King K. Rool

K. Rool (a pun on the word "cruel") is a fictional villain who appears in a number of video games featuring Donkey Kong. He is a member of the Kremling species of anthromorphic crocodiles. Being a recurring villain, he is analogous to King Bowser in the Mario series or Ganon in the Legend of Zelda series, and acts as a final boss. A master of disguise, he assumes many different personalities. His most distinguishing feature is the tic in his right eye.

Character
King K. Rool is the leader of the Kremling Krew, a group of reptilian creatures who live on Donkey Kong Island's neighbor, Crocodile Isle. Over the years since the original Donkey Kong Country, K. Rool has developed a deep hatred against the Kongs. Initially he just wanted Donkey Kong's banana hoard, but his failure to obtain it led him to try and hurt the Kongs directly.

Appearances
In Donkey Kong Country (1994), for the SNES, he steals Donkey Kong's bananas, but is foiled by Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong. Donkey Kong Land (1995) for the Game Boy has a similar plot where Cranky Kong bets the two heroes they cannot get the bananas back on an 8-bit system.

In Donkey Kong Country 2 (1995), King K. Rool kidnaps Donkey Kong and takes him back to his home of Crocodile Isle. He is foiled by Diddy Kong and Dixie Kong. This time around there is a more pronounced pirate setting, and King K. Rool goes under the name Kaptain K. Rool. This is also similar to the plot of the Game Boy's Donkey Kong Land 2, released in 1996.

In Donkey Kong Country 3 (1996), King K. Rool is going by the name of Baron K. Roolenstein. Working in the shadows, he captures a vacationing Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong in the Northern Kremisphere part of the DK Isles, stuffs them in the cybernetic body of what was believed to be the new Kremling king, KAOS, and uses their brain power to control it behind the scenes. He is foiled by Dixie Kong and Kiddy Kong. Baron K. Roolenstein would appear again in 1997 in Donkey Kong Land III for the Game Boy, where he attempts to be the first to discover the game's Lost World in a contest that also includes Dixie and Kiddy, and Donkey and Diddy (although the two never appeared in the game).

In Donkey Kong 64 (1999), for the N64, King K. Rool steals Donkey Kong's golden banana hoard as a distraction for the Kongs while he attempts to fix his Blast-O-Matic laser that is going to destroy Donkey Kong Island. Meanwhile, he has his men lock away four Kongs (Diddy Kong, Tiny Kong, Lanky Kong, and Chunky Kong, Donkey Kong was not captured). They are freed one by one and in the final battle where they foil K. Rool's plans once again. King K. Rool dresses as a boxer by the name of King Krusha K. Rool; incidentally, the name Krusha was also used for one of the enemies in Donkey Kong Country and even as the name of the hidden playable character of the game's multiplayer mode.

King K. Rool's most recent appearance was in DK King of Swing. In it, he plots to steal the medals from the upcoming Jungle Jam competition to become the jungle hero. Without the medals, there would be no tournament. Donkey Kong set out to recover the medals and defeat K. Rool.

He also is slated to appear in the upcoming games: DK Bongo Blast and DK: King of Swing DS.

Cameos
King K. Rool made a cameo in 2004's Donkey Konga for the Nintendo GameCube (the game was released in 2003 in Japan). In one mini-game, the player bashes K. Rool in the head with a steel keg as he tries to evade the player, á la Whack-a-mole. He also appears in the Jam Session mode, dancing with Cranky, Diddy, Rambi, Ellie, and the Banana Birds.

King K. Rool also appears as an unlockable trophy in Super Smash Bros. Melee. It describes him as "the demented king of the Kremlings with a serious eye tic. His plan to destroy the DK Isles with the Blast-O-Matic cannon shows just how unbalanced he is."

In other media
King K. Rool was also a regular on the Donkey Kong Country TV cartoon where he was voiced by Ben Campbell. Most of the time, he was attempting to steal the legendary wish-granting Crystal Coconut, which Donkey Kong, whom the Coconut had chosen to be the island's future ruler, guarded. King K. Rool wanted to rule Kongo Bongo Island (as DK Island was called on the show), and he figured that if he had the Coconut, he could rule the island with it. Often, King K. Rool was accompanied by an army of Kritters and his general, Klump (an enemy drone from the first game), and sometimes his bodyguard, Krusha (also from the first game). Although he was the main villain of the show, and a very evil tyrant at that, K. Rool was sometimes capable of showing his soft side, as seen in episodes such as "Baby Kong Blues" and "Four Weddings and a Coconut". He has a very low tolerance for the incompetence of both Krusha and Klump, to the point where, in one episode, he mutters to himself "Do I really want the Crystal Coconut this badly?" while Krusha and Klump try to decode a message they themselves wrote (and forgot the code to). When not scheming to take the Coconut, he otherwise plans to eliminate Donkey Kong, who is the Coconut's main protector, or to take over the Barrel Works to manufacture exploding barrels. His various other plans varied from episode to episode: for example, during a heatwave, he plotted to take over Donkey Kong's "Coconut Chill" business to keep himself cool.

Trivia

 * K. Rool has several vehicles he uses for transport. These include the Gangplank Galleon in Donkey Kong Country, the Flying Kroc airship in Donkey Kong Country 2, the Knautilus in Donkey Kong Country 3, the Crocodile Isle and an unnamed airship in Donkey Kong 64, and the K. Kruizer III and a hovering pod in DK: King of Swing.

Also in Donkey Kong Country 3, K. Rool quotes a famous line used in every episode of Scooby-Doo, saying, "I would've gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids!", as soon as KAOS was beaten once and for all.
 * There have been some certain rumors about the existence of K. Rool's wife. In fact, in Donkey Kong Country 3, after Dixie and Kiddy Kong defeat KAOS, K. Rool mentions that KAOS was constructed by his wife's best pots and pans. However, in a December 23, 1999 edition of the Scribes section of Rare's website, Leigh Loveday revealed that K. Rool's "my wife is going to kill me" line was merely "a typically throwaway Reeves and Mortimer reference".

キングクルール K. Rool