Donkey Kong Jr.

Overview

Donkey Kong Junior (also known as DK Jr. or simply Junior and occasionally confused with Diddy Kong) is the main protagonist of the 1982 arcade game of the same name and the son of Donkey Kong. In terms of character design, Junior is essentially a child version of his father, but wears a white singlet emblazoned with a red letter "J". In his first appearance, his objective in the game is to save his father, who is being kept in a locked cage by Mario. He also reappears in the 1994 Game Boy remake of Donkey Kong to assist his father, who has once again kidnapped Pauline.

Cameos

Donkey Kong Jr. has appeared as a playable character in the original Super Mario Kart and Virtual Boy game Mario's Tennis, as well as a hidden character in the Nintendo 64 version of the similarly-named Mario Tennis. He is featured in the games Donkey Kong Jr. Math and Donkey Kong Classics on NES. Other appearances by Junior include the Game & Watch games Donkey Kong Jr. and Donkey Kong 2, as well as the Game & Watch Gallery compilations for Game Boy and Game Boy Advance. He also appears in the Super Mario All-Stars remake of Super Mario Bros. 3 as the transformed king in World 4. Like his father, he even had his own cereal.

Donkey Kong Country

According to Donkey Kong Country developer Rare, there are in fact multiple "Donkey Kongs". The character Diddy Kong was originally conceived as an updated version of Donkey Kong Jr. during DKC's development; however, Nintendo rejected this concept, mandating that Rare either retain Junior's original look or create an entirely new second playable character. In addition to removing Junior and replacing him with Diddy, Rare also altered the backstory for the game's first playable character. The "Donkey Kong" featured in DKC and onward is actually a grown-up version of Junior, and the original Donkey Kong became "Cranky Kong," an elderly ape who constantly criticizes the player's efforts while reminiscing about his arcade glory days.