Donkey Kong Jr.

"Monkey Muscle!"

- Donkey Kong Jr.

Donkey Kong Jr. (sometimes referred to as DK Jr. or just Junior) is a Kong character that debuted in Donkey Kong Jr. as the titular hero, who had to save his father, Donkey Kong, from Mario. According to Rare employee Roderick Arbuthnot in a Q&A from 1999, Donkey Kong Jr. had been the "current" Donkey Kong as far as he was aware when Rare was developing the games. Additionally, Nintendo U.K.'s official web page for the Game Boy Advance version of Donkey Kong Country states that "1994's Donkey Kong is actually 1982's Donkey Kong Jr., all grown up." This notion is also restated by Prima Games. However, the current Donkey Kong is mentioned as being the grandson of Cranky Kong in several official game descriptions, which would make Donkey Kong Jr. the father (or potentially uncle) of the current Donkey Kong.

Donkey Kong Jr.
Donkey Kong Jr.'s premier appearance is in the eponymous Donkey Kong Jr. He is the star of the game and the only playable character. It follows the events of the original Donkey Kong, where Donkey Kong Jr.'s father, Donkey Kong has now been locked up by Mario. Donkey Kong Jr. must travel through four stages, climbing vines to ascend them and then watching as Mario hauls his father further on through the game. There are numerous enemies that Donkey Kong Jr. must avoid. However, if he drops fruit on the enemies, they will be defeated. Once Donkey Kong Jr. has put a key into the cage, Mario will move further on. When Donkey Kong Jr. beats Mario at last in Stage 4, Donkey Kong and Mario both fall; Donkey Kong Jr. catches his father and then walks off-screen with his newly-freed papa (in the NES version, this scene only has Donkey Kong Jr. catch his father, omitting the rest of the scene due to memory space issues.).

In the original arcade game, he also appears during the transition scene for Stage 2 and Stage 3, where he pursues Mario's chopper with a parasol.

Donkey Kong Jr. Math
One year later, Donkey Kong Jr. made another playable appearance in the game Donkey Kong Jr. Math. His father stood at the top of the stage, holding a sign with a random number placed on it instead of being kidnapped by Mario. Donkey Kong Jr. had to climb amongst multiple vines to gather the correct numbers and mathematical signs to create the number on his father's sign.

This game also starred a pink-colored palette swap of Donkey Kong Jr. that could be playable in a two-player game; however, Donkey Kong Jr. was still brown in color, and could be played as in both one- and two-player modes.

Donkey Kong (Game Boy)
In Donkey Kong on the Game Boy, Donkey Kong Jr. teams up with his father to kidnap Pauline, and Mario must defeat both of them before rescuing her. For most of the game, Donkey Kong Jr. usually stays in areas inaccessible by Mario, activating and deactivating switches in ways that can either help or harm Mario; nonetheless, it is shown in stage 8-9 of Rocky-Valley that the plumber can lose a life when touching Donkey Kong Jr.. Sometimes, Donkey Kong Jr. even appears out in the open and throws Poison Mushrooms. He defeats Mario instantly if he touches him. Finally, Mario got to stop him for good in stage 9-4, where he locked him in a cage in a fashion similar to Stage 4 of the original Donkey Kong Jr.. In the ending, Donkey Kong Jr. somehow managed to free himself and lay in wait as Pauline gave Mario a Super Mushroom to catch Donkey Kong, and acted as soon as his father was calling for help, although they presumably buried the hatchet.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
Donkey Kong Jr. appears as a cameo at the end of the Aqueduct Assault level in the background in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze inside a Wii U GamePad held high by the original Donkey Kong.

Saturday Supercade
Donkey Kong Jr., voiced by Frank Welker, is featured as the main protagonist of the cartoon short Donkey Kong Junior from the animated series Saturday Supercade. Here, Donkey Kong Jr., after discovering his father is missing from the circus, decides to track him down with the help of a clumsy biker named Bones.

Nintendo Adventure Books
Donkey Kong Jr. makes an appearance in the sixth Nintendo Adventure Book, Doors to Doom; in the book, Mario and Luigi find themselves in Donkey Kong Jr.'s jungle after entering one of the doorways created by Dr. Sporis Von Fungenstein. Upon seeing Mario and Luigi, Donkey Kong Jr. attacks them, forcing the two to flee. Eventually, after a vine-climbing chase, the Mario Bros. escape Donkey Kong Jr.

