Donkey Kong Jr.

Donkey Kong Jr. in Mario Tennis 64.
Donkey Kong Jr.
Species	Kong
Hair color	Brown
Eye color	Black
Relatives	Donkey Kong/Cranky (father) Modern Donkey Kong (son or nephew)
Debut	Donkey Kong Jr.

This article is about the character known as Donkey Kong Jr.. For the game, see Donkey Kong Junior (game).

Donkey Kong Junior is the alleged child of Donkey Kong who originally debuted with a starring role in the arcade game of the same name. He is notable for being the first playable Kong character, as well as being the first character other than Mario to act as a protagonist within the greater Mario series. He is also known for the confusion his existence has created in relation Rareware's retooling of Donkey Kong. He is shown as a small ape who always wears a t-shirt that bears a "J" symbol.

Background

Donkey Kong Jr.'s first chronological appearance was in Donkey Kong GB, a retelling of the original game. When Donkey Kong ran off with Pauline, Junior eventually began tagging along in order to help thwart Mario. He appeared in various stages as a pest, usually flipping levers or throwing Poison Mushrooms in hopes of slipping Mario up. He was indirectly battled in Level 8-4, where Mario had to slide several keys up a set of vines to trap Junior within a cage, forming an ironic reversal of the final stage of Donkey Kong Junior. Junior showed up again at the ending, where the Kongs made peace with Mario and Pauline, and they all took a picture together.

Within Donkey Kong Junior, Donkey Kong was held in a cage by Mario. Junior came to his aid and made his way through several environments, eventually freeing Donkey Kong from his cage while dropping Mario. Donkey Kong Jr. only appeared in spin-off games afterwards. He was featured in the edutainment game Donkey Kong Jr. Math, and he was featured as a playable character in the sports games Super Mario Kart, Mario's Tennis and Mario Tennis 64 (where he was unlocked by beating the Star Cup in Doubles). He was also made available in Mario Kart Tour in September 2020 with his sprite from Super Mario Kart, as part of a celebration of the 30th anniversary of Super Mario Bros.. He and Donkey Kong also made a cameo appearance together in Mario Clash, where they would appear to congratulate the player if they reached 800,000 points.

Other Mario/Donkey Kong Appearances

• In the Super Mario All-Stars and Super Mario Advance 4 versions of Super Mario Bros. 3, the king of Giant Land is transformed into Donkey Kong Jr. by a Koopaling.
• Multiple Donkey Kong Juniors often appear as generic hostages in some of the Modern minigames from throughout Game & Watch Gallery series.
• In Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Junior makes a cameo appearance within the audience at Waluigi Stadium. His sprite's head was designed to bear a stronger resemblance to the modern version of Donkey Kong, including having a cowlick-like tuft of fur on his head. Unused data for the game indicates that Junior was intended to make a playable appearance in the game at some point, but he was replaced by Diddy Kong.
• In Super Mario Maker, Donkey Kong Jr. is one of the costumes that Mario can wear while using a Mystery Mushroom.
• In Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, a statue of an 8-bit Donkey Kong holding up a Wii U Gamepad that is displaying an image of Junior can be seen at the end of the Aqueduct Assault level.

The Kong Family Confusion

When Rareware revamped the Donkey Kong series with Donkey Kong Country in 1994, they established that the Donkey Kong from the arcade games had grown to become Cranky Kong, while his grandson was the "new" Donkey Kong. Nintendo has never clearly established what this entails for Donkey Kong Junior, as he has been absent aside from appearances in the partially canon sports games and occasional easter egg appearances.

Some fans came to believe that the modern Donkey Kong was the original's son rather than grandson, which would make him an adult version of Junior. However, it has been clarified that the modern Donkey Kong is supposed to be the grandson of the original. This implies that Junior grew up and became the modern Donkey Kong's father or uncle, but this leaves his current canon whereabouts unknown.

Other Appearances

Video Games

• In both of the Punch-Out!! arcade games, he could be seen in the audience.
• He could be seen depicted on paintings seen in Mario's Time Machine.
• In the Super Smash Bros. series, Donkey Kong Jr. has been represented as a trophy in Super Smash Bros. Melee, two stickers in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and an Ace Primary Spirit in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. His Spirit can also raise a player character's throwing power. When fought in a Spirit battle, Junior's Spirit possessed a slightly smaller version of Donkey Kong and was assisted by a giant Donkey Kong.

Other Media

• Donkey Kong Jr. had his own segment on the 80's cartoon show Saturday Supercade. There he was traveling with a teenager named Bones to find his father, and he was voiced by Frank Welker, a popular voice actor known for his animal imitations. This version of Donkey Kong Junior notably seemed to be based on the infamous Hanna-Barbara cartoon character Scrappy-Doo, complete with his similar catchphrase: "Monkey muscle!"
• He made several appearances in the Super Mario-Kun manga.

Trivia

• During development of Donkey Kong Country, Diddy Kong was originally envisioned as an updated version of Donkey Kong Junior. However, Nintendo felt that he was too different from the original Junior, and so he was established as Diddy Kong instead.