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121-548: The branding consisted of various brand images on the background, navigation buttons, splash screen and links to specific web pages that related to the brand of the company. MediaBrower also had a space for ads to display at the bottom of the web browser. MediaBrowser's MicroTron was also included in every MediaBrowser branding to display brand-related video content to the user. In late 2000, Nintendo partnered with MediaBrowser to make branded browsers of their new and upcoming video games. The first two browsers to be released were for

242-417: A Donkey Kong spin-off film, with Rogen set to reprise his role. In response to backlash for voicing Donkey Kong in his normal speaking voice, Rogen explained: "I was very clear that I don't do voices. If you want me to be in this movie, then it's going to sound like me and that's it. That was the beginning and end of that conversation. I think in the film and in the game, all you seem to know about Donkey Kong

363-549: A ROM cartridge format for video games as well as both a central processing unit and a picture processing unit . The Family Computer , or Famicom, was released in Japan in July 1983 along with three games adapted from their original arcade versions: Donkey Kong , Donkey Kong Jr. and Popeye . Its success was such that in 1984, it surpassed the market share held by Sega 's SG-1000 . That success also led to Nintendo leaving

484-430: A niche market , the slow and expensive manufacturing process, high product price, alongside long durability of the cards, which impacted sales due to the low replacement rate. As a solution, Nintendo produced a cheaper and lower-quality line of playing cards, Tengu , while also conducting product offerings in other cities such as Osaka , where card game profits were high. In addition, local merchants were interested in

605-557: A 28% stake in PUX Corporation, a subsidiary of Panasonic , to develop facial , voice , and text recognition for its video games. Due to a 30% decrease in company income between April and December 2013, Iwata announced a temporary 50% cut to his salary, with other executives seeing reductions by 20%–30%. In January 2015, Nintendo ceased operations in the Brazilian market due in part to high import duties . This did not affect

726-490: A 75% increase in income compared to the previous fiscal year, mainly contributed by the Nintendo Switch Online service. The year saw some changes to the company's management: outside director Naoki Mizutani retired from the board, and was replaced by Asa Shinkawa; and Yoshiaki Koizumi was promoted to senior executive officer, maintaining its role as deputy general manager of Nintendo EPD. By August, Nintendo

847-728: A Tokyo branch in Chiyoda, Tokyo , and sold more than 1.5 million card packs, holding a high market share , for which it relied on televised advertising campaigns. In 1962, Nintendo became a public company by listing stock on the second section of the Osaka Securities Exchange and the Kyoto Stock Exchange. In the following year, the company adopted its current name, Nintendo & Co., Ltd. and started manufacturing games in addition to playing cards. In 1964, Nintendo earned ¥150 million . Although

968-524: A financial crisis for the company. To try to find a more successful game, they put Miyamoto in charge of their next arcade game design, leading to the release of Donkey Kong in 1981, one of the first platform video games that allowed the player character to jump. The character Jumpman would later become Mario and Nintendo's official mascot . Mario was named after Mario Segale , the landlord of Nintendo's offices in Tukwila, Washington . Donkey Kong

1089-661: A hidden boss in Punch-Out!! , uppercutting K. Rool out of his castle at the end of Donkey Kong Country 2 , and having punch-based attacks as his special and final smash moves in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate . In a match against boxing champion "Krusha" K. Rool in Donkey Kong 64 , DK's weight is given at 800 pounds. The new Donkey Kong introduced in Donkey Kong Country was initially characterized as

1210-622: A homage to Nintendo's previous name - Marufuku. In April 2020, Reuters reported that ValueAct Capital had acquired over 2.6 million shares in Nintendo stock worth US$ 1.1 billion over the course of a year, giving them an overall stake of 2% in Nintendo. Although the COVID-19 pandemic caused delays in the production and distribution of some of Nintendo's products, the situation "had limited impact on business results"; in May 2020, Nintendo reported

1331-503: A hybrid design as a home and handheld console, Joy-Con controllers that each contain an accelerometer and gyroscope, and the simultaneous wireless networking of up to eight consoles. To expand its library, Nintendo entered alliances with several third-party and independent developers; by February 2019, more than 1,800 Switch games had been released. Worldwide sales of the Switch exceeded 55 million units by March 2020. In April 2018,

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1452-565: A long-time employee of the company. Yokoi was moved to the newly created department and was responsible for coordinating various projects. Yokoi's experience in manufacturing electronic devices led Yamauchi to put him in charge of the company's games department, and his products would be mass-produced. During this period, Nintendo built a new production plant in Uji , just outside of Kyoto, and distributed classic tabletop games such as chess , shogi , go , and mahjong , and other foreign games under

1573-476: A major character. He was redesigned, appearing with a red necktie , which sometimes bears his initials, "DK". The 1994 Super Nintendo Entertainment System game Donkey Kong Country , developed by British game developer Rare , was the beginning of a series. The manual for Donkey Kong Country states that the main protagonist in this game is the grandson of the Donkey Kong from the original trilogy, who

1694-865: A million units were sold. Nintendo partnered with Magnavox to provide a light gun controller based on the Beam Gun design for the company's new home video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey , in 1971. Other popular toys released at the time included the Ultra Hand , the Ultra Machine , the Ultra Scope, and the Love Tester , all designed by Yokoi. More than 1.2 million units of Ultra Hand were sold in Japan. The growing demand for Nintendo's products led Yamauchi to further expand

1815-460: A new department focused on arcade game development was created. In 1980, one of the first handheld video game systems , the Game & Watch , was created by Yokoi from the technology used in portable calculators. It became one of Nintendo's most successful products, with over 43.4 million units sold worldwide during its production period, and for which 59 games were made in total. Nintendo entered

1936-467: A once-over. So that's good enough for me – I must have done something right! The Donkey Kong Country series introduced the setting of Donkey Kong Island and a backstory for the character. The series also introduced Diddy Kong as DK's sidekick and best friend, and K. Rool , King of the Kremlings, as his nemesis who steals his and Diddy Kong's banana hoard. While retaining the red necktie featured in

