"I'm Donkey Kong Junior, and that's my Papa! I'm trying to save him, and boy, do I need your help!"
GET KEY FROM MARIO.
SAVE YOUR PAPA !
SAVE YOUR PAPA !
Donkey Kong Junior is an Arcade Game developed and published by Nintendo in 1982. The game is the sequel to their Breakthrough Hit Donkey Kong, which released the previous year.
After Mario defeated Donkey Kong and rescued Pauline in the original game, this sequel presents a reversal of roles, as this time, Mario has captured the defeated Donkey Kong and locked him in a cage. It's now up to Donkey Kong's son, the eponymous Donkey Kong Junior, to save him, but it won't be easy, as Mario commands various critters to stop Junior from reaching him. This game, as well as a few similar Game & Watch spin-off games are notable for being the only games to date that feature Mario in the role of a villain.
The gameplay maintains the same basic premise as the first game, with each stage challenging Junior to navigate a series of dangerous obstacles as he climbs his way to the top. In contrast with the first game's focus on running and jumping over things, Donkey Kong Junior places more focus on climbing, with each stage featuring things like vines or chains for Junior to grab onto. While climbing, Junior can grab vines to either his left or right by pressing the corresponding direction. The number of vines he is currently holding has an effect on his climbing speed, as he can go faster up vines if he has a different one in each hand. Additionally, certain vines have fruits on them that he can knock down for bonus points, and they can be dropped on enemies for even more points.
In addition to a series of ports to home systems in the early eighties, a Game & Watch game titled Donkey Kong Junior released in Japan the same year as the arcade version. This incarnation of the game deviates from the arcade game to fit on the handheld, but aims to recreate a similar gameplay experience. The third and fourth installments of the Game & Watch Gallery series include ports of this version of the game, in addition to full modern remakes. Another Game and Watch title, Donkey Kong II, takes heavy inspiration from Donkey Kong Junior in terms of gameplay and premise.
Donkey Kong Junior contains examples of:
- Big Bad: In an inverse of the first game, Mario has captured Donkey Kong and locked him in a cage, and now Jr. has to save him.
- Characterization Marches On: Following his more established characterization into a straightforward hero, Mario would certainly never be as spitefully vengeful as he is here. Compare how he forgives DK for even bigger slights in later games like the Game Boy Donkey Kong '94 and Mario vs. Donkey Kong.
- Coconut Meets Cranium: The stages have fruits, including coconuts, that appear hanging from specific points on certain vines. Junior can knock them down to score points, and he'll earn even more points if they land on an enemy, defeating them in the process.
- Compressed Adaptation:
- The Famicom port removes most of the cutscenes from the arcade game, including the intro with Mario raising DK and his cage to the top, the intermission sequences after clearing each stage, and the second half of the ending after Junior catches his father. Unlike the port of the original to the same system, however, this one manages to contain all four stages.
- Earlier home ports such as the Atari 2600 and Intellivision versions only feature three of the four stages from the original. The 2600 version removes the second stage, while the Intellivision version omits the third.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Donkey Kong in the first game was an animalistic villain who captured a human and attacked with a variety of human creations like barrels and springs. This time, Mario is a man who captures an animal and imprisons him while commanding an army of other animals to guard him.
- Contrasting Sequel Main Character: The first game starred Mario, a human opposing a rampaging animal who primarily navigated the stages by running left and right while jumping over obstacles and occasionally climbing up and down ladders. This game features Donkey Kong Junior, an animal opposing a human who mainly climbs up and down vines while occasionally walking around on platforms.
- Contrasting Sequel Setting: The original game took place in a man-made structure, namely a construction site. This game instead starts off in a more natural location, a jungle. This is downplayed, however, as the natural setting only lasts for the first half of the game before returning to a building for the latter two stages.
- Distressed Dude: Donkey Kong is captured by Mario, and Jr. has to save him.
- Early-Bird Cameo: This game in particular introduces several elements that would go on to influence both the Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong Country series. The climbable vines and spring pads would become elements in the original Super Mario Bros., the Sparks from Mario's Hideout would become enemies in Super Mario Bros. 2, and the Snapjaws would serve as the inspiration behind the Kremling race in the Donkey Kong Country games.
- Eternal Engine: The third level, Mario's Hideout, takes place in some kind of power plant with exposed electrical wires going across all the platforms. The main enemies are electric sparks that travel along the platforms.
