10 Most Influential Video Gaming Characters Of All Time

5. Donkey Kong

Where Donkey Kong bucks the trend in this list is the fact that in his initial gaming debut, the giant ape was not only the villain, responsible for stealing the girlfriend of the games protagonist, but he was also not controlled by the gamer. This was another first in video gaming, as up until this point, enemies had been very generic, lacking both distinctive looks and personality. DK changed this. Inspired heavily by the 1933 film, King Kong, Donkey Kong was seen to be something of a unique gaming experience on its 1981 arcade release, featuring a story line and purpose for completing the task at hand (many games up until this point were rolling, infinite games. Kong provided not only an end goal, but also an enemy which gamers felt they had to defeat. After a long break, Nintendo repackaged and re released the Donkey Kong character in Donkey Kong Country. Now 'a good guy', DK had a son, Diddy Kong, and the game was met my critical praise, resulting in a number if handheld / karting spin offs. The simple fact DK was a 'bad guy' opened the way for many games to feature a good vs. Evil aspect, an impact that has allowed for some truly great gaming rivalries. Did You Know? Alongside the more well known titles in the series, Donkey Konga was a Rhythm based game that was released for the GameCube, featuring bongo drums as controllers!