While Mario is the main man when it comes to all things Nintendo, it was Donkey Kong who gave the plumber a leg-up in the world of video games. The ape's debut not only conquered the arcade and introduced the world to a video gaming legend, but it saved the company and put Nintendo on the path to becoming the cultural force it is today.
It's easy to forget just how many games Mario's erstwhile nemesis has to his name, too. From 1981's original Donkey Kong to the present day, the ape and his clan have featured in dozens of games.
What's the best Donkey Kong game, though? Below you'll find every DK game ranked from the bottom of the barrel to top banana.
Enough monkey business. Let's take a look at the best DK games ever. Here w—, here w—, here we go!
Best Donkey Kong Games Of All Time
22. Donkey Kong Jr. Math (NES)
Donkey Kong Jr. Math adds some arithmetic to the basic vine-swinging and platforming of Donkey Kong Jr. in a title that sucks all the fun out of both gaming and mathematics. It combines 'education' and 'entertainment' to make — you guessed it! — a terrible game. Think of the poor kid who got a launch NES console and this. There must have been at least one.
Don't feel too sorry, though. Boxed versions of Donkey Kong Jr. Math are worth a pretty penny these days, so silver linings and all that. The title makes the game sound dreary, and it very much is, but at least it delivers on the promise of its name, and a unique, surprisingly fun two-player experience is this retro curio's saving grace.
Previously available via Virtual Console and now on NSO, it's technically playable on GameCube, too, as it's one of the NES games included in the original Animal Crossing.
21. Donkey Kong Barrel Blast (Wii)
This DK racer really is bottom of the barrel. Originally a DK Bongo tie-in planned for GameCube, it got moved to its motion-controlled successor with the barmy bongo peripheral swapped for Wii Remote waggle. 'Bongo Blast' became 'Barrel Blast' and you shook your Wiimote and Nunchuk to accelerate.
Unfortunately, the racing is sluggish, the controls are hideous, and the visuals looked ropey even at the time. The fact that DK and Diddy featured in the excellent Mario Kart Wii only highlighted what a mess Donkey Kong Barrel Blast was. Developer Paon DP would do better with these characters in other games (King of Swing, Jungle Climber), but this was plain bad. The cover makes it look like the game could be fun. Trust us, it isn't.
20. Arcade Archives Donkey Kong 3 (Switch eShop)
If push came to shove, we'd personally prefer to sit down with Donkey Kong 3 over Donkey Kong Jr. purely for how it diverges from its predecessors in intriguing ways. Taking control of that most famous of Nintendo icons, er... Stanley the Bugman, you use bug spray to deflect the advances of flower fanatic Donkey Kong through your greenhouse. DK has enlisted an army of bugs and bees to keep you occupied while he makes off with your prize petunias.
Despite lacking the iconic gameplay and sound effects that have passed into video game lore, there's something oddly compelling about Stanley's battle against the headlining ape, and something a little sad in the knowledge that Stanley would vanish into obscurity afterwards. Well, that's not quite right; Stanley has had a handful of cameos over the years in games like Smash Bros. and the WarioWare series, but you rarely hear Nintendo fans clamouring for his return. Poor Stanley.
19. Arcade Archives Donkey Kong Jr. (Switch eShop)
The tables turned in this sequel to the arcade original, with Mario having kidnapped Donkey Kong this time, so it's up to Junior to rescue Kong Senior. We've had ports aplenty over the years, but this Hamster's version of Donkey Kong Jr. enables you to flip your Switch into vertical mode for the most authentic experience you'll get outside an arcade.
It's hard to argue that the base gameplay here hasn't aged, and you'll probably need a healthy dose of nostalgia and/or academic interest to get maximum enjoyment from it nowadays. There's definitely some retro fun to be had, but we can think of dozens of '80s classics we'd play before getting down with DKJ.
18. DK: King of Swing (GBA)
With a lovely, pastel colouring to its art, DK: King of Swing takes the essence of Clu Clu Land and makes a decent game out of it. Using the shoulder buttons to swing around and grasp onto pegs throughout the jungle, this twist on DK gameplay is quite refreshing after so many standard 2D platformers and Mini-marching games.
It's nice to see him doing something outside his usual wheelhouse which doesn't involve driving karts, smashing tennis balls, or swinging a golf club with one hand. It's not an absolute stone-cold classic, but DK: King of Swing is a fun little portable game and a breath of fresh air in amongst all his 2D platforming monkey business.
17. Donkey Konga 3 (GCN)
The final, Japan-only entry in the trilogy, Donkey Konga 3 brought another bunch of banana-banging tracks a mere eight months after its predecessor debuted on Japanese store shelves. It's more Donkey Konga, which is never a bad thing. Trilogy remaster when?