2057-416: A partnership with The Walt Disney Company to incorporate its characters into playing cards, which opened it up to the children's market and resulted in a boost to Nintendo's playing card business. Nintendo automated the production of Japanese playing cards using backing paper, and also developed a distribution system that allowed it to offer its products in toy stores. By 1961, the company had established

2178-703: A public company, Nintendo distributed its first console, the Color TV-Game , in 1977. It gained international recognition with the release of Donkey Kong in 1981 and the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Mario Bros. in 1985. Since then, Nintendo has produced some of the most successful consoles in the video game industry , such as the Game Boy , the Super Nintendo Entertainment System ,

2299-409: A red tie. Bayliss presented the modern look to Nintendo and was immediately approved for the high-resolution 3D medium. Although the character design has been tweaked over the years, Donkey Kong's appearance remains consistent since the last modification by Bayliss. Today it makes me smile to see so many products with DK on the front, and that he's pretty much still the same as he looked when I gave him

2420-472: A strategic alliance to develop the Nintendo 64 . NEC , Toshiba , and Sharp also contributed technology to the console. The Nintendo 64 was marketed as one of the first consoles to be designed with 64-bit architecture. As part of an agreement with Midway Games , the arcade games Killer Instinct and Cruis'n USA were ported to the console. Although the Nintendo 64 was planned for release in 1995,

2541-496: A striking resemblance to Donkey Kong. One of the enemies, named "Guerrilla", says "Don't confuse me with someone else", referring to DK. Both Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. appear as minor antagonists in the Super Mario Bros. -based adventure book Doors to Doom . Donkey Kong was also featured on the Game & Watch Gallery handheld series and Tetris DS . In Yoshi's Island DS , Donkey Kong appears as "Baby DK",

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2662-565: A three-dimensional environment with the aid of a sensor bar; the Nunchuk peripheral that includes an analog controller and an accelerometer; and the Wii MotionPlus expansion that increases the sensitivity of the main controller with the aid of gyroscopes . By 2016, more than 101 million Wii consoles had been sold worldwide, making it the most successful console of its generation, a distinction that Nintendo had not achieved since

2783-552: A version of the "DK Rap" from Donkey Kong 64 serves as stage music for Kongo Jungle (the one difference in the lyrics being the word "heck" substituted from the word "hell"). He appeared once more in Super Smash Bros. Brawl , this time being joined by his sidekick Diddy Kong and three stages – "Jungle Japes" from Melee , "Rumble Falls" from Donkey Kong Jungle Beat , and "75m" from the original Donkey Kong game from 1981. Both Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong returned to

2904-609: A younger version of himself, similar to Baby Mario . First appearing in World 2–1, most of his gameplay reflects Donkey Kong Jr. , even featuring the Snapjaw enemies from the game. He has been seen in the audience of some games in the Punch-Out!! series and also serves as the hidden opponent in 2009's Punch-Out!! on the Wii. During Rare's time, references were seen throughout Rare's games. In Banjo-Tooie , Bottle's daughter, Goggles,

3025-453: Is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto . It develops, publishes and releases both video games and video game consoles . Nintendo was founded in 1889 as Nintendo Koppai by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced handmade hanafuda playing cards. After venturing into various lines of business during the 1960s and acquiring legal status as

3146-574: Is a fictional gorilla -like character in the Donkey Kong and Mario franchise, created by Shigeru Miyamoto . The original Donkey Kong first appeared as the title character and antagonist of the eponymous 1981 game , a platformer by Nintendo, which would lead to the Donkey Kong series. The Donkey Kong Country series was launched in 1994 with a new Donkey Kong as the protagonist (although several installments focus on his friends Diddy Kong and Dixie Kong instead). This version of

3267-548: Is a grown-up version of Donkey Kong Jr. Nintendo of Europe's website also states that the modern DK is DK Jr., but the Game Boy Advance versions of Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest , Super Smash Bros. Brawl , Super Smash Bros. Ultimate , Donkey Kong Country Returns , Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze , Gregg Mayles of Rare, and Playing With Super Power: Nintendo Super NES Classics eGuide all explicitly state that

3388-593: Is a selectable character in Mario Tennis , Mario Power Tennis , Mario Tennis: Power Tour , Mario Tennis Open , Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash and Mario Tennis Aces . Donkey Kong is playable in Mario Golf , Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour , Mario Golf: World Tour and Mario Golf: Super Rush but not Mario Golf: Advance Tour . Donkey Kong is featured in Super Mario Strikers for

3509-407: Is also playable in each Super Smash Bros. game. Donkey Kong appeared in Super Smash Bros. as the first character from the Donkey Kong series and had a stage called "Kongo Jungle", which was based on Donkey Kong Country . Both he and Kongo Jungle returned for the series second game, Super Smash Bros. Melee . In this game, he had two new stages called "Jungle Japes" and "Kongo Jungle", and

3630-488: Is an escaped circus gorilla on the run from Mario and Pauline , who seek to recapture him. A second series of segments based on Donkey Kong Jr. focuses on the title character, voiced by Frank Welker , who seeks to find his missing father after his escape from the circus. Donkey Kong later appeared as a recurring antagonist in the 1989 animated series Captain N: The Game Master , voiced by Garry Chalk . He

3751-411: Is commonly assumed to mean "leave luck to heaven", but the assumption lacks historical validation; it has also been suggested to mean "the temple of free hanafuda ", but even descendants of Yamauchi do not know the true intended meaning of the name. Hanafuda cards had become popular after Japan banned most forms of gambling in 1882, though tolerated hanafuda. Sales of hanafuda cards were popular with

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3872-442: Is depicted as the territorial and easily angered ruler of Kongoland, and must be fed to be appeased. Donkey Kong is also the main character of the 1996 Donkey Kong Country animated series, in which Donkey Kong fights to protect Kongo Bongo Island and the mystical Crystal Coconut from King K. Rool and his Kremling henchmen. Donkey Kong was voiced by Richard Yearwood , with his singing voice performed by Sterling Jarvis . Donkey Kong

