Summary
- Donkey Kong must fend off Void Kong to protect DK Island's Banandium Gold, Gems, and Golden Bananas.
- Funky Kong, Cranky Kong, and other strong apes in Bananza present formidable challenges for the villains.
- From Chunky Kong's raw strength to King K. Rool's cunning, each Kong has unique abilities in the game.
He’s finally here, and he’s got a new look. In Donkey Kong: Bananza, instead of trying to get his bananas back from King K. Rool, or kidnapping Pauline, Donkey Kong has to stop Void Kong and his mining minions at VoidCo from looting DK Island of its Banandium Gold, Gems, and crystalized Golden Bananas.
Still, Void Kong might have wanted to think twice about going after DK’s home. Not only is DK a tough customer, but his fellow apes aren’t slouches either. These are the strongest DK characters the Bananza gang will have to contend with.
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10 Funky Kong
Lives to Funk Instead of Fight
- Debut: Donkey Kong Country (appearance), DK: King of Swing (playable)
- Abilities: Super strength, stretching powers, vibration manipulation, can fly via his surfboard, and is skilled with weapons, items and vehicles.
Funky Kong lives up to his name, as he loves to surf, flash his bling, and prefers to take things easy instead of adventuring. That's likely why he’s spent most of his time as an NPC, tinkering with mechanics or exchanging coins for items. He prefers the racetrack, bongos, or climbing to jumping on enemies.
Yet if he did go adventuring, he’d do it well, as he raced through Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze with nary a wheeze. His strength is about on par with DK’s, as he’s been able to tank attacks from Lord Fredrik, and hit back just as hard, albeit usually with the help of his surfboard, Boot Rocket Launcher.
9 Cranky Kong
Donkey Kong Sr.
- Debut: Donkey Kong (original), Donkey Kong Country (as Cranky Kong), Donkey Kong Barrel Blast (playable)
- Abilities: Super strength, super endurance, is acrobatic via his cane, good with weapons.
Also known as the original 1981 Donkey Kong, Cranky Kong only seems to have gotten stronger with age. He doesn't look it, as he usually spends his days rocking in his chair, yelling at DK, Diddy, and company about how he could have beaten their feats in a better, faster, and stronger way. But he has put his money where his mouth is in a few games.
Thanks to being made playable in Tropical Freeze, he’s shown he’s just as tough and durable as those young whippersnappers. He's capable of smashing Lord Fredrik, lifting sunken ships, and bashing DK and other threats with his cane, which he can use to leap nimbly across levels. So, maybe he’s got a reason to brag and badger his grandson.
8 Lord Fredrik
The Snowmad King
- Debut: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
- Abilities: Super strength, size manipulation, can summon enemies, blast ice, and change the weather via his magic horn.
Before Void Kong was the aforementioned Lord Fredrik. Cranky and Funky may be able to hurt him just as well as DK, but that shows how tough they are. One of Fredrik's standouts was when he got the upper hand over the DK Crew by sending them to the island’s volcanic depths with a freeze blast and a stamp.
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On top of blasting ice balls against DK and co, he can also grow larger to increase his power. Still, doing all that only puts him on par with DK, as while it helps him go toe-to-toe with the big ape, it wasn’t enough to put him down. That might be why he still gets help from his minions, and the ice dragons he can summon with his magic horn.
7 Tiki Tong
Successor to Andross, Bongo Bongo, and the Bouldergeist
- Debut: Donkey Kong Country Returns
- Abilities: Flight, size manipulation, super strength, can summon enemies and breathe fire.
Nintendo loves their giant heads with two hands. This boss design archetype turned up in the Mario series, The Legend of Zelda, and Starfox 64, so it was only a matter of time until Donkey Kong got his version in the form of Tiki Tong. The main villain of Donkey Kong Country Returns is rather akin to his successor in Lord Fredrik, as he also summons his Tiki Tak Tribe forces to aid him in battle.
However, he holds up better in a head-on fight with DK. On top of having the size advantage, he’s strong enough to grab DK and squeeze the life out of him. Tiki can tank some of DK’s strongest hits, let alone Diddy’s, and was able to keep going even after losing his hands. He still lost, but when he died, his explosion was enough to send DK to the moon, so he at least got the last laugh.
6 Dixie Kong
The Best Flying Monkey Outside of Oz
- Debut: Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
- Abilities: Super-strength, super-agility, skilled with weapons, can fly by spinning her ponytail, and is resistant to extreme temperatures.
The tiny Kong that isn’t Tiny Kong, Dixie Kong, is one of the series’ fan favorites. She made a good counterpart to Diddy Kong in DKC2, and managed to take the starring role in Donkey Kong Country 3 with her cousin Kiddy Kong. In fact, in terms of strength, she’s pretty much Diddy’s equal. She’s able to swing and run through terrain for days without stopping, lift ships out of the water, and attack ghosts.
