especially start up Haunted Hall and introduce them to Kackle, let him kill you, and watch your pal's face as the sadistic ghostly bastard lets out one of the most terrifying Evil Laughs ever recorded. NYAHAHAHAHAHA
- Ever crap your pants after seeing a green light?
- Nintendo Hard: In Diddy's Kong Quest, you've battled your way through
King Kaptain K. Rool's Kastle. You're at the final stage, when the Kaptain suddenly escapes into an airship. But before you can follow him, you have to go through a briar patch.
- Web Woods from the same game. Putting the DK coin in the goal roulette at the end of an incredibly long and tedious level is just downright sadistic.
- Official Couple: Diddy and Dixie are canonically boyfriend and girlfriend. As are DK and Candy.
- Orphaned Series: Rareware ran away with its mistress Microsoft, so the series had to live with its absentee uncle Nintendo for a while and was eventually adopted by Paon. Rareware lost custody, but still gets to visit the series on handhelds as Microsoft doesn't have its own.
- Palette Swap: Lampshaded by Cranky Kong in the GBA port of DKC 1.
- Pirates: The Kremlings become pirates for no particular reason (besides the Rule Of Cool) in Donkey Kong Country 2.
- Poison Mushroom: In Donkey Kong Country 2, later levels featured yellow Klobbers, which could knock bananas you've collected off of you. Even later levels bring out black Klobbers (complete with Red Eyes!) that knock extra lives out of you (in the form of the balloons you collect). Both cases, thankfully, you have a chance to collect them again.
- Pose Of Supplication : In Donkey Kong 64, Chunky Kong begged for mercy to a big monster to no avail. What followed was... well, let's just say it must hurt a lot.
- Prehensile Hair: Dixie Kong uses her ponytail to pick up barrels.
- Remember The New Guy: Cranky Kong's wife Wrinkly appeared out of nowhere in DKC 2. If Cranky had a wife, shouldn't we have heard about her in DKC 1?
- Rescued From The Scrappy Heap: Squawks went from being pretty much useless in DKC 1 to fulfilling a vital role in DKC 2.
- Scenery Porn: The Rareware games are chock full of it.
- Sealed Good In A Can
- Second Verse Curse: Most versions and remixes of the Bootstrapped Theme, "DK Island Swing," leave out the second, "slower" part entirely, in favor of the more upbeat opening. It's part of the tune, though. Just listen to the Super Smash Bros. versions
- Sequel Difficulty Spike
- Serious Business: The Donkey Kong Universe, originally. Though nowadays they just poke fun at their crazy theories and attempts to expain discrepancies, such as the Kongs having extra fingers in Mario sports titles, two Enguardes in Coral Capers, and changes to the story in the remakes.
- The Spiny: Zingers. Beating them typically requires a thrown barrel, an animal ally, or invincibility.
- DKC 2 has an enemy actually called Spiny. And it fits the trope.
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: The female Kongs have long blonde hair. And Dixie has pink toenails.
- That One Level: "The Squawks part of Animal Antics" could easily be the laconic entry for the article.
- Theme Tune Rap: The "DK Rap" from Donkey Kong 64 is generally considered to be either So Bad Its Good or So Bad Its Horrible, depending on whom you ask.
- They Changed It Now It Sucks: Donkey Kong Jungle Beat brought back very little from the Donkey Kong Country series.
- Title Confusion: Between the official soundtrack and the GBA version. Which one's "DK Island Swing" and which one's "Simian Segue"?
- Toy Time: Frantic Factory in Donkey Kong 64, though it has more in common with your typical factory area than with a toy factory.
- Trademark Favorite Food: What else? Bananas!
- Turns Red (some of the bosses)
- Underground Monkey: The GBA port of the first game was particularly plagued with them, although they do show up elsewhere.
- Vader Breath: King K. Rool in Donkey Kong 64.
- Video Game Flight: Squawks the Parrot lends wings to the Kongs in certain levels, which tend to be aerial mazes. Also, in Donkey Kong 64, Diddy Kong can fly with Rocketbarrels—a jetpack made out of barrels fueled by magical coconut-shaped crystals.
- Xtreme Kool Letterz: Everything related to the Kremlings substitutes any hard C with a K, à la Mortal Kombat.
- The Yoshi: Most of the Animal Buddies you meet throughout the games; Rambi the Rhino is particularly iconic of the series.
