Since 1981,Donkey Konghas been downing bananas and either causing trouble or committing heroic deeds, depending on which iteration you’re looking at. Before there was Mario, there was DK.
And while our beloved ape has had many a video game either in his honour or adjacently enough - Mario Party, for instance, doesn’t exactly shock us when he pops up as playable - Donkey Kong has also had some surprise appearances. Since you clicked on this article, I can only assume you wish to learn about ‘em. Or maybe you just want to see if I know all the ones that you do. Either way, let’s begin!
7Pokemon Stadium 2
This first one’s pretty subtle. In Pokemon Stadium 2, players could hook their Game Boys to their Nintendo 64s and get plenty of nifty little rewards for their efforts in the form of room decorations. These included the NES, SNES, and the N64 itself - as well as the Virtual Boy, which proved that, in 2000, the infamously failed system still hadn’t entirely left our brains.
Connect the NES, SNES, or N64 (tough luck, VB) to Pokemon Stadium 2’s in-game TV, and it’ll display images from four games from each console. Among the lucky NES quarter is none other than Donkey Kong.
6Futurama
In early 2002, the 50th episode of the positively unsinkable Futurama features a scene in which a character who is very clearly intended to be Donkey Kong tosses a barrel at President Richard Nixon’s disembodied head.
This is not the only time Donkey Kong has appeared adjacent to the ragtag crew of the Planet Express spacecraft. In the series premiere, a Kong-like depiction popped up briefly as the subject of an arcade game which protagonist Fry is playing in his very first scene.
Our boy has shown up another five times, for a total of seven. Since Fox (now owned by Disney) isn’t exactly Nintendo, none of these are authorized appearances. Which is to say, they’re definitely cameos, but they can never be legally acknowledged as such, and we never hear “Donkey Kong” being spoken aloud.
5Animal Crossing: New Horizons
In both Donkey Kong Country 2 and Donkey Kong Land 2, Crocodile Isle is a central location. Diddy and Dixie traverse this harsh land in a bid to rescue none other than Donkey Kong himself.
Curiously, a certain recurring Animal Crossing adventurer has been to Crocodile Isle: Gulliver! InAnimal Crossing: New Horizons, he proudly proclaims that his buccaneering ways have instilled fear not just there, but at Keelhaul Key, as well.
Since Keelhaul Key is a location in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, it’s safe to say our dear sentient seagull has crossed not just stormy seas, but strange interdimensional portals as well. Or I’m just reading too much into this, but y’know, nah. It’s legit.
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker tells its puzzling tale across three “episodes” (and a postgame episode, but that’s a bit complicated to get into). Toward the tail end of the third ep, on the 19th course, Toad engages in a decidedly Donkey-Kong-esque stage called Retro Ramp-Up.
Toad’s goal is to climb to the top of an obstacle course, avoiding huge spikes being tossed down by - sure enough - an enemy Spike. The spikes replace the barrels, and theSpikereplaces Donkey Kong, but the nods are unmistakable, and I reckon anybody who plays Captain Toad is bound to be familiar with the origin here.
3Pixels
Pixels is a bad movie. I subjected myself to it on a flight to Los Angeles about two years back. It was a mistake.
But what’s done is done, and at least I get to talk about it in remotely positive fashion for one sentence when I point out that, sure enough, Donkey Kong makes a cameo appearance in the 2015 nightmare fuel of a film. Aw, heck, I went negative at the end there.
2Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy+
I wouldn’t exactly classify Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy+ as the venerable military flight combat sim franchise’s finest hour. But I’m happy to report that I unlocked the F/A-18E, a specially-decorated jet designed from the ground up in reverence to the second-most famous fictional gorilla ever made. (I’m pretty sure King’s still on top.)
To unlock the F/A-18E, you need only destroy a Question Block in the Cuckoo’s Nest level. If you have a Donkey Kong amiibo, however, you can not only unlock it without the extra effort, but even gain access to an exclusive skin and a helpful special part.
1Fallout 4
If you’ve ever felt like rescuing the imperiled Vault Girl from the vile clutches of an anthropomorphized version of the Chinese flag, boy, do I have a Donkey Kong knockoff for you. Red Menace is a DK-style ode to the banana-lovin’ character’s barrel-tossing 1980s antics in Bethesda Game Studios' very ownFallout 4.
Accessible after locating it in Vault 111, Red Menace then becomes a portable absurdity that you can play in-game at any time via your trusty Pip-Boy.
