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.

Donkey Kong Junior
Developer	Nintendo R&D1, Ikegami Tsushinki Coleco (Atari 2600, ColecoVision, Intellivision) Nintendo R&D2 (NES)
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 JP: August 1982 Arcade EU/NA: 1982 ColecoVision: 1983 Atari 2600, Atari 8-bit, BBC Micro, and Intelivision NA: 1983 Famicom JP: July 15, 1983 NES NA: June 1986 NES EU: June 15, 1987 Atari 7800: 1986 FDS JP: July 19, 1988 Animal Forest for Nintendo 64 JP (Animal Forest): April 14, 2001 GameCube Animal Forest+ JP: December 14, 2001 GameCube Animal Crossing NA: September 15, 2002 GameCube Animal Crossing EU: September 24, 2004 iQue Player Animal Forest HK: June 1, 2006 Wii Virtual Console NA: November 19, 2006 Wii Virtual Console JP: December 2, 2006 Wii Virtual Console AU: December 7, 2006 Wii Virtual Console EU: December 8, 2006 GBA e-Reader WW: 2012 3DS Virtual Console JP: October 17, 2012 Wii U Virtual Console WW: July 15, 2013 3DS Virtual Console NA: August 15, 2013 3DS Virtual Console JP: November 21, 2013 Famicom Mini AU/JP: November 10, 2016 NES Classic EU/NA: November 11, 2016 Switch Arcade Archives WW: December 21, 2018 Switch Online WW: 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

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.