What’s the deal with Donkey Kong?

There is a school of thought that Donkey Kong Jr. and the “modern” Donkey Kong from the Donkey Kong Country games are one and the same character, based loosely on the evidence that circa Donkey Kong 64, Cranky Kong was changed from DKC DK’s grandfather to his father in a sloppy bit of retconning.

The first two classic DK arcade games were massive hits. Donkey Kong 3 didn’t do so well, and following its 1984 release the next release didn’t appear until 10 years later on the Game Boy. This was also the last main Donkey Kong game before the DKC games took the reigns. It starred Mario, Pauline and Donkey Kong, appearing in his trademark tie for the first time (although not the first time he appeared in a tie: see NES Open Tournament Golf). Donkey Kong Jr. even showed up as a minor antagonist in the later levels. The characters were all given makeovers in line with Nintendo’s output at the time.

Then Donkey Kong Country appeared and not only gave DK a 3D makeover, but 2D gaming as a whole was changed. The series introduced us to a “new” DK, grandson to the original DK, who was now old and grumpy and named Cranky Kong.

What the game did was distinguish that classic DK and modern DK were two entirely separate series. The classic redesign continued to be used in the Game & Watch Gallery series, while the modern redesign was used for pretty much everything else. The problem appears when you consider that time has clearly passed on DK Island for Classic DK to age so much, but time doesn’t seem to have passed in the Mario games, where both classic and modern DK appear. In one case, Donkey Kong Jr. appears alongside modern DK in Mario Tennis 64.

In the Donkey Kong Country games, there was no question that Cranky was modern DK’s grandfather. It was said enough times that was the case, and has pretty much been said every time since. The weak point is Donkey Kong 64, where he said he’s modern DK’s father. The script writer for the game, who also writes the Rare website, pretty much acknowledged that this was a retcon on the Rare letters page.

If you say something on the internet that could be official, it sticks around like a bad smell. Fans will fight tooth and nail to interpret the facts to fit the outcome they want to see, from declaring the original DK arcade games as non-canon, to arguing over whether you can interpret Cranky’s ramblings to mean “father” in other DKC games.

I’m a firm believer in following what is correct now. Rare left Nintendo, and they left the DKC series. Nintendo is once again the caretakers of the series, so if their current input disagrees with Rare’s past input then we have to accept that change and move on. Consider it a continuity error. Don’t try to explain continuity errors, as then you’re no better than George Lucas.

The current line is that Cranky Kong is the classic arcade Donkey Kong, and modern DK is his grandson. Until we hear definitively either way, something neither Nintendo nor Rare has done, it doesn’t make sense to declare that modern DK is Donkey Kong Jr. grown up. Even if Cranky was the father, that doesn’t mean modern DK is Donkey Kong Jr. either, as it is possible to have more than one child.

And you know Wrinkly Kong was a rabbit in the sack, right?

Explore posts in the same categories: Donkey Kong Series