A lawsuit brought on by Universal City Studios, alleging Donkey Kong violated their trademark of King Kong, ultimately failed. Miyamoto's characters appeared on cereal boxes, television cartoons, and dozens of other places. Other companies cloned Nintendo's hit and avoided royalties altogether. Nintendo licensed the game to Coleco, who developed home console versions for numerous platforms. Regardless of initial doubts by Nintendo's American staff, Donkey Kong succeeded commercially and critically in North America and Japan. The two men broke new ground by using graphics as a means of characterization, including cutscenes to advance the game's plot, and integrating multiple stages into the gameplay. Drawing from a wide range of inspirations, including Popeye, Beauty and the Beast and King Kong, Miyamoto developed the scenario and designed the game alongside Nintendo's chief engineer, Gunpei Yokoi.
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Hiroshi Yamauchi, Nintendo's president at the time, assigned the project to a first-time video game designer named Shigeru Miyamoto. Donkey Kong (or sometimes known as Donkey Kong Jr.) is the son of the original Donkey Kong, (Cranky Kong) and main protagonist of the Donkey Kong series of games, although in Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy Kong's Quest and Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble, he's the one that has to be rescued-rather then being the main character, he's just an asset to the story. The game was the latest in a series of efforts by Nintendo to break into the North American market. Donkey Kong is one of the most important titles from the Golden Age of Video Arcade Games, and is one of the most popular arcade games of all time. The hero and ape later became two of Nintendo's most popular and recognizable characters. Video and then Jumpman) must rescue a damsel in distress named Pauline (originally named Lady), from a giant ape named Donkey Kong. It is an early example of the platform game genre, as the gameplay focuses on maneuvering the main character across a series of platforms while dodging and jumping over obstacles.
Donkey Kong (Japanese: ドンキーコング Hepburn: Donkī Kongu) is an arcade game released by Nintendo in 1981.