Donkey Kong (SSBB)

Donkey Kong in Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Universe	Donkey Kong
Other playable appearances	in SSB in Melee in SSB4
Availability	Starter
Final Smash	Konga Beat
Tier	D (21)

Donkey Kong (ドンキーコング, Donkī Kongu) is a character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. He was first shown very briefly at the E3 2007 press conference. Like most other characters in Brawl, has been graphically updated to match his more recent appearances. His fur is more brightly colored, and he also appears furrier, especially around his head. Due to his heavy weight, the screen will shake slightly when Donkey Kong jumps and lands, like Bowser and King Dedede. His new voice actor is Takashi Nagasako, who also voiced Ganondorf in Melee.

Donkey Kong is currently ranked 21st on the tier list in the Mid tier. Donkey Kong possesses a combination of incredible power with many great finishers (especially in his smash attacks), and incredible reach in his attacks. Along with this power plus reach combination, Donkey Kong possesses above average movement with remarkably good mobility for a character of his size, and many fast attacks (such as his back aerial and tilts). Additionally, Donkey Kong possesses by far the greatest horizontal endurance with his great weight and Spinning Kong momentum cancelling, as well as one of the strongest vertical endurances, and a recovery that gains great horizontal distance while protecting Donkey Kong, making Donkey Kong one of the hardest characters to KO. Donkey Kong's incredible weight is a double-edge sword however; while it makes him incredibly difficult to KO, it also makes him incredibly easy to combo, juggle, and chain throw, including making him vulnerable to infinite and zero to death chain throws (most notoriously from King Dedede). Additional problems of Donkey Kong include most of his attacks having heavy ending lag (making it easy to punish most of his attacks if he misses), being very vulnerable to meteor smash gimps due to his recovery gaining much less vertical distance, his shield being too small for a character of his size leaving him heavily vulnerable to shield stabbing, and lacking a projectile, which when combined with his very large size and aforementioned shield issues, gives Donkey Kong severe issues dealing with camping. While his rolls and air dodge are about average, his sidestep is the second slowest, after Bowser. Overall, Donkey Kong has decidedly poor matchups while being countered by the majority of top and high tier (and is also hard countered by two), and has achieved average tournament results.

Attributes

Donkey Kong is a very heavy character with very powerful attacks, great attack range, and high knockback capabilities. Despite these pros, Donkey Kong lacks projectiles and a reliable way to deal with them, which makes his moveset and style of approach unvaried. He is one of the fastest heavyweight characters; his movement speed is above average: fast running, fast walking, fast air speed, and very high initial jump. Donkey Kong's weight helps him stay alive longer, though he is a big target and has very poor vertical recovery, but extremely long horizontal recovery. He can even use Spinning Kong to cancel knockback from an attack that would even KO Bowser, Snake, or King Dedede. Despite his extremely long horizontal recovery, it is vulnerable to disjointed attacks and has poor vertical height which means even weak spikes can be devastating, though it's hard to edge guard without a disjointed attack due its initial invincibility frames. Combining his impressive weight and good horizontal recovery with good directional influence, he will be extremely hard to KO.

Although he can take a lot of damage before being KOed, he gets hit very easily due to his large size. His large size and heavy weight also leaves him open to many chain grabs (e.g. King Dedede's infinite chain grab without a wall, which is truly problematic at such a high level), except Bowser's ground releases. Though given his attack range and speed, it can be difficult for characters with short-ranged grabs like the Ice Climbers to grab him to begin with. His Headbutt attack allows him to get a free attack on the opponent, as many of his follow-up attacks have low startup time, and it also does very high damage to shields. His fully charged Giant Punch also heavily damages shields, and the launch resistance it grants may allow him to trade KO moves with an opponent and survive. Even his grounded Spinning Kong does high damage to opponents or shields. Having three high shield damage attacks he can give high shield pressure. Donkey Kong has no problems KOing: all his smashes are powerful, with his up & down smashes coming out very fast; up aerial can compensate for a missed edge-guard, three reliable meteor smashes, back aerial & throw, Giant Punch (10 charges is actually more powerful than fully charged, but doesn't have launch resistance) and the cargo stage spike.