3993-645: Is not wearing a tie. IGN criticized his tie, stating that "DK needs a fashion makeover". They said that while he "used to be a working icon", "his status is starting to show signs of rust". 1UP.com listed him as the most "Gracelessly Aging Character", citing the fact that the original Donkey Kong from the arcade game eventually became Cranky Kong . IGN ranked him 5th in their "Top 100 Videogames Villains" list for his earlier appearances. UGO.com listed Donkey Kong seventh on their list of "The 25 Awesomest Hidden Characters" for his cameo appearance in Punch-Out!! . Empire also included him on their list of

4114-483: Is now Cranky Kong . Cranky orchestrates the events of Donkey Kong Land to recreate those of DKC. Despite his name being in the titles, Donkey Kong is the figurative damsel-in-distress in the two sequels to DKC and those to DKL, where he is captured by K. Rool. In these sequels, the player controls Diddy, Dixie , and Kiddy as they set out to rescue Donkey Kong. The Donkey Kong Country series also led to an animated television series and Donkey Kong 64 , in which DK

4235-549: Is one of the wealthiest and most valuable companies in the Japanese market. Nintendo was founded as Nintendo Koppai on 23 September 1889 by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi in Shimogyō-ku, Kyoto , Japan, as an unincorporated establishment, to produce and distribute Japanese playing cards , or karuta ( かるた , from Portuguese carta , 'card') , most notably hanafuda ( 花札 , 'flower cards') . The name "Nintendo"

4356-754: Is playable once again. Following Rare 's departure from the series, Nintendo co-produced a trilogy of rhythm games with Namco for the GameCube known as the Donkey Konga series, which were based on Namco's own Taiko: Drum Master , though only two of the series' games made it to America. Donkey Kong Jungle Beat was released in March 2005, in North America for the GameCube. It depicted DK as being more violent than his original image and also used

4477-506: Is required to run the browsers in later Windows versions starting with Windows Vista . Registration on MediaBrowser's website was additionally required before users were able to use the browsers. Due to the closure of MediaBrowser's website, usage of new installations of their browsers has been rendered impossible without modifying a value in Windows' Registry to bypass the registration requirement. Nintendo Nintendo Co., Ltd.

4598-501: Is seen holding a Donkey Kong plush doll. Also in the worker's quarters in Grunty's Industries, the DK logo is seen on the fridge. Outside of video games, Donkey Kong has made several appearances in animation. The 1983 animated anthology series Saturday Supercade features cartoon segments based on the original Donkey Kong arcade game. In the segments, Donkey Kong, voiced by Soupy Sales ,

4719-489: Is subtly alluded to in the 1993 film Super Mario Bros. when the character of Anthony Scapelli, portrayed by Gianni Russo , is inadvertently devolved into a chimpanzee by King Koopa. Donkey Kong was voiced by Seth Rogen in the 2023 film by Illumination Entertainment , in addition to having been given a subtle redesign composed of elements from his contemporary and original arcade appearances. In November 2021, reports surfaced that Illumination had begun development on

4840-542: Is that he throws barrels and does not like Mario very much. And that's what I ran with". Donkey Kong has been described as one of the most iconic mascots for Nintendo . In their 250th issue in January 2010, Nintendo Power ranked him as their eighth-favorite Nintendo hero, stating that while he is a somewhat goofy hero, he is decently good overall and an entertaining one. They also ranked him as their eighth-favorite Nintendo villain, joking that one should avoid him if he

4961-470: Is the Nintendo Entertainment System , or NES, which was released in North America in 1985. The landmark games Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda were produced by Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka . Composer Koji Kondo reinforced the idea that musical themes could act as a complement to game mechanics rather than simply a miscellaneous element. Production of the NES lasted until 1995, and production of

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5082-499: The Mario Party series, he was a playable character in all three titles released for the Nintendo 64 , and also Mario Party 4 for the GameCube , this one being his last playable appearance in the series for some time. He eventually became an "event character" in later games, making appearances as an incidental character on the game board. He made an appearance within Mario Party 8 , once again as an incidental character on

5203-540: The Super Smash Bros. crossover fighting series, and serves as the main antagonist of the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series from 2004 to 2015. The character is voiced by Richard Yearwood and Sterling Jarvis in the animated series Donkey Kong Country (1997–2000), and by Seth Rogen in the Illumination Entertainment feature film The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023). In 1981, Nintendo

5324-619: The 128-bit Gekko processor and the DVD drive to be used in Nintendo's next home console. Meanwhile, a series of administrative changes occurred in 2000 when Nintendo's corporate offices were moved to the Minami-ku neighborhood in Kyoto, and Nintendo Benelux was established to manage the Dutch and Belgian territories. In 2001, two new Nintendo consoles were introduced: the Game Boy Advance , which

5445-715: The 1973 oil crisis caused both a spike in the cost of plastics and a change in consumer priorities that put essential products over pastimes, and Nintendo lost several billion yen. In 1974, Nintendo released Wild Gunman , a skeet shooting arcade simulation consisting of a 16 mm image projector with a sensor that detects a beam from the player's light gun . Both the Laser Clay Shooting System and Wild Gunman were successfully exported to Europe and North America. However, Nintendo's production speeds were still slow compared to rival companies such as Bandai and Tomy , and their prices were high, which led to

5566-595: The CD-i , and Sony's independent efforts resulted in the creation of the PlayStation console . The first issue of Nintendo Power magazine, which had an annual circulation of 1.5 million copies in the United States, was published in 1988. In July 1989, Nintendo held the first Nintendo Space World trade show with the name Shoshinkai to announce and demonstrate upcoming Nintendo products. That year,

5687-452: The Game Boy game, Donkey Kong , he also donned a distinct physical appearance featuring heavy brows and a peaked lock of hair on top of his head. This would become the standard look for Donkey Kong still used over two decades later. The modern Donkey Kong is portrayed as a powerful yet laid-back ape, who is interested mainly in his banana hoard and his girlfriend, Candy Kong. He has pugilistic abilities that are often emphasized, featuring as

