Donkey Kong Jr.

Donkey Kong Jr. (known to Chinese retro players as Donkey Kong 2) is developed by Nintendo R&D2 and released on July 15, 1983, as one of the three launch titles for Famicom. It is a port of the 1982 arcade original and the direct sequel to Donkey Kong. It is famous as the only mainline Nintendo game where Mario acts as the antagonist. The story reverses the original plot: Mario captures Donkey Kong and locks him inside a cage. Players control Donkey Kong’s son, Donkey Kong Jr., to overcome obstacles and rescue his father. Its signature gameplay focuses on vine climbing. Grab vines to move vertically; holding one vine lets you slide fast downward, while gripping two vines enables climbing upward. There are four fixed-screen stages: vine stage, springboard stage, chain stage and Mario’s hideout. Collect keys in the first three stages, then insert all keys into locks on the final stage to unlock the cage. Enemies include Snapjaw crocodiles, birds and electric sparks. You can knock fruits from treetops; falling fruits crush enemies below for bonus points. Two difficulty modes are available: Game A and harder Game B. Two players can take turns playing. You lose a life upon touching enemies, falling off platforms or when the bonus timer runs out. After beating all four stages, the game loops with increasing difficulty, and high score chasing is the main goal. It features simple graphics and unique climbing controls. Widely included on Subor multicarts in China, it is an iconic platformer from the Famicom launch era.

These are the default keys. Click the gamepad icon 🎮 in the player’s bottom toolbar to rebind them. Gamepads are detected automatically. On phones you get on-screen buttons.

1P

2P

The NES was always two-player — 2P uses the numeric keypad, and NumLock does not matter. No numpad? Rebind 2P to other keys in the 🎮 panel.