Donkey Kong (universe)

Donkey Kong (universe)
File:DKSymbol.png
Developer(s)	Nintendo Rare Namco Paon Retro Studios
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Designer(s)	Shigeru Miyamoto
Genre(s)	Action adventure Platformer Puzzle Racing
Console/platform of origin	Arcade
First installment	Donkey Kong (1981)
Latest installment	Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (2014)

The Donkey Kong universe refers to the Super Smash Bros. series' collection of characters, stages, and properties that originate from the subset of Nintendo's Mario franchise that is focused on the character Donkey Kong. It is like the other "sub-franchises" to Mario - Yoshi and Wario - in that its characters are regularly featured in Mario games, but also stars them in its own games. In this case, it is a series that was initially established by developer Rareware, then a second-party developer for Nintendo, to feature Donkey Kong and an extended simian cast, crocodilian enemies, and an exclusive setting. The Super Smash Bros. series therefore saw fit to categorize Donkey Kong and these related properties with its own series symbol, rather than the iconic image of a Super Mushroom assigned to the "main" Mario series. The first two Smash games featured Donkey Kong as the series' only playable representative, and then added Diddy Kong for Brawl.

Franchise description

The character Donkey Kong was introduced to the fledgling video game industry at the same time as Mario, in the hugely successful 1981 coin-op arcade game named after him that defined Nintendo's future business as a video game company. The game was named after the de facto villain, a gorilla (which was named after the classic 1933 movie monster King Kong), instead of the player-character Mario (or "Jumpman", as he was named at the time), because designer Shigeru Miyamoto had felt Donkey Kong to be the strongest character in the love triangle displayed onscreen - the game used then-innovative techniques to tell the on-screen story of how the stubborn pet gorilla of "Jumpman" the carpenter steals away his girlfriend, Pauline, and it is up to the hero to save the damsel in distress. The success of the game prompted Nintendo to release two arcade follow-ups: Donkey Kong Jr. in 1982, where the gorilla's son Donkey Kong Jr. goes on a similar quest to free Donkey Kong from the cage Mario (in his only "villainous" appearance ever in a video game) keeps him trapped inside, and Donkey Kong 3 in 1983, where Donkey Kong invades a greenhouse to eat vegetables and stirs up flower-devouring insects in the process, and a one-time character and protagonist, Stanley the Bugman, must shoot bug spray both at the bugs and Donkey Kong to keep both the flowers and vegetables intact.

While Donkey Kong rivals Mario relatively closely as one of Nintendo's most popular characters today, what was essentially an eleven-year hiatus awaited the character following the release of Donkey Kong 3, as he never made a new "official" appearance in a release during that time period that was not some kind of port or compilation of the original games. Evidently, this was due to Nintendo's newfound focus on nurturing Mario's new NES-based franchise that exploded onto the public spotlight as a result of the world-famous, industry-defining Super Mario Bros. for the NES in 1985. Given that the seminal side-scrolling platformer had singlehandedly defined Nintendo's future styles and practices as a video game company more strongly and specifically than Donkey Kong had four years earlier, Donkey Kong was, for a time, treated as a relic of Nintendo's past; in fact, in Super Mario Kart for the SNES in 1992, Donkey Kong Jr. was one of the eight playable racers, chosen over his father. The hiatus was only partially alleviated in June 1994 when a Game Boy game titled Donkey Kong was released; while technically a remake of the original coin-op, it retooled the gameplay and provided an enormous increase in stage count (from 3 to 100), making it a project in its own right, and it is acclaimed as one of the best Game Boy games.

