Donkey Kong News
February2023
The DK drama continues
New evidence has been uncovered that suggests Billy Mitchell did indeed cheat to attain his record-breaking Donkey Kong scores — the ones which Twin Galaxies removed from its record boards because they were allegedly achieved via emulation rather than original arcade hardware, and for which Mitchell is suing the...
January2023
News Early Donkey Kong Design Document From Miyamoto Showcases 'Popeye' Origin
"I yam what I yam an' tha's all I yam"
If you've swotted up on your gaming history, then you'll perhaps already know that the original Donkey Kong from 1981 (lord almighty...) actually started life as a Popeye the Sailor Man project, featuring the main man himself alongside Olive Oyl and antagonist Bluto. As the tale goes, Nintendo had failed to...
September2022
Random Billy Mitchell Claims Doctor Won't See Him Due To Donkey Kong Cheating Accusations
According to court documents
By this point, if you've heard of Donkey Kong, then you've also probably heard of Billy Mitchell. The former 'King of Kong' held multiple world records in arcade games such as Pac-Man and the aforementioned, but many have since been called into question, with some accusing him of playing via Multiple Arcade Machine...
June2022
Random Retro Enthusiasts Accomplish World's First Donkey Kong 2P Kill Screen
"There's a kill screen comin' up!"
If you're familiar with the classic Donkey Kong arcade game, then you'll have undoubtedly heard of the kill screen. For those not in the know, the game essentially features a level known as the 'kill screen', whereby the in-game timer will be so low that's it's impossible to complete the stage as a result of a...
December2021
Feature The Many Faces Of Donkey Kong, Nintendo's 40-Year-Old Gorilla
Four decades of DK
Nintendo’s monkey of manifold mantles – one Donkey Kong, Esq. – recently turned 40. Forty years young and still so vital, but it could be reasonably argued that the ol’ Kongmeister has been undergoing a bit of an identity crisis for most of his lifespan. The man-ape has turned from heel to face to heel more times than The...
January2021
Video We've Ranked All 55 Kongs From Donkey Kong, For Science
Wait, how many?
Donkey Kong is a franchise that has been passed around numerous developers over the years, resulting in a lovely array of different genres and interpretations of the series. It also had a TV show made about it, which is something that some people would probably like to forget. After being banded around for 30 years as of 2021 it's...
November2020
Feature How A Donkey Kong Clone Almost Scuppered Nintendo's Ambitions In The West
This Kong be CRAZY
The following feature is an excerpt from Ken Horowitz's excellent Beyond Donkey Kong: A History of Nintendo Arcade Games and has been reproduced here with the kind permission of both Horowitz and the publisher. 1981's arcade smash-hit Donkey Kong created a surge in revenue that lifted Nintendo’s prospects for its North...
October2020
News Beyond Donkey Kong Digs Deep Into Nintendo's Often Overlooked Arcade Heritage
New book sheds light on a coin-op legacy
While Nintendo has long been a major force in the realms of domestic and portable video gaming, it's important to remember that the release that truly put the Japanese firm on the map was an arcade one: 1981's Donkey Kong. Shigeru Miyamoto's first masterpiece transformed Nintendo from a coin-op also-ran into...
September2020
Random Well, Here's A Crazy New Theory About Mario's Origins
"Oh my gorshk!"
We all know that Mario began life as the protagonist of Donkey Kong, although he was referred to in the early days simply as "Jumpman" and it has been widely reported that he only gained his famous moniker when the resemblance between the character and the late Mario Segale – the landlord of Nintendo of America's Tukwila warehouse...
June2020
News King Of Kong's Stars Rack Up Personal Best Scores Within Days Of Each Other
"The basement dwellers can talk from their keyboards"
2007's King of Kong is one of the seminal video game documentaries. It charted the epic battle between legendary high-score holder and hot sauce-maker Billy Mitchell and the underdog Steve Wiebe. At the conclusion of the movie, Wiebe had made gaming history and the film has gone on to become a...
News Billy Mitchell's Donkey Kong And Pac-Man Scores Are Reinstated By Guinness World Records
"I wanted to clear my name"
A few years ago, scorekeeping organisation Twin Galaxies stripped Billy Mitchell of his scores following accusations of cheating. It has now been revealed that those scores have been reinstated by Guinness World Records, which means Mitchell is once again officially recognised as the first person to register a 1 million...
News Robbie Lakeman Is Apparently The New Donkey Kong World Record Holder
A former King of Kong returns to top spot
Nintendo's arcade game Donkey Kong is nearly 40 years old and there's still a competitive scene for it. What's even more impressive, in fact, is that the top players continue to set new high scores. According to a recent tweet by the one and only Billy Mitchell, the former champ Robbie Lakeman has returned...
