Donkey Kong (franchise)

Donkey Kong is a video game franchise created by Nintendo. It is the predecessor to the Mario franchise. Donkey Kong began in 1981 with the release of the titular game Donkey Kong, which ironically features Mario as the protagonist and the titular character Donkey Kong as the main antagonist; this was the debut appearance of both characters within video games in general.

A year later, in 1982, Donkey Kong Jr. was released, and unlike before, Donkey Kong's son, Donkey Kong Jr., is the main protagonist, and he has to save Donkey Kong from Mario, who is the antagonist. Since the release of the Game & Watch title Mario Bros. in 1983, when Mario became the star of his own franchise, he was reverted to being a protagonist like in Donkey Kong, a role that he has since permanently fulfilled in general. Mario has seldomly appeared in Donkey Kong games ever since.

With the Mario franchise taking over not only because of Mario Bros. but also because of Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong became mostly dormant for many years until Rare revived it with the release of Donkey Kong Country in 1994. This game marked the beginning of the Donkey Kong Country series, and introduced a different Donkey Kong than the one in earlier Donkey Kong releases, who was instead re-imagined as an elderly supporting character named Cranky Kong.

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