Donkey Kong (franchise)

The Donkey Kong Series is a series based on a character that appeared in the first Mario game. It wasn't too long until the character branched off into a series of his own, as did the other.

Pre-NES and NES Era
Donkey Kong was created by Shigeru Miyamoto in 1981. In this game, Donkey Kong was the villain who kidnapped the hero (Mario, at the time called "Jumpman")'s girlfriend (Pauline).

Years later, another game was created, Donkey Kong Jr.. This time, the roles were reversed. Mario was the villain, and DK was a good-guy. Here, Donkey Kong Jr., Donkey Kong's son, was to save his kidnapped father from Mario.

The final game in this series was Donkey Kong 3, whereas Stanley the Bugman fought DK.

All of these games were ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES for short).

Donkey Kong played a main role in many Game & Watch systems.

SNES Era
Donkey Kong, or Donkey Kong Jr. to be exact, returned a the Nintendo system in the game, Super Mario Kart. Here, he was one of the two heavy characters.

It wasn't until two years later when Donkey Kong officially began his own series. A small British company called Rareware showed Nintendo a much larger Donkey Kong Universe, and Donkey Kong was no longer just Mario's enemy-He now was the hero of Donkey Kong Island! Thus, Donkey Kong Country was born.

Snapjaws from Donkey Kong Jr. now were a race called Kremlings, barrels became projectiles, Oil containers could let out enemies, and the series also introduced DK's nephew, Diddy Kong!