Donkey Kong (SSB)

Donkey Kong in Super Smash Bros.
Donkey Kong
Universe	Donkey Kong
Other playable appearances	in Melee in Brawl
Availability	Starter
Tier	C (7)

Donkey Kong (ドンキーコング, Donkī Kongu) is a starter character in Super Smash Bros. He is known as a slow (in terms of attacks) yet powerful character, with his trademark move being the Giant Punch, which, when fully charged, deals 36% damage.

Donkey Kong is 7th on the tier list for his powerful moves and his infamous grab release, however he is somewhat slow, and is the largest and heaviest character in Super Smash Bros., making him viable for many combos and target practice.

Attributes

File:Donkeykongending.jpg

Donkey Kong's ending picture in Super Smash Bros.

Donkey Kong is the heaviest and largest character in Super Smash Bros. This means he gets hit quite easily (and having a poor shield cover makes this worse), but he can take many hits before being KO'd. Like most heavyweights, Donkey Kong has attacks that deal lots of damage and have good knockback. He also has two spikes, and his Giant Punch is extremely powerful when fully charged. However, he has slow attacks, and most of his KOs still require setup. Contrary to popular belief, Donkey Kong has slightly above-average dash speed (although he does have the slowest air speed). Donkey Kong has a great grab/throw game due to having the longest non-tether grabbing horizontal range, terrific throw combos (especially when there are walls), and the infinite throw trap. Donkey Kong has good reach, which allows for good combos despite slow attack speed, but he lacks a projectile as well as a reliable way to deal with them, making his approach poor and unvaried. Donkey Kong's up special move, Spinning Kong, travels great horizontal distance, but has poor vertical gain. It should be noted that Donkey Kong is extremely vulnerable to combos due to being very large, very heavy, and falling somewhat quickly.

In high level play, Donkey Kong is known for his incredible Spinning Kong and back throw gimps. Donkey Kong is a hard counter to Jigglypuff, as a Donkey Kong player can grab, cargo release, and re-grab into a Giant Punch for KOs. Donkey Kong however has problems with projectiles, and characters like Fox, Kirby, and Captain Falcon combo him too heavily for him to rise on the tier list. Donkey Kong is usually considered to be the best low tier in low tier tournaments due to his Giant Punch combos and the lack of projectile users in low tiers.

In doubles

Donkey Kong is considered to be better for doubles than singles, mainly because he is better at KO'ing as some characters are forced to approach. What also helps him is that partners can save him from large combos and that he is one of the few characters with relatively good recovery. Donkey Kong is also excellent at gimping, especially on Dream Land.

Moveset

Ground Moves

Normal

• Neutral attack: Jab, 2-4%, followed by an uppercut for another 2-4%. Comes out fast, but short range.
• Forward tilt: Extended punch. A somewhat slow punch forward with decent range and good knockback. 12%
• Up tilt: Upward knock. Donkey Kong swings his hands in an arch above him. Hitbox is the arch above him and foes standing on the ground close to him. Can chain into itself, but opponent can DI. Sets up aerial combos. KOs around 130%. Good anti-air move is timed right. Some ending lag. Can also lead into a down smash at lower damage percentages. 13%
• Down tilt: Low slap. A quick hand swipe aimed downwards with a little start-up. 8%
• Dash attack: Konga kick. A very awkward move where DK sticks his foot out and stops. Bad range and duration, high amount of lag, and easily shielded. Will not hit foes that are floored. 12%

Smash attacks

• Forward smash: Big slap. Donkey Kong reels his hand back and thrusts it forward. Very noticeable start-up, but good range and excellent knockback. Can be angled. 19%-21%
• Up smash: Upward clap. Donkey Kong claps directly above him, with some start-up lag. Grounded enemies near him will not be affected at all. Best used under a platform where an opponent is standing or a well timed anti-air attack. Very powerful. 21%
• Down smash: Spinning splits. He does a 360° spin while doing a split, which comes out surprisingly fast, for a move of Donkey Kong, and hits on both sides at the same time. However, it does have some ending lag. 19%

Other attacks

• Ledge attack: Hoists himself onto the stage back-first, ramming into opponents. Long range, low knockback, 5-6%
• 100% ledge attack: Climbs back onto the stage slowly, slapping opponents in front of him. Very short range, low knockback, 5-6%
• Floor attack- Kicks while on his back, forcing his body down, then picks himself up and kicks on the other side. 6% damage