5808-610: The Game Boy Advance SP , an improved version of the Game Boy Advance with a foldable case, an illuminated display, and a rechargeable battery. By the end of its production cycle in 2010, over 43.5 million units had been sold worldwide. Nintendo also released the Game Boy Player , a peripheral that allows Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games to be played on the GameCube. In 2004, Nintendo released

5929-522: The Game Boy Color was released. In addition to backward compatibility with Game Boy games, the console's similar capacity to the NES resulted in select adaptations of games from that library, such as Super Mario Bros. Deluxe . Since then, over 118.6 million Game Boy and Game Boy Color consoles have been sold worldwide. In May 1999, with the advent of the PlayStation 2 , Nintendo entered an agreement with IBM and Panasonic to develop

6050-445: The Nintendo 2DS , a version of the 3DS that lacks the clamshell design of Nintendo's previous handheld consoles and the stereoscopic effects of the 3DS. With 13.5 million units sold worldwide, the Wii U is the least successful video game console in Nintendo's history. In 2014, a new product line was released consisting of figures of Nintendo characters called amiibos . On 25 September 2013, Nintendo announced its acquisition of

6171-1163: The Nintendo DS , the Wii , and the Nintendo Switch . It has created or published numerous major franchises, including Mario , Donkey Kong , The Legend of Zelda , Metroid , Fire Emblem , Kirby , Star Fox , Pokémon , Super Smash Bros. , Animal Crossing , Pikmin , Xenoblade Chronicles , and Splatoon , and Nintendo's mascot, Mario , is internationally recognized, as well as other characters like Donkey Kong , Link , Samus Aran , Kirby , and Pikachu . The company has sold more than 5.592 billion video games and over 836 million hardware units globally, as of March 2023. Nintendo has multiple subsidiaries in Japan and abroad, in addition to business partners such as HAL Laboratory , Intelligent Systems , Game Freak , and The Pokémon Company . Nintendo and its staff have received awards including Emmy Awards for Technology & Engineering , Game Awards , Game Developers Choice Awards , and British Academy Games Awards . It

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6292-577: The Nintendo DS , which featured such innovations as dual screens – one of which is a touchscreen – and wireless connectivity for multiplayer play. Throughout its lifetime, more than 154 million units were sold, making it the most successful handheld console and the second bestselling console in history. In 2005, Nintendo released the Game Boy Micro , the last system in the Game Boy line . Sales did not meet Nintendo's expectations, with 2.5 million units being sold by 2007. In mid-2005,

6413-668: The Nintendo Labo line was released, consisting of cardboard accessories that interact with the Switch and the Joy-Con controllers. More than one million units of the Nintendo Labo Variety Kit were sold in its first year on the market. In 2018, Shuntaro Furukawa replaced Kimishima as company president, and in 2019, Doug Bowser succeeded Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé . In April 2019, Nintendo formed an alliance with Tencent to distribute

6534-665: The Nintendo World Store was inaugurated in New York City. Nintendo's next home console was conceived in 2001, although development commenced in 2003, taking inspiration from the Nintendo DS. Nintendo also considered the relative failure of the GameCube and instead opted to take a " Blue Ocean Strategy " by developing a reduced performance console in contrast to the high-performance consoles of Sony and Microsoft to avoid directly competing with them. The Wii

6655-622: The Sharp Corporation . In 1988, Gunpei Yokoi and his team at Nintendo R&D1 conceived the Game Boy , the first handheld video game console made by Nintendo. Nintendo released the Game Boy in 1989. In North America, the Game Boy was bundled with the popular third-party game Tetris after a difficult negotiation process with Elektronorgtechnica . The Game Boy was a significant success. In its first two weeks of sale in Japan, its initial inventory of 300,000 units sold out, and in

6776-605: The Taishō era dated to 1915 indicates that the business was named Yamauchi Nintendo but still used the Marufuku Nintendo Co. brand for its playing cards. Japanese culture stipulated that for Nintendo to continue as a family business after Yamauchi's retirement, Yamauchi had to adopt his son-in-law so that he could take over the business. As a result, Sekiryo Kaneda adopted the Yamauchi surname in 1907 and headed

6897-414: The arcade video game market with Sheriff and Radar Scope , released in Japan in 1979 and 1980 respectively. Sheriff , also known as Bandido in some regions, marked the first original video game made by Nintendo, was published by Sega and developed by Genyo Takeda and Shigeru Miyamoto . Radar Scope rivaled Galaxian in Japanese arcades but failed to find an audience overseas and created

7018-450: The iOS and Android systems, Miitomo , was released. Since then, Nintendo has produced other similar apps, such as Super Mario Run , Fire Emblem Heroes , Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp , Mario Kart Tour , and Pokémon Go , the last being developed by Niantic and having generated $ 115 million in revenue for Nintendo. In March 2016, the loyalty program My Nintendo replaced Club Nintendo . The NES Classic Edition

7139-423: The natural environment and regional culture of Sonobe , popular culture influences like Westerns and detective fiction , along with folk Shinto practices and family media . These would each be seen in most of Nintendo's major franchises which developed following Miyamoto's creative leadership. Two key events in Nintendo's history occurred in 1979: its American subsidiary was opened in New York City, and

7260-450: The yakuza -run gaming parlors in Kyoto. Other card manufacturers had opted to leave the market not wanting to be associated with criminal ties, but Yamauchi persisted without such fears to become the primary producer of hanafuda within a few years. With the increase of the cards' popularity, Yamauchi hired assistants to mass-produce to satisfy the demand. Even with a favorable start, the business faced financial struggle due to operating in

7381-724: The "Play It Loud!" advertising campaign for Game Boys with different-colored casings. The Advanced Computer Modeling graphics used in Donkey Kong Country for the Super NES and Donkey Kong Land for the Game Boy were technologically innovative, as was the Satellaview satellite modem peripheral for the Super Famicom, which allowed the digital transmission of data via a communications satellite in space. In mid-1993, Nintendo and Silicon Graphics announced

