Donkey Kong

Nintendo · Since 1981

Nintendo's original arcade franchise introduced Mario (as Jumpman) and spawned the Donkey Kong Country SNES trilogy, one of the best-selling series of the 16-bit era. The franchise spans platformers, puzzle games, and racing titles.

Donkey Kong (1981) introduced platform game conventions — climbing ladders, jumping over obstacles, rescuing a character — that defined the genre before Super Mario Bros. existed. The franchise lay dormant as a major platform after the arcade era until Rare's Donkey Kong Country (1994) on SNES revived it with pre-rendered 3D graphics that appeared technically impossible on the hardware. The Country trilogy sold over 20 million units combined and established the franchise's identity as a high-quality platformer distinct from the Mario series. Donkey Kong 64 (1999), while commercially successful, was critically noted for its extreme collectathon design; the franchise was revived again by Retro Studios with Donkey Kong Country Returns (2010) and Tropical Freeze (2014), the latter widely regarded as among the finest platformers of its generation.