Super Mario Kart
In 1992, Donkey Kong Jr. appeared as a playable character in Super Mario Kart for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. He was classified as a heavyweight character alongside Bowser. His preferred item was the Banana, with which he would litter the racecourses. His kart had maximum top speeds; however, if he were to drift away from the main course, its speed would decrease greatly. In every Mario Kart title since Mario Kart 64, he has been replaced by the modern Donkey Kong. Nearly identical look-alikes also appear as a cameo in the background of Waluigi Stadium in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!

Super Mario All-Stars
In the Super Mario Bros. 3 remake in Super Mario All-Stars, the kings of the Mushroom World are turned into different creatures than in the original. The Big Island King gets turned into Donkey Kong Jr. This happens in other 16-bit remakes of Super Mario Bros. 3, including Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World, Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario All-Stars Limited Edition.

Super Mario Maker
In Super Mario Maker, Donkey Kong Jr. appears as one of the costumes that Costume Mario can wear.

Mario's Time Machine
Donkey Kong Jr. makes a cameo in Mario's Time Machine, appearing on several paintings in the background of Bowser's Museum.

Mario's Tennis
In 1995, Donkey Kong Jr. appeared as a playable character once more – this time in Mario's Tennis. He appeared as the only large character in the game, for Bowser was not playable. This is also the only game where he wears shoes and socks, but remains barefooted in every other game he appears in.

Mario Tennis (Nintendo 64)
Donkey Kong Jr. also made an appearance as an unlockable playable character in 2000, in the Nintendo 64 adaption of Mario Tennis. He was classified as a Power Character, who could be secretly unlocked (alongside Shy Guy). In this game, Donkey Kong Jr. is unlocked by winning the Star Cup in Doubles.

Game & Watch Gallery series
Donkey Kong Jr. appeared many times in the Game & Watch Gallery installments. Donkey Kong Jr. appears in the first two games with role as a "damsel in distress" in several of the minigames. However, Donkey Kong Jr. is the star of his own minigame which is a small remake of the original Donkey Kong Jr. Game & Watch game. The same minigame from the third game also appears in the fourth installment of the series.

Super Smash Bros. Melee
Donkey Kong Jr. also has a trophy in Super Smash Bros. Melee, though he does not make a playable appearance.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl
In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Donkey Kong Jr. did not return as a collectible trophy, though data extracted from the disc shows that he was going to appear but was scrapped. Instead, he has a Sticker. The sticker shows Donkey Kong Jr. with a key over his head; the sticker is only referred to as Junior. It raises launch resistance by twenty-one in the Subspace Emissary adventure mode of the game. His other sticker shows him holding a tennis racket from Mario Tennis. Additionally, one of the names that appears when the player presses the "Random Name" button when naming their custom stage is DKJR.

Punch-Out!!
In the first game in the series, Donkey Kong Jr. can be found watching the fight in the audience along with Mario and Luigi.

Super Punch-Out!!
In the second arcade (and second overall) game in the Punch Out!! series, Donkey Kong Jr. can be found in the audience again, along with Mario, Luigi, and Donkey Kong, this time with a different color scheme.

Super Mario-Kun
Donkey Kong Jr. appears as a participating racer and an opponent to Mario in the Super Mario Kart adaption in one of the volumes of the Super Mario-Kun.

Other media
Donkey Kong Jr. appears in the e-Reader commercial, where he is on an assembly line where he undergoes a grooming makeover, only to be literally smashed into an e-Reader card.

Trivia

 * Oddly, several games in which Donkey Kong Jr. cameos contain doppelgängers. Such examples of these games include the Game & Watch Gallery series of remastered compilations (which seem to depict Donkey Kong Jr. as a species rather than an individual character), Donkey Kong Jr. Math which includes a second Donkey Kong Jr. recolored pink, and Mario Kart: Double Dash!! which includes Donkey Kong Jr.-like audience members at Waluigi Stadium.
 * Donkey Kong Jr. was originally going to return in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, but was replaced by Diddy Kong in the final version.
 * During development of Donkey Kong Country, Diddy Kong was originally intended to be a redesign of Donkey Kong Jr., though Nintendo did not like the complete redesigning of the character and ordered that either Donkey Kong Jr. have his original appearance or the redesign be made into a new character.