The hiatus for Donkey Kong was definitively ended later that year, however, thanks to the efforts of the British developer Rare. Rare sought out a partnership with Nintendo as a second-party developer and appealed to them with their work at Silicon Graphics, Inc. in the field of pre-rendered three-dimensional graphics in animated sprite form, and Nintendo consented to Rare developing a new game centered on Donkey Kong using this technology. Rare adopted the trademark name "Rareware" and released Donkey Kong Country for the SNES in November 1994. The side-scrolling platformer received widespread critical acclaim and became the second best-selling SNES game in the system's lifespan, and was revolutionary for being one of the first games for a mainstream home video game console to use pre-rendered 3D graphics. Rareware debuted the familiar modern-day design of Donkey Kong with the game, which included his trademark red necktie (though this was actually introduced in the aforementioned Game Boy Donkey Kong), and introduced a full supporting cast of side-characters and enemies that were owned by Rareware themselves during their affiliation with Nintendo. The most well-known of these new side characters is Diddy Kong, which was originally intended to be a redesign of Donkey Kong Jr., but Rareware decided he would be a separate character when Nintendo expressed disapproval of how much of a radical change it was from Donkey Kong Jr.'s established design. (Donkey Kong Jr., oddly enough, was forever relegated to extremely occasional cameo appearances in future Mario games following this.)

Some retrospectives express doubt on whether the success of Donkey Kong Country necessarily reflected the actual quality of the gameplay itself, but Rareware released two sequels on the SNES: Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, starring Diddy Kong and his newly-introduced girlfriend Dixie Kong, and Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble, starring Dixie Kong and a gorilla toddler named Kiddy Kong, both of which were reviewed as improvements. Rareware then created the highly-acclaimed and successful Diddy Kong Racing for the Nintendo 64 in 1997, and then created the 3D adventure-platformer Donkey Kong 64 in 1999, in a similar vein to their previous work on Banjo-Kazooie. Meanwhile, Donkey Kong's thoroughly-established resurgence in the Nintendo lineup guaranteed he would forever appear in either starring or side-roles not only in future Mario games, but in the Nintendo crossover series Super Smash Bros.. But then, in late 2002, Microsoft bought out 100% of Rareware's shares, turning Rare into a first-party developer for the Xbox line of consoles and leaving the Donkey Kong Country aesthetic and related characters under Nintendo's ownership (and incidentally letting their last planned console game, Dinosaur Planet for the Nintendo 64, get revised and released as Star Fox Adventures for the GameCube).

Donkey Kong remained a regular in Mario games as always, and his contributions have included the full Mario vs. Donkey Kong series of puzzle games that pay homage to the original Donkey Kong coin-op's scenario. And the characters and setting originally introduced by Rareware and associated with the Donkey Kong Country brand have made fairly regular appearances in games published by Nintendo but, for the most part, are developed by a variety second-party developers: the Paon Corporation developed the Game Boy Advance puzzle game DK: King of Swing and its Nintendo DS sequel DK: Jungle Climber, as well as the Wii racer Donkey Kong Barrel Blast; Namco, meanwhile, developed all three titles in the Donkey Konga series of GameCube rhythm games that use a unique bongo drum-themed peripheral for input (a peripheral also used as a controller for the Nintendo-developed GameCube platformer Donkey Kong Jungle Beat); and most recently, the "official" return of the side-scrolling gameplay style of Donkey Kong Country was the 2010 Wii title Donkey Kong Country Returns, which was developed by Retro Studios (previously famous for bringing forth the revival of the Metroid franchise with the full Metroid Prime subseries). A Wii U sequel, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, was released in February 2014.

The modern-day Donkey Kong seen in all Mario and Donkey Kong games since Donkey Kong Country is stated by the games featuring Rareware's extended Donkey Kong cast and setting to be the son (or grandson) of the "Donkey Kong" that was featured in the classic coin-op arcade games, and this original "Donkey Kong" is depicted in the Rareware-originated series as an elderly curmudgeon named Cranky Kong. (Nintendo has sometimes ignored Rareware's decision on this matter in the past, but nowadays counts this as part of the Mario canon.) Donkey Kong's extended family and friends, all of them simians, are collectively referred to as the Kong Family, living on an island shaped like Donkey Kong's head named Donkey Kong Island, and in every Kong Family-centered game their enemies are an expansive army of humanoid crocodilians called the Kremling Krew. They and their ruler, the comically obese and cantankerous King K. Rool, constantly try to steal the Kong Family's enormous hoard of bananas for unspecified reasons, and to this end they have allies of different species such as vultures and giant spiked wasps; Donkey Kong, his nephew Diddy Kong, and certain other Kong Family members embark on quests to defeat the Kremling Krew and safeguard their bananas, and the Kongs sometimes call on animal allies of their own.