Aerial attacks

• Neutral aerial: Spin. Donkey Kong spins around with his arms out. Somewhat long duration, decent defensive move. 15%
• Forward aerial: Spinning spike. Donkey Kong does a front flip with his fists clasped together, smashing them into opponents. A powerful spike if the foe is hit near the end of the animation. 12%
  

  Donkey Kong's aerial attacks
• Back aerial: Backwards kick. Donkey Kong puts his feet together and thrusts them out behind him, his body moving sideways with them. Some long duration, but good range. This attack is Donkey Kong's sex kick, since it not only has long duration, but gets weaker as it stays out. Donkey Kong's neutral aerial isn't a sex kick, him being the only character other than Fox to have a SK other than the neutral aerial. 14% damage.
• Up aerial: Upward knock. Donkey Kong swings his hands in an arch almost exactly like his up tilt. However, it is very weak, barely KO'ing above 150% in most cases. Its only real use is juggling. Some ending lag. 12%
• Down aerial: A simple near-instantaneous Meteor Smash where Donkey Kong thrusts his feet down. His feet grow slightly as he's doing so, and slightly longer hitbox than most spikes. 13%

Grabs & throws

• Forward throw: Trap throw. Donkey Kong holds his opponent on his back, dealing 8%. He can then move around before throwing them forward for another 8%. This throw is based on his ability in Donkey Kong Country to effortlessly carry barrels on his back. However, foes will eventually automatically escape from his grasp. The throw has good knockback, although it can be DI'd. Can be used to perform the infinite throw trap (covered below).
• Back throw: Back throw. Turns around and tosses the opponent. Powerful in terms of both damage and knockback. Effective for both gimping and KO'ing. 18%

Special moves

Donkey Kong in the SSB instruction booklet.

Donkey Kong's special moves

Neutral special	Giant Punch
Up special	Spinning Kong
Down special	Hand Slap

Taunt

• Turns to his right, raises his arms so that his palms are facing upwards, shrugs, and makes a confused growl while shaking his head.

Matchups

Super Smash Bros. (N64) Character Matchups

Avg.

In single-player

In the game's single-player mode, the player and two randomly chosen allies will fight a Giant Donkey Kong on Kongo Jungle.

Strategies

Infinite throw trap

Donkey Kong has the ability to use his forward throw as a means of nigh-inescapably racking up damage on characters. In order to do this, Donkey Kong must use the forward throw, but not any other throw. If the opponent escapes, they will likely still be within Donkey Kong's grab range whereupon they can be grabbed again. This throw trap can be broken if the opponent can shake towards Donkey Kong and his grab. Yoshi and Ness have the most difficulty escaping the throw trap due to their unique double jumps. Pikachu has the least difficulty due to it being able to escape using the invincibility frames of its up special.

Ledge dropping

Due to Donkey Kong's laggy aerials, Donkey Kong has very little combo ability with his aerials except a down aerial or forward aerial into a throw. However, if Donkey Kong drops from a ledge, he can quickly use an up aerial and then l-cancel. Donkey Kong can also jump, use an aerial, and l-cancel on a ledge for a similar effect. As a result, on ledges, Donkey Kong can juggle characters with up aerials whom he would otherwise be unable to combo.

Down special resets and down aerial usage

Donkey Kong can also cancel the first slap of Hand Slap by moving the control stick back after the first slap, enabling him to combo it into a virtually any move to KO the majority of the cast outside of Luigi and Jigglypuff. Donkey Kong's other main KO'ing setup outside of grab-based gimps is a Down Aerial into an Up Smash or a Down Air into a Down Smash.

Description

Trophy

Donkey Kong and Mario started out as arch-rivals, but they've patched things up in recent years. These days DK spends his time searching the jungle for bananas instead of kidnapping beautiful maidens. In the past few years, other members of the Kong family have cashed in on DK's fame as well, including his favorite nephew, Diddy.

Works:

• Donkey Kong (NES)
• Donkey Kong Country (SNES)
• Mario Kart 64 (N64)

Instruction booklet

Mario's former enemy, this mighty ape is bestowed with tremendous power and overwhelming attacks.

Costumes

File:Alt-dk.jpg

Donkey Kong's changeable palette swaps in SSB

Trivia

• Donkey Kong is one of four characters, along with Kirby, Mario, and Captain Falcon, in Super Smash Bros to have a green costume not normally accessible via character select, only being available if Donkey Kong is in on the Green Team in Team Battle.
• Donkey Kong, along with Yoshi, is one of two characters in the original Super Smash Bros. to never be portrayed with head wear in-game.