Donkey Kong (SSBB)

Donkey Kong (, Donkey Kong) is a character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. He was first shown very briefly at the E3 2007 press conference. Rather than utilizing the recycled animal sounds from Super Smash Bros. Melee or being voiced by Grant Kirkhope or Takashi Nagasako (who voiced Donkey Kong starting with ), Donkey Kong now uses modified tiger sounds sourced from the The Best of Saul Zaents Film Center CD included with Sound Ideas' Amadeus Sound Library.
Donkey Kong is currently ranked 21st out of 38 on the tier list in the mid tier. This is a slight improvement over his ranking in Melee, where he is ranked 16th out of 26 in the lower mid tier. Donkey Kong possesses a combination of incredible power with many great finishers (especially in his smash attacks), and incredible reach in his attacks. Along with this power and reach combination, Donkey Kong possesses remarkably good mobility for a character of his size, and many fast attacks (such as his back aerial and tilts). Additionally, Donkey Kong possesses by far the greatest horizontal endurance with his great weight and Spinning Kong momentum cancelling, as well as one of the strongest vertical endurances, and a recovery that gains great horizontal distance while protecting Donkey Kong's sides, making him one of the hardest characters to KO. Donkey Kong's incredible weight is a double-edged sword, however; while it makes him incredibly difficult to KO, it also makes him incredibly easy to combo, juggle, and chain throw, including making him vulnerable to infinite and zero to death chain grabs (most notoriously from ). Additional problems of Donkey Kong include most of his attacks having heavy ending lag (making it easy to punish most of his attacks if he misses), being very vulnerable to meteor smash gimps due to his recovery gaining very little vertical distance, his undersized shield leaving him heavily vulnerable to shield stabbing, and lack of a projectile, which when combined with his very large size and aforementioned shield issue, gives Donkey Kong almost no means of dealing with camping. While his rolls and air dodge are about average, his sidestep is the second slowest, after . Overall, while Donkey Kong sports good matchups against lower-tiered characters that lack tools to deal with his power, he heavily struggles against higher-tiered characters that can chain grab him, and has achieved average tournament results over the game's competitive lifespan.
==Attributes==
Donkey Kong is a very heavy character with very powerful attacks, great attack range, and high knockback capabilities. Despite these pros, Donkey Kong lacks projectiles and a reliable way to deal with them, which makes his moveset and style of approach unvaried. He is one of the fastest heavyweight characters; his movement speed is above average: fast running, fast walking, fast air speed, and very high initial jump. Donkey Kong's weight helps him stay alive longer, though he is a big target and has very poor vertical recovery, but extremely long horizontal recovery. He can even use Spinning Kong to momentum cancel knockback from an attack that would even KO , , or . Despite his extremely long horizontal recovery, it is vulnerable to disjointed attacks and has poor vertical height which means even weak meteor smashes can be devastating, though it's hard to edge guard without a disjointed attack due its initial invincibility frames. Combining his impressive weight and good horizontal recovery with good directional influence, he will be extremely hard to KO.
Although he can has excellent endurance courtesy of his high weight, he is quite vulnerable to attacks due to his large size, which is not helped by the fact that he has a tie hurtbox. His large size and heavy weight also leaves him open to many chain grabs (e.g. 's infinite chain grab without a wall, which cannot be escaped from), except Bowser's ground releases. Though given his attack range and speed, it can be difficult for characters with short-ranged grabs like the to grab him to begin with. His Headbutt attack allows him to get a free attack on the opponent, as many of his follow-up attacks have low startup time, and it also does very high damage to shields. His fully charged Giant Punch also heavily damages shields, and the armor it grants may allow him to trade KO moves with an opponent and survive. Even his grounded Spinning Kong does high damage to opponents or shields. Having three high shield damage attacks he can give high shield pressure. Donkey Kong has numerous KO options and no problems doing so: all of his smash attacks are powerful, with his up & down smashes coming out very fast; up aerial can compensate for a missed edge-guard, three reliable meteor smashes, back aerial & throw, Giant Punch (10 charges is actually more powerful than fully charged, but doesn't have armor) and the cargo stage spike.
He can counter any ground grab releases because of his unique extremely short grab release animation, making him escape from release lag 10 frames earlier than any other character does and being immune to Bowser's grab release game with the addition of only Snake and Yoshi being able to force him to jump break from grabs. Donkey Kong also has a large grab range with powerful throws, and he is even able to chain-grab some characters. DK can infinite-Cargo release Lucas and Ness, and he can KO characters in low damage percentages when using the Cargo stage-spike. Donkey Kong can also perform Kongocide, although it has limited utility. Overall, Donkey Kong relies on his great power and range to limit opponent's approaches.