He can counter any ground grab releases because of his unique extremely short grab release animation, making him escape from release lag 10 frames earlier than any other character does and being immune to Bowser's grab release game with the addition of only Snake and Yoshi being able to force him to jump break from grabs. Donkey Kong is unique to be able to carry crates, barrels and Bonsly without a reduction in speed, but small items have unusual long end animation (though he has one of the best Glide Tosses in the game). DK also has a large grab range with powerful throws, and he is even able to chain-grab some characters, DK can infinite-Cargo release Lucas and Ness, he can KO characters in low damage percentages when using the Cargo stage-spike. Donkey Kong can also perform Kongocide, although it's not the most useful of the sacrificial KOs. Although Donkey Kong has his share of problems, he fares decently against the majority of the cast, and there are very few problems he can't overcome.

In terms of cosmetics, Donkey Kong has more realistic gorilla roars (similar to other characters having more realistic noises). His costume is lighter and very different from Melee (making him comparable to his appearance in Donkey Kong Jungle Beat with his furrier appearance). He now has a new white costume with a red tie, and his black costume now has a yellow tie instead of a blue tie.

Brawl manual description

"The large king of the jungle. He moves with surprising agility."

Changes from Melee to Brawl

In the transition from Melee to Brawl, DK got both buffed and nerfed, but he was more buffed than nerfed overall.

• Shield size was increased.
• Down and forward tilt can now trip. The former is also significantly faster.
• Giant Punch now has super armor, it charges faster and it can now be reversed, but reversing it does not increase damage or knockback, unlike the Falcon Punch and Warlock Punch.
• Headbutt is faster, deals more damage, and DK can now also bury his opponents while he is in midair. Since buried characters now can receive knockback when buried, Headbutt can now combo more easily into Giant Punch or other attacks. It can also be used as an inferior version of Mario's cape glide, giving DK another edgeguarding option.
• 10 frames were subtracted from his ground release animation, giving him 10 frames to counterattack the opponent when ground released. This makes him the only character immune to to Bowser's grab release combos.
• All smash attacks have increased knockback and range. Up smash can also hit grounded opponents.
• Walking and dashing speed are better.
• Hand Slap does more damage and has longer reach.
• All aerial attacks deal stronger knockback. DK's back aerial is also fast enough to be performed twice in a single short hop.
• Spinning Kong goes slightly farther, both horizontally and vertically. It can also be used to completely negate all momentum, and the grounded version has super armor.
• Cargo forward throw has more vertical and horizontal knockback.
• Spinning Kong now has a landing lag animation with significant lag if DK falls a moderate distance after using it in midair, leaving him more vulnerable.
• Giant Punch also puts DK in the same landing lag animation if he uses the move high above the ground.
• Giant Punch has less reach and knockback when fully charged.
• Opponents can now escape his carry throw without having to use the control stick.
• Dash attack does horizontal knockback instead of vertical.

Moveset

For a visual representation of Donkey Kong's attack hitboxes, see this page.

