Donkey Kong (video game)

Donkey Kong is an arcade platform game released by Nintendo in 1981. Its gameplay maneuvers Mario across platforms to ascend a construction site and rescue Pauline from the giant gorilla named Donkey Kong, all while avoiding or jumping over obstacles. It is the first game in both the Donkey Kong and Mario franchises.
Donkey Kong is the product of Nintendo's increasingly desperate efforts to develop a hit to rival Pac-Man (1980) and break into the North American market. Hiroshi Yamauchi, Nintendo's president at the time, assigned the project to first-time video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Drawing from a wide range of inspirations including Popeye, Beauty and the Beast, and King Kong, Miyamoto developed the scenario and designed the game alongside chief engineer Gunpei Yokoi. They broke new ground by using graphics as a means of characterization, including cutscenes to advance the game's plot and integrating multiple stages into the gameplay.
Although Nintendo's American staff was initially apprehensive, Donkey Kong succeeded commercially and critically in Japan and North America, where it became the highest-grossing arcade game of 1981 and 1982, respectively. Nintendo licensed the game to Coleco, a developer of arcade conversions for several home consoles, selling six million cartridges. Other companies cloned the game and avoided royalties altogether. Miyamoto's characters were mass marketed in multitudes of products, including breakfast cereal, toys, and television cartoons. Universal City Studios filed a lawsuit alleging Donkey Kong violated its trademark of King Kong, ultimately failing.
The phenomenal success of Donkey Kong positioned the company for market dominance from 1981 through the late 1990s. The game debuts Mario, who became Nintendo's mascot and one of the world's most recognizable characters. Donkey Kong is a pioneer of the platform game genre, one of the most important games from the golden age of arcade video games, and one of the most popular arcade games of all time.
Category:Video Games