Sonic the Hedgehog versus Donkey Kong!
Sega’s blue hedgehog versus one of Nintendo’s earliest icons.
Who will win?
Let us know your pick in those comments below with either hashtag DK or hashtag Sonic!
Hey everyone!
Welcome back to versus – a series we do here on Top 10 Gaming where we take characters
from your favorite games and put them in a hypothetical match against one another.
Today, we’re looking at two of the gaming industry’s most familiar faces – Sonic
the Hedgehog and Donkey Kong – and seeing how they fair in a fight.
A few rules before we begin!
These two are going one on one, meaning no help from any of their pals.
They’re also facing off on a neutral battleground – a flat barren landscape so that neither
of them has any location advantages.
Also worth noting - While we could use this video as an opportunity to dive into a bunch
of compilations of Super Smash Bros matches featuring the likes of Nintendo’s ape and
Sega’s hedgehog duking it out, we’re instead going to compare these two characters and
their abilities from their own individual games in order to determine who would win
in a fight.
With all that in mind, let’s jump in!
Let’s start off with the ORIGINS of these two characters for some context.
Donkey Kong first hit the scene in 1981 as an arcade game.
Shigeru Miyamoto was assigned to convert the game Radar Scope into something that would
be more appealing to American players – the game had done poorly with test audiences.
This lead to the creation of a game where a character named Jumpman – who would later
become Mario – had to climb up a construction site and avoid obstacles like barrels and
fireballs in order to save his girlfriend, Pauline from a giant ape who went by the name
of Donkey Kong.
This was a massive hit for Nintendo, and the game became one of the best-selling arcade
machines in the early 80s.
The Donkey Kong who first appeared in 1981 isn’t actually the Donkey Kong in modern
iterations of the character – the DK from the first game is actually his father, Cranky
Kong, and Donkey Kong Jr is his father.
The DK we know and love is actually Donkey Kong the third, who made his debut in Donkey
Kong 64, developed by Rare.
Compared to his grandfather, DK is carefree, kind of lazy, a beach bum and a trustworthy
hero.
He may not be the brightest of Nintendo’s roster, but he’s always been reliable, and
one of the gaming giant’s most iconic characters.
Moving on to Sonic!
Sonic debuted back in 1991.
At the time, Sega was trying to figure out how to compete with Nintendo, whose Mario
was making major waves in the industry, both commercially and critically.
So they held an internal competition at the Sega Technical Institute to find a new mascot
for the company, which led to the creation of two very important figures in the Sonic
franchise – Sonic himself, and Doctor Ivo Robotnik.
The games’ stories were much simpler back then; Sonic had to stop Robotnik from taking
over the world.
A year later, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 would come out, and Sonic would have a new buddy in the
form of Tails.
This game, along with Sonic 3 and Knuckles, which introduced Knuckles the Echidna to the
mix, has been hailed as the best Sonic games in the franchise.
These days, fans can reminiscence about the series with Sonic Mania – a game developed
by hardcore Sonic fans, and published by Sega.
We’ll just try to forget about some of the other 3D games that the publisher has been
pumping out lately.
ABILITIES Donkey Kong is a power type, who is strong
and agile – he’s got tremendous strength, superb swinging and climbing skills, and can
produce destructive soundwaves with his claps.
His punches are immensely hard – in Donkey Kong Country Returns, he punches the moon
out of orbit with his bare fists.
In the same game, it’s revealed that he is immune to mental attacks the likes of hypnosis.
Aside from punches and claps, DK is known for having a super strong headbutt and has
used his Bongos to create a vicious beat to harm foes.
Moving on to Sonic!
Sonic has considerably more experience on the battlefield than DK – both have gone
on many the adventure, but Sonic has faced off against god-like forces, strange creatures,
the occasional demon, and a whole lot of dangerous machinery.
Sonic’s main jam is speed – he’s been noted to be the fastest thing alive, and can
instantly accelerate into exceptionally fast speeds, reaching speeds greater than Mach
1.
He’s acrobatic, agile, and has enhanced strength, lifting objects several times bigger
than his own body.
His primary offensive maneuver is the spin attack, to which he embellishes with several
variations.
In addition to all of this, Sonic can use the power of the chaos emeralds to transform
– when he has all seven collected, he can enter a superstate, transforming into his
ultimate form, Super Sonic, making him near invulnerable, amping up his regular abilities,
and giving him the ability to fly.
The only downside is that this state requires a lot of energy, meaning he can’t maintain
it for an extended period of time.
Sonic has also transformed into other forms – hyper mode, dark spine sonic, Excalibur
sonic and, the laughably Sonic the Werehog.
Sonic does have one weakness though – he’s a bad swimmer.
THE FIGHT!
This battle can be boiled down to speed versus strength.
If we’re looking at the classic versions of DK and Sonic, Donkey Kong (and Donkey Kong
Jr) wouldn’t stand a chance against Sonic.
His speed would be enough to burst through DK’s barrels, and his spin dash would knock
the ape out.
But, if we’re looking at the modern versions of both, the playing field is a bit evener.
A bit.
Donkey Kong may pack one hell of a punch, but he doesn’t stand much of a chance against
Sonic’s speed.
Considering he’s often depicted as a slower character, Sonic would surely run circles
around him, and Donkey Kong wouldn’t have much defense against his attacks.
Poor DK isn’t the type to rely on his smarts in a battle, either, so there’s not much
in terms of alternative methods that DK would be able to pull from in order to combat Sonic
more effectively.
AND THE WINNER?
Sonic.
Donkey Kong is a worthy adversary, but the blue blur is just way too OPed in comparison
to DK.
Sonic’s speed is way beyond anything Donkey Kong could keep up with.
What do you guys think?
Do you think Donkey Kong deserves a bit more credit?
Or is Sonic the rightful winner of this hypothetical battle?
Let us know your thoughts in those comments below.
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In the meantime, thanks for watching!
I’ll catch you all in the next video.