Donkey Kong is officially 40 years old！

40 Years Later, Donkey Kong Has Created Several Gaming Icons for Nintendo. Donkey Kong started as an ambitious arcade game that’s grown into a beloved face of gaming.

On July 9, 1981, Donkey Kong released in arcades in Japan, and the video game world has never quite been the same，surging a golden age of arcades for a decade.

The game itself was revolutionary in the arcade era, and a foreshadowing of Nintendo’s design philosophy and ideology moving forward. In 1981, few would know that the grinning gorilla would be around 40 years later and it himself has remained a mainstay character for Nintendo and the gaming world. And it also marked the debut of Mario, who had originally been named Mr Video by his creator Shigeru Miyamoto, before being renamed Jumpman then finally Mario.

Nintendo is reportedly planning a big push for its Donkey Kong franchise, including a new game, animation and theme park world.

That’s according to historically reliable Nintendo insider Zippo, who previously claimed that a new Donkey Kong game is in development at Nintendo EPD. The in-development video game was part of a larger push for Donkey Kong planned by Nintendo.

The insider claimed “I’ve been told by multiple people that Donkey Kong is the next franchise in line to follow Mario in Nintendo’s push for their game franchises to become multimedia juggernauts,” they said.

“Donkey and co. aren’t just getting a new game, they’re getting animation (Before this catches fire, my sources did not specify whether or not this was a movie or a show, just that an animation featuring DK characters was early in the works.) a big theme park expansion, merchandise, etc.

“This new game is not just a one off, DK is being taken seriously at the big N again, and that should be good news for fans everywhere.”