16. DK: Jungle Climber (DS)
Following the rather poor Barrel Blast, developer Paon redeemed itself a little by returning to the DK formula it started with on Game Boy Advance in DK: King of Swing. DK: Jungle Climber for DS puts you in control of your favourite tie-wearing simian as he climbs through the jungle using the shoulder buttons and it works rather well on original hardware.
The soundtrack is a little disappointing by DK's high standards, but this and its predecessor are uniquely controlled entries in the Kong canon that are worth a look, even if they don't scale the heights of his more famous adventures.
15. Donkey Konga 2: Hit Song Parade (GCN)
Following on less than a year after its predecessor, Donkey Konga 2: Hit Song Parade delivered more of the bongo-bashing same and essentially functions as a second song pack. It's still worth investigating if you're a rhythm-game gamer who didn't perish under a mountain of peripherals all those years ago.
14. Arcade Archives Donkey Kong (Switch eShop)
Available on console for the first time since being tucked away as a bonus in Donkey Kong 64, this is the original game from which this whole beautiful mess spawned — the Mario series, the DK series, and Nintendo's enormous empire of evergreen gaming.
Mario (or rather Jumpman) may seem quite limited in his abilities (and death by such short falls is very old-school), but Donkey Kong is still a fun game. Tougher than the NES port, high-score chasing can get addictive.
For fans of the game and the OG arcade cabinet's vertical orientation, Hamster's TATE mode-compatible Arcade Archives release is something of an 'ultimate edition'. Three versions of it with a few display options and the usual array of modes and online leaderboards make this a great choice and the best way to revisit this arcade classic.
The movement might feel stiff and the animation rudimentary, but give it time and DK's iconic charm is sure to win you over.
13. Donkey Kong Land III (GB)
Donkey Kong Land III is a handsome Game Boy title which also sounds particularly lovely and caps off the Donkey Kong Land GB trilogy in fine fashion — it's arguably the pick of the portable bunch. Lucky Japanese gamers even got a version enhanced for the Game Boy Color which looked even lovelier.
This was to be Rare's final 2D platformer featuring the DK clan and Twycross' custodians of Kong certainly went out on a high.
12. Donkey Kong Land (GB)
We remember the first time we saw Donkey Kong Country on the SNES and wondering how a 16-bit machine could pull off its 'amazing' graphics — those pre-rendered sprites felt pretty special at the time. Seeing them approximated on the lowly Game Boy hardware in Donkey Kong Land felt like actual dark magic, though.
With impressive animation and detailed backgrounds, sometimes you could get disorientated for a moment as enemies blended into the backdrop, but the way DKL managed to capture the essence of its 16-bit brethren makes it a fascinating and worthy entry in the Kongpendium.
11. Donkey Kong Land 2 (GB)
It might have his name on the box, but Donkey Kong is barely in this one! Donkey Kong Land 2 has Diddy and Dixie rescuing the captured DK from the clutches of vile crocodile Kaptain K. Rool.
By simplifying background elements in comparison to the original Game Boy rendition, it's a little easier to see what you're doing here and, as with all the DKL games, the way it captures the look and feel of the SNES DKC games on such modest hardware is impressive to this day.
10. Donkey Konga (GCN)
After Nintendo manufactured the DK Bongos, the company supported them with a surprising number of releases. Donkey Konga predated Guitar Hero by a year, just before music-loving gamers' households were filled to the roof with plastic guitars and bulky drum kits.
The rhythm-based premise is old-hat nowadays, but Donkey Konga works very well and, provided you've got the requisite number of bongos, makes for an excellent party game for up to four players.
9. Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (GCN)
The first 'mainline' DK game following the end of Rare's stewardship of the character, and an under-appreciated gem from director Yoshiaki Koizumi and the EAD Toyko team that would go on to make Super Mario Galaxy, Nintendo is at its best when it's doing something no one else would do — and a platformer you play with a pair of bongos is something you're unlikely to find elsewhere.
Yes, you control Donkey Kong Jungle Beat using arguably the best/silliest official controller ever made. You can play with a standard GameCube pad if you want, but it's best to keep the neighbours awake with this one. You move DK by hitting the drums or clapping, which is detected by the bongos' in-built mic, bounding through the 2.5D levels collecting bananas, bashing baddies, and building combos to score 'beats'.
It's short, but brilliant fun and is superior to the (still excellent) Wiimote-controlled New Play Control! version because bongos beat motion controls. Always.
8. Donkey Kong 64 (N64)
There are some who blame the collapse of the collectathon 3D platforming craze on Donkey Kong 64, and while it's hard to argue that Rare perhaps went a little too far with the huge number of inconsequential collectible doohickeys, it's a game which turns everything up to 11 and there's something admirable about its unapologetic everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach.
With five playable Kongs (you know them well), huge worlds, and an abundance of minigames (including emulated versions of the original arcade Donkey Kong and Ultimate Play the Game's Jetpac), DK64 was one hell of a value proposition back in 1999 and we think it probably deserves re-evaluation after decades of bashing. C'mon Cranky, take it to the fridge.