Mario franchise strategy guide/Locations/Donkey Kong Island

Donkey Kong Island (AKA DK Island or the DK Isles) is the fictional home of Donkey Kong, his family, friends, and several enemies. It first appears in Donkey Kong Country.

Bio
While it's considered a tropical island, snowfall reaches its higher elevations. This mountain also features a desert area.

Locations
Among the known areas on Donkey Kong Island are:


 * Kongo Jungle: The largest jungle on the island, and home to Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Cranky Kong, and the majority of their animal friends. It was the first world in Donkey Kong Country and has appeared in many Donkey Kong and |Mario games since.


 * Monkey Mines: Mines that border on ancient Kremling-built temples.


 * Vine Valley: A temperate forest along the cliff-side to Gorilla Glacier. Kremling temples are also built here, as well as an ape-constructed tree town. There's even a small tropical jungle nestled here.


 * Gorilla Glacier: The snowy peak of Donkey Kong Island. Among the snow and ice caverns is another tree town.


 * Kremkroc Industries, Inc.: This was once a lush area on the island, but when Kremlings built their high-pollutant factories, most of the vegetation died off. Famous for its green-colored lake. It can be assumed that Kremkroc has since been shut down. However, Kremling presence is common.


 * Chimp Caverns: Caverns nestled into the mountainside of DK Island. Mines are also prevalent here.


 * Kremlantis: The heart of the ancient Kremling temples, Kremlantis was an offshore mini-island to itself. Unfortunately for the Kremlings, it partially submerged generations ago.


 * Monkey Mountains: High-reaching mountains that touch the clouds.


 * Chimpanzee Clouds: The clouds that can be accessed from Monkey Mountains. There are several floating platforms and devices set against the backdrop of the sky that allow for (risky) movement.


 * Big Ape City: The only urban part of the island to be found. Skyscrapers, apartment complexes, and construction sites make up the city. Also known as the Big-City or Big City.


 * The Northern Kremisphere: While the Northern Kremisphere is considered a location in itself, many feel that it's actually a territory of DK Island. If so, it would be a separate landmass from the main island.

Donkey Kong 64 Stages
This game featured completely different levels than the original Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Land, with many levels taking place on both DK Island and the newly-rebuilt Crocodile Isle. However, most of the DK Island stages parallel some area that actually existed in the original SNES game (Examples: Kongo Jungle to Jungle Japes, Vine Valley to Fungi Forest, Gorilla Glacier to Crystal Caves, etc.).

Neighboring Islands
There are several neighboring islands of Donkey Kong Island. These include:


 * Crocodile Isle: The home and birthplace of the Kremlings, it was accidentally destroyed by Diddy and Dixie Kong at the conclusion of Donkey Kong Country 2. When it was standing, it was the closest neighbor to DK Island, and therefore meant frequent Kong/Kremling interaction. The Kremlings now primarily live on DK Island. In Donkey Kong 64 Crocodile Island returned, this time in a much more mechanized form.

Other Appearances


In the animated series based on the game, Donkey Kong Island was called Kongo Bongo Island and looked like a crescent island rather than the shape of Donkey Kong's head. However, it is believed to be the same island, but with a different name. Like Dinosaur Land in the Super Mario World cartoon, some location names were different on the show. For instance, Gorilla Glacier was called the White Mountains.