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. In the events of the game, he has to rescue his father, Donkey Kong, from Mario.

Beginning with Donkey Kong Country and onward, the identity of Donkey Kong Jr. was retconned; said game establishes that "Donkey Kong" is a title rather than a singular character, originally belonging to Cranky Kong in the arcade Donkey Kong titles. According to Rare, upon growing up, the title of "Donkey Kong" was passed on from Cranky Kong to Donkey Kong Jr. so that he becomes the current and modern Donkey Kong. This would not be acknowledged in any actual games, being otherwise contradicted in certain pieces of official Mario-related media. The 2017 book, Playing With Super Power: Nintendo Super NES Classics by Prima Games offers a different statement saying that Donkey Kong Jr. is a separate character that is the son of Cranky Kong, and father to the current and modern 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 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 Donkey Kong to a new area. When Donkey Kong Jr. beats Mario at last in the Chain Scene, 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 the Jump Board Scene and Mario's Hideout, 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. 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 4-11 and Stage 8-9 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. Finally, Mario got to stop him for good in Stage 9-4, where he locked him in a cage in a fashion similar to the Vine Scene 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. In the end, the group of characters take a photo together.

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.

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

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

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
Donkey Kong Jr. appears as a playable character in Super Mario Kart. He is classified as a heavyweight character alongside Bowser. His preferred item is the Banana, with which he would litter the racecourses. His kart has maximum top speeds; however, if he were to drift away from the main course, its speed would decrease greatly.

Official artwork of Super Mario Kart shows a red "J" on Donkey Kong Jr.'s shirt, but his sprite during his victory animation shows a yellow "V" on his shirt instead. This was likely an intentional design choice to make Donkey Kong Jr.'s sprite entirely symmetrical. This means only half of the sprite is required to be stored in the Super Nintendo Entertainment System's limited graphics memory as tiles of 8x8 pixels each, with the same tiles being flipped to display the other half of the sprite. During gameplay, the letter on Donkey Kong Jr.'s shirt is obscured by his kart's steering wheel.

In the next title of the series, Mario Kart 64 onward, Donkey Kong Jr. was replaced by the modern Donkey Kong since Donkey Kong Country.

Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
Donkey Kong Jr. makes a cameo in the background audience of Waluigi Stadium in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!. Interestingly, as the image for the audience is repeated, multiple, countless versions of him can be seen at one time. In this game, his head is redesigned to be more reminiscent of the modern Donkey Kong.

He was planned to appear in the game as a playable character, but was ultimately replaced with Diddy Kong.

Mario Kart Tour
A 2D sprite variant of Donkey Kong Jr. debuts in Mario Kart Tour as a playable character in his 16-bit Super Mario Kart appearance under the name Donkey Kong Jr. (SNES), debuting in the Super Mario Kart Tour. His special item is the Triple Bananas. This is the first game since Super Mario Kart to feature Donkey Kong Jr. as a playable character in the Mario Kart series. He has the most favorite courses out of any character in the game, with 40. If he is at level 8, this number is increased to 45 favorite courses.

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 Super Mario-kun.

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 Mario's Tennis for the Virtual Boy, Donkey Kong Jr. is a playable character. He is the largest character in the game. This is also the only game where he wears shoes and socks.

Mario Tennis (Nintendo 64)
Donkey Kong Jr. returns as a playable character in the Nintendo 64 adaption of Mario Tennis. He is classified as a Power Character, who can be unlocked by winning the Star Cup in Doubles. He is one of two unlockable characters in the game, with the other being Shy Guy. If he is unlocked, he is Donkey Kong's double partner; otherwise, Yoshi takes his place. This game marks Donkey Kong Jr.'s final playable appearance until Super Mario Maker as a costume, not counting later ports of his game of the same name.

Game & Watch Gallery series
Donkey Kong Jr. appeared many times in the Game & Watch Gallery installments. He appears with the role as a "damsel in distress" in several of the minigames.

Game & Watch Gallery
In Game & Watch Gallery, Donkey Kong Jr. appears in the Modern versions of three games.

In Manhole, Donkey Kong Jr. is one of the pedestrians that Yoshi must keep from falling into the water.