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7502-638: The 1990s with the Super NES. Several accessories were released for the Wii from 2007 to 2010, such as the Wii Balance Board , the Wii Wheel and the WiiWare download service. In 2009, Nintendo Iberica S.A. expanded its commercial operations to Portugal through a new office in Lisbon . By that year, Nintendo held a 68.3% share of the worldwide handheld gaming market. In 2010, Nintendo celebrated

7623-501: The 2014 Wii U game Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze , Donkey Kong sets out to get his home back from evil Vikings known as the Snowmads. Every Mario Kart game has featured a version of Donkey Kong as a playable character. Super Mario Kart features Donkey Kong Junior as a playable character. The modern Donkey Kong made his first appearance in the series with Mario Kart 64 , and has been in every game to date since. In

7744-529: The 25th anniversary of Mario's debut appearance, for which certain allusive products were put on sale. The event included the release of Super Mario All-Stars 25th Anniversary Edition and special editions of the Nintendo DSi XL and Wii. Following an announcement in March 2010, Nintendo released the Nintendo 3DS in 2011. The console produces stereoscopic effects without 3D glasses. By 2018, more than 69 million units had been sold worldwide;

7865-520: The 50 greatest video game characters, adding that he is "the worst named character in the history of gaming". The 2011 Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition lists Donkey Kong as the 33rd-most popular video game character. In 2012, GamesRadar ranked him as the 25th-best hero in video games. Jeremy Parish of Polygon ranked 73 fighters from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate "from garbage to glorious", listing Donkey Kong as 22nd, stating that "we'd love to play as Donkey Kong. This guy, though? He's just

7986-520: The European release of the GameCube in May 2002, Hiroshi Yamauchi announced his resignation as the president of Nintendo, and Satoru Iwata was selected by the company as his successor. Yamauchi would remain as advisor and director of the company until 2005, and he died in 2013. Iwata's appointment as president ended the Yamauchi succession at the helm of the company, a practice that had been in place since its foundation. In 2003, Nintendo released

8107-570: The Famicom in America was also impacted. To differentiate the Famicom from its competitors in America, Nintendo rebranded it as an entertainment system and its cartridges as Game Paks, with a design reminiscent of a VCR . Nintendo implemented a lockout chip in the Game Paks for control on its third party library to avoid the market saturation that had occurred in the United States. The result

8228-495: The Famicom lasted until 2003. In total, around 62 million Famicom and NES consoles were sold worldwide. During this period, Nintendo created a copyright infringement protection in the form of the Official Nintendo Seal of Quality, added to their products so that customers may recognize their authenticity in the market. By this time, Nintendo's network of electronic suppliers had extended to around thirty companies, including Ricoh (Nintendo's main source for semiconductors ) and

8349-430: The Famicom. In the early 1980s, several video game consoles proliferated in the United States, as well as low-quality games produced by third-party developers , which oversaturated the market and led to the video game crash of 1983 . Consequently, a recession hit the American video game industry , whose revenues went from over $ 3 billion to $ 100 million between 1983 and 1985. Nintendo's initiative to launch

8470-462: The GameCube and made his first appearance on the Wii within the title Mario Strikers Charged as a playable soccer captain. In Mario Super Sluggers , he appears as a captain again. Donkey Kong also appears in Mario Superstar Baseball . He made a playable appearance in almost every Mario & Sonic game , starting with Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games . He's also playable in Mario Hoops 3-on-3 and Mario Sports Mix . He

8591-429: The GameCube, even with such distinguishing features as the miniDVD format of its games and Internet connectivity for a few games, its sales were lower than those of its predecessors, and during the six years of its production, 21.7 million units were sold worldwide. The GameCube struggled against its rivals in the market, and its initial poor sales led to Nintendo posting a first half fiscal year loss in 2003 for

8712-404: The Japanese arcade market in late 1985. At this time, Nintendo adopted a series of guidelines that involved the validation of each game produced for the Famicom before its distribution on the market, agreements with developers to ensure that no Famicom game would be adapted to other consoles within two years of its release, and restricting developers from producing more than five games per year for

8833-630: The Kong's adversary King K. Rool . Along with Bowser , he is also a playable guest character in the Nintendo versions of Skylanders: SuperChargers and Skylanders: Imaginators . Super Mario Maker features Donkey Kong as a Mystery Mushroom costume. Donkey Kong appears as one of the playable characters in the downloadable campaign, Donkey Kong Adventure , for Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle . The character has also made more incidental appearances. Two minor enemies in Super Mario RPG bear

8954-606: The Mario Toy Company, upset over the lack of Mini-Mario toys available for purchase. The game was followed by a 2006 sequel titled Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis , where Donkey Kong, who is infatuated with Pauline, kidnaps her and takes her to the roof of the Super Mini-Mario World amusement park when she ignores a Mini-Donkey Kong toy in favor of a Mini-Mario. He also once again appeared as

9075-764: The NES. In response to the competition, Uemura designed the Super Famicom , which launched in 1990. The first batch of 300,000 consoles sold out in hours. The following year, as with the NES, Nintendo distributed a modified version of the Super Famicom to the United States market, titled the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Launch games for the Super Famicom and Super NES include Super Mario World , F-Zero , Pilotwings , SimCity , and Gradius III . By mid-1992, over 46 million Super Famicom and Super NES consoles had been sold. The console's life cycle lasted until 1999 in

9196-790: The Nintendo Switch in China starting in December. The theme park area Super Nintendo World opened at Universal Studios Japan in 2021. In early 2020, Plan See Do, a hotel and restaurant development company, announced that it would refurbish the former Nintendo headquarters from the 1930s as a hotel, with plans to add 20 guest rooms, a restaurant, a bar, and a gym. The building is owned by Yamauchi Co., Ltd., an asset management company of Nintendo's founding family. The hotel later opened in April 2022, with 18 guest rooms, and named Marufukuro in

