Donkey Kong (franchise)

Donkey Kong is a franchise of video games starring the titular protagonist, Donkey Kong, and the Kong Family. It was created by in 1981, with the release of Donkey Kong.

The Donkey Kong series began with three arcade games in the 1980s. In 1993, Nintendo tasked Rare to develop a Donkey Kong game. After a year of development, Donkey Kong Country was released in November 1994. The game vastly expanded the Donkey Kong franchise and introduced recurring features and characters, most notably the family of Kongs and the Kremlings. Rare's last original Donkey Kong title was Donkey Kong 64, which released in late 1999.

At E3 2001, three other Donkey Kong titles from Rare were unveiled, Donkey Kong Racing (as a trailer), Diddy Kong Pilot, and Donkey Kong Coconut Crackers. The latter two games had playable demos at the event. In 2002, Microsoft acquired Rare entirely, which led to the outright cancellation of Donkey Kong Racing. Diddy Kong Pilot and Donkey Kong Coconut Crackers were redone and released as Banjo-Pilot and It's Mr. Pants respectively. In the 2000s, Rare only made remakes of the Donkey Kong Country trilogy and Diddy Kong Racing.

Characters
The main characters are the Kongs, which are a species with a wide variety of primates.