Donkey Kong Island

Donkey Kong Island (also known as Kong Isle, DK Island, or Donkey Kong Country ) is the home of Donkey Kong and the rest of the Kong Family. It is a key location from the Donkey Kong franchise. Much as the Mushroom Kingdom, the normally peaceful island has been invaded frequently, often due to King K. Rool and his Kremling Krew who once made their home on the nearby Crocodile Isle.

The island was originally depicted as being shaped like Donkey Kong's head, complete with features such as ears and Donkey Kong's signature hair swirl. From Donkey Kong Country Returns onwards, however, the frozen mountaintops and the visage of the great ape have been replaced by a huge volcano. The island itself is extremely large and has drastically different climates in various areas, some areas being jungle, frozen wasteland, and desert. There are several mysterious ruins on the island primarily resembling ancient South American architecture. Many of these ruins depict visages of Kremlings who are thought to have built some of these temples, and the world of Kremlantis. Despite this, Kong-themed architecture is extremely common, perhaps even more so, in other ruins found on the island.

Donkey Kong Country
Donkey Kong Island is first seen in the game Donkey Kong Country, for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. While guarding the Banana Hoard one night, King K. Rool and his Kremling Krew appear and steal all of the bananas to menace the Kong Family. Setting off at once, Donkey and his little buddy Diddy Kong begin a long quest to take back Donkey Kong's Golden Banana hoard from the thieves, leading them through the island's many areas. The journey sends them through jungles, caves, glaciers and a large factory operated by the Kremlings before the two heroes finally locate the source of the problem. Finding a ship docked in the waters near Donkey Kong Island, the duo boards the vessel and defeats King K. Rool, allowing them to take back the Banana Hoard while driving the Kremling Krew from the island.

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
Donkey Kong Island appears only sparingly in Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest. Following their first adventure, Donkey Kong tries to kick back and relax on the beach, but unbeknownst to him, King K. Rool in his new pirate getup as Kaptain K. Rool was actively planning revenge. Piloting his crocodile-shaped airship, the Flying Croc, the villain sends down several of his Kremling servants onto the island and ambushes the unfortunate ape, taking Donkey Kong hostage on board his craft. The other Kongs quickly assess the situation before Diddy and his girlfriend Dixie Kong agree to chase the flying ship to Crocodile Isle and rescue Donkey Kong.

Although Donkey Kong Island is not visited for the rest of the game, it appears in the opening sequence of the game and can be seen in the background of the areas Gangplank Galleon and K. Rool's Keep. In the Game Boy Advance remake of Donkey Kong Country 2, these cameo appearances were removed for unknown reasons.

Donkey Kong 64
Donkey Kong 64 featured a return of Kong Isle as the primary location of the game’s levels, also featuring several different environments similar to its portrayal in previous games. The island is revealed to be part of an archipelago consisting of smaller islands known collectively as the DK Isles, several of which are accessible as a part of the story. At the beginning of the game which King K. Rool appears in a mechanized version of Crocodile Isle with a plan to destroy the homeland of the Kongs.

Tired of his constant defeats at the hands of the Kong Family, King K. Rool pilots his metal monstrosity into the archipelago with his new secret weapon, a giant, island-destroying laser cannon named the Blast-o-Matic. He plans to use the device immediately, but a malfunction caused by his incompetent underlings short-circuits his plans and delays the machine’s activation. In a bid to distract Donkey Kong while they repair the Blast-o-Matic, the Kremlings invade the island in force and kidnap Donkey Kong’s friends, stealing his Golden Bananas and blocking off several locations on the island in order to further impede the hero’s progress. After another quest, Donkey Kong frees his friends and reclaims the Banana Hoard. With the help of the Blast-o-Matic’s inventor, a crafty weasel named Snide, the Kong Family deactivates the doomsday weapon and saves their home from destruction.