In Super Smash Bros.

Donkey Kong's universe, treated by Super Smash Bros. as separate from Mario's due to the different series symbol, features only around as much representation of itself as most other standalone universes in the game, with one character, one stage, and one item.

Character

• 
  Donkey Kong: The original version of Donkey Kong was introduced as a fearsome pet of Mario that was the antagonist in a love triangle, in which he kidnapped a maiden that Mario was forced to rescue. However, the modern depiction of Donkey Kong was introduced over a decade later by Rareware in the form of a descendant to the original, with a monogrammed necktie and a more consistently friendly rivalry with Mario that only occasionally flares into an outright conflict in games such as the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series. Regardless, he shares the spotlight with Mario as one of the video game medium's most famous characters, and in many Mario games where he can be selected, he conforms to a "big, strong, and slow" archetype. This carries over into his debut as a fighter in Super Smash Bros., both casually and competitively; he is the heaviest in the roster, has a uniquely capable grabbing and throwing game in which he is the only character who can carry his opponent around on his back, and has powerful and long-reaching attacks, including a chargeable and retainable KO move in Giant Punch. His qualities are offset by his generally lacking mobility and high ending lag for his attacks, his large frame and the resultant ease in which he can be attacked and damaged, and the horizontally-aligned nature of his sole recovery method. In high-level play, he has particular problems with dealing with projectile-wielding opponents, which helps rank him as a mid-to-low-tier character competitively.

Stage

• Congo Jungle: This stage features visuals, audio, and layout designed in direct homage to the first level of Donkey Kong Country for the SNES, and is named (albeit with a misspelling) after the first level set of said game, Kongo Jungle. It has a pair of rotating platforms in the center and a Barrel Cannon hovering below the stage which can be used by fighters to save themselves from falling.

Item

• Hammer: The giant mallet from the original arcade Donkey Kong that could be picked up by Mario and compel him to swing it uncontrollably to the tune of a "super" melody for a period of time, pulverizing any obstacles in his way. Its function is extremely similar in Smash Bros., in which when a character picks it up, they swing it uncontrollably for the next ten seconds to the same classic melody, and they are unable to discard the hammer beforehand (save for rare instances while the user is hit by another attack), nor can they perform any other move or double jump. Enemies that get hit by the hammer take a massively powerful and damaging hit, and the difficulty of landing a hit on a character swinging the hammer compels many characters - especially the A.I. - to spend the entire duration trying to keep their distance.

Music

• 6: A remix of the first stage music heard in Donkey Kong Country. It is heard in Congo Jungle, and both the music and the stage were reused in Super Smash Bros. Melee.
• 16: The victory fanfare of Donkey Kong is an orchestration of the "Boss Defeated" music heard in Donkey Kong Country for SNES.
• 26: Sped-up 8-bit music that occurs when you pick up the Hammer, in homage to the music that would occur when Mario would pick up a hammer in the original Donkey Kong (in the SSB series, the NES version is used as the basis).

In Super Smash Bros. Melee

While Super Smash Bros. Melee features an abundance of new content, the Donkey Kong series is still only represented by one character. However, what stands out about the series' representation in Melee is that it has a total of three representative stages - two new, one ported from the previous game.

Character

• Donkey Kong: Returning from Super Smash Bros., Donkey Kong gains Headbutt as his new side special move, which inflicts the new Buried condition - immobilizing the target and potentially helping DK land a Giant Punch with more certainty. As if to cede the title of being the purest example of a strong-but-slow-and-large fighter to newcomer Bowser, DK has gained a general increase in movement and attack speed, which serves him well in the speed-oriented environment of competitive Melee, but at the expense of some of his exemplary power and reach. DK is considered to be more nerfed than buffed overall, which taken together with the problems he retains from the previous game causes him to be graded as slightly lower-tier in professional gameplay than he already was.

