Games Like Donkey Kong
Quick Answer
The closest games to Donkey Kong are Donkey Kong Country, Mario Bros, Bubble Bobble, Pac-Man and Donkey Kong Jungle Beat. Below are 9 picks with the reason for each — what carries over from Donkey Kong, and what does not.
What Made Donkey Kong Work
The original Donkey Kong is four screens and one idea: climb while things fall at you. It invented the jump button and, with it, the platformer. Playing it now is an exercise in pattern reading and scoring rather than progression — there is no ending, only a kill screen.
9 Games Like Donkey Kong
This list is in the free app
Games like Donkey Kong, with every reason, works offline in JustLikeGames — plus a pick for tonight and a backlog tracker.
Free · iPhone & Android · no account
How These Picks Match Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong is catalogued here as a 2D platformer and puzzle game on the Nintendo Game Boy. All nine picks share at least one of its genre tags — eight platformers and two puzzle games among them.
Five of the picks have their own list on this site, catalogued under the Super Nintendo, the Nintendo Entertainment System (3) and the Nintendo GameCube. Pizza Tower is from a small or self-published studio. Donkey Kong Country, Mario Bros, Bubble Bobble, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, Super Mario Bros, Balloon Fight and Mario vs. Donkey Kong are the ones a child and an adult can play together.
| Game | Genre | Shares with Donkey Kong | Where to play |
|---|---|---|---|
| Donkey Kong Country | Platformer, Family, Arcade | Platformer | Super Nintendo (catalogued) |
| Mario Bros | Platformer, Arcade, Family | Platformer | — |
| Bubble Bobble | Platformer, Arcade, Family | Platformer | Nintendo Entertainment System (catalogued) |
| Pac-Man | Arcade, Puzzle, Family, Casual | Puzzle | — |
| Donkey Kong Jungle Beat | Platformer, Action, Family | Platformer | Nintendo GameCube (catalogued) |
| Super Mario Bros | Platformer, Family, Arcade | Platformer | Nintendo Entertainment System (catalogued) |
| Balloon Fight | Arcade, Platformer, Family | Platformer | Nintendo Entertainment System (catalogued) |
| Pizza Tower | Platformer, Arcade, Indie | Platformer | — |
| Mario vs. Donkey Kong | Puzzle, Platformer, Family | Platformer, Puzzle | — |
Buy This Game
* Affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Support Justlikegames
Made by one person, for free
I run Justlikegames pretty much for free — covering hosting, APIs, and the hours spent writing recommendation lists by hand. There are no paywalls, no intrusive popups, and no "premium" tier. If the site has helped you find your next favorite game, a coffee goes a long way toward keeping it that way.
Buy me a coffeeEven $3 covers a day of API costs. Thank you 💛
If You Love Donkey Kong, Try These
How We Picked These Games
Each list is built by combining editorial curation (for the games people actually move on to) with RAWG's structured tag and genre data. We require shared specific tags before any genre fallback can show — no off-genre noise.
Read our full editorial guidelines for how we evaluate every game on this site.
Frequently Asked Questions
More Game Boy Games Like Pages
Explore Other Consoles
Get Game Recs Weekly
Top picks, hidden gems, and deals — straight to your inbox. No spam, ever.
