Donkey Kong (SSB)

This article is about Donkey Kong's appearance in Super Smash Bros. For other uses, see Donkey Kong.

Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong
Universe	Donkey Kong
Appears in	SSB SSBM SSBB
Availability	Starter
Tier	B (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.

DK is 7th for his powerful moves and his infamous grab release, however he is somewhat slow, and is the largest and heaviest character in SSB, 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 KOed. Like most heavyweights, DK 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 grabbing/throwing game due to having the longest non-tether grabbing horizontal range, terrific throw combos (especially when there are walls), and an infinite throw called 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 (which makes his approach poor and unvaried). Donkey Kong's up special move, Spinning Kong, travels great horizontal distance, but poor vertical distance. 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, DK is known for his incredible priority up special moves and for back throw gimps. DK is known as a heavy counter to Jigglypuff, as you can grab, cargo release, and regrab into a Giant punch for KOs. DK however has problems with projectiles and characters like Fox, Kirby, and Falcon combo DK too heavily for him to rise on the tier list. DK is usually considered to be the best low tier in Low Tier Tournaments due to his punch combos and that there are a very low amount of projectile users in low tiers.

In Doubles

DK is considered to be better for doubles than singles as he is better at KOing as opponent characters are forced to approach. What helps him also is that partners can save him from large grab combos and that he is one of the few characters with a good recovery. DK also happens to be excellent at gimping, one of the main ways of KOing in teams. This is especially true 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. DK 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 DI-able. Sets up for aerial combos. KOs around 130%. Good anti-air move is timed right. Some ending lag. Can also lead into a down smash at lower percents. 13%
• Down Tilt: Low Slap. A quick hand swipe aimed downwards with a little startup. 8%
• Dash attack: Konga Kick. A very awkward move where DK sticks his foot out and stops. Bad range and duration, lots of lag, and easily shielded. Will not hit foes that are floored. 12%

Smash attacks

• Side Smash: Big Slap. DK reels his hand back and thrusts it forward. Very noticeable startup, but good range and excellent knockback. 20%
• Up Smash: Upward Clap. DK claps directly above him, with some startup 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 DK, and hits on both sides at the same time. However, it does have some ending lag. 19%

Other attacks

• Ledge attack: Jumps onto the stage backwards, ramming into opponents with his back. Long range, low knockback, 5-6%
• 100% ledge attack: Climbs back onto the stage slowly, pausing when half on to slap opponents in front of him. Very short range, low knockback, 5-6%
• Floor attack- Kicks on his back, forcing his body down, then picks himself up and kicks on the other side. 6% damage

Aerial attacks

Most of DK's aerial attacks are often preceded by his down special.

• Neutral aerial: Spin. DK swirls around in the air. Some long duration, but good close up move in the air. 15%
• Forward aerial: Spinning Spike. DK does a complete aerial spin with both hands put together. A good spike if the foe is hit correctly, especially since it has forward range in front of DK. 12%
• Back aerial: Backwards kick. DK puts his feet together and aims them behind, his body moving sideways with them. Some long duration, but good range. This attack is DK's Sex Kick, since it not only has a long duration, but it gets weaker as it stays out. DK's neutral aerial isn't his 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. DK swings his hands in an arch almost exactly like his up tilt. However, it is incredibly weak, hardly ever KOs above 150% in most cases, it's only real use appears to be juggling. Some ending lag. 12%
• Down aerial: Spike. A simple near-instantaneous spike where DK 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 will hold his opponent on his back, dealing 8%. He can then move around before throwing them forward for another 8%. This throw is heavily based on his ability in DKC to effortlessly carry barrels on his back. However, foes will eventually escape from his grasp whether DK likes it or not. The throw has good knockback, though is often DI'd. Can be used to infinite throw trap (covered below).
• Back throw: Backward throw. Pretty strong in terms of damage and KO power. Best used by a ledge for a quick KO, or if it didn't KO, an forward aerial follow up on recovering foes. 18%

Special Moves

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, and shrugs while shaking his head.

Matchups

Super Smash Bros. (N64) Character Matchups

Avg.

In Single-player

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

Strategies

Infinite Throw Trap

DK has the ability to use forward throw as a method to constantly stack damage to most characters. In order to do this, DK must use the Trap Throw, but not throw. If the opponent wiggles out, they will likely wiggle out into DK's grab range whereupon they can be grabbed again. This throw trap can be broken if the opponent can shake towards DK and his grab. Yoshi and Ness have the most problem getting out of the throw trap due to their different double jump. Pikachu is the easiest to get out with due to being able to get out of it using the invincibility frames of up B.

Another infinite trap is to use his down special move in the lower left part of Mushroom Kingdom to continuously damage the target. However, this can easily be teched out of. Also, this is not allowed in tournaments due to the fact that the stage is banned in tournaments.

Ledge Dropping

Due to DK's laggy aerials, DK has very little comboing potential with his aerials except down or forward aerials into throw. However, if DK drops from a ledge, DK can quickly use an up aerial attack and then land to move to do another attack. DK can also jump, use an aerial, and land on a ledge for a similar effect. As a result, on ledges, DK can juggle characters with up aerials that he would otherwise never be able to combo.

Down special resets and down aerial usage

DK can also cancel the first slap of the down special move by moving the control stick directly back after the first slap to allow him to combo it into a back air, a grab, and even a giant punch or up smash to KO the majority of the cast outside of Luigi and Jigglypuff. DK's other main KOing combo outside of grab based gimps is down air into up smash or down air into down smash.

Description

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)

Costume Gallery

File:Alt-dk.jpg

Donkey Kong's changeable palette swaps in SSB

Trivia

• DK is one of 4 characters along with Kirby, Mario, and Captain Falcon in SSB to have a green costume not normally accessible via character select, only available if DK 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.