Stages

• DK Island: Kongo Jungle: This stage does not represent any specific location in any Donkey Kong game, but is instead a general representation of one type of location in Donkey Kong's home jungle environment, which is on multiple wooden platforms built into the edge of a waterfall near a cabin. One type of Kremling enemy, a Klap Trap, sometimes flows down the river and snaps at players as it falls off the waterfall.
• DK Island: Jungle Japes: This stage, though sharing the name of the first level of Donkey Kong 64, more closely resembles the jungle level tileset from Donkey Kong Country, and therefore resembles the original stage from Super Smash Bros., at least aesthetically. It is set on multiple wooden platforms built on top of a fast-flowing jungle river at sunset (a river that makes it hard for characters to recover from falling into), and the silhouette of Cranky Kong is regularly seen passing by the window of a cabin in the background. Klap Traps that swim and jump out of the water to bite at players amount to very powerful stage hazards.
• Past Stages: Kongo Jungle 64: The original Congo Jungle stage from Super Smash Bros. is one of three such stages to have been ported to Melee; besides a correctly-spelled name, it is seemingly an exact replica of the stage, with a slightly larger size and a slight delay to the launch process of the barrel cannon underneath the stage.

Items

• Barrel Cannon: A portable version of the many empty barrels in the series that Donkey Kong and other characters can launch themselves out of as if shot out of cannons. These barrels are typically fixtures on stages themselves and usually cannot be controlled by players, and while some of them can launch a character out when commanded to by a player, others launch the character out as soon as they enter. As an item in Melee, a player can pick up a barrel cannon and throw it at another to trap him inside it, and the victim must wait until the barrel rolls along the ground into a proper-facing direction before they can shoot themselves out of it with a button press.
• Hammer: The Super Smash Bros. Melee version of this item is somewhat powered down, and there is now a one-out-of-eight chance that the hammer's head will fall off its stick as soon as it is picked up, forcing the holder of the stick to be swinging a non-damaging stick helplessly for the entire duration. The discarded hammer head, meanwhile, can be picked up by a separate character and thrown as a powerful projectile, and can be repeatedly used this way for as long as it remains on the stage, up until it naturally disappears.

Music

• 3: Kongo Jungle: A cover band performance of the "DK Rap" made infamous in the opening sequence to Donkey Kong 64, with a much different assortment of instruments and rhythms from its original appearance. The same, unaltered track from Melee was also used in Donkey Konga. It is heard only in the Kongo Jungle stage.
• 4: Jungle Japes: A calm and atmospheric remix of the standard "Jungle music" in various stages of Donkey Kong Country for SNES. It is heard in Jungle Japes.
• 27: Kongo Jungle N64: SSB’s version of "Jungle Japes", which itself is a calm and atmospheric remix of the standard "Jungle music" heard in various stages of Donkey Kong Country for SNES. It appears in the Past stage attached to it, Past Stages: Kongo Jungle.
• 39: DK's Victory: The victory fanfare of Donkey Kong is an orchestration of the "Boss Defeated" music heard in Donkey Kong Country for SNES.
• 76: Hammer: Sped-up 8-bit music that occurs when you pick up the Hammer, in homage to the music that would occur when Mario would pick up a hammer in the original Donkey Kong.

Full Trophy List

• Donkey Kong's three game trophies
• Hammer
• Barrel Cannon
• Dixie Kong
• Klaptrap
• King K. Rool

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Super Smash Bros. Brawl debuts the second representative character from the Donkey Kong series; these two characters occupy a column on the game's roster shared with the stars of the other two Mario subseries, Yoshi and Wario, which neighbors the column devoted to the core Mario series itself. A data package for a third playable character, Dixie Kong, was discovered by hackers following the game's release, suggesting that her inclusion in the roster was considered during development.