Both also have the agility advantage over DK, but Dixie might be a touch more agile than her fellow monkey. She can dodge lightning and spin her ponytail around fast enough to help her glide. Usually, quick characters are worse at taking hits to balance them out, but Dixie is just as good at resisting damage as the other Kongs.
5 Diddy Kong
A Lot of Strength in a Little Body
- Debut: Donkey Kong Country
- Abilities: Super-strength, super-agile, skilled with weapons, can fly via jetpack, manipulate energy, telekinetic, resistant to extreme temperatures, and can breathe in space.
Aside from a few quirks, many of Dixie's best feats could also be done by Diddy Kong. He’s also quick on his feet, and he can jump better than DK, even without curling his tail like a spring to get extra height. Some games even give him superpowers, like telekinesis via his Megastrike. Otherwise, he's famous for his Peanut Popguns and Rocketbarrel Pack to give him the aerial advantage.
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His physical strength isn’t so bad either, as he can also lift ships like Dixie and Cranky. His best feat was arguably shown in his ending in DKCR, where he inadvertently headbutted the moon out of orbit and into the Earth. It took his Rocketbarrel pack malfunctioning at terminal velocity to do so, but he still came out of it better than Tiki Tong Tower, which took the brunt of the moon’s landing.
4 Donkey Kong (3rd)
Banana Slammer
- Debut: Donkey Kong Country
- Abilities: Super strength, strong fighting skills, can stretch his arms and hover by spinning them, can blow out fires and clouds, resistant to extreme temperatures and mind manipulation.
Diddy Kong could smash the moon about with a full-body headbutt. Donkey Kong can do it with a single punch. There’s a reason he’s still the prime primate and has beaten all other contenders like a Game Cube-brand bongo drum controller. He’s fought and beaten both Mario Bros, and planted Wario in the ground like a gross, garlic-eating tree.
While he’s less agile than his smaller buddies, he’s still quick enough to get one over larger foes like Lord Fredrik, Ghastly King, and King K. Rool. He’s quite creative in battle, from spinning his arms to help him hover, to figuring out how to use his snazzy new power-ups to his advantage. If he weren't, then the few foes that were stronger than him would've taken over DK Island a long time ago.
3 Ghastly King
The True Ruler of the Fruit Kingdoms
- Debut: Donkey Kong Jungle Beat
- Abilities: Super strength, quick reflexes, strong fighting skills, and can fire energy projectiles.
Donkey Kong hasn’t just had to contend with Mario, K. Rool, and Void Kong. In Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, he had to beat up the forces of the Ghastly King. Literally, as the game was designed to be controlled with the bongo drums from Donkey Konga. Players would have needed to beat those drums better than Matthew McConaughey to beat Ghastly King too.
He’s the toughest of the kings in the game, being one of the few villains to make DK rely on his agility rather than his strength. He has to avoid Ghastly King's energy projectiles, the fireballs from his Boss Pig Poppo, his swinging kicks and sweeps, then pummel him whenever possible. All GK needs to do to send DK flying into the nearest wall is hit him once. If the big ape takes too many hits like that, then it's game over.
2 Chunky Kong
One Hell of a Guy
- Debut: Donkey Kong 64.
- Abilities: Super strength, size manipulation, invisibility, seeing invisible objects, supersonic belching, and wrestling techniques.
With his smarts, extra agility, and courage, DK may still be the leader of the bunch. But in terms of raw strength, he isn’t the strongest Kong on DK Island. That title would go to Chunky Kong, who’s been missing in action since Donkey Kong 64, but got a brief cameo in the Super Mario Bros movie, so at least he isn’t dead yet.
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At his base level, Chunky can pick up boulders with relative ease, alongside other objects that would make DK strain. Throw in his Hunky Chunky upgrade, and he gets even bigger, and strong enough to make shockwaves with his belches, let alone his attacks. Still, he’s meeker than DK, and slower too, so he needs to steel himself to go adventuring with the DK Crew.
1 King K. Rool
King For a Reason
- Debut: Donkey Kong Country.
- Abilities: Super strength, teleportation, invisibility, can generate shockwaves and rain cannonballs.
As tough and brave as DK is, he hasn’t always won the day. He’s beaten King K. Rool several times, but the leader of the Kremlings has made him work for it each time and even managed to capture him at the beginning of DKC2. He is smarter than the big ape, but he’s also capable of beating him in a one-on-one fight.
His raw strength is on par with Chunky’s, having been able to fight two Kongs at the same time, let alone five in consecutive battles in DK64. He’s also been able to withstand DK’s moon-smashing strikes, survive falls from mountaintops, and grow to titanic size. Throw in the powers of the Crystal Banana, and he gets strong enough to one-shot DK. As such, as wacky as K. Rool’s schemes and guises get, he’s still the biggest threat to DK and his friends.
Donkey Kong Bananza
- Released
- July 17, 2025
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Nintendo EPD
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch 2
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