	Move	Description	Segment		Damage	Angle	Hit Frames		BKB	KBG	WBKB	Type
Neutral attack	Double Punch	Does a quick cross punch and follows up with an uppercut. Certain hitboxes can jab lock.	Hit 1	Arm	4%	*	5	7	0	100	0
				Body		140
			Hit 2		6%	70	16	21	40
Forward tilt	Backhand Swipe	Swats in front. Large range and fast but low knockback. DK's arm is intangible while the hitboxes are out, allowing it to be used safely against most other attacks. Has a 15% chance of tripping when angled down. Great for spacing.	Angled up		12%	*	8	11	10	100	0
			Angled side		10%
			Angled down		9%
Up tilt	Upper Swipe	Swats above his head. Fast with a good arch range. Again, DK's arm cannot be injured while the hitboxes are out.	Hand		9%	100	5	11	40	105	0
			Elbow		10%					110
			Arm		11%					115
Down tilt	Trip Swipe	Swats at his opponent's feet. This move causes opponents to trip 40% of the time. Slightly less range and similar start-up than his forward tilt, but barely any ending lag and still has long range. A great lock move at low percentages and a trip can be combined with his Hand Slap.			8%	*	6	9	10	80	0
Dash attack	Sliding Kick	Skids to a halt doing a side-kick. High lag and poor shieldstun. Similar to a move from Donkey Kong 64.	Clean		11%	50	9	11	100	20	0
			Late		9%	100	12	20	0	0	120
Up smash	High Clap	Claps hands above his head. Good for hitting from below a platform and a great running up smash. Both DK's arms and head cannot be hit during the middle of the attack.			18%	90	14	16	40	93	0
Down smash	Simian Slam	Does a double back-handed punch by bringing his closed fists down 90 degrees at both sides. Very fast, great vertical knockback, and the 3rd strongest down smash in the game, after Lucario and Mr. Game & Watch.	Hands		17%	115	10	14	35	100	0
			Arms		14%	98
Forward smash	Clap Smash	Claps hands together in front of him. The two stronger hitboxes have increased hitlag, making it easy to tell which one has connected.	Fingers		20%	*	22	23	30	94	0
			Hands		21%
			Arms		19%				18	100
			Body		18%
Neutral aerial	Fist Spin	Spins with arms extended. Similar to the Spinning Kong, but much faster to execute.	Clean		11%	*	10	13	20	100	0
			Late		8%		14	26	10
Forward aerial	Fist Pound	Puts fists together above his head, then does a powerful ax-handle smash. A powerful meteor smash when sweet spotted, which also causes a significant hitlag increase. Great for catching edge guarders while recovering. Looks almost exactly like a move from Donkey Kong 64. The second most powerful forward aerial meteor, only surpassed by Snake's.	Windup		16%	*	25	26	20	100	0
			Clean	Hands		270	27	29	30	85
				Arms		*			50
Back aerial	Rear Kick	Back-kicks behind him. Very fast, long ranged and strong, is an effective wall of pain	Clean		13%	*	7	8	20	100	0
			Late		8%		9	16	10
Up aerial	Head Swipe	Headbutts above. Extremely quick, can be used to juggle at low percentages and Star KO at high percentages.			14%	90	6	9	32	90	0
Down aerial	Flex Stomp	Stomps down whilst holding his arms up in a macho pose. When this move hits, it will always meteor smash, and it is his strongest meteor smash. Has Star KO potential. Can be used on many characters by cargo down throwing, then jumping and down aerial.	Foot		16%	270	18	23	38	90	0
			Body		13%				20
Pummel	Karate Chop	Does a slight karate chop at the enemy's neck. A fairly fast pummel.			3%	80	9	10	0	100	30
