Funky Kong [[Donkey Kong Country]] (1994)

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Funky Kong
Donkey Kong and Mario character
Game	Donkey Kong Country (1994)
Created by	Gregg Mayles
Designed by	Steve Mayles
Voiced by	List Toshihide Tsuchiya (2007-present) Damon D'Oliveira (animated series)
Information
Species	Kong (monkey based)

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Funky Kong (Japanese: ファンキーコング, Hepburn: Fankī Kongu) is a major supporting protagonist of Nintendo's Donkey Kong franchise. Funky Kong is a laid-back surfer who owns a travel service known as Funky's Flights. However, this was replaced with Funky's Rentals in Donkey Kong Country 3 (1996). Funky Kong normally appears as a supporting character to help the Kongs, but he made his playable debut in the Nintendo Switch port of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze where he acts as the game's easy mode due to his higher health and combined abilities of all the Kongs.

Funky Kong has become one of the most prominent characters in the Donkey Kong franchise, and has become a massive fan-favorite. Funky Kong's role as a playable character in Mario Kart Wii became controversial due to his extremely high speed, weight, and drifting when paired with the Flame Runner vehicle, making him widely considered the best character in the game.

Funky Kong has received mostly positive reception for his cool design, personality, and playable appearances in the Mario Kart series. Funky Kong's popularity has also led him to be featured on Saturday Night Live where he was played by Kenan Thompson, where they discussed Funky Kong's minimal cameo appearance in The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

Appearances

Funky Kong first appeared in Donkey Kong Country (1994) where he runs a travel service known as Funky's Flights, which is used to travel back to previous worlds in the game, which is also seen in Donkey Kong Country 2 (1995). Funky Kong often uses cool surfer slang words when he talks, such as "dude" and "cool" to match his cool, surfer personality. According to the instruction booklet of Donkey Kong Country 2, Funky states that the reason he doesn't come along with Kongs to help is because he hates adventuring, preferring to aid the other Kongs when they adventure. In Donkey Kong Country 3, Funky's Flights is replaced by Funky's Rentals, where Funky now owns boats instead of planes.

In Donkey Kong 64 (1999), Funky Kong now runs Funky's Armory, a retail guns shop where Funky sells different weapons to the Kongs, as well as upgrades to those weapons, such as the sniper scope, homing ammo, and ammo belt upgrades.

In the Switch port of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Funky Kong made his debut as a playable character in a mainline Donkey Kong game. He is considered to be the game's easy mode, having five hit points instead of the standard two, and having all of the other Kong's abilities. Funky Kong also makes a brief cameo appearance during The Super Mario Bros. Movie, where he appears driving a car in the background of the Rainbow Road chasing sequence.

Development and design

When designing the characters for Donkey Kong Country, Gregg Mayles stated he wanted to have at least one "cool" Kong, with him choosing the surfer motif as the best fit for Funky Kong.

Gregg's brother, Steve ended up using the model for Donkey Kong that Kevin Bayliss created, and applied some teeth and additional accessories to him, including sunglasses, a gold chain, a bandana, and some sandals to differentiate him from Donkey Kong. Funky Kong's design has changed throughout the years. In Donkey Kong 64, Funky now dons a military, army-surplus style uniform to match with the theme of his armory. DK: King of Swing (2005) redesigned Funky Kong which resembles his old appearances, but it gets rid of the gold chain and sandals, and adds a tank top and blue shorts, to this day, it remains Funky Kong's current design.

Reception

Funky Kong has received mostly positive reception, and has become a massive fan-favorite. A user on Shack Chat chose Funky Kong as their favorite Donkey Kong character, with them stating "Funky has some of my favorite music in Donkey Kong Country 2 and he’s a badass mechanic in Donkey Kong Country 3. Knowing how to fly a barrel and turn a barrel into a hovercraft has its perks. Combine that with being a playable driver in Mario Kart and being allowed to help in the journey in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and you have my favorite Kong." Chris Compendio of Comicbook also stated "Is there anyone in the jungle cooler than Funky Kong? With his signature banana and sunglasses, it’s no surprise that Funky Kong is an icon and a meme." Guy Cohen of TheGamer ranked Funky Kong as the sixth best Donkey Kong character for his usefulness, stating "At first glance, Funky Kong may look like a joke character, but he actually proves to be a very useful ally to the Kong crew. While he may be a laid-back surfer at heart, he is also a very skilled mechanic, often providing you with very useful weapons and transportation." Ben Bertoil of Kotaku ranked Funky Kong as the third best Donkey Kong character, stating "Funky Kong is like that cool uncle who’s never been married and lives near the beach. While he’s basically just Donkey Kong with loads of terrible ‘90s style and a surfboard, there’s just something about him that makes you want to high five the nearest gorilla."

Funky Kong has appeared on an episode of Saturday Night Live, played by Kenan Thompson. Funky was met with disdain with his very small role in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, stating that he thought he was "too real" for the movie, as a reasoning for being snubbed.

In competitive Mario Kart Wii, Funky Kong is widely considered the best character in the game, especially paired with the Flame Runner vehicle. Djordje Djordjevic of Eneba stated "When I switched to Funky Kong after unlocking him, I noticed immediate improvements in race times. On straightaways, he effortlessly pulled ahead of other heavy racers, and his weight allowed me to bump opponents without losing momentum." Blake Lynch writing for the TheGamer stated, "When Funky Kong is paired with a top-of-the-line kart like the Flame Runner, you’re going to clock some personal records at the very least."

References

Category:Anthropomorphic animals in video games Category:Anthropomorphic monkeys Category:Donkey Kong characters Category:Fictional gunfighters Category:Fictional monkeys Category:Fictional pilots Category:Fictional aviators Category:Fictional surfers Category:Fictional characters with superhuman strength Category:Male characters in video games Category:Mario (franchise) characters Category:Rare (company) characters Category:Video game characters introduced in 1994

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