18. 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.

17. Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem! (DS)

The fourth entry in the sub-series, 2010's Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem! is possibly our favourite of the bunch. With crisp visuals, adorable mini versions of your favourite Mushroom Kingdom denizens, and a wonderful soundtrack to boot, the gameplay really shines on DS with its touchscreen and stylus. There's a host of secrets and optional objectives to enjoy here and, perhaps most importantly of all, Donkey Kong is back to doing what he does best: nabbing Pauline and legging it up a tall structure.

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 out 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 (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.

14. 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.

13. Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again! (DSiWare)

A DSiWare instalment of the Mario vs. Donkey Kong puzzle platformer series, there's nothing much wrong with Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again! — it's simply 'another one of those'. If you can't get enough of this sub-series' lock-and-key gameplay, the third entry is a solid one and features a level editor similar to its predecessor. Although these days sharing your custom levels is a lot tougher than it used to be. Poor one out for the DSi Shop.

12. 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.

11. 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.

10. 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 eleven and there's something admirable about its unapologetic 'more is more' 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.

9. 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.