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Donkey Kong on mobile - What might it look like on iOS and Android?

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Donkey Kong on mobile - What might it look like on iOS and Android?
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| Super Mario Run

Nintendo is doing the once-unthinkable and bringing Mario to mobile. It's also bringing Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem, and we doubt very much it's going to stop there.

That's why we've been running a series of speculative articles asking what other Nintendo franchises might look like on iOS and Android. Which mechanics will translate naturally, which will need changing, and are there any existing mobile games that might point the way forward?

We've already discussed the likes of Zelda, Metroid, Animal Crossing, and Kirby. Now it's the turn of Shigeru Miyamoto's first big IP, and the one that birthed Mario himself.

Yep, it's Donkey Kong.

Ape escapism

Though the original Donkey Kong was in many ways the recognisable starting point for the Nintendo we all know and love today, it's not quite perceived as a top tier franchise for the company alongside Mario and Zelda.

True, the original Donkey Kong and its direct sequels are pretty iconic. These single-screen platformers were defining games of a '80s arcade era.

But any fresh surge of popularity DK had in the '90s and beyond was largely down to the work of Rare. Nintendo used to own a major stake in the UK developer, and effectively outsourced the Donkey Kong character to the company for a number of successful platformer (and kart racer) releases that have come to define the character in the modern age.

Monkey business

The way we see it, there are two main types of Donkey Kong game - the static platformers of the original (which are arguably prototype Mario games) and Rare's Donkey Kong Country series.

The latter are classic side-scrolling platformers with highly detailed graphics and lush environments. Rare tried filling this out to a more open 3D platformer with 1999's Donkey Kong 64, but the series has since returned to its side-scrolling roots.

Besides these two types of Donkey Kong game, there's a list of various genre experiments, including rhythm action (Donkey Konga), puzzle-platforming (Mario vs. Donkey Kong), and kart racing (Diddy Kong Racing).

So which Donkey Kong would we be likely to see on mobile?

Mobile monkeys

It doesn't take a great leap of imagination to see the one-button Super Mario Run template being applied to the Donkey Kong Country approach, perhaps with the twist of granting direct touch control over the barrel cannon sections. That'd be fun.

But some of those genre experiments that suggest some interesting alternatives to us. For example, what about a continuation of the Donkey Kong Jungle Beat approach, which was essentially a simplified DKC platformer controlled by a bongo peripheral. No, really.

This unique limitation resulted in simple left and right controls, hitting both to jump and with an additional sound input for a clap attack. That sounds like it could map well to a mobile game, tapping the left and right side of the screen and even using the phone's mic (or a shake) to clap.

Or there's 2005's DK: King of Swing for the Game Boy Advance and its 2007 DS sequel DK: Jungle Climber, which also built a whole platform game (of sorts) around a two-button mechanic. In it, the big gorilla would grab onto pegs and swing around until you timed his release to ping off in the desired direction.

It's a mechanic we've seen used successfully in many mobile platform-puzzlers since then, so it's no great stretch to imagine Nintendo updating the concept for its first mobile Donkey Kong game.

What we're hoping for in a mobile Donkey Kong game, then, is for the more experimental and quirky side of Nintendo's original mascot to come forward. Leave all the straight-forward platforming to that irritating little moustachioed feller, and follow some of the mobile-friendly paths that were laid in the franchise some years ago.

What do you think? How would you want to see Donkey Kong handled on mobile? Let us know in the comments below.
Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.