The game is notable for being the first game to feature Mario, who would later go on to be featured in other games and become one of Nintendo's most prominent and recognizable characters. A lawsuit brought by Universal City Studios alleging Donkey Kong violated its trademark of King Kong, ultimately failed. Miyamoto's characters appeared on cereal boxes, television cartoons, and dozens of other places.

Other companies cloned the game and avoided royalties altogether. Nintendo licensed the game to Coleco, who developed home console versions for numerous platforms. The two men broke new ground by using graphics as a means of characterization, including cutscenes to advance the game's plot and integrating multiple stages into the gameplay.Īlthough Nintendo's American staff was initially apprehensive, Donkey Kong succeeded commercially and critically in North America and Japan. Drawing from a wide range of inspirations, including Popeye, Beauty and the Beast, and King Kong, Miyamoto developed the scenario and designed the game alongside Nintendo's chief engineer, Gunpei Yokoi. Hiroshi Yamauchi, Nintendo's president at the time, assigned the project to a first-time video game designer named Shigeru Miyamoto. The game was the latest in a series of efforts by Nintendo to break into the North American market. Donkey Kong is one of the most important games from the golden age of arcade video games as well as one of the most popular arcade games of all time. The hero and ape would later become two of Nintendo's most popular and recognizable characters. The originally unnamed character, who was later called Jumpman, then Mario, must rescue a damsel in distress, Pauline, from the titular giant ape, Donkey Kong. An early example of the platform game genre, the gameplay focuses on maneuvering the main character across a series of platforms to ascend a construction site, all while avoiding or jumping over obstacles. Donkey Kong is an arcade game released by Nintendo in Japan on July 9, 1981, then in North America the same month and Europe later the same year.

Download original donkey kong