Kong Family

Kong Family
The Kong Family signature
General information
Main base	Kongo Jungle
Goal	Protect the Kong Isle.
First appearance	Donkey Kong (1981)
Latest appearance	Mario vs. Donkey Kong (Nintendo Switch) (2024)
Affiliations
Leader	Donkey Kong

The Kong Family is the name given to the Kong relatives and friends of Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong.

Members

Candy Kong

Candy Kong

Candy Kong is Donkey Kong's girlfriend. She provides various services for the Kongs throughout the different games. She first appeared in Donkey Kong Country and allowed the player to save their game. In other versions, she acts as a manager of mini-games and ran a dance studio minigame. She was the first female character throughout the Donkey Kong Country series, although Dixie Kong was the first playable female character in Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest. In Donkey Kong Country, she wore a pink bow with white polka-dots and a pink maillot. In later games she appears in from scratch, she ditched the bow. Candy Kong also appeared in Donkey Kong 64; in this game, she provided instruments for DK and company to use against the Kremlings and gives the Kong family more watermelons which increase the player's life. She wore headphones, a pink short-sleeve top, pink short shorts, and some footwear. She intended to make a playable appearance in Diddy Kong Pilot, but the game was unpublished due to Rare moved to Microsoft. As Diddy Kong Pilot never saw a release, she remained unplayable forever, since she never made any physical appearance since 2007.

She also makes a brief appearance in DK: King of Swing and is seen cheering on the player's characters. She wore a pink bikini top and short shorts, and her torso was redesigned (this appearance has remained in subsequent games). She also makes a brief cameo appearance in the GBA remake of Donkey Kong Country 2 and Donkey Kong Country 3. In Donkey Kong Country 2 she appears in Swanky Kong's Quiz Show, and she wore a purple dress. In Donkey Kong Country 3, she appeared in one of the challenges of Funky's Rentals, as one of the people who had to be rescued from the Kremlings, who were kidnapping the Kongs. She also made a brief appearance in Donkey Kong Barrel Blast in the Mode Candy's Challenges and allowed the players to collect up to a total of 1,000 Bananas and to win the tracks in 1st Place.

Chunky Kong

Chunky Kong

Chunky Kong is a gorilla being one of the playable Kongs in the game Donkey Kong 64. Chunky is the older brother of Kiddy Kong and cousin of Dixie Kong and Tiny Kong. He was freed by Lanky in the level Frantic Factory. Before he was freed, he indicates that he doesn't like heights. Despite his brawny build, he acts somewhat cowardly and childish. One example of this is when the player selects him in the barrel, he gets scared, shakes his head 'no' and tries to convince the player to choose Tiny Kong instead (although, when not highlighted in the 'select spotlight', strangely he is shown to be more enthusiastic about being selected). His weapon is the Pineapple Launcher, his instrument is the Triangle Trample, and the potion enables him to do Hunky Chunky, turning gigantic, Primate Punch, unleashing a very powerful punch which can smash down some doors and walls, Burp Skill, in which he releases a giant belch and pats his stomach, and Gorilla-Gone, turning temporarily invisible. He can carry boulders and other heavy items that the other Kongs cannot carry. It should be noted that it was Chunky, with a combination of the "Hunky Chunky" and "Primate Punch" abilities, who defeated K.Rool in the last boxing match in Donkey Kong 64. He appears as a sticker in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. He also made a brief cameo appearance in the GBA remake of Donkey Kong Country 3, in the third challenge of Funky's Rentals, where he was one of the Kongs that he had to be rescued from the Kremlings' kidnapping threat, along with other characters such as Candy, Tiny and Cranky Kong.

Cranky Kong

Cranky Kong

Cranky Kong is an elderly and extremely grouchy Kong. It has been stated that he is in fact the original DK from the 1980s Donkey Kong arcade trilogy (as he implied in the Donkey Kong Country series of games), but this has not been reflected in recent titles. In Donkey Kong Country, he sat in a rocking chair in his shack and offered hints about upcoming levels. In Donkey Kong Country 2, he ran a museum where he sold advice in exchange for Banana Coins. In Donkey Kong Country 3, he was the player's opponent in Swanky Kong's ball-toss games, responding angrily whenever he lost. He has also appeared in Donkey Kong Jungle Climber and more. He is a playable character in the Wii game, Donkey Kong Barrel Blast.  He is Donkey Kong's grandfather.

