Donkey Kong Jr. (game)

Donkey Kong Jr., also spelled Donkey Kong Junior in early arcade releases and home ports, is an arcade game starring Donkey Kong Jr. that was later re-released along with other early games in Donkey Kong Classics, Donkey Kong Jr. + Jr. Math Lesson and Donkey Kong/Donkey Kong Jr./Mario Bros., remade into a Game & Watch game, which received a remake on the Nintendo DSi and a Mini Classic game and was also later released on the Virtual Console for the Wii, Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. It was also available as a free download via the Nintendo 3DS Ambassador program. Donkey Kong Jr. is also a minigame in Game & Watch Galleries 3 and 4. The game was also released on the e-Reader with the only difference being a player had to scan in 5 cards to play it, afterward the player didn't have to scan the cards again unless they scanned in a different game requiring 5 cards. It was the direct sequel to Donkey Kong and it and the similar Donkey Kong II are the only games in the Mario series where Mario (previously known as Jumpman) is the antagonist. Donkey Kong Jr. never enjoyed the sales or the following that the original Donkey Kong did, but it did well enough to warrant a second sequel, Donkey Kong 3.

Story
After the events of Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong has been captured by Mario as revenge for kidnapping his lady friend and Donkey Kong Jr. has to save him. Donkey Kong Jr. will travel through four stages from the jungle to the big city to get his father back, climbing vines, avoiding enemies and jumping on platforms along the way. However, every time Donkey Kong Jr. gets close to freeing his father, Mario just pushes him further away.

Finally in his hideout, Mario appears to be atop a skyscraper similar to 100m from the last game. Donkey Kong Jr. has to put six keys into their keyholes to free his dad and make the platform they're standing on disappear. Donkey Kong and Mario both fall down and Donkey Kong Jr. catches Donkey Kong but Mario just hits the ground. Donkey Kong Jr. carries his dad off-screen as Mario gets up and runs after them, only to be kicked right back out by Donkey Kong, forcing him to flee. In the NES port, this is altered (due to memory limitations at the time) to Mario falling to his death.

Levels

 * Stage 1
 * Stage 2
 * Stage 3
 * Stage 4

Characters

 * Donkey Kong Jr.
 * Donkey Kong
 * Mario

Enemies

 * Snapjaw
 * Nitpicker
 * Spark
 * Mario (responsible for all enemies)

References in later games

 * Donkey Kong and Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Donkey Kong Jr., as well as many enemies and gameplay elements, make an appearance in this game. Also, Mario's method of trapping Junior in Donkey Kong '94 is identical to Donkey Kong Jr.'s method of freeing his father from captivity. Many enemies and gameplay elements from Donkey Kong Jr. are reused in Mario vs Donkey Kong as well.
 * Donkey Kong Country series: Diddy Kong and Dixie Kong's ability to climb two ropes at a time originates from Donkey Kong Jr. The music for this game is redone and replayed in the Golden Temple level of Donkey Kong Country Returns and Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D.

Produced by

 * Gunpei Yokoi

Original Music by

 * Yukio Kaneoka

Programming by

 * H. Hoshino
 * Shigeru Miyamoto
 * Yoshio Sakamoto (Logo graphic)
 * Kenji Nishizawa

Trivia

 * During the intro of the arcade version of Donkey Kong Jr., there were actually two Marios seen carrying Donkey Kong's cage away.
 * This is one of two games where Mario is portrayed as a villain, the other being Donkey Kong Circus, and it earned him the number 100 spot in IGN's Top 100 Videogame Villains.
 * This game was the grand prize on a 1984 episode of Starcade.