Girder
- This article is about the girders from the Donkey Kong series. For the platforms in the Mario Kart series, see Kanaami Road.
Girders appear in the Super Mario franchise as narrow platforms that player characters can move on. The first appearance of girders in a Super Mario game is Donkey Kong, and most of their appearances since then have been in reference to this appearance.
HistoryEdit
Donkey Kong / Donkey Kong (Game Boy)Edit
Girders are objects in Donkey Kong. The girders in 25m are sloped and also known as ramps.[1] Girders appear in all four stages. In the Game Boy remake, they appear in all of these stages, as well as several stages in the game's later worlds, such as Big-City. In both games, they act essentially as a semi-solid platform that Mario can walk on.
Donkey Kong Country seriesEdit
Donkey Kong CountryEdit
Girders appear in Donkey Kong Country during the opening cutscene, where Cranky Kong stands on a stack of them while playing the theme "Opening" on a phonograph.
Donkey Kong Country ReturnsEdit
Girders in Donkey Kong Country Returns are the main floor in the Factory world. In the background for the Factory's first level, Foggy Fumes, girders arranged in the zig-zagged 25m layout can be seen at one point. This pattern also commonly appears on wall reliefs throughout the temple-themed levels, along with other depictions of Donkey Kong arcade graphics.
WarioWare seriesEdit
In the WarioWare series, girders appear in the two microgames based on Donkey Kong, both of which are named Donkey Kong and take place in 25m. The first of them is from WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!. The second of them is from WarioWare: D.I.Y. Showcase and reappears in WarioWare Gold.
Mario vs. Donkey Kong seriesEdit
Girders appear in every game of the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series as semi-solid platforms, similarly to their appearance in Donkey Kong. Girders in Mario vs. Donkey Kong, Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis and Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again! are colored red, but were changed to gray with rounded corners as of Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem!, which describes them as "gray steel frames".[2]
This type of fixed girder is distinct from one of the series' staple gameplay mechanics, the Red Girders, which first appear in Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem! These can be drawn between red rivet blocks using the touchscreen to help the Minis cross gaps or reach a higher area.
In Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again!, pieces of red-colored girders are among the objects that fall from the top of the screen when Donkey Kong slams his fists in Floor 1 Donkey Kong. Short girders appear first, followed by longer ones that are harder to avoid after Donkey Kong is hit a third time. The player loses a Mini toy if a girder crashes into it.
Super Smash Bros. seriesEdit
Girders appear in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in the 75 m stage, based off of the original 75m from Donkey Kong, but with visible depth. In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, this depth can only be seen when the camera is manually turned while the game is paused.
Captain Toad: Treasure TrackerEdit
Girders appear in Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker in the level Retro Ramp-Up, based off the 25m stage from Donkey Kong. In the versions of the game for Nintendo Switch and Nintendo 3DS, girders also appear in Uptown, Downtown, a level based on the Metro Kingdom from Super Mario Odyssey.
Super Mario OdysseyEdit
Girders appear in Super Mario Odyssey, where they are seen as common platforms throughout the Metro Kingdom. They do not act as semi-solid platforms in this game, but items such as Coins and Power Moons can be found inside some of them.
The Super Mario Bros. MovieEdit
Girders reappear in The Super Mario Bros. Movie during the fight between Mario and Donkey Kong, one of which is broken by the former as Cat Mario in a successful attempt to defeat the latter.
Mario Kart WorldEdit
In Mario Kart World, tracks based on girders appear in DK Spaceport, which itself is based on 25m from Donkey Kong.[3]
Other appearances and allusionsEdit
In the manual for Donkey Kong 64, Cranky Kong hopes that a 2D level design he submitted after three minutes of planning, the "Great Girder Grapple," made it into the game as a secret level, referencing him being the original Donkey Kong from the arcade game. While no level of this specific title appears, it may allude to how the original arcade game can be played in an arcade cabinet found in Frantic Factory.
Girders appear in Pixels during the fight with Donkey Kong, where the main characters have to climb to the top while avoiding the barrels and fireballs. Upon arrival to the stage, girders fall down similarly to the original game, creating a path to Donkey Kong.
GalleryEdit
A figure of Donkey Kong posing on girder manufactured by San-ei Co., Ltd.
Names in other languagesEdit
| Language | Name | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Italian | Trave[?] | Girder |
See alsoEdit
- Floor, a similar object from the Wrecking Crew series
ReferencesEdit
- ^ Instruction manual for the Coleco Adam port.[page number needed]
- ^ 2010. Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem! instruction booklet (PDF). nintendo.com (American English). Page 16. Archived November 22, 2010, 21:38:48 UTC from the original via Wayback Machine. Retrieved July 4, 2024.
- ^ Nintendo of America (April 2, 2025). Mario Kart World – Nintendo Direct | Nintendo Switch 2. YouTube. Retrieved April 2, 2025.