News After 10 Years Away, The Original "King Of Kong" Is Making A Comeback
"It seemed only fitting to get back into the swing of things"
Steve Wiebe became a star overnight thanks to the documentary film The King of Kong back in 2007, but for the past decade, he has been content to step aside and allow other players to take their shot at high-score glory. However, Wiebe – who is now recognised as the first person to...
September2019
News Billy Mitchell Threatens To Take Legal Action Against High-Score Sanctioning Bodies
The King of Kong wants his crown back
The one and only Billy Mitchell – best known for claiming high-scores in arcade games like Donkey Kong and then being officially stripped of the records – is reportedly threatening to take legal action against the sanctioning bodies Twin Galaxies and Guinness World Records. Polygon reveals Mitchell's...
December2018
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (December 15th)
Here are our picks, but what are yours?
As we come to the end of yet another week, it's time to take a moment or two to discuss which amazing games we'll be enjoying over the weekend. That "Ultimate Smashing" game may well have released just last week, but there are plenty of other experiences being had by Team Nintendo Life this time around. Turns...
November2018
News Billy Mitchell Live Streams 1,050,100 Point Donkey Kong Game
The Return of the King of Kong
After the apparent fall from grace, 'video game player of the century' Billy Mitchell has been live streaming arcade gameplay sessions of Donkey Kong on Twitch. His latest effort was different from the regular broadcasts. In Billy's own words: While that impressive high score is still not enough to claim the crown...
October2018
News Disgraced King Of Kong Star Billy Mitchell Is Aiming To Reclaim His Donkey Kong Score
"Why? Cause I’m Billy Mitchell"
It's not been the best of times for Billy Mitchell, one of the most famous high score-chasers the gaming industry has ever known. Earlier this year, video game records organization Twin Galaxies stripped Mitchell of his high scores following
June2018
News Arcade Archives: Donkey Kong Available Now On Switch eShop In North America And Japan
Sky Skipper drops in July
To start the third and final day of live Treehouse coverage, Nintendo announced HAMSTER would be expanding the Arcade Archives line on the Switch eShop, with the reveal of two additional titles. Both released in 1981, the first is the original Donkey Kong arcade game, and the second is the lesser known Sky Skipper...
April2018
News Billy Mitchell Breaks His Silence To Address Accusations Of Cheating
"Everything was done professionally, according to the rules"
It's fair to say that it's not been a great year for Billy Mitchell, the former "King of Kong". Earlier this year he was accused of cheating in order to claim his famous Donkey Kong high score, and last week Twin Galaxies responded and
"We must repeat, the truth is the priority"
High score record-keeping site Twin Galaxies has removed all of Billy Mitchell's rankings from its database and banned him from competition following accusations of wrong-doing relating to the classic Nintendo title Donkey Kong. Earlier this year, Mitchell's scores were called into doubt by Donkey...
February2018
Feature Shining A Light On Ikegami Tsushinki, The Company That Developed Donkey Kong
And the legal battle that shocked Nintendo
As one of Nintendo's earliest hits, Donkey Kong has a special place not only in the company's illustrious history, but in the realm of gaming in general. Despite its advanced years the game continues to capture the imagination of players, and has recently been thrust back into the spotlight thanks to its...
News Billy Mitchell Reacts to Accusations of Fake Donkey Kong High Score
"I’ve never even played MAME"
Billy Mitchell is a famed name in the competitive gaming scene, both for the records that he set on arcade games and for the role that he played in the story behind The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. Recently, Mitchell’s achievement with setting the Donkey Kong high score has been called into question, with...
News Billy Mitchell's Donkey Kong High Scores Come Under Doubt Amid Accusations Of Monkey Business
Meanwhile, Robbie Lakeman extends his world record score
Billy Mitchell is a video game icon who needs little introduction; he was one of the first players to gain mainstream recognition for his skill at arcade games, and more recently found fame in the documentary King of Kong, where he was positioned as the antagonist to Steve Wiebe's heroic...
October2017
Video A New Theory on How Pauline Got Her Name
And some notable similarities to Odyssey's style
With just days to go until Super Mario Odyssey hits the shelves, there’s a lot of excitement and buzz in the air. While most of the game will be kept under lock and key until 27 October, Nintendo has made a few things public. One of the bigger revelations made earlier this year, when Odyssey was...