9317-643: The Nippon Game brand. The company's restructuring preserved a couple of areas dedicated to playing card manufacturing. In 1970, the company's stock listing was promoted to the first section of the Osaka Stock Exchange, and the reconstruction and enlargement of its corporate headquarters was completed. The year represented a watershed moment in Nintendo's history as it released Japan's first electronic toy—the Beam Gun , an optoelectronic pistol designed by Masayuki Uemura . In total, more than

9438-716: The United Kingdom, Spain, Belgium, and Australia. In 1992, Nintendo acquired a majority stake in the Seattle Mariners baseball team, and sold most of its shares in 2016. On July 31, 1992, Nintendo of America announced it would cease manufacturing arcade games and systems. In 1993, Star Fox was released, which marked an industry milestone by being the first video game to make use of the Super FX chip. The proliferation of graphically violent video games, such as Mortal Kombat , caused controversy and led to

9559-567: The United States, and until 2003 in Japan. In March 1990, the first Nintendo World Championship was held, with participants from 29 American cities competing for the title of "best Nintendo player in the world". In June 1990, the subsidiary Nintendo of Europe was opened in Großostheim , Germany; in 1993, subsequent subsidiaries were established in the Netherlands (where Bandai had previously distributed Nintendo's products), France,

9680-494: The United States, an additional 40,000 units were sold on its first day of distribution. Around this time, Nintendo entered an agreement with Sony to develop the Super Famicom CD-ROM Adapter , a peripheral for the upcoming Super Famicom capable of playing CD-ROMs . However, the collaboration did not last as Yamauchi preferred to continue developing the technology with Philips , which would result in

9801-637: The antagonist in Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again! and Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem! . Aside from those, Donkey Kong appeared in DK King of Swing on the GBA around the time of Jungle Beat , and in its sequel, Jungle Climber , for the Nintendo DS . In the 2010 Wii game Donkey Kong Country Returns , Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong battle against the Tiki Tak Tribe , who appears on Donkey Kong Island and hypnotizes various creatures. In

9922-518: The bongo controllers. It was also the first game to receive the ESRB E10+ Rating. In October 2007, Donkey Kong Barrel Blast was released in North America for the Wii . On handheld consoles, Donkey Kong was reunited with his former rival Mario in the 2004 Game Boy Advance game Mario vs. Donkey Kong . A throwback to the Donkey Kong game for the Game Boy, Donkey Kong resumed his antagonist role from his earlier games by taking over

10043-547: The business in 1929. By that time, Nintendo was the largest playing card business in Japan. In 1933, Sekiryo Kaneda established the company as a general partnership named Yamauchi Nintendo & Co., Ltd. investing in the construction of a new corporate headquarters located next to the original building, near the Toba-kaidō train station . Because Sekiryo's marriage to Yamauchi's daughter produced no male heirs, he planned to adopt his son-in-law Shikanojo Inaba, an artist in

10164-562: The business styled itself as Marufuku Nintendo Card Co. The war created considerable difficulties for companies in the leisure sector, which were subject to new levies such as the Karuta Zei ("playing cards tax"). Nintendo subsisted and, in 1907, entered into an agreement with Nihon Senbai—later known as the Japan Tobacco —to market its cards to various cigarette stores throughout the country. A Nintendo promotional calendar from

10285-401: The character persists as the main one up to today. While the 1980s games' Donkey Kong and the modern Donkey Kong share the same name, the manual for Donkey Kong Country and subsequent games portray the former as Cranky Kong , the latter's grandfather, with the exception of Donkey Kong 64 and The Super Mario Bros. Movie , in which Cranky is depicted as his father, alternatively portraying

10406-500: The company was experiencing a period of economic prosperity, the Disney cards and derived products made it dependent on the children's market. The situation was exacerbated by the falling sales of its adult-oriented playing cards caused by Japanese society gravitating toward other hobbies such as pachinko , bowling , and nightly outings. When Disney card sales began to decline, Nintendo realized that it had no real alternative to alleviate

10527-426: The company's employ and the father of his grandson Hiroshi , born in 1927. However, Inaba abandoned his family and the company, so Hiroshi was made Sekiryo's eventual successor. World War II negatively impacted the company as Japanese authorities prohibited the diffusion of foreign card games, and as the priorities of Japanese society shifted, its interest in recreational activities waned. During this time, Nintendo

10648-742: The creation of the Interactive Digital Software Association and the Entertainment Software Rating Board , in whose development Nintendo collaborated during 1994. These measures also encouraged Nintendo to abandon the content guidelines it had enforced since the release of the NES. Commercial strategies implemented by Nintendo during this time include the Nintendo Gateway System , an in-flight entertainment service available for airlines, cruise ships and hotels, and

10769-566: The discontinuation of some of their light gun products. The subsidiary Nintendo Leisure System Co., Ltd., which developed these products, was closed as a result of the economic impact dealt by the oil crisis. Yamauchi, motivated by the successes of Atari and Magnavox with their video game consoles , acquired the Japanese distribution rights for the Magnavox Odyssey in 1974, and reached an agreement with Mitsubishi Electric to develop similar products between 1975 and 1978, including

10890-525: The figure increased to 75 million by the start of 2019. In 2011, Nintendo celebrated the 25th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda with the orchestra concert tour The Legend of Zelda : Symphony of the Goddesses and the video game The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword . In 2012 and 2013, two new Nintendo game consoles were introduced: the Wii U , with high-definition graphics and a GamePad controller with near-field communication technology, and

11011-665: The first microprocessor for video games systems, the Color TV-Game series, and an arcade game inspired by Othello . During this period, Takeda developed the video game EVR Race , and Shigeru Miyamoto joined Yokoi's team with the responsibility of designing the casing for the Color TV-Game consoles. In 1978, Nintendo's research and development department was split into two facilities, Nintendo Research & Development 1 and Nintendo Research & Development 2 , respectively managed by Yokoi and Uemura. Shigeru Miyamoto brought distinctive sources of inspiration, including

