Donkey Kong

> *This article is about Donkey Kong's appearance in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo Switch. For other uses, see Donkey Kong.*
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## Donkey Kong

### Also Appears In

64Melee

Brawl

3DS/Wii U

## Voice Actor

### Japanese

Takashi Nagasako

**Donkey Kong** (ドンキーコング, *Donkīkongu*) is a playable veteran in Super Smash Bros. Switch, being the main representative of the Donkey Kong series. He is one of the first characters to be announced for the game. Like the other games, Donkey Kong uses his gorilla voice during battle, however, this is also merged with his voice from the official DK games, done by Takashi Nagasako.

Donkey Kong remains mostly unchanged in terms of general moveset, with most of his changes being animation touch ups and general buffs and nerfs around his moveset. A considerable change is his Forward Smash, which creates a powerful shockwave when fully charged.

In terms of design, Donkey Kong is more fuzzier and akin to his design in the recent DK and Mario Kart games.

## Attributes

Donkey Kong certainly has his slew of positive attributes; he has good reach in most of his attacks which are also fast, amazing combo ability and above average mobility. He posses strong finishers in all of his smash attacks, a sour spotted forward aerial, Giant Punch, back aerial, the initial hitbox of Spinning Kong and back throw.

Donkey Kong has great horizontal endurance due to his weight (being the heaviest character in the current demo) and good vertical endurance due to his high accelerated falling speed. His recovery, Spinning Kong, covers good horizontal distance and gives him knockback resistance in the move's initial frames.

Perhaps DK's biggest boon is his grab game; he possesses a large grab range and his throws serve a variety of purposes. Forward throw allows him to carry enemies off-stage, back throw serves as a high-percentage finisher near the ledge, up throw sets up juggling combos and can chain grab certain characters. DK's down throw is also a good combo starter and good for setting up chain grabs.

However, Donkey Kong's size, weight and being a high faller leaves him vulnerable to juggling, combos, chain grabs and zero-to-death combos himself, as his stature makes it highly difficult to avoid combo starters.

His recovery covers little vertical distance, giving him extreme vulnerability to meteor smashes in general, and if used at the wrong time can result in a fatal edgeguard, as the move offers no protection after the initial frames have passed.

Donkey Kong lacks a projectile and a reliable way to deal with them; although he can deflect those close to the ground with Hand Slap, it is only a situational maneuver at best, and he is still helpless against projectiles with more volatile trajectories; these attributes make it hard for Donkey Kong players to escape pressure.

Due to his aforementioned lack of a projectile and his lack of disjointed hitboxes, Donkey Kong also has trouble approaching; although his short hopped neutral aerial can out-prioritize weaker attacks thrown at him while he is moving towards the foe, he can still be shut down by characters with greater range in their attacks. Also, due to his great range not being disjointed, each range attack is also an extension of his hurtbox which can leave him vulnerable if not properly spaced. Even though his Side Smash creates a powerful disjointed hitbox, it has to be fully charged and the general lag of the attack doesn't help DK.

## Air Attacks

 Forward Air
 Back Air
 Up Air
 Down Air

## Other Attacks

 100% Ledge Attack
 Floor Attack

### On-Screen Appearance

Donkey Kong comes in and slams his 2 fists onto the stage, causing the screen to shake, then let's out his signature DK howl. Based on his level entrance in Donkey Kong Country Returns/Tropical Freeze.

### Taunts

Side - He eats a banana, and then throws away the banana peel.

Up - He pounds his chest and lets out his DK howl.

Down - Faces the camera and shrugs while bellowing confusedly with a humorously shocked expression.

### Idle Poses

* Leans forward slightly and assumes a cross-eyed expression, as if trying to stare at his own nose.
* Lightly punches his open hand and then does a rotational shoulder stretch.

## Victory

### Theme

A remix of the short track that plays in *Donkey Kong Country* and subsequent games whenever a playable Kong defeated a boss or completed a bonus game.

### Poses

* Does a backflip and flexes his arms (his "character chosen" animation in *Super Smash Bros.*).
* Claps his hands, then holds his hands above his head and shakes them (his animation upon completing a bonus game in *Donkey Kong Country*).
* Puts up 2 thumbs up from each hand, then bows twice before looking at the camera with a smile. The animation is loosely based off of the DK Rap where he performs this during his part of the sequence at the end.

## Palette swaps / Alternate colors

1. **Brown**
2. **Red**: Based on his sprite in *Donkey Kong*.
3. **Black**: Based on his sprite in Two-Player Contest mode of *Donkey Kong Country*.
4. **Green**: Based on one of his alternate colors in *DK: King of Swing*.
5. **Blue**: Based on one of his alternate colors in *Mario Golf*.
6. **White**: Based on one of his alternate colors in *Mario Golf*.
7. **Orange**: Based on his sprite in *Tetris* for the NES.
8. **Yellow**: Based on his appearance in the New Nintendo 3DS Japanese trailer.