Characters

• 
  Donkey Kong: Donkey Kong returns from his Super Smash Bros. Melee appearance with a more natural look to his fur, but with no particular changes to his attack and movement patterns otherwise. His new Final Smash is the Konga Beat, in which he enters an invincible, immobile mode and slaps on bongo drums to the beat of the jungle-tileset theme from Donkey Kong Country - for each successfully-timed button input by the player during this process, DK emits a large damaging shockwave. These drums are a replica of the bongo drum controller peripheral used for the GameCube games Donkey Kong Jungle Beat and Donkey Konga, which in turn was based on an "ultimate musical attack" DK could use in Donkey Kong 64. As a fighter, Donkey Kong has regained a good degree of power and force in his attacks, and has better mobility as well; despite this, the different Brawl environment and his ever-present weaknesses against projectile-using characters in high-level play causes him to remain a mid-to-low-tier character in the competitive community's grading rubric.

• 
  Diddy Kong: Diddy Kong, a monkey, was introduced as Donkey Kong's nephew and best friend in Donkey Kong Country, and in that game and many games to follow he has become the most prolific "secondary" playable character to Donkey Kong in the latter's games, even being the main character of some of his own games. Due to his introduction in a British-developed title, Diddy Kong is the only European character in the Brawl roster. His special move arsenal includes generating and tossing Banana Peel items that trip opponents, as well as some technology from his playable role in Donkey Kong 64 - his Peanut Popguns give him a second projectile, while his Rocketbarrel Boost is usable for recovery. His final smash, Rocketbarrel Barrage, combines these two implements into a temporary flying mode that shoots very powerful explosive projectiles downwards. While this utility, together with Diddy's good overall speed, is offset in concept by his weak smash attacks and weak KO moves, the greatly-versatile capabilities of his banana peels - useful for offensive maneuvers, defensive maneuvers, and stage control alike - more than make up for his shortcomings and manage to cement him as one of the game's best competitive character choices.

Stages

• 
  Rumble Falls: Loosely based on the game Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, Rumble Falls is a large level, filled with ladder-like layers of platforms, in which the camera and the blast boundaries continuously scroll upwards, forcing combatants to constantly climb up while fighting, much like the Icicle Mountain stage from Melee. The stage is one of few in the game to include ladders that characters can climb, and also has various traps and buttons that can be hit to activate them. Once the top of the waterfall is reached in the background, the stage background fades into the starting waterfall and restarts itself.
• 
  75 m: An almost perfect recreation of the elevator stage in the original Donkey Kong arcade game, rendered in an identical 8-bit style. Another of few stages that contain climbable ladders, the unorthodox, platform-packed stage includes many stage hazards: mobile fireballs, bouncing jacks across the long top platform, and the original arcade-style Donkey Kong himself at the top left.
• 
  Melee Stages: Jungle Japes: The Jungle Japes stage makes a return appearance as part of Brawl’s collection of Melee Stages, with one primary difference: characters are now buoyant in the rushing river underneath the platforms because of the new Swimming mechanic. While the river is still dangerous and carries off characters very fast, it is possible for a character that falls into it on the right side of the screen to be able to jump back out and recover.

Items

The Barrel Cannon is removed as a traditional item, despite a black, metallic variation on it now appearing as a common stage element in various levels of the Subspace Emissary adventure mode. Meanwhile, the Peanuts that Diddy Kong can create are not available as items that can be switched off or on in matches, but while the Banana Peels he creates are official items in and of themselves, they are counted as representative of the core Mario universe instead of Donkey Kong.

• Hammer: The Super Smash Bros. Brawl version of the Hammer is virtually unaltered in function or specifics from its Melee version, besides some slightly altered damage values for a hurled Hammer head.
• Spring: This item's design is taken directly from the second level of Donkey Kong Jr., as well as the sound that plays when it is jumped on, though the concept of a spring that can be carried and hurled more closely resembles Super Mario World. As an item, this is a fairly weak throwing projectile, but while grounded, its purple-facing side can propel away characters that bump into it, whether the spring is left lying upright or on its side.