11132-418: The first World of Nintendo stores-within-a-store , which carried official Nintendo merchandise, were opened in the United States. According to company information, more than 25% of homes in the United States had an NES in 1989. In the late 1980s, Nintendo's dominance slipped with the appearance of NEC 's PC Engine and Sega 's Mega Drive , 16-bit game consoles with improved graphics and audio compared to

11253-498: The first company to succeed in mass-producing plastic playing cards in Japan. Some of the company's employees, accustomed to a more cautious and conservative leadership, viewed the new measures with concern, and the rising tension led to a call for a strike . However, the measure had no major impact, as Hiroshi resorted to the dismissal of several dissatisfied workers. In 1959, Nintendo moved its headquarters to Kamitakamatsu-cho, Fukuine, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto. The company entered into

11374-459: The first time since the company went public in 1962. In 2002, the Pokémon Mini was released. Its dimensions were smaller than that of the Game Boy Advance and it weighed 70 grams, making it the smallest video game console in history. Nintendo collaborated with Sega and Namco to develop Triforce , an arcade board to facilitate the conversion of arcade titles to the GameCube. Following

11495-685: The following year in the sequel Donkey Kong Jr. , where Donkey Kong is taken captive and locked in a cage by Mario, while Donkey Kong Junior sets out to rescue him. Donkey Kong resumed his antagonistic role in Donkey Kong 3 , where the character Stanley the Bugman takes Mario's place as the protagonist. Stanley fights Donkey Kong's attempts to invade a greenhouse along with a horde of killer bees. After Donkey Kong , Mario went on to become Nintendo's primary mascot, while Donkey Kong and his son were relegated to supporting roles and cameos. The 1994 Game Boy version of Donkey Kong marked his re-emergence as

11616-846: The game board. Donkey Kong also appears in Mario Party DS and in Mario Party 9 as a non-player character , though he came back as playable in Mario Party 10 and Mario Party: Star Rush (along with Diddy Kong ). Donkey Kong appears as a contender in Mario Party: The Top 100 , and later as an unlockable, playable character in Super Mario Party , while also appearing as a playable character in Mario Party Superstars and Super Mario Party Jamboree . Donkey Kong has also made playable appearance in various Mario sports games . Donkey Kong

11737-465: The grandson of the original Donkey Kong who appears in the game as an elderly ape named Cranky Kong . This remained the most consistent storyline, with it also being directly stated in both Donkey Kong Land and Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest , but Donkey Kong 64 portrays the modern Donkey Kong as Cranky Kong's son. Leigh Loveday , the writer of Donkey Kong Country 2 , prefacing his statement with "As far as I know", said that he

11858-591: The greatest of all time . In 1995, Nintendo released the Virtual Boy , a console designed by Gunpei Yokoi with stereoscopic graphics . Critics were generally disappointed with the quality of the games and red-colored graphics, and complained of gameplay-induced headaches. The system sold poorly and was quietly discontinued. Amid the system's failure, Yokoi formally retired from Nintendo. In February 1996, Pocket Monsters Red and Green , known internationally as Pokémon Red and Blue , developed by Game Freak

11979-536: The latter-day imposter version from Donkey Kong Country — the original DK's son". Gavin Jasper of Den of Geek ranked Donkey Kong in 13th place of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate characters, stating that "DK is a blast to play as, especially when unleashing his ground-slap move in a match against seven opponents and everyone's bouncing around like ping-pong balls. His wind-up punch is perfect, too". HobbyConsolas also included Donkey Kong on their "The 30 best heroes of

12100-471: The modern Donkey Kong as the original Donkey Kong Jr. from the titular game . Donkey Kong is considered one of the most popular and iconic characters in video game history. Mario , the protagonist of the original 1981 game, went on to become the central character of the Mario franchise; the modern Donkey Kong is regularly featured as a character in the Mario games. He has also been playable in every entry of

12221-407: The offices, for which he acquired the surrounding land and assigned the production of cards to the original Nintendo building. Meanwhile, Yokoi, Uemura, and new employees such as Genyo Takeda , continued to develop innovative products for the company. The Laser Clay Shooting System was released in 1973 and managed to surpass bowling in popularity. Though Nintendo's toys continued to gain popularity,

12342-459: The present-day Donkey Kong is Cranky's grandson. Donkey Kong first appeared as the titular antagonist of the 1981 arcade game Donkey Kong (alongside protagonist Mario and damsel in distress , Pauline ). As Mario, the player must reach Donkey Kong at the top of each stage, where he is holding Pauline captive. Donkey Kong attempts to hinder the player's progress by throwing barrels, springs, and other objects towards Mario. The ape reappeared

12463-498: The presidency and headed manufacturing operations. His first actions involved several important changes in the operation of the company: in 1951, he changed the company name to Nintendo Playing Card Co., Ltd. and in the following year, he centralized the manufacturing facilities dispersed in Kyoto, which led to the expansion of the offices in Kamitakamatsu-cho, Fukuine, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto. In 1953, Nintendo became

12584-680: The production schedules of third-party developers influenced a delay, and the console was released in June 1996 in Japan, September 1996 in the United States and March 1997 in Europe. By the end of its production in 2002, around 33 million Nintendo 64 consoles were sold worldwide, and it is considered one of the most recognized video game systems in history. 388 games were produced for the Nintendo 64 in total, some of which – particularly Super Mario 64 , The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time , and GoldenEye 007 – have been distinguished as some of

12705-510: The prospect of continuous renewal of decks, thus avoiding the suspicions that reusing cards would generate. According to Nintendo, the business' first western-style card deck was put on the market in 1902, although other documents postpone the date to 1907, shortly after the Russo-Japanese War . Although the cards were initially meant for export, they quickly gained popularity not only abroad but also in Japan. During this time,

12826-539: The rest of Nintendo's Latin American market due to an alliance with Juegos de Video Latinoamérica. Nintendo reached an agreement with NC Games for Nintendo's products to resume distribution in Brazil by 2017, and by September 2020, the Switch was released in Brazil. On 11 July 2015, Iwata died of bile duct cancer , and after a couple of months in which Miyamoto and Takeda jointly operated the company, Tatsumi Kimishima