==Changes from Super Smash Bros. Melee==
In the transition from Melee to Brawl, Donkey Kong was heavily buffed overall. He has been improved in several aspects, including his mobility, endurance potential, power, recovery, and range.
One noticeable nerf he received was to his grounded Spinning Kong. The hitbox grounded Spinning Kong once possessed which came out on frame 2-5, had invincibility and could kill opponents under 100% was completely removed, hindering grounded Spinning Kong's utility (although he does now have the "Invincicopter" to give his grounded Spinning Kong some new utility). Besides the change to his grounded Spinning Kong, Donkey Kong did not receive any other significant nerfs to his moveset.
Overall, DK is a stronger character than he was in Melee although he still struggles against much of the cast.
===Aesthetics===
*
*
*
*
*
*
===Attributes===
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
===Ground attacks===
*Neutral attack:
**
**
**
**
**
*Forward tilt:
**
**
**
**
*Up tilt:
**
**
**
*Down tilt:
**
**
**
*Dash attack:
**
**
*Forward smash:
**
**
*Up smash:
**
*Down smash:
**
**
**
===Aerial attacks===
*Neutral aerial:
**
**
**
*Forward aerial:
**
**
**
*Back aerial:
**
**
**
**
*Up aerial:
**
**
*Down aerial:
**Down aerial
**
**
===Throws/other attacks===
*Grabs:
**
**
*Pummel:
**
*Forward throw:
**
**
**
**
**
**
**
*Back throw:
**
**
*Down throw:
**
*Edge attack:
**
**
===Special moves===
*Giant Punch:
**
**
**
**
*Headbutt:
**
**
*Spinning Kong:
**
***
**
**
**
**
*Hand Slap:
**
*Konga Beat:
**
==Moveset==
For a gallery of Donkey Kong's hitboxes, see here.
===Stats===
===Announcer call===
Donkey Kong English Announcer SSBB.wav|English/Japanese
===Wii Remote selection sound===
===On-screen appearance===
===Taunts===
===Idle pose===
===Crowd cheer===
 	Cheer (English) 	Cheer (Japanese) 	Cheer (German) 	Cheer (Korean)
Cheer 	 	 	 	
Description	Don - key - kong!	Don - key - kong!	Don - key - Kong!	
 	Cheer (French) 	Cheer (Italian) 	Cheer (Spanish) 	
Cheer 	 	 	 	
Description	Donkey Kong ! 	Donkeeey Kong! 	Donkey Kong! 	Don - Key - Kong!
===Victory poses===
==In competitive play==
===Most historically significant players===
:See also: :Category:Donkey Kong players (SSBB)
* - The best Donkey Kong player in the early metagame, often placing well at Tristate events during the first year of the game's competitive lifespan, including 2nd at and 3rd at .
* - Arguably the second best Donkey Kong player during the MLG era. Was relatively consistent in his placements when he was most active, including 17th at , 25th at , and 33rd at . He retired from competing after .
* - A Donkey Kong player who briefly became a top player in the post-Smash 4 era. He notably placed 7th at , being the only other Donkey Kong player to top 8 at a major besides DKwill. Besides that, he placed 5th at , 13th at , and 25th at before going inactive in 2019.
* - The greatest Donkey Kong player of all-time, considered one of the best mid-tier players of Brawl history. His best performance came from where he placed 4th and defeated in the Dedede matchup, and placed 7th at , becoming the first Donkey Kong player to place top 8 at a Brawl major. His other major placements are similarly impressive, placed 9th at defeating , 17th at , and 25th at . He is the only Donkey Kong player to ever rank globally, placing 39th on the 2014 SSBBRank.
* - The best Donkey Kong player from Japan. While his singles results were mixed, he was still the best performing Donkey Kong player in regionals, defeating at and placing 9th at and 13th at . He often preferred and was more successful in doubles, most notably winning , partnering with .
===Tier placement and history===
Donkey Kong was initially seen as a high tier character in Brawl, being ranked 10th on the first tier list. The buffs he received from his transition from Melee to Brawl made him a powerful character that could compete against a then inexperienced playerbase who didn't utilize much camping and chaingrabbing. As the metagame developed however, it became apparent that Donkey Kong's buffs were simply not enough to keep him as a high tier character, since he struggled to deal with projectile camping from the likes of , and and was heavily vulnerable to chaingrabbing, most notoriously from .
