K. Rool

King K. Rool in DK: King of Swing.
K. Rool
Species	Kremling
Eye color	Black
Debut	Donkey Kong Country

K. Rool is a villain who varies from cunning to bumbling. He also couldn't seem to settle on one image for most of his villaining career. However, you can tell K. Rool apart by these characteristics: He's a large, rather fat Kremling with a golden belly and one bloodshot eye which bulges next to the relatively normal one.

Background

Donkey Kong Country

He first appeared as King K. Rool in Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Land. Leading an army of Kremlings from Crocodile Island to the Donkey Kong Island aboard his flagship, the Gangplank Galleon, he sent out his men to steal all the island's bananas. He was beaten by the team of Donkey Kong and Diddy aboard the Gangplank Galleon and was just barely able to escape. Cranky later invited him to steal the bananas again in Donkey Kong Land, since Cranky had made bet that Donkey and Diddy couldn't repeat their previous adventure on the graphically inferior Gameboy. This time K. Rool brought different minions and fought the Kongs in the Great Ape City, but he lost that round as well.

Returning to Crocodile Island, K. Rool put on a pirate get-up, armed himself with a blunderbuss, and called himself Kaptain K. Rool. All his underlings seemed to undergo pirate reformations as he prepared his next scheme. In Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, K. Rool kidnapped Donkey Kong himself off the beach of Donkey Kong Island and held him prisoner on Crocodile Island, sending the rest of the Kongs a ransom note demanding the bananas in return for Donkey Kong's life.

But Diddy Kong and Dixie decided to take the bananas back themselves. They beat K. Rool in his Flying Krock airship, saved Donkey Kong and tossed the kaptain to the Krem-Sharks. But K. Rool wasn't finished yet. He retreated to the Lost World beneath Crocodile Island, where he fought Diddy and Dixie one last time. The battle ended with K. Rool being tossed into the mysterious glowing light of Krocodile Kore, destroying the island quickly. It is unknown how K. Rool escaped this.

In Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble, K. Rool instead worked in the background. His new disguise was Baron K. Roolenstein, a mad scientist. He hid within his castle in KAOS Kore, where he created a robot named KAOS to act as the new Kremling leader. After trapping the Banana Bird Queen behind a giant magical slab, he kidnapped Donkey and Diddy, keeping them imprisoned within KAOS. However, he overlooked Dixie. Together Dixie and Kiddy slapped down on K. Roolenstein, chasing him to his Knautilus submarine in Krematoa. Roolenstein escaped that fateful battle as well in the Kongs' own Hovercraft, but he was finally trapped in the egg of the Banana Bird Queen.

Baron K. Roolenstein had little time to escape before the Northern Kremisphere was tossed into a frenzy to search for the mysterious Lost World (unrelated to DKC2's Lost World), which was said to hold great treasure. K. Roolenstein made his way there in Donkey Kong Land III, leaving a trail of Kremlings and bosses from the previous adventure to prevent anyone form following him. But the opposite of his plan worked as Dixie and Kiddy fought through the Kremlings to confront K. Roolenstein in Tin Can Valley. Once more Roolenstein fled to the Lost World, and once more he was chased down and beaten. But Roolenstein was impressed by efforts of the Kongs and rewarded them with a Time Trial mode.

Later Games: The Return of the King

K. Rool later returned to his original "king" get-up. In Donkey Kong 64, he planned to completely destroy Donkey Kong Island with his Blast-o-Matic cannon, which was located on his mechanical sea fortress. But when the machine was shut down in a crash, the Kremlings needed to stall the Kongs while the Blast-o-matic was being repaired. So K. Rool had the banana horde, including the Golden Bananas stolen, and also apenapped four of Donkey Kong's friends. That still wasn't enough, as DK undid all his tricks in time to raid the sea fortress with the aid of Snide, a weasel technician whom K. Rool had fired. In revenge, Snide had disabled the Blast-o-Matic long enough for the Kongs to turn it off permanently.

K. Rool tried to escape in his Flying Krock, but he forgot another loose end- K. Lumsy, a giant Kremling whom he had imprisoned for being good. The freed Lumsy unknowingly swatted the Krock right out of the sky. The Kongs then entered the crashed Flying Rock and found K. Rool waiting in a boxing ring there. He had put on boxing equipment and fought them under the name of Krusha K. Rool. The Kongs worked together to give K. Rool the old punch-out, and then Candy distracted Rool while Funky booted him off the island (literally, with a boot gun).

King K. Rool made a minor appearance in one of the minigames of Donkey Konga, in which he was jumped by a bongo-wielding Donkey Kong as Rool tried to hide in a series of interconnected holes.

King K. Rool once again tried terrorizing the Kong family in DK: King of Swing. Riding a small hovering vehicle, he stole all of the medals from the island's Jungle Jam competition so he would be named Jungle Hero instead of Donkey Kong. He accidentally dropped the medals at various locations across the island and retreated to his K. Kruizer III. Donkey Kong encountered K. Rool at the end of the fourth world. First K. Rool raced Donkey Kong, and then they battled. After K. Rool was beaten, Donkey Kong received the last of the stolen DK coins. He was also an unlockable playable character in the game.

Once again K. Rool was up to his old schemes in DK: Jungle Climber. When the peaceful alien Xananab arrived, K. Rool and his kremling managed to steal his Crystal Bananas that gave them extraordinary power. Unfortunately for K. Rool, Xananab met up with Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong who agreed to help the aliens. From that point on, K. Rool was pursued through various islands up until the King Kruiser IV, where K. Rool eluded Donkey Kong yet again by jumping into a wormhole to Plantaen, the homeworld of Xananab.

Donkey Kong and his companions finally caught up with him. K. Rool had already sent all his minions against Donkey Kong, so he attacked Donkey Kong in a battle very reminiscent to their battle in King of Swing. When K. Rool was defeated, he used his last remaining Crystal Banana. He was transformed into a gigantic version of himself. In this form he could breathe fire and he used his large hands to seize Donkey Kong and to crush him. However he was still defeated and following the Kong's victory feast, he was towed back to their homeworld.

King K. Rool is also an unlockable playable character in Donkey Kong Barrel Blast, with Cranky Kong as his rival. He then makes his Mario sports debut in Mario Super Sluggers as an unlockable captain.

Other Appearances

In Other Media

• King K. Rool appears in the computer-animated Donkey Kong Country series as the main villain in nearly every episode. His main minions are Klump and Krusha. He is shown in a somewhat bumbling manner, and all his schemes revolve around stealing the Crystal Coconut from Donkey Kong, based in a cave on the island. One episode went into his background by revealing him to be a former friend of Cranky Kong.

Trivia

• K. Rool's name is a simple pun on "cruel".
• He may have been inspired by King Koopa from the Super Mario Bros. Super Show. The two share an uncanny physical resemblance, and King Koopa also has a variety of costume changes in the same vein as K. Rool.
• King K. Rool appeared as a trophy in Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The latter trophy's description makes the strange error of calling Kaptain K. Rool the brother of King K. Rool. K. Rool's boss theme from Donkey Kong Country is also part of the game's soundtrack.
• King K. Rool is playable for the first time in the Jungle Jam mode of DK: King of Swing He is unlocked after all gold medals.
• K. Roolenstein briefly mentions having a wife in Donkey Kong Country 3. Not much is said about her, but the dialogue suggests that she's a housewife.
• In Jungle Climber, K. Rool claims to not even like bananas.
• He was also set to appear in Diddy Kong Pilot as a playable racer prior to its cancellation. This game would have continued K. Rool's trend of wearing various disguises by giving him an old fashioned pilot's uniform.