12947-567: The rivalry between Bluto and Popeye for Olive Oyl . Bluto was replaced by a large enraged ape, which Miyamoto said was "nothing too evil or repulsive", and the pet of the main character. Miyamoto has also named the 1933 film King Kong as influences for the character. In addition to 1930s American media, Miyamoto also stated he drew inspiration from " Beauty and the Beast ". Miyamoto used " donkey " to convey "stubborn" in English; while "Kong"

13068-603: The series in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U , with Donkey Kong being among the first wave of amiibo released for the games. Jungle Japes from Melee returns in the 3DS version, and both Kongo Jungle from the original Super Smash Bros. and 75m from Brawl return in the Wii U version, along with a new stage called Jungle Hijinxs from Donkey Kong Country Returns . All aforementioned stages (aside from Rumble Falls and Jungle Hijinxs) returned alongside Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate , while also being joined by

13189-418: The situation. After the 1964 Tokyo Olympics , Nintendo's stock price plummeted to its lowest recorded level of ¥60 . In 1965, Nintendo hired Gunpei Yokoi to maintain the assembly-line machines used to manufacture its playing cards. Yamauchi's experience with the previous initiatives led him to increase Nintendo's investment in a research and development department in 1969, directed by Hiroshi Imanishi,

13310-435: The then-upcoming Pokémon Gold and Silver alongside Mario Tennis . CD-ROM copies of the branded Gold and Silver browser were made available as bonuses for anyone who pre-ordered a copy of Pokémon Gold and Silver as a special promotion. Later in 2001, other browsers were released branded with other Nintendo games such as Paper Mario and Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask . A Nintendo Power branded browser

13431-593: Was a financial success for Nintendo both in Japan and overseas, and led Coleco to fight Atari for licensing rights for porting to home consoles and personal computers. In 1983, Nintendo opened a new production facility in Uji and was listed in the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange . Uemura, taking inspiration from the ColecoVision , began creating a new video game console that would incorporate

13552-412: Was designed by Gwénaël Nicolas with stylistic departure from its predecessors, and the GameCube . During the first week of the Game Boy Advance's North American release in June 2001, over 500,000 units were sold, making it the fastest-selling video game console in the United States at the time. By the end of its production cycle in 2010, more than 81.5 million units had been sold worldwide. As for

13673-643: Was named as Iwata's successor on 16 September 2015. As part of the management's restructuring, Miyamoto and Takeda were respectively named creative and technological advisors. The financial losses caused by the Wii U, along with Sony's intention to release its video games to other platforms such as smart TVs , motivated Nintendo to rethink its strategy concerning the production and distribution of its properties. In 2015, Nintendo formalized agreements with DeNA and Universal Parks & Resorts to extend its presence to smart devices and amusement parks respectively. In March 2016, Nintendo's first mobile app for

13794-448: Was named the richest company in Japan. In June 2021, the company announced plans to convert its former Uji Ogura plant, where it had manufactured playing and hanafuda cards, into a museum tentatively named "Nintendo Gallery", targeted to open by March 2024. In the following year, historic remains of a Yayoi period village were discovered in the construction site. Donkey Kong (character) Donkey Kong , also shortened to DK ,

13915-522: Was partly supported by a financial injection from Hiroshi's wife Michiko Inaba, who came from a wealthy family. In 1947, Sekiryo founded the distribution company Marufuku Co., Ltd. responsible for Nintendo's sales and marketing operations, which would eventually go on to become the present-day Nintendo Co., Ltd., in Higashikawara-cho, Imagumano, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto . In 1950, due to Sekiryo's deteriorating health, Hiroshi Yamauchi assumed

14036-416: Was pursuing a license to make a game based on the 1930s Popeye comic strip. When this relationship was cancelled, Nintendo decided to take the opportunity to create original characters that could then be marketed and used in later games. Shigeru Miyamoto came up with many characters and plot concepts, but he eventually settled on a love triangle between gorilla, carpenter, and girlfriend, that mirrored

14157-534: Was released as well. Later in 2001, the custom browsers were delisted from Nintendo's website for unspecified reasons, and the contents of the page were replaced with a message stating that a date for when the browsers would return was unknown alongside asking viewers to check the company's downloads page for updates. MediaBrowser's browsers required at least: The browsers additionally required an active Internet connection, and they were only able to be run normally from Windows versions 95 to XP . Compatibility mode

14278-472: Was released in Japan for the Game Boy, and established the popular Pokémon franchise. The game went on to sell 31.37 million units, with the video game series exceeding a total of 300 million units in sales as of 2017. In 1997, Nintendo released the Rumble Pak , a plug-in device that connects to the Nintendo 64 controller and produces a vibration during certain moments of a game. In 1998,

14399-589: Was released in November 2006, with a total of 33 launch games. With the Wii, Nintendo sought to reach a broader demographic than its seventh-generation competitors, with the intention of also encompassing the "non-consumer" sector. To this end, Nintendo invested in a $ 200 million advertising campaign. The Wii's innovations include the Wii Remote controller, equipped with an accelerometer system and infrared sensors that allow it to detect its position in

14520-571: Was released in November 2016. The console is a version of the NES based on emulation, HDMI , and the Wii remote. Its successor, the Super NES Classic Edition , was released in September 2017. By October 2018, around ten million units of both consoles combined had been sold worldwide. The Wii U's successor in the eighth generation of video game consoles , the Nintendo Switch , was released in March 2017. The Switch features

14641-463: Was simply to imply him being a "large ape", the name Donkey Kong was intended to convey "stubborn ape" to the American audience. When he suggested this name to Nintendo of America , people laughed, but the name stuck. The character's appearance was redesigned for the Super NES in 1994 by former Rare character artist Kevin Bayliss with supervision from Miyamoto, who suggested giving Donkey Kong

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