- Face–Heel Turn: Mario holding Donkey Kong hostage can be interpreted as him turning bad after heroically stopping DK's rampage in the first game.
- Falling Damage: Junior dies if he drops down from too far up.
- Feathered Fiend: The second and fourth stages have Mario send two different kinds of birds to attack Junior as he climbs across the chains.
- Grey-and-Gray Morality: In the first game, Donkey Kong was Mario's pet who escaped and kidnapped his girlfriend, prompting Mario to rescue her. In Donkey Kong Junior, however, Mario keeps DK locked up and tries to kill Junior when he tries to free his father. Keeping DK locked up after his rampage rather than returning him to the wild to live with his son is at least morally questionable, but trying to kill Junior when he tries to save his father pushes him into straight up villainy. By contrast, Junior is unambiguously good.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: Mario starts the series as the hero who has to stop the rampaging Donkey Kong in the first game, before becoming the antagonist with DK as a hapless hostage in Donkey Kong Junior. After this, Mario would reclaim the role of hero in Mario Bros. while DK is once again the villain in Donkey Kong 3.
- Hourglass Plot: In the first game, DK has captured Pauline and Mario has to save her. In the sequel, Mario has captured DK and Junior has to save him.
- Jungle Japes:
- The first two stages of Donkey Kong Junior take place in what seems to be either a jungle or a zoo exhibit modeled after one, with the first stage (the appropriately-named Vine Scene) featuring lots of vines to climb on above platforms covered in green vegetation. The second stage (the Jump Board Scene) starts with the same greenery, but the upper half is more unnatural, with chains replacing the vines, and an automated zipline with ropes Junior has to cross.
- A jungle acts as the only stage in the Game and Watch version.
- Kill Screen:
- Just like the first game, this game ends on Level 22 due to the time limit being too short to complete the level.
- Less traditionally for a kill screen, the NES port will start to behave oddly
if you reach the 133rd round before loading a glitched level on round 135 wherein Jr. and the enemies never spawn in and the bonus timer displays the invalid value "C000". The game hangs for a moment, and then crashes and displays garbage graphics on the screen, ending the game and forcing the player to reset.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: The main enemies of the first stage are Snapjaws, mechanical alligator-like creatures that Mario sends after Junior. They attack with sharp teeth, and can climb down vines.
- Perspective Flip: In the first game, Mario was the protagonist who had to stop Donkey Kong in order to save his girlfriend. In this sequel, Mario is now the antagonist who has captured Donkey Kong, and Donkey Kong's son takes over as protagonist.
- Proj-egg-tile: The Nitpickers in the second stage lay eggs mid-flight that can damage Junior if they hit him as they fall down.
- Protagonist Title: Donkey Kong Junior is Donkey Kong's son who has to rescue his father from Mario.
- Public Domain Soundtrack:
- A variation of Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor plays in the beginning of the arcade version as Mario raises the imprisoned Donkey Kong to the top platform.
- A midgame cutscene in Donkey Kong Junior is set to The Can Can Song.
- Puzzle Boss: In the final stage, in order to free his father, Jr. has to push six keys up into their respective locks at the top platform where Donkey Kong's cage is. He can do this by climbing up each of the chains with the keys on them.
- Reformulated Game: The Game and Watch version uses similar mechanics to the arcade game, but simplifies things to better fit the hardware. Junior can't move while jumping at all, so he must time his jumps so that enemies pass under him while he is in mid-air. Additionally, there is only one stage, which must be cleared four times per "loop", with Junior needing to time a jump to grab a swinging key in order to unlock one fourth of DK's cage.
- Super Drowning Skills: The first stage contains water at the bottom of the screen, and Jr. loses a life if he falls in.
- Spring Jump: The first pit in the second stage contains a spring that Junior can bounce on to cross to the other side. If he times his jump perfectly, he can actually land on the moving platform floating above and skip part of the stage.
- Sudden Sequel Heel Syndrome: This is the only game in the series where Mario is the main antagonist, with the titular Donkey Kong Jr. needing to save his father from him.
- Super-Strength: Junior surprisingly has this. After beating the Chain Scene, Donkey Kong falls to the floor, but Junior catches him and holds him up (and, in the arcade original, carries him off the stage), despite his father being roughly three times his size.
- Whip of Dominance: Mario wields a whip, with which he uses to command various animals to attack Junior while he guards Donkey Kong.
- Would Hurt a Child: Mario has no qualms with sending animals to murder Junior when he tries to rescue his father.
