Candy Kong

"Yoo-hoo, Honey Kong! Now's a good time to save where you've gotten to!"

- Candy Kong

Candy Kong is a character from the Donkey Kong franchise and the girlfriend of Donkey Kong. She first appeared in Donkey Kong Country, as the token female protagonist. She is one of two recurring Kong characters who have not had a playable appearance, the other being Swanky Kong.

In most of her appearances, Candy hosts minigames for the Kongs to play, although she ran her own store in one of the games. She has also appeared in comics and in the Donkey Kong Country cartoon. An action figure of Candy was also released in Japan.

Donkey Kong Country
In Donkey Kong Country, Candy manages the Candy's Save Point where she allows the player to save their game progress. Her Save Point appears in every world, and she also appears in the ending's Cast of Characters. The instruction booklet calls Candy Kong the "banana of Donkey Kong's eye" and mentions that everyone assumes they will marry one day, although it is Candy's opinion that he is not ready to settle down yet.

In the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance remakes, Candy no longer operates a Save Point, because the game progress can be saved from the world map. In the Game Boy Color version, Candy hosted Candy's Challenge, where the active Kong must complete a challenge for a Banana Coin. Her establishment was changed again in the Game Boy Advance remake, to Candy's Dance Studio, where she hosts a -type minigame in each world.

Donkey Kong 64
Candy reappears in Donkey Kong 64, where she runs Candy's Music Shop, which is found in every area except Jungle Japes, Fungi Forest and Hideout Helm. Here, Candy sells the Kongs powerful musical instruments which can defeat foes and cause certain events to occur if used on a Music Pad. Candy also gives the Kongs an extra watermelon on two occasions, increasing the amount of damage the Kongs can sustain. A picture of Candy Kong also appears behind the hammock in DK's Tree House.

In the ending after Chunky Kong defeats King K. Rool, Candy appears and distracts King K. Rool with her beauty, which is surprising considering that K. Rool hates the Kongs. While she does this, Funky Kong appears from behind and shoots him with a gun loaded with a big shoe, which sends him to where K. Lumsy is located. She also appears in the two endings where she is seen riding K. Lumsy, alongside all the Kongs, and in the second one she is seen sitting outside of Donkey Kong's house. In the secret ending, she appears three times. The first time she is seen, she gasps and then laughs, and the second time she appears she only laughs. The third time she appears, she is seen posing with Tiny Kong and the Mermaid, as two Kritters are watching them; the Candy's Music Shop theme plays during this segment.

Diddy Kong Pilot (2001)
Candy was presumed to be a playable character in the original Diddy Kong Pilot. She appeared to be replacing "Redneck Kong", as her placement in the character selection is where Redneck originally was, according to [[Media:DKP Character Select E3 2001.png|an E3 2001 screenshot]]. She also appears on the main menu, in the "Dog Fights" animated icon.

Donkey Kong Country 2 and 3 (Game Boy Advance)
Candy makes a cameo appearance in the Game Boy Advance remake of Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest as Swanky's assistant at Swanky's Bonus Bonanza. She does not affect the gameplay and simply points out the option that Diddy and Dixie Kong walk to. She is later shown in Cranky's Hut during the ending "Cast of Characters" with the rest of the Kong Family. She is wearing a flower in her hair and a dress, which is purple at Swanky's Bonus Bonanza but white during the end credits.

Candy also appears in the Game Boy Advance remake of Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! where she briefly appears in one of Funky Kong's minigames, Protect. In the minigame, she appears in the water along some other Kongs, and Dixie and Kiddy Kong have to protect her and the other Kongs from being taken away by the Kremlings with the help of their boat.

DK: King of Swing
Candy returns in the game DK: King of Swing. Despite having official artwork for the game, Candy only makes brief cameos in the game itself; she appears in the opening cutscene. She and Cranky Kong were the only Kongs who appeared but were not playable in this game.

DK: Jungle Climber
Candy reappears in the DS game DK: Jungle Climber, where she is shown in the opening cutscene with the other Kongs on their vacation to Sun Sun Island. She also hosts the minigames in the game, giving a brief description of each before they are played.