June2017
News Even After 10 Years, Billy Mitchell Still Hasn't Seen King Of Kong
"On the souls of my children, I haven’t watched it"
It's hard to believe that The King of Kong is a decade old now. A seminal work in the history of video game movies, it presented a thrilling David and Goliath tale which focused on humble schoolteacher Steve Wiebe's dream of being the world high score holder for Nintendo's arcade smash Donkey...
May2017
And Halo: Combat Evolved, but this is Nintendo Life, so...
The World Video Game Hall of Fame has been up and running for three years now, which is organised and run by The Strong museum in Rochester, New York. Its third intake of games has now been confirmed, with two Nintendo-published titles making the cut among four inductees. There were 12...
April2017
News Donkey Kong, Pokémon Red and Green Nominated for the World Video Game Hall of Fame
Games that started history
Shigeru Miyamoto's arcade hit, Donkey Kong, has been nominated for the 2017 addition to the World Video Game Hall of Fame. Additionally, The Pokémon Company International released a statement on its website announcing that Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green, originally released in 1996 on the Nintendo Game Boy, have also...
November2015
News Donkey Kong Champ Billy Mitchell Loses Legal Battle Against Regular Show Parody
"GBF appears as a non-human creature, a giant floating head with no body"
Famed games player Billy Mitchell has lost his legal battle against his depiction in the Cartoon Network's The Regular Show. The character - known as GBF (Garrett Bobby Ferguson or Giant Bearded Face) - is a floating head with arms who is revealed to be an alien who cheats at...
October2015
Weirdness This 1983 Short Movie Combines Horror With Donkey Kong
Can you find the Treasure of the Haunted House?
Long-time readers of the site will be familiar with the work of Tyler Esposito - not only have we covered his excellent videos in the past, he's also contributed to Nintendo Life with an amusing look at one of the most bizarre NES games ever made. He also runs the excellent YouTube channel iretrogamer...
News Masayuki Uemura on How the NES Controller Came About
Thank God it didn't have a joystick
When you really get down to it, the NES controller is the granddaddy of all modern game controllers. Granted, they didn't have thumbsticks, triggers, or tilt controls back in the 80's, but it doesn't take a terribly observant eye to note the design principles that are still evident in today's controllers. This is...
August2015
Video Iron Maiden's New Music Video Pays Tribute To Donkey Kong, Of All Things
A heavy trip through gaming history
Legendary British heavy metal band Iron Maiden are preparing to release their first single in half a decade and have put together a video game-inspired music video to mark the occasion. Speed of Light's official video sees the band's iconic mascot Eddie getting sucked into an arcade machine which then forces him...
June2015
A surprise from E3 2015 you may not have expected
In case you missed it, this year Bethesda Softworks hosted its very own E3 press conference for the first time ever. As expected, the company teased the new DOOM, Dishonored 2 and their most cherished creation, Fallout 4. During one of the many Fallout 4 segments, the company revealed the latest...
October2014
News New Music and Voice Samples Discovered in the Donkey Kong Arcade
A few decades on, there's still more to find
The Donkey Kong arcade was a key turning point for Nintendo as a company, as it brought Shigeru Miyamoto to the fore and helped to demonstrate to Hiroshi Yamauchi and his management that the video game business could be lucrative for the company. It's so iconic that a small band of gamers still compete...
September2014
News Robbie Lakeman Sets A New Donkey Kong World Record To Dethrone Hank Chien
We have a new King of Kong
When Hank Chien set a new world record on Donkey Kong back in 2011 — and then went on to break his own score another two times — many believed he could never be beaten. Chien's battle with Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe — the duo immortalised in the movie
March2014
Weirdness The Makers Of TV Show Resurrection Clearly Want Nintendo On Smartphones
Donkey Kong on your mobile?
The series premiere of ABC's Resurrection went out on Sunday — in North America, at least — and the show's glaring similarity to the hit French TV series Les Revenants wasn't the only eye-opening thing about it. In one scene, a character is seen playing a game on his Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone which happens to...
January2014
Ninterview Stepping Into The Nintendo Arcade
Alex Crowley tells us about collecting cabinets and his love for DK
When gamers refer to and discuss retro gaming, we suspect that in most cases the conversation revolves around ageing consoles, cartridges and CDs; occasionally, the debate may even revert to libraries and choices on services such as Nintendo's Virtual Consoles. Yet an integral part...
December2013
Video Meet The New Kings of Kong Documentary Shows Off Chien and Lemay Rivalry
Extended cut of VGX video
Those that endured the VGX broadcast may have enjoyed an early segment that focused on the most recent Kong Off contest; it followed world record holder Dr. Hank Chien and body-building trash-talker Vincent Lemay. It gave a brief insight into both characters and the event itself, showing the passion of the small band of...