Diddy Kong

Diddy Kong

Diddy Kong is the secondary protagonist of the Donkey Kong series and the nephew of Donkey Kong. He wears a red hat with the Nintendo logo on it and a red shirt with stars on it. He first appears in Donkey Kong Country as Donkey Kong's sidekick, before starring in the sequel, Donkey Kong Country 2, followed by a cameo appearance in Donkey Kong Country 3. The next game where he is featured as a playable character is his very own spinoff, Diddy Kong Racing. After joining Donkey Kong in a quest against the Kremlings in Donkey Kong 64, he was not featured again until a few years later in the GBA remake of Donkey Kong Country. He is also included as a playable character in the Mario series and as a playable character in the Super Smash Bros. series.

Dixie Kong

Dixie Kong

Dixie Kong is Diddy Kong's girlfriend and one of the more popular Kongs. Though she first appeared in Donkey Kong Country 2 as Diddy Kong's sidekick and later made the starring role of Donkey Kong Country 3. While she didn't return in Donkey Kong 64, her sister, Tiny Kong, served as her replacement. Her next time featured as a playable character was in the GBA remake of Donkey Kong Country 2. She appeared once again in the Japan-only Donkey Konga 3. She is also a playable character in Diddy Kong Racing DS and Mario Super Sluggers for Wii. Dixie is remembered by her ability to twirl her hair to float downwards. Dixie Kong has secured her place as one of the main Donkey Kong characters and appears 3rd only to Donkey and Diddy.

Donkey Kong

Donkey Kong

Donkey Kong is the main protagonist of the Donkey Kong series, appearing in almost all the series' games, if not, all of them. Due to his stubborn nature, he occasionally alternates his role to a villain as Mario's rival.

Donkey Kong Junior

Donkey Kong Jr. in Mario Tennis.

Donkey Kong Junior (Not to be confused with Diddy Kong), also known as DK Jr. or simply Junior) is the protagonist of the 1982 arcade game of the same name and the son of Cranky Kong. In terms of character design, Junior is essentially a child version of his father but wears a white singlet with a red letter "J" written over it. His objective in the game is to save his father, who is being kept in a locked cage by Mario. He returns in the 1994 Game Boy remake of Donkey Kong, where he teams up against Mario with his father, who is once again holding Pauline captive. Junior has also appeared as a playable character in the original Super Mario Kart and Virtual Boy game Mario's Tennis, as well as a hidden character in the Nintendo 64 version of the similarly named Mario Tennis. He is also featured in the games Donkey Kong Jr. Math and Donkey Kong Classics for the NES. Other appearances by Junior include the Game & Watch games Donkey Kong Jr. (in wide-screen, tabletop and panorama versions) and Donkey Kong 2, as well as the Game & Watch Gallery series compilations for Game Boy. He also appears as the physical appearances of the transformed king of World 5 in the Super NES and Game Boy Advance versions of Super Mario Bros. 3. Donkey Kong Junior had his own segment in the first season of Saturday Supercade and was voiced by Frank Welker. Like his father, he even had his own cereal.