Donkey Kong's decline started slowly, as he fell to 14th on the second tier list, and fell again to 18th on the third one, but he remained there on the fourth iteration. He slightly dropped to 20th out of 38 on the fifth tier list before going back to 18th on the sixth tier list. The seventh tier list marked Donkey Kong's lowest placing to date at 23rd out of 38, before rising to his current position of 21st out of 38 on the current tier list. While Donkey Kong struggles at high levels of play, his representation and results gathered by his playerbase have managed to secure his position as a mid tier character. In the mid tier and lower, there aren't many projectiles that heavily disrupt his approach and chaingrabbing is much less frequent, which allows him to fully take advantage of his great mobility, range and excellent endurance.
==In Solo Modes==
======
In Classic Mode, Donkey Kong can appear as an opponent or ally in Stage 2 along with and on , Rumble Falls, or 75m (with the latter available if it has been unlocked). Donkey Kong can also appear as an opponent in Stage 11, but only if he hasn't appeared in Stage 2.
===All-Star Mode===
In All-Star Mode, Donkey Kong is fought in Stage 3 alongside on Rumble Falls or 75m (with the latter available if it has been unlocked).
===Event Matches===
====Solo Events====
*Event 7: Diddy Kong Panic: As Donkey Kong, the player must defeat 15 tiny s on .
*Event 9: The Monster Beneath the Earth: If the player fails to KO both s before reaching the underground section of Castle Siege, a giant Donkey Kong will face the player.
*Event 10: All-Star Battle Regulars: Donkey Kong is one of the opponents fought in this event. All opponents are starters from the original Super Smash Bros. game.
*Event 22: Monkeys Unite: The player controls , who must work together with a giant Donkey Kong to defeat and on Rumble Falls.
*Event 27: Three-Beast Carnage: As a tiny , the player must defeat a giant , a giant Donkey Kong, and a giant on New Pork City.
====Co-Op Events====
*Co-Op Event 4: The DK Tag Calamity: As a tiny Donkey Kong and a tiny , both players must defeat one Donkey Kong and four s on Mario Circuit.
*Co-Op Event 14: The Dark Guardians: Both players control and , who are tiny, and must defeat a giant Donkey Kong and a giant on New Pork City.
*Co-Op Event 21: The True All-Star Battle: Two players select a character and take on the entire roster on .
===Congratulations Screens===
Donkey Kong Congratulations Screen Classic Mode Brawl.png|Classic Mode
Donkey Kong Congratulations Screen All-Star Brawl.png|All-Star Mode
==Role in The Subspace Emissary==
thumb|250px|Donkey Kong in SSE.
The Koopa Troopas and steal Donkey Kong's Banana Hoard. As a Hammer Bro. drives off in a car which contains all the bananas, Donkey Kong watches him from a cliff. The Hammer Bro. and the Goomba aboard the car spot Donkey Kong and shoot Bullet Bills at him. However, comes out from a bush and expertly shoots the Bullet Bills with his Peanut Popguns. Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong then follow the Hammer Bro. to retrieve the Banana Hoard. After following him, they see Bowser with a strange type of gun called a Dark Cannon, revealing that he is working for the Subspace Army. When Bowser charges the cannon, Donkey Kong quickly charges his Giant Punch and launches Diddy into the sky and out of the way, sacrificing himself. Bowser shoots Donkey Kong and turns him into a trophy. Later in the story, Diddy Kong, and see a ship which is carrying Donkey Kong as a trophy to a mysterious floating island. Falco then helps Diddy by following it with his Arwing and having the little Kong with him. Falco then does a barrel roll and drops Diddy out. Diddy fires up his Rocket Barrels and takes out his Popguns and shoots the ship. After seeing this, and decide to help him and jump to the ship, where Diddy frees Donkey Kong. All four then fight the Primids and other enemies on the ship.
The ship takes them inside a factory producing Subspace Bombs, and encounter various R.O.B.s that happen to live on the island. They later meet up with and where they see the Ancient Minister and a whole lot of R.O.B.s. After controls the R.O.B.s into activating all of the Subspace Bombs, the Ancient Minister is shown to be , the leader of all the lesser R.O.B.s who were forced to work for the Subspace Army. R.O.B. then fights with the others. When Diddy Kong points to leave, R.O.B just slumps and is so depressed that Donkey Kong has to carry him out. When trying to escape Captain Falcon calls for his Falcon Flyer and tries to leave the cave when Meta Ridley appears and they must fight him. After that they all meet up with the others.
Donkey Kong and the other heroes enter Subspace and meet Tabuu, who turns everyone into trophies with his Off Waves. However, had anticipated this and created badges that revived certain fighters back into their original form. With his team consisting of and , Dedede rescues Donkey Kong and most of the others, although some of them were rescued by Kirby. They also recruit , , and when they learned about Tabuu. At the end of The Great Maze, shows up and helps weaken Tabuu's Off Waves so Donkey Kong and the others would be able to beat him and restore the World of Trophies to normal (except the Isle of the Ancients, which was impossible to return due to the massive number of Subspace Bombs going off at once).