It is worth noting that the island was smaller in size in this game than in previous installments, although this is likely due to technical issues, such as making it easier to roam the island. The vast locations accessible through portals on the island are different areas of Donkey Kong Island, and what is seen on the surface is not the entire landmass. Since the events of this game, Donkey Kong Island has been missing a boulder in its right ear, as it had been blown off by K. Lumsy.

Donkey Kong Country Returns
The island makes yet another appearance in Donkey Kong Country Returns and Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, once again acting as the main location. In its most recent appearance, the Kong Family is featured much less prominently as the main population of the island, with only DK, Diddy, and Cranky making full appearances in the game. Several new creatures are also shown to make their home on Donkey Kong Island in this game which were previously unseen in the series. When seen, the island is also under attack by a new antagonist group known as the Tiki Tak Tribe, who attach themselves to other creatures to take control of their hosts. Much like the Kremling Krew before them, these new enemies are eventually defeated by Kong Family and removed from the island.

Strangely, the mountains of Donkey Kong Island do not resemble Donkey Kong's head in this game, but are instead ordinary mountains. However, the worlds and their locations are mostly the same as in Donkey Kong Country.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
Donkey Kong Island appears in the fifth installment of the Donkey Kong Country series: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. The game features seven islands, which serve as the game's worlds. Donkey Kong Island is the sixth and final "main" island of the game (the seventh island, Secret Seclusion, is a bonus world). During the game's intro, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Dixie Kong, and Cranky Kong are celebrating Donkey Kong's birthday. The view then moves far from the island to a large ship, which is being controlled by the Snowmads. A Pointy Tuck watches over the island, locates the Kong house, and gives the info to Lord Fredrik; the leader of the Snowmads. Upon the leader nodding their approval, several Pointy Tucks blow horns, as six more carry a large white horn covered with mist. Lord Fredrik laughs as he blows the horn, creating a large amount of wind, as well as a strange ice dragon. The ice dragon then flies toward the island, turning the sea into ice. After this, the Kongs are blown away by the intense winds, and the large ship stations itself where the Volcano from Donkey Kong Country Returns used to be. Finally, the Snowmads seize the island for their own, turning it into a frosty area with continuous snowfall.

The Kongs eventually get back to Donkey Kong Island and defeat Lord Fredrik at the top. After this, he falls into one of the ships around the island, and the Snowmads leave. Using the horn that the Snowmads left behind, Donkey Kong blows into it, melting all of the snow and ice, and returning Donkey Kong Island back to normal.

Games
Donkey Kong Island is also where the events of DK: King of Swing and the Donkey Konga trilogy take place. The jungle portion of the island appears as a setting in several Mario sports games, such as Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, Mario Power Tennis, Mario Superstar Baseball, as well as Mario Strikers, and in the Super Smash Bros. series, where it is parted into three playable stages: Kongo Jungle, Jungle Japes, and Jungle Hijinxs.

Television
In several episodes of Captain N: The Game Master a world named "Kongo Land" was mentioned as the homeworld of Donkey Kong. Whether Kongo Land was an early version of Donkey Kong Island is unknown.

Donkey Kong Island was also the main setting of the Donkey Kong Country television series. On the show Donkey Kong Island was renamed "Kongo Bongo Island" and the island was also shaped differently, similar in appearance to a banana rather than DK's head. Like in the games, Kongo Bongo Island was home to the Kongs, among other creatures.

Books
Donkey Kong Island is the main setting of the Donkey Kong Country series of children's novels, published by Troll Communications. Both the Donkey Kong Country novel and Donkey Kong Country: Rumble in the Jungle have the Kongs passing through Tree Top Town at the edge of the jungle, before reaching a snowy mountain location. In Donkey Kong Country, the Kongs continue through a circuit of underground mines before reaching the Kremlings' factory, whereas in Rumble in the Jungle, the Kongs travel through the caves of a mountain in order to reach the factory in Big Ape City, which appears to be located near the center of Donkey Kong Island. In Donkey Kong Country: Rescue on Crocodile Isle, Diddy Kong and Dixie Kong borrow a sailing ship at the docks of Donkey Kong Island, before arriving at Crocodile Isle after a full day of sailing.