Forward throw	Cargo	Regardless of the opponent's size, DK heaves the opponent onto his back, just like carrying a crate or a barrel. Can be released and regrabbed if he can react quicker, being an infinite on Lucas and Ness when turn releasing and turn grabbing. Both players gain knockback-based super armor, similar to Yoshi's double jump. Donkey Kong is unable to use his forward throw on enemies in the Subspace Emissary, making him the only character unable to use one of his standard throws for said reason. If the input for the forward throw is used, he will use his up throw instead.	Breakout		6%	*			0	100	30
			Forward throw		8%	60	13		80	50	0
			Back throw			55	15
			Up throw		7%	90	14		90	30
			Down throw		6%	28	16		65	26
Back throw	Rear Fling	Swings his arm back and throws the opponent. A very good KO throw and it has fast start-up.			11%	40	15		60	65	0
Up throw	Vertical Fling	Swings his arm back and throws the opponent. A very good KO throw and it has fast start-up. Can combo into an up smash or up aerials at low percentages.			9%	90	14		70	50	0
Down throw	Dirt Shove	Slams the opponent into the ground with his hand. Can chain grab characters like Snake or Kirby. At low percentages, this can combo into Hand Slap and can start aerial juggles from there.			7%	*	41		60	50	0
Floor (back)	Double Clap	Claps once to each side.	Hit 1		6%	*	9	10	80	50	0
			Hit 2				20	21
Floor (front)	Double Swat	Swats with his hand in a wide arch.	Hit 1		6%	*	20	21	80	50	0
			Hit 2				24	25
Floor (trip)	Ground Spin	Spins with his fists as he stands.	Hit 1		5%	*	19	20	60	50	0
			Hit 2				23	24
Edge (<100%)	Butt Fling	Throws his rear at the opponent. Good range for an edge attack.			8%	*	9	16	0	100	110
Edge (100%+)	Slow Swipe	Climbs onto the stage and swats forward.			10%	*	38	41	0	100	110
Neutral special move	Giant Punch	DK winds up a punch which is released once the button is pressed again. Damage increases by 2% for each arm swing he pulls off before punching (with the first having no effect); if he stops charging and his head starts smoking, it'll be fully charged. The sweetspot is located at DK's elbow and is slightly more powerful than the main hitbox. When fully charged and sweetspotted on the ground, Giant Punch can KO at 46%.	Uncharged (ground)	Elbow (pullback)	12%	80	18		15	100	0
				Arm	10%	*	19	22
				Body						60
			Uncharged (air)	Elbow (pullback)	8%	80	18		15	100
				Arm	6%	*	19	22
				Body						60
			Fully charged (ground)	Elbow (pullback)	18%	80	18		40	80
				Arm	28%	*	19	22	10
				Body	18%					50
			Fully charged (air)	Arm (pullback)	15%	80	18		40	80
				Arm	25%	*	19	22	10
				Body	20%					50
Side special move	Headbutt	A sideways headbutt that sends the opponent straight down into the ground.	Ground	Grounded opponents	10%	270	20	21	20	40	0
				Aerial opponents	8%	70			15
			Air	Clean	14%	270			30
				Midswing (aerial opponents only)	8%	70			15
Up special move	Spinning Kong	DK spins around with arms extended. Has super armour on the ground and intangibility frames in the air.	Hit 1 (ground)	Arms	5%	*	19-23, 24-28, 29-33, 34-38		50	70	0
				Body	4%	140
			Hit 2 (ground)		3%	*	39-42, 43-46, 47-50, 51-54		5	50
			Hit 3 (ground)		4%		55	56	40	90
			Hit 1 (air)		10%		4	6	40	80
			Hit 2 (air)	Arms	5%		12-19, 20-27, 28-35, 36-43		20	70
				Body	4%
			Hit 3 (air)		2%		44-51, 52-59, 60-77, 78-85		0	100
Down special move	Hand Slap	An earth-shaking attack with okay range, but cannot hit opponents that aren't on the ground.	Hit 1	Center	14%	84	6	7	82	23	0
				Sides		78
			Hit 2	Center		84	17	18
				Sides		78
Final Smash	Konga Beat	DK breaks out the bongos and launches waves of sound at opponents. The waves increase in size and power based on music-matching button presses; the exact mechanics of this are unknown.	Startup	Unknown	3%	150	1		30	100	0
				Unknown	12%	*				80
				Unknown	11%				100	110
			Weak wave		2%	150			40	100	0
			Strong wave		7%	*			30	70

