Donkey KongClimb girders, dodge barrels, and rescue Pauline from the giant ape across four classic arcade stages — free to play in your browser.
Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong puts you in control of Mario — then called Jumpman — racing up a construction site while the giant ape above hurls barrels down the girders. Your goal is to reach the top and rescue Pauline, but getting there means reading the barrel patterns, timing your jumps, and grabbing a hammer when one appears. Four stages cycle in order: the girder stage (25m), a pie factory (50m), an elevator stage (75m), and finally the rivet stage (100m) where you knock out the four bolts holding DK’s platform to end the round.
Each loop through the stages adds speed: barrels roll faster, fireballs multiply, and the timing on conveyor belts tightens. The rivet stage is the only one with a real finish — on the others you survive until you run out of lives or time. This is an HTML5 browser recreation of Nintendo’s 1981 arcade original, faithful to the four-stage layout and the construction-site setting that made Donkey Kong one of the defining games of its era.
Controls
- Arrow keys or WASD — move left/right; up/down to climb and descend ladders
- Space — jump
- Touch — tap left/right to move, swipe up to jump
Tips
- Jump at the barrel’s drop point, not at its approach. Barrels pause briefly at the edge of each girder. Wait until one drops off the level below you, then jump as it clears — not as it rolls toward you.
- Hammers lock you out of ladders. A hammer is powerful, but while holding one you cannot climb. Grab a hammer only when you have a clear flat stretch ahead — running toward a ladder while holding one usually ends the life.
- Keep moving against fireballs. The fireballs on the girder stage track Mario horizontally. Walking at a steady pace keeps them at a predictable distance behind you; stopping lets them catch up fast.
- Clear rivets from the outside in. On the 100m stage, removing the outer rivets first shortens DK’s platform from both sides and gives you more room to work safely before the final drop.