Weirdness Donkey Kong And Other NES Classics Can Now Be Played On Your Wedding Cake
Perfect for a gorilla-suited groom
If you've ever dreamed of smothering the face of your brand new spouse with a giant slice of virtual dirt from the game Dig Dug, now is your chance. An entertainment company out of New Jersey, USA named POSH Entertainment has figured out how to make you lose even more of your hard earned coins by getting married,...
November2013
News Jeff Willms Wins Donkey Kong World Championship for the Second Year Running
Sounds like it was a barrel load of fun
Jeff Willms proved that he still has the touch when it comes to the arcade classic Donkey Kong after he took home the grand prize for the second year in a row at the Kong Off 3 Donkey Kong world championship this past weekend. Competing in the tournament against Willms were 22 renowned Donkey Kong players,...
January2013
News Warcraft-Loving Canadian Almost Becomes The King Of Kong
Vincent Lemay just 2,700 points shy of Hank Chien's record
There are plenty of vintage video games out there which tempt modern-day players to accomplish a record-breaking score, but Nintendo's Donkey Kong seems to get more attention than most - thanks largely to the amazing 2008 documentary film King of Kong, which charted the titanic battle...
August2012
News Dr Hank Chien Breaks His Own Donkey Kong World Record
Just to rub it in
Dr Hank Chien is the current master and world record holder on the original Donkey Kong arcade. Ahead of a Kong Off II event in November, it seems that Dr Kong isn't merely content to enjoy his record and wait to face his rivals, but is actively trying to assert his place at the top of the tree. After extending his world record to...
May2012
News Donkey Kong Champion Improves His World Record
The doctor is in
While some of us may consider ourselves useful when playing some old-school games, there are few that are legitimately world-beating retro gamers. Dr. Hank Chien is one of the elite, as he's the record holder for the original Donkey Kong arcade title, an honour that he currently holds despite constant competition from fellow retro...
July2011
News The King of Kong Remake Could End Up as a Mockumentary
Seth Gordon talks directorial influences
Seth Gordon's The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters documentary about Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe ― two gamers on a quest for a world record-breaking high score on Donkey Kong ― is still on course for a remake, but the style in which the film will be presented might in some ways end up being a...
March2011
Interviews Richie Knucklez - The Kong Off
"the most important person in video gaming right now"
In the documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, Steve Wiebe travels to FunSpot Arcade to put a stop to all the naysayers disputing his record-setting Donkey Kong skills. To the amazement of everyone watching, he achieves the first ever kill screen on the Funspot Donkey Kong machine...
The doctor, the teacher and the saucier go head-to-head
1,090,400 points. That's the record to beat, set by the cheerful Dr. Hank Chien just last week. Now the New York plastic surgeon joins the double-decade champion and hot sauce tycoon Billy Mitchell and the mild-mannered schoolteacher who toppled his throne, Steve Wiebe, to duke it out for...
News World's Finest to Compete This Weekend at the Kong Off
Join us for live coverage
You've seen the movies. You've read the interviews. You've designed the shirts. You've cheered for the former champion. And to top it off, the bar just got raised by 20,000 points. This weekend is what it's all been building up to: The Ko
News Hank Chien Breaks Previous DK Record, Climbs Further Up the Ladder
The high score just got higher
To be the best you have to beat the best, even if that means beating yourself. On 27th February, current Donkey Kong champion Hank Chien did just that. Nearly a year after he originally broke the record for the highest score on a Donkey Kong arcade machine, the New York surgeon has surpassed his best score, making...
Competition Winner Design the Official T-Shirt for Team Chien!
A smashing shirt
Around a month ago, Nintendo Life and Donkey Kong world champion Dr. Hank Chien teamed up to challenge you, the readers, to design the official Team Chien t-shirt. The response was overwhelming, but Dr. Chien was able to cut through the entries with surgical precision and pick a favourite. The winning design was submitted by user...
February2011
Interviews Doctor Kong Director Alexis Neophytides
We catch up with Alexis and Hank at the film's Brooklyn premiere
The saga over high scores in Donkey Kong is no longer a tale of two dudes. While most of us came to know the world of modern day Donkey Kongers through the epic rivalry between Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchelll, it wasn't long before a third player emerged out of left field. Hank Chien,...
News Doctor Kong Trailer Reveals Hank Chien's True Motivation
Hint: it's not a hatred of gorillas
Plenty has been written about the ongoing action at the top of the global Donkey Kong leaderboards, but what inspired plastic surgeon Dr Hank Chien to take up the challenge? Chien, whose score of 1,068,000 is just 3,500 points above nearest rival Steve Wiebe, is the subject of a new independent documentary called...
