Donkey Kong Junior
This article is about the arcade game. For the Game & Watch game, see Donkey Kong Jr. (Game & Watch). For the character and the series starring him, see Donkey Kong Jr.
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| Donkey Kong Junior | |
| Developer | Nintendo R&D1, Ikegami Tsushinki Coleco (Atari 2600, ColecoVision, Intellivision) Nintendo R&D2 (NES) |
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| Publisher | Nintendo Hamster (Arcade Archives) |
| Platforms | Arcade, Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Atari 8-bit computers, BBC Micro, ColecoVision, Family Computer Disk System, GameCube, Intellivision, iQue Player, NES Classic Edition, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo e-Reader, Nintendo Switch, Wii, Wii U |
| Released | Arcade Japan: August 1982 Europe, North America: 1982 ColecoVision United States: 1983 Intellivision North America: 1983 Atari 2600, Atari 8-bit Europe, North America: 1983 BBC Micro Europe: 1983 Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System Japan: July 15, 1983 North America: June 1986 Europe: June 15, 1987 Atari 7800 United States: 1986 Famicom Disk System Japan: July 19, 1988 Nintendo 64 Japan (Animal Forest): April 14, 2001 GameCube Japan Animal Forest+: December 14, 2001 NA Animal Crossing: September 15, 2002 Europe Animal Crossing: September 24, 2004 iQue Player Animal Forest China: June 1, 2006 Wii (Virtual Console) North America: November 19, 2006 Japan: December 2, 2006 Oceania: December 7, 2006 Europe: December 8, 2006 Game Boy Advance (Nintendo e-Reader) Worldwide: 2012 Nintendo 3DS (Virtual Console) Japan: October 17, 2012 Wii U (Virtual Console) Worldwide: July 15, 2013 Nintendo 3DS (Virtual Console) North America: August 15, 2013 Japan: November 21, 2013 NES Classic Edition/Famicom Mini Japan Oceania: November 10, 2016 Europe, North America: November 11, 2016 Switch Worldwide (Arcade Archives): December 21, 2018 Worldwide (Switch Online): September 18, 2018 |
| Added to Museum |
GC (NES, Animal Crossing): January 20, 2003 NES CE (NES): June 22, 2017 Famicom Mini (Famicom): August 10, 2017 GBA (NES, e-Reader): March 16, 2020 Switch (Arcade, Arcade Archives): October 2, 2020 |
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Donkey Kong Junior, also known as Donkey Kong Jr., was first released for the arcade. It was developed by Nintendo Research & Development 1, with code development subcontracted to Ikegami Tsushinki, and was published by Nintendo in 1982. It was the second game in the Donkey Kong series, and the first game in the Donkey Kong Jr. series. It was also the second game to feature Nintendo's mascot Mario. As such, it was brought to most of Nintendo's subsequent systems, either as ports or through emulation.
Story
Mario caged his pet gorilla, Donkey Kong, after the latter captured Mario's girlfriend Pauline.
Donkey Kong Jr. then chased down Mario to several different places.
Each time he rescued Donkey Kong, Mario took him to another area, and Donkey Kong Jr. followed.
Eventually, Donkey Kong Jr. manages to incapacitate Mario and rescue his father.
Unfortunately, Mario just captured Donkey Kong again, and Donkey Kong Jr.'s chase continued.
Development
After the success of Donkey Kong, Shigeru Miyamoto designed a sequel.
The resulting game was Donkey Kong Junior, which was a worldwide success.
Lawsuit
Donkey Kong Junior was designed by reverse-engineering the code of the original game, which was subcontracted to Ikegami Tsushinki.
In 1983, Ikegami Tsushinki filed a ¥580 million copyright infringement suit against Nintendo.
In 1990, the court found that Nintendo did not own the code to Donkey Kong, resulting in Nintendo settling with Ikegami Tsushinki out-of-court for an undisclosed sum.
Versions of the game
As the second game to feature Nintendo's mascot Mario, it has been released on many different systems, both through traditional game ports and through emulation. It was first released to arcades in 1982.
Coleco secured the rights to release the game to home video game consoles. Coleco published it on Atari 2600, ColecoVision and Intellivision in 1983, and on Atari 7800 in 1986.
Atari secured the rights to release the game to computers. Atari published it on Atari 8-bit computers and BBC Micro in 1983.
Nintendo published the game themselves after this. Nintendo published it on Famicom in 1983 and NES in 1986. It was included as an unlockable game in Animal Forest on Nintendo 64 in Japan in 2001 and on GameCube on 2002. It was also released on the localized version, Animal Crossing, on GameCube in 2002 in North America and in Europe in 2004. The Nintendo subsidiary iQue released Animal Crossing for the iQue Player in 2006. This version included Donkey Kong as well.
It was released on Virtual Console for Wii in 2006, for the Nintendo 3DS in 2012 in Japan and Europe and North America in 2013, and for Wii U worldwide in 2013.
Donkey Kong Original Edition, a version for the NES was released for Wii in Europe in 2012, and on Nintendo 3DS in North America and Europe in 2012. It was also released as a five-card release for the Nintendo e-Reader in 2012.
It was released on the NES Classic Edition and Famicom Mini in 2016.
It was released for Nintendo Switch via Arcade Archives and for the Nintendo Entertainment System – Nintendo Switch Online emulation service in 2018.
