7. Donkey Kong

Meet the Kongs

Donkey Kong is not an easy character to forget. This misunderstood Gorilla first appeared as a villain in a Super Mario game way back in the 80’s. Eventually he went on to get his own games out of which the gameboy version called Donkey Kong Country became most popular.

The game was characterized by being highly dynamic and difficult. You spent a large portion of the side scrolling game riding around in train carts or rolling forwards in barrels. When Donkey Kong was in one of these "vessels" then he moved significantly faster and jumping was much harder. In fact, there were several parts of this Donkey Kong game that felt almost unbeatable. The plot was simple: get your bananas back from the Gremlins. To this day Donkey Kong has remained an industry staple, and the character is known by millions worldwide.