How Old Is Donkey Kong, The Character?

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Have you ever wondered how old Donkey Kong, the character, is? Maybe you were playing the game and got curious about how old Donkey Kong actually is. You know that the Donkey Kong game series has been around for a while but how old is Donkey Kong himself? In this article we will answer this question of really how old the actual Donkey Kong character is. 

So how old is Donkey Kong?

To be able to know the age of Donkey Kong the character, we have gone back to the original Donkey Kong arcade game and then to his most recent appearance in 2020. When we do all of the math, Donkey Kong the character has been around for 39 years.

If you want to know more about how old Donkey Kong is and how we have figured out his age, you will want to keep reading this article.

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Donkey Kong’s first appearance

In order for us to be able to figure out the actual age of the Donkey Kong character, we have to look at the history of the Donkey Kong game series. The first Donkey Kong game we are introduced to, came as an arcade game. The storyline when it was first released was, Donkey Kong was the enemy and opponent who had taken Mario’s girl into custody. Other Donkey Kong games had entirely different storylines. As an example the 1982 version of the game was renamed to Donkey Kong Jr.. The modified version spotlighted Donkey Kong Jr, as he was trying to save his father from a cage where Mario was keeping him. He has to accomplish this by overcoming a lot of different obstacles until he can save his father. Note that this character made his first appearance in 1981, and also that the game was named after him. This character, Donkey Kong, is one that has become very popular to gamers, as he bears the name of the game brand.  

Different games Donkey Kong is in

Donkey Kong has been a part of many games over the years since his original appearance in 1981 which was the arcade game. Donkey Kong has additionally shown up in different Mario sporting events. Donkey Kong was additionally a selectable character in Mario Tennis, Mario Power Tennis, Mario Tennis: Power Tour, Mario Tennis Open, Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash and Mario Tennis Aces. Donkey Kong is playable in Mario Golf, Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour and Mario Golf: World Tour yet not Mario Golf: Advance Tour. Donkey Kong highlighted in Super Mario Strikers for the GameCube and showed up on the Wii inside the title Mario Strikers Charged as a playable soccer skipper. 

In Mario Super Sluggers, he shows up as a skipper once more. Donkey Kong additionally shows up in Mario Superstar Baseball. He showed up in pretty much every Mario and Sonic game, beginning with Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games. He’s likewise playable in Mario Hoops 3-on-3 and Mario Sports Mix.He is also a playable character in every Super Smash Bros. game. Donkey Kong showed up in Super Smash Bros. as the main character from the Donkey Kong arrangement and had a phase called “Kongo Jungle”, which depended on Donkey Kong Country. 

Both Donkey Kong and Kongo Jungle returned for the second game, Super Smash Bros. Scuffle. This game had two new stages called “Wilderness Japes” and “Kongo Jungle”, and a form of the “DK Rap” from Donkey Kong 64 fills in as stage music for Kongo Jungle (the one contrast in the verses being “hell” subbed from “damnation”).

Notable about all the previously mentioned appearances was that they were between 1981, the first appearance and late 1990s, up to 1996. You would agree with me that it was quite a long life span. Also, the character was quite frequent. He showed up again in Super Smash Bros. Fight, this time being joined by his sidekick Diddy Kong and three phases “Wilderness Japes” from Melee, “Thunder Falls” from Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, and “75m” from the first Donkey Kong game from 1981. 

You will want to take note of the fact that the character Donkey Kong did not end in 1996. Donkey Kong was redesigned and used in many other Nintendo games from 2000 and up until now. Lets not forget his appearance in the Atari flashback, the Atari 2600 series, which was from 2011 and up until now. Donkey Kong has made appearances pretty recently. Since Donkey Kong has made appearances pretty recently means that we know he is pretty old. 

Donkey Kong’s most recent appearance 

The game he most recently made an appearance in is Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.  Let’s talk a little bit about this game. This particular game is a computer game designed with a connection to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. It was actually developed by Sega for the Nintendo Switch in 2019 and was recently released in 2020. Just like the past Mario and Sonic games, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 is a sporting event including a hybrid cast of characters from Nintendo’s Super Mario and Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog series. 

The player, using one of the characters, competes in a large number of different games that relate to the sports from the Olympic Games. The game highlights a variety of events most of them are actually returning ones from past Mario and Sonic games which include boxing, soccer, swimming, and vaulting, while the new game incorporates games such as karate, skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing.

The Nintendo Switch form supports an assortment of controllers,which include the Joy-Con movement controllers. The game also does include a split-screen neighbourhood multiplayer and online play. An extra 2D Mode is also included, in view of the 1964 Summer Olympics, and highlighting 8-piece and 16-piece styles for Mario and Sonic, individually. 

The Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 is the most recent appearance of Donkey Kong. We can see that Donkey Kong is one relevant and very well known character in the Nintendo series. The character Donkey Kong is certainly an old one. So now if we do the math, the character, Donkey Kong was very first seen in the original Donkey Kong arcade game in 1981, and Donkey Kong the character’s most recent appearance was in Mario and Sonic at the Olympics Tokyo 2020, which was released in 2020. So now if we calculate correctly this will give us the age of Donkey Kong the character. So 1981 and now to 2020 Donkey Kong the character himself, is indeed 39 years old.

Conclusion

So now that you know all the history of the different games that Donkey Kong the character is a part of and also the years at which these games were released, you can clearly see and calculate the age of Donkey Kong the character. Donkey Kong is not a young character by any means at all. Although he does age pretty well. Donkey Kong the character is 39 years old and is still going strong. Gamers from all over the world look forward to the next games that Donkey Kong is a part of as he is such a great character!