Donkey Kong Barrel Blast
Candy appears in Donkey Kong Barrel Blast, where she is the only non-playable Kong. Here she has her own mode, Candy's Challenges, in which she gives Donkey Kong different challenges to complete in order to unlock certain characters. She appears in the cutscene which is shown when the cursor passes over the Candy's Challenges options.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Candy Kong has her own trophy in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Super Smash Bros. for 3DS / Wii U
Candy also has a trophy in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS. The trophy description also mentions that Funky Kong has a crush on her as well as Donkey Kong, something which is not mentioned in any of the other games.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Candy Kong also makes a cameo appearance in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as an advanced support Spirit, reusing her DK: Jungle Climber artwork. Her spirit battle uses a red palette swap of Bayonetta equipped with a Banana Gun on Kongo Falls, with her spirit offering increased stats at critical health.

Other appearances and references
Candy Kong appeared briefly in volume 23 of the Super Mario-Kun manga, however with her TV series appearance instead of her in game one.

Candy Kong's name appears in a screenshot of an officially suggested Time Attack leaderboard, present at page 18 in the digital manual of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. She is ranked sixth in the leaderboard, above Lanky Kong and Tiny Kong.

A store named "Candy's Cafe" appears in New Donk City from Super Mario Odyssey.

Candy Kong was also featured on a few cards of the Donkey Kong card game, using both her cartoon and Donkey Kong 64 appearances.

Candy Kong was apparently intended to be a playable character in later builds of the canceled spin-off game Diddy Kong Pilot, and can be seen in some of the early screenshots from the game.

Club Nintendo
Candy Kong made a brief appearance in the Club Nintendo comic "Donkey Kong Country". Like in the game of the same name, she was found at her Save Point, where Donkey and Diddy Kong decided to tell her about their journey. Candy, instead of letting Donkey and Diddy Kong "save" their progress, provides them with Squawks in order to make their journey easier. She is also briefly seen at the end of the comic "Donkey Kong in: Banana Day 24" from the same magazine, celebrating together with the other Kongs.



Donkey Kong Country television series
In the Donkey Kong Country cartoon, Candy had been drastically changed from her in-game appearances, more so than any other character. On the show, Candy had a completely different personality with a particularly short temper. She appeared to be the sole employee at Bluster Barrelworks, where she seemed to be the quality inspector. Candy and Donkey Kong were also actively dating in the cartoons, much to the annoyance of her boss, Bluster Kong, who wanted Candy all to himself.

Candy has a robotic clone named Candy Clone, who was created by King K. Rool, and appeared in a few episodes.

Physical description
Candy Kong has blue eyes with three eyelashes on each, and blonde hair which is just beyond shoulder length. She is one of the two Kongs that use makeup, the other being Tiny Kong, with pink lipstick, purple (blue in DK: King of Swing) eye shadow and pink nail varnish. She has light brown fur and pale skin similar to most of the other Kongs, however lacks the exposed belly section. Her physique is fairly similar to Tiny's, being more human-like. Candy is also quite tall, being among the tallest of the Kong family.

Candy wears a pink vest top which is torn off part way to create a crop top. The top has her name on it in a white font with darker pink outlining. She also wears dark pink shorts with a purple belt and a gold ring buckle.

In her original appearance, her clothing consisted of a pink one-piece swimming suit and a pink bow with white dots. Her eye shadow was pink, and her hair was shoulder-length, had a short fringe with curls on the sides, similar to Dixie Kong's current hairstyle. She also lacked her pink nail polish in this game, but had an exposed belly section like the other Kongs, as well as a fully exposed neck. This appearance was also used for her cameo in the remake of Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!

In the remake of Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, her appearance remained mostly the same as the first game, but instead of her usual clothing, she wore a purple floor-length dress and a purple flower on the right side of her hair. She also had her modern purple eyeshadow, but lacked her pink lipstick.

In Donkey Kong 64, Candy had the same physical features as her future appearances, apart from the exposed neck and belly sections, but wore different clothing. She wore a pink crop top with her name written on it in purple writing and pink shorts with a black belt and silver buckle. Candy also wore pink and white trainers in this appearance, as well as a gold necklace. As she ran a music shop in the game, Candy wore a pair of blue headphones with a white "C" on either side, with the blue and grey attachment on the right of her belt.