Music

• Jungle Level Ver. 2 - A fast paced, jazzy, rock-tinged arrangement of the "DK Island Swing" background music from the original Donkey Kong Country. It is the theme of the Rumble Falls stage.
• Jungle Level - Another remix of the "DK Island Swing". This remix is taken directly from the Donkey Kong Country soundtrack. It is used on the Rumble Falls stage.
• King K. Rool/Ship Deck 2 - A completely redone version of the song used during the battle against King K. Rool in the first Donkey Kong Country. It is used on the Rumble Falls stage. This song is also played during both Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong's Classic Mode credits.
• Bramble Blast - From Donkey Kong Country 2, where it was known as "Stickerbrush Symphony," this is a faster remix of said song, which played in all of the bramble filled levels. It is used on the Rumble Falls stage.
• Battle for Storm Hill - Background music for the first stage of the Durian Kingdom named "Battle for Storm Hill", taken directly from Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat. It is used on the Rumble Falls stage.
• DK Jungle 1 Theme (Barrel Blast) - Taken directly from the recently released racing title Donkey Kong Barrel Blast, it is used on the Rumble Falls stage.
• The Map Page/Bonus Level - A combination of two themes taken directly from the original Donkey Kong Country--the world map and bonus stages. It is used on the Rumble Falls stage.
• Donkey Kong - A techno arrangement of the themes from the original Donkey Kong arcade game, composed by the original game's sound effects producer, Hirokazu Tanaka. It is the theme of the 75 m stage.
• Opening (Donkey Kong) - A remix of several themes from the original Donkey Kong arcade game. It is used on the 75 m stage.
• 25m BGM - The background music of the first level of the original Donkey Kong arcade game, it is used on the 75 m stage.
• Jungle Japes (Melee) - Taken directly from Melee. A calm and atmospheric remix of the "DK Island Swing". It is the theme of the Jungle Japes stage.
• Kongo Jungle (Melee) - Taken directly from Melee. A cover band performance of the infamous "DK Rap". It is used on the Jungle Japes stage.
• Donkey Kong victory theme - A whimsical sounding remix of the victory fanfare played in Donkey Kong Country after defeating a boss or successfully completing a bonus level.

Trophies

Donkey Kong Diddy Kong Konga Beat Rocketbarrel Barrage Hammer Spring Dixie Kong Funky Kong Candy Kong Lanky Kong Wrinkly Kong Rambi Enguarde Kritter

Tiny Kong Cranky Kong Squitter Expresso King K. Rool Kass Kip Kalypso Kludge Helibird Turret Tusk Xananab Peanut Popgun Rocketbarrel Pack

Stickers

Banana Bunch Banana Coin Chunky Kong Cranky Kong Diddy Kong Donkey Kong DK Barrel DK with Barrel Funky Kong Gale Hawg

Kalypso Klaptrap Kritter Junior Lanky Kong Manky Kong Pauline & Donkey Kong Wrinkly Kong Xananab

In Super Smash Bros. 4

The Donkey Kong series is still represented by two characters.

Characters

• 
  Donkey Kong: Donkey Kong has once again received a furrier appearance than his prior game appearance, and while no move or performance differences are known, his Spinning Kong technique appears to now spin at an angle when he uses the move along the ground.

• 
  Diddy Kong returns as a playable character, revealed to promote the Western releases of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. It has been confirmed that moves involving his limbs will have longer range in general.

Common Enemies

• Kremling: Various types of Kritters appear as enemies in Smash Run. Klaptaps also reappear as stage hazards on Jungle Japes in the 3DS version.
• Tiki Buzz: Flying type enemies that also appear in Smash Run. Jumping on them destroys them, and gives the player a boost upwards.

