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, and was 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, and, along with Swanky Kong, is one of the only Kongs of the Kong Family who have yet to become playable.

She usually appears in the Donkey Kong games hosting minigames or running shops from which the Kongs can buy items. She has also appeared in comics and in the Donkey Kong Country cartoon.

Donkey Kong Country
Candy Kong first appeared in the game Donkey Kong Country, in which she manages Candy's Save Point where Donkey and Diddy Kong can save their progress. She appears in all of the 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.

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.

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
Candy 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, however she does not affect the gameplay in any way.

Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!
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.

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, as well as a completely different appearance. 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.



Donkey Kong 64
Candy appeared again 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.

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 music that plays when visiting Candy in her music shop plays during 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 who appeared but were not playable in this game.

DK: Jungle Climber
Candy reappears in the DS game DK: Jungle Climber, where she is only seen in the opening cutscene, where she is seen sitting with an umbrella with all of the other Kongs on their vacation to Sun Sun Island. She also has artwork from this game, despite only having a minor appearance.

Donkey Kong Barrel Blast
Candy's main appearance on the Wii console was in the game Donkey Kong Barrel Blast, where she is the only Kong that appears in the game who is not playable. In this game, she has her own mode, Candy's Challenges, in which she gives Donkey Kong 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's Challenges options.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Candy Kong has her own trophy in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Her trophy description in this game erroneously states Candy's latest appearance as being Donkey Kong 64 instead of Donkey Kong Barrel Blast, but still references Candy's Challenges from the game.

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, which also lists her latest appearance as Donkey Kong 64 in the Wii U version of the game. 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.

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."

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.
 * A store titled "Candy's Cafe" can be found in New Donk City off of Super Mario Odyssey. Considering the numerous Donkey Kong references scattered throughout the world, the store name is referring to Candy Kong.