===Playable appearances===
*The Jungle
*Outside the Ancient Ruins
*The Subspace Bomb Factory (Part II)
*Entrance to Subspace
*The Great Maze (if rescued in Subspace (Part I)
===Using stickers===
Donkey Kong's attacks are primarily punches. Arm stickers are effective, as they will cover all moves bar dash attack, neutral aerial, up aerial, back aerial, down aerial, ledge attack when under 100%, Headbutt, Spinning Kong and Hand Slap. A Leg sticker covers back aerial, dash attack and down aerial. Head stickers affect his up aerial and Headbutt. Spin stickers affects his neutral aerial and Spinning Kong. His ledge attack when under 100% is affected by body stickers but has next to no use otherwise and Hand Slap is boosted by Specials: Direct stickers. While this may seem situational, Hand Slap is a very effective move when dealing with multiple grounded enemies as well as grounded bosses.
===Exclusive stickers===
These stickers can only be used by Donkey Kong or Diddy Kong.
*Chunky Kong: [Throwing] Power +31
*Diddy Kong (Donkey Kong 64): Launch Power +20
*Diddy Kong (Mario Hoops 3-on-3): [Leg] Attack +28
*Diddy Kong (Mario Superstar Baseball): [Leg] Attack +12
*Dixie Kong: Launch Resistance +39
*DK: [Head] Attack +27
*DK Barrel: Launch Power +53
*Donkey Kong (Donkey Kong Jungle Beat): [Arm] Attack +22
*Donkey Kong (Donkey Kong Country): [Electric] Resistance +10
*Donkey Kong (Mario Kart DS) : [Flame] Resistance +41
*Donkey Kong Jr.: [Arm] Attack +14
*Enguarde: [Body, Spin] Attack +15
*Funky Kong: [Leg] Attack +13
*Karate Kong: [Battering] Resistance +25
*Lanky Kong: [Throwing] Attack +6
*Party Monkey: [Head] Attack +6
*Pauline & Donkey Kong: [Arm] Attack +18
*Tiny Kong: [Arm] Attack +4
*Wrinkly Kong: [Battering] Resistance +4
==Trophies==
Donkey Kong's main and Final Smash trophies can be obtained by clearing and All-Star mode respectively with Donkey Kong.
==Alternate costumes==
					
					
==Gallery==
Donkey Kong SSBB.png|Official Artwork.
SSBBDojoDonkeyKong1.jpg|Carrying with chasing him on .
SSBBDojoDonkeyKong2.jpg|Posing on Pokémon Stadium 2.
SSBBDojoDonkeyKong3.jpg|Using his forward tilt on and on Bridge of Eldin.
SSBBDojoDonkeyKong4.jpg|Using Hand Slap on .
Donkey Kong Congratulations Screen Classic Mode Brawl.png|Donkey Kong's Classic Congratulations screen.
Donkey Kong Congratulations Screen All-Star Brawl.png|Donkey Kong's All-Star Congratulations screen.
DK White Costume.jpg|Donkey Kong in his White alternate costume in the Summit stage.
==Trivia==
*Even though Donkey Kong has teeth, he only shows them when performing certain attacks or taunts. He occasionally opens his mouth with no teeth showing. For example, Donkey Kong shows his teeth when charging his up smash, but not during the attack portion.
*Donkey Kong is the only character in Brawl who has more than four different throws.
*When forward smashing with the Home-Run Bat, Donkey Kong has the longest range with the bat out of all the characters. However, if he is too close to the Sandbag or a character, they will be propelled upwards at a slight angle with drastically weaker knockback (though still powerful). This also happened to Donkey Kong in Melee.
*Donkey Kong is one of only three characters that can't use their down special move in midair, the others are and , although he is capable of using Hand Slap in the air in Super Smash Bros. 4 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
*Donkey Kong is one of the few known characters to have an obvious error in his moveset coding - his forward aerial cannot be auto-canceled, but the coding of the move shows that it was intended to be able to, but it cannot due to a minor error caused by using the wrong type of timing function.
==External links==
*Donkey Kong's page at Smash Bros. Dojo!!.
*Donkey Kong Character Guide on SmashBoards
*Donkey Kong's hitbox size of each of his moves
*Donkey Kong's Moves - History Behind Super Smash Bros. Brawl, by CrappyCaptureDevice
 
Category:Trophies (SSBB)
es:Donkey Kong (SSBB)