Candy had an entirely different appearance in the cartoons, which differed more than that of any other Kong. On the show, Candy had ginger fur and slightly paler orange hair tied back with a turquoise headband. She had much smaller eyes with no eye shadow, and also lacked the fur on her upper face but had brown eyebrows instead. Her lipstick was closer to skin tone, and she lacked nail varnish in this appearance. She wore a white crop top and blue denim shorts with a black belt and square gold buckle, as well as a pair of turquoise sandals similar to Tiny Kong's. She also wore gold hoop earrings and a gold bangle on her right arm. This appearance is the one used for her appearance in the Super Mario-Kun manga.

Development
Early in the development of the original Donkey Kong Country game, the names "Blondie Kong" and "Honey Kong" were apparently considered as alternate names for Candy Kong. Interestingly, Candy Kong refers to Donkey Kong as "Honey Kong" in the first Donkey Kong Country game, perhaps as a reference to her rejected potential name.

During the development of Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, there were worries that the relationship of Donkey Kong and Candy Kong would clash with the relationship of Diddy Kong and Dixie Kong and detract from the game's character and clarity, so it was decided to replace her. Wrinkly Kong effectively usurps her position, running the Kong Kollege.

Personality and traits
Candy Kong usually has a fairly easy going personality, and often uses affectionate terms to refer to the other Kongs, such as "Honey" and "Sugar", and is also seen blowing kisses in various appearances. Candy is also shown to have a keen interest in music and dance, as she owns a dance studio in the Donkey Kong Country remakes, and a music shop as well as wearing a pair of headphones and a cassette player in Donkey Kong 64. Her profile on the German Donkey Kong 64 website further reaffirms this, as well as suggesting that she puts a large amount of effort into her appearance and often trains at the fitness centre. She also is not above using her looks to her advantage, as demonstrated by her deliberately using her flirtatious nature on King K. Rool to distract him long enough for Funky Kong to deliver the coup de grace on the Kremling leader in the ending for Donkey Kong 64. Her personality was completely changed in the animated series however, as she now had a much shorter temper and a stubbornness not usually seen in the games.

Relationships
Candy is shown to be on good terms with most of the Kong family and against the Kremlings. Candy Kong is usually mentioned in various official descriptions to be Donkey Kong's girlfriend or love interest, and often expresses this through the games by using affectionate terms to address him. The instruction booklet that came with Donkey Kong Country, her first appearance, stated that she is presumed to marry Donkey Kong someday and that she is the "banana of Donkey Kong's eye", but she does not think he is ready to settle down yet. She was also shown to be actively dating him in the cartoons, though her Super Smash Bros. Brawl trophy description implies that their relationship is a rumor, and Donkey Kong is only stated to have a crush on her in her Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U trophy description. To explain Candy Kong's absence in later games, one official review of Donkey Kong Land 2 states that she broke up with Donkey Kong, although the Donkey Kong 64 manual suggests otherwise.

In the cartoons, her boss Bluster Kong also appears to be in love with Candy Kong, though she does not show any of that interest back to him, and is often quite angry towards her boss. Bluster Kong is also shown to be very strict on Candy and often complains about her being late for work and other small things. Funky Kong is also stated to have a crush on Candy in her Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U trophy description, though this has yet to be seen in any other game.

German Donkey Kong 64 website
"Everything that Tiny dreams of has come true for Candy. With her long legs, her sweet pouting lips and her silky blond hair, she makes every ape heart beat faster. But she really puts a lot of effort into her beauty. Hours of training sessions in the fitness center are an integral part of her daily schedule. Apart from that she also has considerable musical talent. The Kongs can get various musical instruments from her. After short instruction by Candy they play these with such virtuosity that they literally knock over a Kremling once in a while."

"Played on special boards, the instruments develop an even greater effect. Gates open, complex mechanisms are set in motion, and even the biggest sleepyhead is catapulted from dreamland. A visit with Candy is always worthwhile, because she always recharges the power of the musical instruments absolutely free of charge, and treats her visitors to an extension for the melon strip once in a while, too."

Quotes

 * "Hi, I'm Candy Kong and this is my Save Point!" - Donkey Kong Country
 * "If you want to save your current game, just jump into my spinning save barrel! - Donkey Kong Country''
 * "Hello guys, got anything worth saving?" - Donkey Kong Country
 * "Well, hello, Donkey. You just take it easy and let Candy tell you how she's gonna make you feel real good. Why, for just a few little old coins, you can have my musical instruments and extra Melons too." - Donkey Kong 64
 * "Welcome back! You did a great job with my challenges!" - Donkey Kong Barrel Blast