Candy Kong

Candy Kong is a character from the Donkey Kong franchise. She is one of the members of the Kong Family and one of Donkey Kong's closest friends. Her first appearance was in the game Donkey Kong Country. She is the first female Kong character to appear in the franchise. Though she has been a non-playable character since her first appearance, she has her own action figure in Japan. Candy and Swanky are the only Kongs of the Kong Family who have yet to become playable.

She appears in almost all Donkey Kong games to date, usually hosting minigames or helping the Kongs by selling things to them. She has also appeared in comics and in the official Donkey Kong Country cartoon.

Donkey Kong Country series
The first appearance of Candy Kong is in the game Donkey Kong Country. Here, she manages Candy's Save Point where Donkey and Diddy Kong can save their progress. She appears in all worlds as well as the ending. 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. She doesn't appear in another game until Donkey Kong 64.

In the Game Boy Color remake of Donkey Kong Country, she manages the game's various minigames where Donkey and Diddy have to collect a Golden Banana Coin in all of the worlds' minigames excluding Gangplank Galleon. The name also has been changed to Candy's Challenge. In the Game Boy Advance remake, Candy's occupation is once again changed. She now runs Candy's Dance Studio, where the Kongs can play a dancing minigame against Candy and one another, depending on the lead Kong.

Candy also makes a cameo appearance in the Game Boy Advance remake of Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest as Swanky's assistant in Swanky's Bonus Bonanza.

She 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. In the minigame, she appears in the water along some other Kongs and Dixie and Kiddy Kong with help of their boat, have to save her, along with the other Kong Family member from being taken away by Kremlings.

Club Nintendo
She also 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. Donkey and Diddy decided to tell her about their journey. Candy, instead of letting Donkey and Diddy Kong "save" their progress; she provided 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 was drastically changed, more so than any other character. On the show, Candy had a completely different personality. On the show, Candy had somewhat of a temper, she was also apparently, the sole employee at Kongo Bongo Island's (as Donkey Kong Island was called on the show) barrel factory. Candy and Donkey Kong were actively dating, much to the annoyance of her boss, Bluster Kong, who wanted Candy all to himself.

Donkey Kong 64
Candy's second appearance is in Donkey Kong 64 where she runs her own music shop, which is found in every area after Jungle Japes except 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.

In the end 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 music that plays when visiting Candy in her music shop plays in this part.

DK: King of Swing
Candy returns in the game DK: King of Swing. Despite having official artwork for the game, Candy only briefly appears in the game itself; she can be seen cheering the player. She and Cranky Kong were the only Kongs not playable in this game.

DK: Jungle Climber
Her next appearance was in the DS game DK: Jungle Climber. In this game she went with all the Kongs to vacations in Sun Sun Island. She appears in the opening cutscene where she is seen sitting with an umbrella.

Donkey Kong Barrel Blast
Her first appearance on the Wii console was in the game Donkey Kong Barrel Blast, and she is the only Kong that appears in this game who is not playable. In this game she has her own mode, Candy's Challenges, in this mode she gives Donkey different challenges he must complete in order to unlock certain characters. She appears in the cutscene seen when the cursor is passed over the Candy Challenges options.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl
She had her own trophy in Super Smash Bros. Brawl which mentioned the rumor of her being Donkey Kong's girlfriend. Her trophy mentions Candy's last appearance as being Donkey Kong 64 instead of Donkey Kong Barrel Blast, it also mentions Candy's Music Shop from Donkey Kong 64 and Candy's Challenges from Donkey Kong Barrel Blast.

Character description
Candy has blue eyes, her hair is blond that on length goes slightly below her shoulders. She is one of two Kongs that uses makeup, the other being Tiny Kong, with pink lipstick, blue eye shadows, and also pink nails. Her clothing consists of a pink bikini top, with her name on it, and pink mini-shorts with a belt. Her fur has shades of pink.

In her first appearance, her clothing consisted of a solid pink one-piece swimming suit and a pink bow with white dots. Her eye shadow was pink. Her hair was shoulder-length and had short bangs with curly hair at the sides (similar to Dixie's current appearance). Her fur was lightish brown.

In Donkey Kong 64, she had the same makeup as her current appearance. She wore a pink mini-short with a black belt and a pink short-sleeve crop top. She also wore blue headphones with the white letter C on each earpiece, and for the first and only time wore pink and white shoes. Her fur was also brown.

In the remake of Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, she wore a purple dress.

In the cartoons, she had orange short hair. Her clothing consisted of a white t-shirt, blue mini-shorts and a black belt. She also wore a light blue band and had light brown fur. She wore earrings and golden bracelets. This is a drastic change from Candy's current and original appearances.

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."

Gallery
For this subject's image gallery, see Gallery: Candy Kong.

Trivia

 * Candy Kong's name is shown 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 said leaderboard, above Lanky Kong and Tiny Kong.