You're not going to believe what Nintendo almost called Donkey Kong

Nintendo’s great ape already has a pretty peculiar name but there was a long list of alternatives and some of them are pretty hilarious.

As a company, Nintendo is over 130 years old but its big breakthrough in gaming took place 43 years ago, in 1981, when the Donkey Kong coin-op became a smash hit around the world and introduced both the titular ape and his adversary Mario.

At first Mario was referred to simply as ‘Jump Man’, while the woman he’s trying to rescue was never Princess Peach, but instead minor character Pauline. As weird as it is, Donkey Kong’s name was carefully considered, to imply both a gorilla and the stubbornness of a mule.

However, several other names were also under consideration and court documents reveal they include such oddities as Kong the Kong, Bill Kong, Big Kong, and… Kong Dong.

The court battle in question took place in 1982, when Universal Studios attempted to sue Nintendo for use of the word ‘Kong’, which they claimed was ripping of their King Kong movies.

However, Nintendo discovered that Universal had themselves previously proven that the name King Kong was in the public domain, so they ended up winning the case and thereby establishing themselves as a major media company. (Ironically, they’re now close partners with Universal, for both their theme parks and movie adaptations.)

The full list of potential names is as follows: Funny Kong, Kong the Kong, Jack Kong, Funky Kong (Rare were probably unaware of this when they actually did name a character that), Bill Kong, Steel Kong, Giant Kong, Big Kong, Kong Down, Kong Dong, Mr. Kong, Custom Kong, Kong Chase, Kong Boy, Kong Fighter, Wild Kong, Rookie Kong, and Kong Holiday.

All of the information was originally discovered in 2020 by Norman Caruso, aka the Gaming Historian, but highlighted this week in a tweet by Super Mario Broth.

Before settling on the name “Donkey Kong,” Nintendo considered a ton of other ideas.

….not sure who suggested “Kong Dong” ð³ pic.twitter.com/cqSsi5ASM0

— Norman Caruso (@GamingHistorian) January 30, 2020

The future of Donkey Kong has been the subject of much speculation in recent years, as Nintendo completely ignored his 40th anniversary in 2021, no doubt because of Covid.

At that time, there had already been rumours of a new 3D game but more recently these have coalesced into the suggestion that the main launch title for the Switch 2 console will be a Donkey Kong game, or at least a 3D Mario in which Donkey Kong plays a large role.

The only circumstantial evidence for this is two otherwise random seeming remasters of Mario Vs. Donkey Kong and, in January, Donkey Kong Country Returns. The Mario theme parks have also had new Donkey Kong themed areas added to them.