Donkey Kong smirks upon Jumpman's demise. The Lady is instantly recognized as female from her pink dress and long hair, and "HELP!" appears frequently beside her.Jumpman, depicted in red overalls and cap, is an everyman character, a type common in Japan.

The storyline is thin but well-developed for its time. In it, Jumpman (now known as Mario) must rescue a , Lady (now known as Pauline), from a giant ape named Donkey Kong. Donkey Kong was the product of a Nintendo artist named Shigeru Miyamoto. Miyamoto did the entire game himself (even the music) and decided he'd call it "Donkey Kong" because "kong" would imply a gorilla was involved, and "donkey" was used because their Japanese-to-English dictionary said it meant "stubborn, wily, and goofy."

It was the first to tell a complete narrative in gaming format and the first to use the damsel-in-distress paradigm, later mimicked by countless other video games. Mario became Nintendo's mascot and he and Kong went on to become two of Nintendo's most popular characters. The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) version of Donkey Kong (1986) brought Nintendo and these iconic characters into the homes of game lovers worldwide.