Donkey Kong (Super Smash Bros.)


 * This article is about Donkey Kong's appearance in Super Smash Bros. For other uses, see Donkey Kong.

Donkey Kong (ドンキーコング, Donkī Kongu) is a starter character in Super Smash Bros. He is known as a slow (in terms of attacks) yet powerful character, with his trademark move being the Giant Punch, which, when fully charged, deals 36% damage.

Attributes
Donkey Kong is the heaviest and largest character in Super Smash Bros. This means he gets hit quite easily (and having a poor shield cover makes this worse), but he can take many hits before being KOed. Like most heavyweights, DK has attacks that deal lots of damage and have good knockback. He also has two spikes, and his Giant Punch is extremely powerful when fully charged. However, he has slow attacks, and most of his kills still require setup. Contrary to popular belief, Donkey Kong has slightly above average dash speed (although he does have the slowest air speed). Donkey Kong has a great grabbing/throwing game due to having the longest non-tether grabbing horizontal range, terrific throw combos (especially when there are walls), and an infinite throw called the Infinite throw trap. Donkey Kong has good reach (which allows for good combos despite slow attack speed), but he lacks a projectile as well as a reliable way to deal with them (which makes his approach poor and unvaried). Donkey Kong's up special move, Spinning Kong, travels great horizontal distance, but poor vertical distance. It should be noted that Donkey Kong is extremely vulnerable to combos due to being very large, very heavy, and falling somewhat quickly.

In high level play, DK is known for his incredible priority up b and for back throw gimps. DK is known as a heavy counter to Jigglypuff, as you can grab, cargo release, and regrab into a Giant punch for kills. DK however has problems with projectiles and characters like Fox, Kirby, and Falcon combo DK too heavily for him to rise on the tier list.

Weak attacks

 * A: Jab, 2-4%
 * A-A Combo: Punch, 2-4%

Strong attacks

 * Forward Tilt: Extended Punch, 5-13%
 * Up Tilt: Upward Knock, 5-13%
 * Down Tilt: Low Slap, 3-8%

Smash attacks

 * Forward Smash: Big Slap, 8-21%
 * Up Smash: Upward Clap, 8-21%
 * Down Smash: Spinning Splits, 8-19%

Aerial attacks

 * Neutral Air: Spin, 5-15%
 * Forward Air: Spinning Spike, 6-16%
 * Back Air: Backwards kick, 4-15%
 * Up Air: Upward Knock, 5-12%
 * Down Air: Spike, 4-13%

Throws

 * Forward throw: Trap Throw, 6-8%
 * Donkey Kong will hold his opponent on his back, dealing 8%. He can then move around before throwing them forward for another 8%.


 * Back throw: Backward throw, 14-18%

Other

 * Dash attack: Konga Kick, 5-12%
 * Ledge attack: Jumps onto the stage backwards, ramming into opponents with his back. Long range, low knockback, 5-6%
 * 100% ledge attack: Climbs back onto the stage slowly, pausing when half on to slap opponents in front of him. Very short range, low knockback, 5-6%

Taunt

 * Turns to his right, raises his arms so that his palms are facing upwards, and shrugs while shaking his head.

In Single-player
In the game's single-player mode, you and two randomly chosen allies will fight a Giant DK on the Kongo Jungle stage.

Infinite Throw Trap
DK has the ability to use forward throw as a method to constantly stack damage to most characters. In order to do this, DK must use the Trap Throw, but not throw. If the opponent wiggles out, they will likely wiggle out into DK's grab range whereupon they can be grabbed again. This throw trap can be broken if the opponent can shake towards DK and his grab. Yoshi and Ness have the most problem getting out of the throw trap due to their different double jump. Pikachu is the easiest to get out with due to being able to get out of it using the invincibility frames of up B.

Another infinite trap is to use Down B in the lower left part of Mushroom Kingdom to continuosly damage the target. However, this can easily be teched out of. Also, this is not allowed in tournaments due to the fact that the stage is banned in tournaments.

Ledge Dropping
Due to DK's laggy aerials, DK has very little comboing potential with his aerials except d-air or f-air into throw. However, if DK drops from a ledge, DK can quickly use a u-air and then land to move to do another attack. DK can also jump, use an aerial, and land on a ledge for a similar effect. As a result, on ledges, DK can juggle characters with u-air that he would otherwise never be able to combo.

Donkey Kong and Matchups
Donkey Kong is middle on the tier list due to his weakness to combos and limited approach. He is too heavy and characters have a very easy time 0-death'ing him. Donkey Kong also counters jigglypuff due to his gimp combo cargo hold, re-throw into a fully charged giant punch. He has a better recovery however than many others and this helps his tier placement as much as anything else.