Did Donkey Kong Kill Mario’s Father?

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Have you ever wondered what happened to Mario’s father? Maybe you were playing the game and starting to wonder what happened to Mario’s parents? Could Donkey Kong have something to do with the fact that we never meet Mario’s father? Is this what could have started Mario and Donkey Kong’s rivalry?  Well in this article we will go over everything you need to know about if Donkey Kong killed Mario’s father. 

So did Donkey Kong kill Mario’s Father?

It is very possible that Donkey Kong did kill Mario’s father. The character that we think is Mario’s father is none other than Jumpman. Jumpman is the closest character to Mario’s father and he was killed by Donkey Kong. 

If you want to know more about if Donkey Kong killed Mario’s father, you will want to keep reading this article. We will go into detail about who we think is Mario’s father and why. You can also watch this video about who Mario and Luigi’s parents are.

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The History of Mario and Donkey Kong

Both characters were created by Nintendo’s creative game producer Shigeru Miyamoto who designed many of Nintendo’s best selling game characters. Donkey Kong was released at the same time as Mario. Both became a success for the game company even up until now. The whole series involving both characters made huge profits, Nintendo even in the early 1990s. They were popular among modern games produced around the same time and much later. 

Why are Mario and Donkey Kong Rivals?

Both Mario and Donkey Kong, though they weren’t rivals, they were not friends either. A little bit of a back story on these two characters will help shed some light on what they have in common and why it is safe to say they were not friends. Mario alongside his brother Luigi, fights and jumps on obstacles in the first series to destroy their enemies. 

In the Mario series, Mario’s rival is usually always Bowser. Mario, alongside his brother, fights against Bowser to save Princess Peach. In another series players battle the head of the Koopa clan as he breathes fire and will throw objects while they brother’s dodge and attack to try to defeat the Koopas. The rivalry continues in the 1990 edition of Super Mario Bros 3, where players will have defeated Bowser by direct attack or a subtle approach of creating a hole in the bricks till their enemy falls into the gap. The arch-enemy turned into a big beast in the 2009 edition, where the spits chased the spits and fireballs.

Mario not only battled his great rival Bowser, but Donkey Kong is also one of his enemies. In another series there is a fight between Donkey Kong and Mario as Donkey Kong holds Pauline in custody. The next version turns the tide where we see Donkey Kong Jr fighting to save his father, Donkey Kong, from Mario. Another edition featured Donkey Kong as a civilian who entered and destroyed a toy shop. Mario is then chased by Donkey Kong in this game until he can get back the toy that Donkey Kong stole.

The rivalry between Mario and Donkey Kong continues even in the puzzle edition of the series.  From the different versions of the Mario and Donkey Kong games it is clear and very easy to see the rivalry between Donkey Kong and Mario

Who is Mario’s Father?

Now let’s go back to the first release of Donkey Kong in 1981. We would recall a character that was in the game named, Jumpman. Jumpman was a character that Donkey Kong killed. There is a possibility that this character is none other than Mario and his brother’s father. Let’s look at the fact that jumpman was used as two different characters. 

Jumpman was portrayed to us as a carpenter. Now Mario on the other hand is portrayed to us as a plumber. We can see that Jumpman and Mario are definitely two different characters and not at all the same. Donkey Kong and Jumpman had several different rivalries and was eventually defeated by Donkey Kong. It is indicated that Mario and one other character that is known as Luigi, had two guardians.

While we never actually get a good look at these two guardians, we believe that they could be Jumpman and Pauline. This is what leads us to believe that Jumpman is most definitely Mario’s father, who we already know that Donkey Kong did kill. Even though we never get a clear answer from Nintendo about who Jumpman really is, this may be what started the rivalry between Donkey Kong and Mario.

Does this make Donkey Kong a bad guy?

Does this necessarily mean that Donkey Kong is a totally cruel character in the series? Not necessarily, so if you noticed, Donkey Kong was actually portrayed in the first series of the computer game, as the guy who would go around the island doing anything and everything the way he wants without a care at all. He was portrayed to be a character who throws bananas around like he owns the place. He was actually designed so that he would look like a bad guy and bully. 

Nintendo wanted the gamers to see him as the one who could do anything and everything to cause a lot of trouble. Now when we take a look and the revised series of the Donkey Kong game, we would see that Donkey Kong is not really that bad or evil of a character. He is just a normal guy that a lot of the time cannot control his emotions and never wants to let them get in the way, which is why he will let out his frustration by throwing bananas on the ground wherever and whenever he feels like it. 

We can also come to the conclusion that he is actually the kind of guy that if you earn his trust will stick closer than a brother. He is the type to direct those younger than him to own up to their mistakes. How do we know this? We know this because of the relationship Donkey Kong has with his sidekick Diddy Kong. We see how he acts as if Diddy Kong is his little brother.

It is easy to see that Donkey Kong cares a lot for his best friend, Diddy Kong. So even though sometimes Donkey Kong will lose control of his emotions, he really is not that bad of a character after all. 

Conclusion

At the beginning of this article, we were faced with the question of whether Mario’s father was killed by Donkey Kong.  We can agree that in the Nintendo game series, Donkey Kong and Mario are definitely enemies. They have fought each other a few different times in the Mario and Donkey Kong game series. Could this be what started the rivalry between Donkey Kong and Mario? Did Donkey Kong actually kill Mario’s father? 

We have now come to the conclusion that it is very possible that this was true that Donkey Kong did kill Mario’s father. We think this because Jumpman is the closest character to Mario’s father, and he was killed by Donkey Kong.