Taunts

• Up: Beats his chest.
• Side: Shakes himself, as if his fur was wet.
• Down: Faces the camera and shrugs his shoulders, making a confused noise.

On-screen appearance

• Breaks out of a DK barrel, grunts and makes a strongman pose.

Cheer

Donkey Kong's NTSC and PAL cheer

Don-key Kong! (Group Chant)

Idle poses

• Bares his teeth and crosses his eyes.
• Bumps his fists together, then performs an uppercut punch.

Victory poses

• Beats his chest. (similar to his Up taunt).
• Holds his hands above his head and shakes them.
• Backflips and holds his arms in a strongman pose.

Character roll call music

• King K. Rool / Ship Deck 2

In competitive play

Matchups

Super Smash Bros. Brawl Character Matchups

Avg.

Notable players

See also: Category:Donkey Kong professionals (SSBB)

•  Bum
•  Cable
•  Dr. Grandpa
•  Nairo
•  Will

In event matches

Donkey Kong is featured in the following event matches:

• Event 7: Diddy Kong Panic - As Donkey Kong, KO 15 tiny Diddy Kongs on Mario Circuit.
• Event 9: The Monster Beneath the Earth - If the player doesn't manage to KO both Diddy Kong's before reaching the underground section of Castle Siege, Giant Donkey Kong will face the player.
• Event 10: All-Star Battle Regulars - Donkey Kong is one of the eight opponents the player must fight from the original eight starter characters from Super Smash Bros on Final Destination.
• Event 22: Monkeys Unite - As Diddy Kong, team up with Giant Donkey Kong against Sheik and Lucario on Rumble Falls.
• Event 27: Three-Beast Carnage - As R.O.B., defeat Giant Bowser, Giant Donkey Kong and Giant Charizard on New Pork City.

In co-op event matches

• Co-Op Event 4: The DK Tag Calamity - As a tiny Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong, defeat Donkey Kong and four Diddy Kong's on Mario Circuit.
• Co-Op Event 14: The Dark Guardians - As a tiny Ganondorf and Wolf, defeat Giant Donkey Kong and Giant Charizard on New Pork City.
• Co-Op Event 21: The True All-Star Battle - Battle Donkey Kong and all the other characters on Battlefield.

Role in The Subspace Emissary

The Koopa Troopas and Bowser steal Donkey Kong's Banana Hoard. As a Hammer Bro. drives off in a car which contains all the bananas, Donkey Kong watches him from a cliff. The Hammer Bro. and the Goomba aboard the car spot Donkey Kong and shoot Bullet Bills at him. However, Diddy Kong comes out from a bush and expertly shoots the Bullet Bills with his Peanut Popguns. Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong then follow the Hammer Bro. to retrieve the Banana Hoard. After following him, they see Bowser with a strange type of gun called a Dark Cannon, revealing that he is working for the Subspace Army. When Bowser charges the cannon, Donkey Kong quickly charges his Giant Punch and launches Diddy into the sky and out of the way, sacrificing himself. Bowser shoots Donkey Kong and turns him into a trophy. Later in the story, Diddy Kong, Fox and Falco see a ship which is carrying Donkey Kong as a trophy to a mysterious floating island. Falco then helps Diddy by following it with his Arwing and having the little Kong with him. Falco then does a barrel roll and drops Diddy out. Diddy fires up his Rocket Barrels and takes out his Popguns and shoots the ship. After seeing this, Captain Falcon and Olimar decide to help him and jump to the ship, where Diddy frees Donkey Kong. All four then fight the Primids and other enemies on the ship.

Donkey Kong in the SSE

The ship takes them inside a factory producing Subspace Bombs, and encounter various R.O.B.s that happen to live on the island. They later meet up with Pikachu and Samus where they see the Ancient Minister and a whole lot of R.O.B.s. After Ganondorf controls the R.O.B.s into activating all of the Subspace Bombs, the Ancient Minister is shown to be R.O.B., the leader of all the lesser R.O.B.s who were forced to work for the Subspace Army. R.O.B. then fights with the others. When trying to escape Captain Falcon calls for his Falcon Flyer and tries to leave the cave when Meta Ridley appears and they must fight him. After that they all meet up with the others.