According to Rare, the developers of Donkey Kong Country, there are multiple Donkey Kongs, shortly before the release of Donkey Kong 64 in 1999, Leigh Loveday claimed that "as far as he knew", the modern one who appears in Donkey Kong Country onward is theoretically a grown-up version of Junior himself. since Cranky seemingly referred to him as "son" However, this only happened in Donkey Kong 64. In the actual in-game dialogue for Donkey Kong Country Donkey Kong Land and Donkey Kong Country 2 as well as the instruction manuals, Cranky refers to the current Donkey Kong as his grandson and Nintendo has interpreted this literally. The character Diddy Kong was going to be an updated version of Donkey Kong Junior. However, Nintendo did not like this idea, suggesting either to give him his old look or make him a new character. Rare chose the latter and Donkey Kong Junior became Diddy Kong. In addition, the later release of Yoshi's Island DS gives this conflict of Donkey Kong Junior an unexpected loophole, as this game introduces Baby DK. This contradicts from Rare's statement about the current Donkey Kong because, during the events of Donkey Kong Jr. (the game), Mario is fully grown whereas Junior is a child. In Yoshi's Island DS, Mario, and the current Donkey Kong are both infants, further putting this conflict into obscurity. But ever since Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Donkey Kong Country Returns, it is currently known that Cranky Kong is the current Donkey Kong's grandfather and Donkey Kong Jr. is the current Donkey Kong's father.

Funky Kong

Funky Kong in Mario Kart Wii with his kart

Funky Kong is a cool, laid-back, surfer who assists the Kongs various times. He usually supplies services to the Kongs such as allowing them to go back to worlds they have previously completed in the game. However, in Donkey Kong Country 3, he took on a different role as a watercraft merchant, allowing Dixie Kong and Kiddy Kong to reach new areas of the game world. In Donkey Kong 64, Funky switched jobs yet again to become the ammunitions expert of the group. He supplied various weaponry and upgrades to the Kongs and donned camouflage clothing, goggles, and a large rocket on his back in favor of his old board shorts and sunglasses. He took back on his "surfer" appearance in later games. He is also a playable character in Donkey Kong Barrel Blast, as well as in multiplayer modes of DK King of Swing and DK Jungle Climber.

Funky was also a regular on the Donkey Kong Country cartoon, where he was voiced by Damon D'Oliveira. An obvious difference one might notice is that the cartoon version of Funky had tan fur as opposed to the brown fur his video game counterpart had. He was also given a Jamaican accent. However, like his game counterpart, Funky is keen on surfing (although we never see him doing it), and like in the first game, he runs his own airline service. Funky is obviously not fond of adventuring or fighting the Kremlings. Nor is he keen on doing very much work; he often tries to take the easier way out of a situation, or just leave it up to DK and Diddy. Funky is more peace-loving than the other Kong family members.

He has finally appeared in a Mario game after much time: Mario Kart Wii, where he is an unlockable heavy-weight character. Funky also appears in Mario Super Sluggers. He also appears as a trophy in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Kiddy Kong

Kiddy Kong

Kiddy Kong is a baby ape and the youngest of the Kong family. He was introduced in Donkey Kong Country 3 as Dixie's sidekick and toddler cousin. Their mission was to solve a series of mysteries in the Northern Kremisphere and find their missing friends Donkey and Diddy. He is a sturdy toddler with lots of strength and is said to be a lot like Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong in a way as he seems to always get in trouble. He was also playable in Donkey Kong Land III where he joins Dixie in her quest to prove herself worthy by finding the fabled lost world before DK, Diddy, and the Kremlings. He did not appear in Donkey Kong 64 but was mentioned in the manual as being the baby brother of Chunky Kong. He was slated to appear in Donkey Kong Racing before it was canceled and so far has yet to appear in any games since then. His abilities included water skipping, being able to roll farther to make longer than average jumps, and throwing Dixie high out of normal jump reach, with Dixie being able to throw him and guide his fall to break platforms and unveil hidden secrets.

Lanky Kong

Lanky Kong is an orangutan who is a distant cousin to the Kong family. Lanky's first appearance was in Donkey Kong 64 as one of the game's five playable Kongs. He was freed by Donkey Kong in the Angry Aztec level in the Llama's Temple. His weapon is the Grape Shooter, his instrument is the Trombone Tremor, and the Potion enables him to do OrangStand, walking on his hands to climb steep slopes. Baboon Balloon allows him to inflate himself to reach higher areas, and OrangSprint allows him to run really fast on his hands. In the level, Gloomy Galleon, he can transform into Enguarde the Swordfish when he enters the Enguarde Crate. for more information please see Lanky Kong

Lanky Kong also makes a cameo in the GBA port of Donkey Kong Country 3 in one of Funky's minigames.

