The Plumber and the Ape

An article by Jomingo

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The Mario and Donkey Kong franchises have always been linked in one way or another. Not just because of the numerous cameos that have occurred between the two series, but because the two are actually one. Many believe that Donkey Kong is just another spinoff of Mario; no more unique than Wario or Yoshi; some believe it is the other way around. In reality, neither franchise spun off of the other because they are really one series, or to be more accurate, two halves of one series. Nintendo released Donkey Kong in 1983, and in doing so cemented themselves into gaming history. Also in doing so they created two characters that would become household names. Imagine this game as the planting of a tree. This tree is unlike others because immediately after it's conception the tree splits into two large branches; Mario and Donkey Kong. These two branches will continue to grow over the course of time, larger and larger, but always coming back and crossing one another. Throughout the years the branches have split again; stemming into smaller but equally as impressive branches. For Mario these include the Yoshi series and the Wario series; for Donkey Kong there is the Banjo-Kazooie and Conker series. Many have become preoccupied with thoughts of which branch is superior and which is worse, but the one thing that should be kept in mind is that all of these glorious franchises can be traced back to one seed. No branch can be removed from the tree without it becoming unbalanced, and thus we must all learn to accept that neither branch could have gotten to where they are today without the other.

- by Jomingo -

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This article was written by a DKC Atlas Forum staff member. All opinions expressed within this article are those of the writer, and are not necessarily shared by DKC Atlas, or the DKC gaming community.