Donkey Kong and the other heroes enter Subspace and meet Tabuu, who turns everyone into trophies with his Off Waves. However, King Dedede had anticipated this and created badges that revived certain fighters back into their original form. With his team consisting of Luigi and Ness, Dedede rescues Donkey Kong and most of the others, although some of them were rescued by Kirby. They also recruit Bowser, Ganondorf, and Wario when they learned about Tabuu. At the end of The Great Maze, Sonic shows up and helps weaken Tabuu's Off Waves so Donkey Kong and the others would be able to beat him.

Using stickers

Donkey Kong's attacks are primarily punches. Arm stickers are effective. A Leg sticker isn't because it would only affect his back aerial, dash attack and down aerial. Head stickers would only affects his up aerial and Headbutt. Spin stickers only affects his neutral aerial and Spinning Kong so they provide minimal benefit for him.

Playable appearances

• The Jungle
• Outside the Ancient Ruins
• The Subspace Bomb Factory (Part II)
• Entrance to Subspace
• The Great Maze (if rescued in Subspace (Part I)

Exclusive stickers

These stickers can only be used by Donkey Kong or a select few including him.

• Chunky Kong: [Throwing] attack +31
• Diddy Kong (Donkey Kong 64): Launch power +20
• Diddy Kong (Mario Hoops 3-on-3!): [Leg] attack +28
• Diddy Kong (Mario Superstar Baseball): [Leg] attack +12
• Dixie Kong: Launch resistance +39
• DK: [Head] attack +27
• DK Barrel: Launch power +53
• Donkey Kong (Donkey Kong Jungle Beat): [Arm] attack +22
• Donkey Kong (Donkey Kong Country): [Electric] resistance +10
• Donkey Kong (Mario Kart DS) : [Flame] resistance +41
• Donkey Kong Jr.: [Arm] attack +14
• Enguarde: [Body, Spin] attack +15
• Funky Kong: [Leg] attack +13
• Karate Kong: [Battering] resistance +25
• Lanky Kong: [Throwing] attack +6
• Party Monkey: [Head] attack +6
• Pauline & Donkey Kong: [Arm] attack +18
• Tiny Kong: [Arm] attack +4
• Wrinkly Kong: [Battering] resistance +4

Palette swaps

Donkey Kong's alternate costumes in Brawl

Trophy

Donkey Kong's trophy in Brawl.

Description

A carefree jungle dweller with the charisma of a natural leader. He keeps busy by foiling the plans of the Kremlings and their boss, King K. Rool. As his physique suggests, this ape is a powerhouse. He's got speed to match too, and his love for bananas is second to none. His famous necktie is adorned with his initials, DK.

: Donkey Kong Country

: Donkey Kong 64

Trivia

• Even though Donkey Kong has teeth, he only shows them when performing certain attacks or taunts. He occasionally opens his mouth with no teeth showing. For example, DK shows his teeth when charging his up smash, but not during the attack portion.
• When DK is tiny, he actually moves faster while carrying a Crate or Blast Box.
• DK is the only character in Brawl who has more than four different throws.
• When forward smashing with the Home Run Bat, DK has the longest range with the bat out of all the characters. However, if he is too close to the Sandbag or a character, he/she will be propelled upwards at a slight angle with drastically weaker knockback (though still powerful). This happened to him in Melee.
• DK is one of only three characters that can't use their down special move in midair, the others are Peach and Pokémon Trainer, although he is capable of using Hand Slap in the air in Super Smash Bros. 4.
• DK is one of the few known characters to have an obvious error in his moveset coding - his forward aerial cannot be autocanceled, but the coding of the move showns that it was intended to be able to, but it cannot due to a minor error caused by using the wrong type of timing function.

External links

• Donkey Kong's page at Smash Bros. Dojo!!.
• Donkey Kong Character Guide at SWF
• Donkey Kong's hitbox size of each of his moves
• Donkey Kong's Moves - History Behind Super Smash Bros. Brawl, by CrappyCaptureDevice