Government
The denizens of Donkey Kong Island usually live peacefully together. While there does not appear to be an official government in place, Donkey Kong acts as the leader of the Kong Family, and the clan typically turns to him for leadership. Despite no longer having the strength to acts as the island's protector, Cranky Kong appears to have retained his role as patriarch of the family, and is often seen giving orders to the others while advising the younger generation during difficult times. In comparison, the events of the animated television series indicate that DK is slated to be future ruler of the island, implying that in the show, he has not yet earned the title.

Demographics
Donkey Kong Island is home to a number of different creatures, the most notable being the Kongs, a group of monkeys who make up the primary cast of the Donkey Kong series. In addition to the apes, many other animals on the island are known to be intelligent, with most possessing the ability to speak. Several species such as the Gnawties, Zingers, and Neckies are affiliated with the Kremling Krew, one of the Kongs enemies.

The Kremlings are also a prevalent race inhabiting the island, having established an industrial plant known as Kremkroc Industries, Inc., in addition to several outposts. The ancient temples found in Angry Aztec and several other locations are also heavily occupied by the Kremlings, although whether or not they built them is never specifically mentioned.

With the island's appearance having been redesigned in Donkey Kong Country Returns, its fauna has also received a retcon which departed it completely from the previous species that could be found on the island. While universal fauna, comprising Gnawties, Neckies, and Zingers, covered every corner of the island in the past, recent stances depict more variety in wildlife, with groups of animals living in select habitats. In other words, birds like Awks and Rawks populate the Jungle area in large numbers, whilst Snaps and Pinchlys are generally Beach inhabitants. Many revived fossil creatures can be found in the Cliff portion. The Factory is mainly made of robots, whilst the Volcano typically houses fire creatures, like Char-chars.

Fossils inlaid within the rocks in the Cliff area hint at previous inhabitants of the island, consisting of enormous trilobite lookalikes, gastropods, placoderm fish, and eurypterids as well. These suggest that Donkey Kong Island was once underwater from the Cliff beneath.

After the Kremlings' invasion and their supposed retreat, several other groups have taken over Donkey Kong Island, altering the island. During the events of Donkey Kong Country Returns and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, the Tiki Tak Tribe and the Snowmads respectively have represented significant parts of the population. The Kongs eventually exiled both the Tiki Tak Tribe and the Snowmads from the island.

Species of Donkey Kong Island

 * Kong
 * Kremling
 * Manky Kong
 * Gnawty
 * Zinger
 * Necky

Donkey Kong Country

 * Kongo Jungle
 * Monkey Mines
 * Vine Valley
 * Gorilla Glacier
 * Kremkroc Industries, Inc.
 * Chimp Caverns

Donkey Kong Land

 * Gangplank Galleon Ahoy
 * Kremlantis
 * Monkey Mountains & Chimpanzee Clouds
 * Big Ape City

Donkey Kong 64

 * Jungle Japes
 * Angry Aztec
 * Frantic Factory
 * Gloomy Galleon
 * Fungi Forest
 * Crystal Caves
 * Creepy Castle
 * Hideout Helm

Donkey Kong Country Returns / 3D

 * Jungle
 * Beach
 * Ruins
 * Cave
 * Forest
 * Cliff
 * Factory
 * Volcano
 * Golden Temple
 * Cloud (3DS)

Trivia

 * In Donkey Kong Country Returns, if one were to move from an earlier world to a later world using the map, Donkey Kong will be positioned at the first level of the later world. However, if one were to move from a later world to an earlier world DK will be position at the Boss Level of the earlier world. The only world that breaks this rule is the Jungle, being the first world it does not have an earlier world. In order for DK to be placed at the first Jungle level, he will have to move from the final world (Golden Temple) to the Jungle.
 * In Donkey Kong 64, the main theme of DK Island was composed to be a theme in Banjo-Kazooie, while it was still known as Project Dream. The theme was titled "Lost" by the composer of both Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong 64, Grant Kirkhope.