Donkey Kong

Donkey Kong Country was an entirely new DK franchise established by the British company Rare and Tim Stamper which took the Donkey Kong premise in an entirely new direction and became a showcase title to show off then-revolutionary CGI graphics.
In Donkey Kong Country, the original Donkey Kong's grandson, also called Donkey Kong, was the hero and he and his sidekick nephew Diddy Kong had to save his hoard of bananas from the thieving King K. Rooland his Kremling Krew. The game was an action sidescrolling title similar to the Mario games and was enormously popular for its graphics, music and gameplay.
The sequel, Diddy's Kong Quest (Super Donkey Kong 2 in Japan) involves DK being kidnapped by K. Rool, who was now a Kaptain, and getting rescued by Diddy Kong and his girlfriend Dixie Kong, in a less cheery and a more darkly-themed game.
In Dixie Kong's Double Trouble (in Japan, Super Donkey Kong 3) Donkey and Diddy both got kidnapped by K. Rool, now Baron K. Roolenstein, and Dixie and her cousin Kiddy Kong had to save them in the final game of the series for the SNES.

A successful Nintendo 64 sequel was also developed. In Donkey Kong 64, DK once again has the starring role as he joins forces with Diddy Kong, Lanky Kong, Tiny Kong, and Chunky Kong to save Donkey Kong Island from destruction at the hands of K. Rool, (now King Krusha K. Rool) and his Kremling Krew. This game features a rare yellow cartridge and is only playable with the included Expansion Pak.
Donkey Kong also made an appearance in Mario Kart 64,(The Donkey Kong models made by Rare) and since then, he has appeared in every outing featuring Mario's all-star cast on the N64. In the Mario Partyseries, he was a playable character in all three titles released for the N64 (also Mario Party 4 for the GameCube), but he eventually became an "event character" in the later games. He was also a selectable character in the original, Mario Tennis and Mario Golf. He was also playable in each Super Smash Bros. game. In nearly all of these games, Donkey Kong is presented as a powerful and heavy character, although slow and cumbersome.

A demo for a Donkey Kong game on the GameCube, Nintendo's sixth generation console, was shown at SpaceWorld 2001. The game was called Donkey Kong Racing and showed various characters, including Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, and Taj the Genie racing on Ellie, Expresso, Rambi, Enguarde, and Zinger, and presumably, Necky, Army, and Chomps Jr. that had been introduced in previous Donkey Kong games by Rare.
Following the sale of Rare to Microsoft in 2002, Rare announced that they were concentrating their efforts on Xbox games, although they have continued to support Nintendo's portable consoles, the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS. This decision is due to the fact that Microsoft does not have its own portable console in direct competition. No further information about Donkey Kong Racing has since been released, leading the game to be classified as cancelled.
Rare's ownership change led to numerous changes. Donkey Kong: Coconut Crackers was originally developed by Rare for the Game Boy Advance, but was eventually released as It's Mr. Pants after the Microsoft purchase. Likewise, Banjo Pilot was originally titled Diddy Kong Pilot, but altered following the Microsoft acquisition.
Donkey Konga was released for the GameCube in 2004. Created by Namco, this musical rhythm action game relied upon use of the DK Bongos accessory (purchasable separately or included, depending on the package) to hit a beat in time with the tune. The tunes included pop songs and themes from some previous Nintendo games. Its sequel, Donkey Konga 2, was released in 2005, and Japan later got Donkey Konga 3 that same year.
Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat was released in Japan in December 2004 and elsewhere in 2005. This platform game used the aforementioned DK Bongos as a controller; tapping one drum repeatedly made Donkey Kong run, tapping both at the same time made him jump, tapping both alternately made him attack, and clapping or blowing in to the microphone caused an explosion, shown by a ripple in the screen, attracting assorted jewels or clearing obstacles to progress.
Donkey Kong is featured as a playable character in all of the Super Smash Bros. games. In addition, Donkey Kong is featured in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, which introduced Diddy Kong to the Mario universe, as well as Mario Power Tennis, Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, Mario Superstar Baseball and Super Mario Strikers. He made his last playable appearance in the Mario Party series in Mario Party 4 before being relegated to an incidental character on the game board. He was also featured on the Game & Watch Gallery handheld series.
Most Donkey Kong games are now developed by the relatively new private video game company Paon.

Donkey Kong made his first appearance on the Wii within the title Mario Strikers Charged as a playable soccer captain. He made an appearance within Mario Party 8, once again as an incidental character on the game board. On October 10, 2007, Donkey Kong's first title role on the system was released in the form of Donkey Kong Barrel Blast, a title originally in development for the GameCube. He also appears in Super Smash Bros. Brawl as a playable character, along with Diddy Kong. In addition, all three of the Donkey Kong Country and arcade games for the SNES have been made available on the Wii's Virtual Console. He also appears in Mario Kart Wii, where he is a heavyweight character. His latest appearance is Mario Super Sluggers, appearing as a captain again. As of Nintendo's conference at October 2, 2008, a New Play Control! remake of Donkey Kong Jungle Beat was ported to the Wii; it was released in Japan on December 11, 2008. In May 2009, Donkey Kong appeared as a secret unlockable opponent in the release of Punch-Out!. Donkey Kong Country Returns was developed for the Wii by Retro Studios and was released in 2010.