Stage

• Past Stages: Jungle Japes: Jungle Japes reappears from Brawl and by extent Melee as a past stage for the 3DS version of the game.

Items

• Hammer: The Hammer reappears from previous titles with no changes.
• Spring: The Spring returns from Brawl with the same jumping function.

Music

• While no music has been confirmed to appear, a remix of the Rocket Barrel theme from Donkey Kong Country Returns was heard in the April 2014 Super Smash Bros. Direct.

Games with elements from or in the Super Smash Bros. series

Donkey Kong (game)

Mario and Donkey Kong, the characters who starred in this game became part of the Smash Bros. gang since the original Super Smash Bros. In addition, the Hammer from this game, as well as the tune that goes with it, is an item in all three Super Smash Bros. games. A section of Donkey Kong's Target Test in Super Smash Bros. Melee resembles the first level of the game. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, a stage known as 75 m is based directly on the third level in the game. Also, in Brawl, in Mario's Down Taunt, Mario spins around and falls to the ground. Mario did something like this whenever he dies in this game. In addition, DK's red costume may be a reference to his original sprite from this game. It also appears as a Masterpiece. It starts the player on the level 75 m takes place on.

Donkey Kong Jr.

Donkey Kong Jr. appears as a trophy in Super Smash Bros. Melee. He appears as a sticker in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Mr. Game & Watch's down aerial is based on the Game & Watch version of Donkey Kong Junior. The main menu music for this game is part of the Famicom Medley played on the Mario Bros. stage in Brawl.

Donkey Kong Country

The first area in the game, the Kongo Jungle is a stage in both Super Smash Bros. and Super Smash Bros. Melee. The music for the first level of the area was also used and remixed for both games. The K. Rool Ship Deck theme and Map /Bonus Theme music was featured in the Rumble Falls stage in Brawl. Various characters, animal buddies, and enemies cameo as trophies and stickers in Brawl. Diddy Kong, who made his first appearance in this game, is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. DKC was originally intended to be included as a Masterpiece, the reason for its removal is unknown. Many references are made to DKC in the form of movements, attacks and victory poses, as well as a remix of the "Boss defeated" and "bonus room win" fanfare for both the Kong's victory theme. The Kremlings, specifically the Kritters, appear in the 3DS version of Super Smash Bros. 4 in Smash Run, attacking players with spinning attacks on occasion.

Its two sequels have additional characters that cameo as stickers or trophies. (i.e. Dixie Kong)

Donkey Kong 64

The DK Rap, the infamous song in Donkey Kong 64’s opening sequence, is the theme song for the Kongo Jungle stage. Also, the Jungle Japes is a stage in Melee, which takes its appearance from this game. All but one of Diddy Kong's special moves come from this game. His neutral special move, the Peanut Popguns, are one of his main weapons in the game, and this becomes his projectile weapon in Brawl. The peanut ammunition used in the move therefore also originated from Donkey Kong 64. Diddy Kong's Final Smash, the Rocketbarrel Barrage also came from this game. Donkey Kong's forward aerial originates from this game. Konga Beat is Donkey Kong's Final Smash, which is similar to if not the same as Donkey Kong's musical attack from Donkey Kong 64 (Bongo Blast). Lanky Kong, Chunky Kong, Tiny Kong, Donkey Kong, and Diddy Kong, playable Kongs in the game, appear as stickers.

Donkey Konga

The drums, or bongos, that first appeared in this game as the controllers are used in Donkey Kong's Final Smash, and the strength differs depending on whether the player hits the drums at the right time or not, similar to the scoring system in Donkey Konga. The opening theme for Super Smash Bros. Melee is a playable song in the PAL version of the game.

Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat

The Rumble Falls stage in Brawl is based on the area with the same name from the Pineapple Kingdom. The technique to perform Donkey Kong's Final Smash, Konga Beat, is based on the gameplay from Jungle Beat.

Donkey Kong Country Returns

The enemy known as the Tiki Buzz appears as an enemy in Smash Run.

External links

• Donkey Kong Wiki