Lanky appears in his spin-off debut, Donkey Kong Barrel Blast as one of the Kongs. He is one of the unlockable characters.

Note that in Donkey Kong Country there was an orangutan enemy called Manky Kong similar to Lanky in both appearance and name. It is unknown if they have any relation or if Lanky Kong was based on Manky Kong.

Lanky Kong appears as a trophy in the game Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Tiny Kong

Tiny Kong in Diddy Kong Racing DS

Tiny Kong is a tail-less monkey that has blonde hair and pigtails. She is Dixie Kong's younger sister and is a cousin to Chunky Kong and Kiddy Kong, as stated in the manual for Donkey Kong 64. She is now depicted as taller than Dixie.

In Donkey Kong 64, her clothing was a beanie hat, blue overalls, a white T-Shirt, and white shoes. She was freed by Diddy Kong in the Angry Aztec level in the building near Candy's Music Shop. Her weapon is the Feather Crossbow, her instrument is the Saxophone Slam, the Potion enables her for Mini-Monkey, Pony-Tail Twirl, and Monkey-Port. She can shrink when she jumps into her special barrel, allowing her access to areas other Kongs cannot go. She can do a helicopter-spin, equivalent to Dixie's, to slow down her descent.

She makes a cameo appearance in the GBA port of the SNES games, Donkey Kong Country 2 and Donkey Kong Country 3. In Donkey Kong Country 2, Diddy, Dixie, or both must rescue her from the Zingers in a mini-game called, Kongnapped, and the objective is to rescue six of her in order to win. In Donkey Kong Country 3, she appears in one of Funky's Motorboat challenges. These two games she appeared in are the only games where she is not a playable character.

In her spin-off debut, Diddy Kong Racing DS, she seems to have grown more mature, oddly making her both taller and more physically developed than her older sister, Dixie. Her clothing was a beanie hat, sweat pants, a spaghetti-strap top, sandals, and fur wristbands, and she wore earrings that she did not wear in the previous games. She is one of the first eight playable characters. Her acceleration and handling are slightly below average, and she has a medium top speed. In the game's commercial, she was using a Hovercraft and instead of being in the usual position in the game, she was standing, leaning forward.

In Donkey Kong Barrel Blast, Tiny is one of the Kongs in this game. It is the first game on the Wii she appears in. It is also the second racing game for her character. She is one of the unlockable characters in this game. She was unlocked by completing Sapphire Mode on a Rookie Setting.

Tiny Kong is also set to appear as a playable character in Mario Super Sluggers. This is also Tiny Kong's debut in the Mario franchise.

Wrinkly Kong

Wrinkly Kong

Wrinkly Kong is an elderly gorilla, grandmother of Donkey Kong, and the wife of Cranky Kong. Wrinkly first appeared in the game Donkey Kong Country 2 for the SNES, where she ran Kong Kollege. She gave the player advice and allowed the player to save his or her game. She appeared again in Donkey Kong Land 2, and again in Donkey Kong Country 3. This time, she resided in Wrinkly's Save Cave, where the player could both save their game and deposit Banana Birds, which were found throughout the game. This concept remained sans birds in Donkey Kong Land III, where she resided in Wrinkly's Refuge. In the Game Boy Advance version of Donkey Kong Country 3, Wrinkly was portrayed as a spiritual follower of the Banana Birds.

Wrinkly next appeared in Donkey Kong 64; she had apparently passed away at some point after Donkey Kong Country 3, as she was now a spirit. Every world lobby in the game, with the exception of Hideout Helm, featured five doors with Wrinkly's face on them; each door presented a hint for the level that applied to the Kong that corresponded to the door color (yellow for Donkey Kong, red for Diddy Kong, etc.). When the player begins meeting her in Donkey Kong 64, she says "Don't be afraid of me young ones! It's only me, Wrinkly Kong," and then she gives the player advice on how to win a Golden Banana on the corresponding level.

Her first playable appearance was in DK King of Swing she would later return so for DK Jungle Climber and as an unlockable character in Donkey Kong Barrel Blast.