Donkey Kong (Super Smash Flash 2)

Donkey Kong is a veteran starter character in Super Smash Flash 2. He was the last newcomer announced in the original teaser, and could only be seen at the very end after the credits; here, he was seen with his sprites from DK: King of Swing. However, his appearance in the game has him using custom-made sprites which are based on his appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and voice clips are ripped directly from the same game. His moveset is similar to his counterpart.

Donkey Kong is currently ranked 19th on the tier list (The 4th highest ranked  character if sub-series are included) in the B tier, a noticeable fall from his 6th place in the last tier list. Donkey Kong has amazing range on the majority of his attacks, highly damaging combos, an outstanding grab and throw game, good momentum canceling, and very powerful finishers in all of his smash attacks, forward aerial, back aerial, back throw, and Giant Punch. His main recovery tool, Spinning Kong, covers great horizontal distance, has high priority, and gives him super armor in the move's initial frames. Donkey Kong has a strong air game due to his good air mobility and strong aerials overall.

However, his large size, heavy weight, and being a high faller make him arguably the most vulnerable character to combos and chain grabs in the game. He has difficulty dealing with projectiles due to a lack of his own, which limits his ability to approach camping characters. Additionally, Spinning Kong, in spite of its good horizontal distance, covers the lowest vertical distance in the game, which leaves him completely and utterly incapable of recovering if meteor smashed offstage, even at 0%.

However, Donkey Kong has a rather large player base due to how strong he is for a low amount of effort. This has caused some players to dislike the character, as well as the people who use him, due to how easy it is to exploit his strengths online. Donkey Kong players have continually taken high placings in online tournaments, though he is not as prominent as he once was, due to the rise of characters such as, , and.

Attributes
Donkey Kong certainly has his slew of positive attributes; he has good range in most of his attacks which are also fast, amazing combo ability and above average mobility. He posses strong finishers in all of his smash attacks, a sour spotted forward aerial, Giant Punch, back aerial, the initial hitbox of Spinning Kong and back throw.

Donkey Kong has great horizontal endurance due to his weight (being the heaviest character in the current demo) and good vertical endurance due to his high accelerated falling speed. His recovery, Spinning Kong, covers good horizontal distance and gives him knockback resistance in the move's initial frames.

His greatest advantage is his grab game; he possesses a large grab range and his throws serve a variety of purposes. Forward throw allows him to carry enemies off-stage, back throw serves as a high-percentage finisher near the ledge, up throw sets up juggling combos and can chain grab certain characters. Donkey Kong's down throw is also a good combo starter and good for setting up chain grabs.

However, Donkey Kong's size, weight and being a high faller leaves him vulnerable to juggling, combos, chain grabs and zero-to-death combos himself, as his stature makes it highly difficult to avoid combo starters.

His recovery covers little vertical distance, giving him extreme vulnerability to meteor smashes in general, and if used at the wrong time can result in a fatal edgeguard, as the move offers no protection after the initial frames have passed.

Donkey Kong lacks a projectile and a reliable way to deal with them; although he can deflect those close to the ground with Hand Slap, it is only a situational maneuver at best, and he is still helpless against projectiles with more volatile trajectories; these attributes make it hard for Donkey Kong players to escape pressure.

Due to his aforementioned lack of a projectile and his lack of disjointed hitboxes, Donkey Kong also has trouble approaching; although his short hopped neutral aerial can out-prioritize weaker attacks thrown at him while he is moving towards the foe, he can still be shut down by characters with greater range in their attacks. Also, due to his great range not being disjointed, each range attack is also an extension of his hurtbox which can leave him vulnerable if not properly spaced.

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Tier placement history
When first introduced in demo v0.8, Donkey Kong was seen as character with great potential. He was ranked 10th of C tier for the list of demo v0.8b. He dropped to 24 of what could be considered C tier in demo v0.9a. However, he rose to 15th of what of A tier where he is seen as a high tier character. Changes in the metagame for v0.9b, has led to Donkey Kong's position rising to 13th of A tier where he is still seen as a high tier character. However, after 1.0.3. Donkey Kong has shown better results that ultimately ranked him 6th of A tier on the second Beta tier list. In the current tier list, Donkey Kong is ranked as 19 of B.

Trivia

 * Donkey Kong's third DOJO!!! art is based off his artwork in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
 * In addition, his current artwork is taken directly from his artwork in Donkey Kong Country Returns.
 * Steven stated that Donkey Kong,, and Sheik were his hardest character projects. In Donkey Kong's case, it was due to his inexperience with spriting.
 * Donkey Kong is currently the only character to have a different Final Smash from the ones he has in the official  games. However, before the roster change and before Donkey Kong's redesign, his Final Smash was intended to be Konga Beat, his Final Smash in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and in the following installment.