In Fire, Donkey Kong Jr. is one of the characters that the Mario Bros. must rescue from a fire at Princess Peach's Castle. If the Mario Bros. do not catch Donkey Kong Jr., he will run away with a sore bottom, earning the player a miss.

In Oil Panic, Donkey Kong Jr. sits on the ground on the left side of the castle from the top of which Bowser dumps oil. If any oil is spilled on Donkey Kong Jr., he will get mad, earning the player a miss.

Game & Watch Gallery 2
In Game & Watch Gallery 2, Donkey Kong Jr. is one of the characters that Mario must catch in Parachute. Donkey Kong Jr. opens his parachute at the last minute.

Game & Watch Gallery 3
In Game & Watch Gallery 3, Donkey Kong Jr. is the star of his own minigame, which is a small remake of the original Donkey Kong Jr. Game & Watch game. He is also the star of another minigame: Donkey Kong II.

Game & Watch Gallery 4
In Game & Watch Gallery 4, Donkey Kong Jr. reprises his roles in Fire and Donkey Kong Jr. He also appears as one of the characters that Mario must protect from Bowser's water balloons in Rain Shower, hanging from the rope beside the swing on the lower left. If a water balloon hits Donkey Kong Jr., he will release the rope and get mad, giving Mario a miss.

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.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Donkey Kong Jr. appears in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a spirit.

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.

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.

Donkey Kong Jr. has made some appearances in the Super Mario Kodansha manga.

Unused sprites of Donkey Kong Jr. can be found in the coding of Donkey Kong 3, but he does not appear in the final game.

Donkey Kong Jr. was featured in Fleetway Publication's pitch for a Nintendo comic, looking much bigger and monstrous than his usual depictions.

Physical description
Donkey Kong Jr. bears a resemblance to his father, the original Donkey Kong. He has brown fur and wears a leotard with the letter J on it. His size varies between games, but is usually smaller or about the same size as the current Donkey Kong.

Personality
Donkey Kong Jr. is portrayed as the hero of his own game and a villain of Mario in Donkey Kong for the Game Boy. He always sides with Donkey Kong, and is shown to be athletic and mischievous.

Perfect Ban Mario Character Daijiten
''' ドンキーコングJR. 出身 サーカス 性格 いたずらっこ 登場ゲーム JR.、GBドンキー、 カート ''' おやじ思いの考行者 「ウッキー. うちの父ちゃんが、サーカス団のマリオにさらわれだんだ. かわいそうな父ちゃん. 今、助けに行くからね. ウッホホ. 」 ''' レバーを変えるイタズう者 GB版のドンキーコングでは、壁を開けをり、道をつくるレバーをJRが勝手に変えてしまう. 本当にイタズラ好きだ.

' Donkey Kong Jr. Place of origin: Circus Disposition: Rascal Game appearances: Jr., GB Donkey, Kart ' Father-minded thinker "Ukki. My father was kidnapped by Mario, the circus master. My poor dad. I'm coming to the rescue. Uhoho." ' Mischief-maker who changes levers ''In the GB version of Donkey Kong, Jr. changes the levers that open walls and creates paths on his own. He really is a prankster.''

Mario's Tennis

 * Instruction Booklet Bio: He is slower than all the other players, and also has a smaller racquet contact area. He is, however, understandably the most powerful of all the players. His strong groundstrokes allow him to win many points from the baseline.

Donkey Kong Jr. (SNES)

 * Mario Kart Tour Twitter: "Part two of the tour features Donkey Kong Jr. (SNES)! He's here to battle for first place on the new DK Maximum kart!"

Trivia

 * During development of Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong Jr. was originally slated to appear with a redesign. Nintendo did not like the redesigning of the character, and ordered the game's developer, Rare, to either retain the character's original appearance or to make the redesign into a new character. Diddy Kong was created as a new character to fulfill the role.
 * Oddly, several games in which Donkey Kong Jr. appears contain doppelgängers. Examples of such games include the Game & Watch Gallery series (which seems to depict Donkey Kong Jr. as a species rather than an individual character), Donkey Kong Jr. Math (which includes a second Donkey Kong Jr. colored pink), and Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (which includes many Donkey Kong Jr. lookalikes as audience members in Waluigi Stadium).