Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong, commonly referred to as Donkey Kong '94, is a 1994 puzzle-platform game developed by Nintendo and Pax Softnica for the Game Boy. The player controls the Italian plumber Mario, who must rescue his girlfriend Pauline from the gorilla Donkey Kong. It begins as a remake of the Donkey Kong (1981) arcade game before introducing 97 original levels, incorporating game mechanics from Donkey Kong Jr. (1982) and Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988), in which the player must locate a key to proceed.
Summary from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA, read 5 September 2026.
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- Released
- 1994
- Developer
- Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development
- Platforms
- 1 systems
- Critics
- Not scored
- Steam Deck
- Unknown
- Download
- Not stated
The record
| First released | 14 June 1994 |
|---|---|
| Developer | Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development |
| Publisher | Nintendo |
| Platforms | Game Boy |
| Genres | Puzzle |
Source. Catalogue facts from Wikidata Q2564684, seeded 30 August 2026.
How long is Donkey Kong? How long to beat it
Total play time for Donkey Kong is about 6.6 hours to do everything, and around 5.9 hours to reach the end of the main story. These are player-submitted times from HowLongToBeat, not our own, shown with the number of players behind each.
| How you play | Hours | Players logged |
|---|---|---|
| Just the main story: straight through the critical path | 5.9h | 158 |
| Main + the extras: story plus the side content most people do | 6.1h | 45 |
| Completionist: everything: 100% the game | 6.6h | 53 |
Source: HowLongToBeat community submissions, read 2026-10-19.
Where Donkey Kong sits on the grid
The grid places every game in the catalogue on measured axes rather than on an opinion. This is where Donkey Kong lands on each map it has the data for, with the share of the catalogue it beats on each axis.
- Year
- 50ahead of 7% of the catalogue
- Reach
- 27ahead of 70% of the catalogue
Percentiles are against the games that carry a reading on that axis, not the whole catalogue: counting a game with no figure as a zero would flatter everything that has one. How the grid works.
What readers say about Donkey Kong
Reviews written by people who have played it. These are separate from the GamingPickz Score and are never averaged into it: that score comes from thousands of Steam reviews with a sample-size correction, and a handful of unverified ratings would distort it rather than improve it.
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Where Donkey Kong appears
The ranked lists and finder pages Donkey Kong qualifies for, from its own genre and platform to what it takes to run.
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Common questions about Donkey Kong
What platforms is Donkey Kong on?
Donkey Kong is available on Game Boy. It first released in 1994.
Who made Donkey Kong?
Donkey Kong was developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development and published by Nintendo.
How long does it take to beat Donkey Kong?
about 5.9 hours for the main story, 6.1 hours with the main extras, 6.6 hours to complete everything, from HowLongToBeat's player-submitted times. These are community medians, so your own run may be shorter or longer.