I love Donkey Kong in the wife beater from the original Mario Kart.

what happened to DK's big goofy smile? apparently he's gotten grumpy over the years.

Clearly if this continues, Mario will give me nightmares :(

What, no Celda Link?

I am not sure the pope would approve of this. hahaha

@Hrist: Isn't that Donkey Kong Jr.?

Actually, in Super Mario Kart, it was Donkey Kong Jr, not Donkey Kong.

Heh, pretty cool. But aww, no Wind Waker Link? Sheesho.

Cool to see that Mario is pretty much the same guy after all these years. His character model just gets more detailed, is all.

These are always fun, I like it when they include the caption of where each capture was from.....then creeps like me can go dig out the rest of the games missing and make captures for those versions of the characters.

Aren't the second and third Link pictures chronologically incorrect? But maybe that doesn't matter and it's just an illustration of the graphical development.

Whoa Mario's nose it keeps on like growing dude.

I suppose it's mildly interesting, even if it's poorly made. This is the sort of crap that makes me have to sift through three new pages of Kotaku each day.

I really loved DK country what an amazing game that was but hated that tie and the character design when it came out. was that a Rare design or nintendo?

@okenny :): ...And it won't look any better than this: [Kotaku]

That pic of Link at the end is horrendous. 'nuff said.

I suppose it is mildly interesting, if poorly made. A perfect example of why I have to sift through three entire pages of Kotaku each day, ecause a ton of crap like this is posted alongside more important things.

where's CDi Link? He just wonders what Gannon's up to.

This is a chart of progression of quality, not game.

Some sequels actually had crappier versions than the originals. It was weird.

You guys do recall that Cranky Kong is the original Donkey Kong, right? The current Donkey Kong is actually Junior.

Eesh, the last couple DKs are pre-rendered.
How bout a non-Bongo DK game Nintendo?
Please?
Just for me?
Didn't think so.

@Jfebs:
Now you know how we feel about comments like yours. And look, you double posted — GOOD JOB!!

How out of order can you possibly get?

What? No N64 Smash Brothers, with Link's pick ax nose?

@Ashcraft: Man, sorry about the McDonald's post. The 'Jap' thing. I didn't know it was a racist slur. Please forgive my ignorance. Posted my apologies there.

On topic: yeah, Donkey Kong with the wife beater FTW!

@Kirbytheslayer: No Disassemble:

Even if that's true, I still think Wind Wake Link looked better than the second-to-last link in that chart.

Green Yoshi? Being ridden by SMS Mario?!

It's true he's really in thar, it's all TRUE!!! You people just havent looked hard enough!

@rhugghed:
(^_^)b

@KingDavid73: Of course he's gotten grumpy. His sales keep going down.

@AcerBandit: That's what Rare says, but I don't know if I want to believe something that stupid. After all, in Mario vs. DK, the current DK kidnaps Pauline.

Aren't the third- and second-to-last Donkey Kongs in the wrong order? I know, it's nitpicking...

Mario's colors have been completely inverted... he used to have a blue shirt w/ red overalls, now its a red shirt w/ denim... weird.

They need a CDi Link ... man... Nintendo characters are sellouts. Mario is Missing, Time Machine, Teaches Typing, Paint.... and link in his cartoon days... and DK in his bongo feaver.. and they all play random sports that make very mediocre games...

I secretly hopes Master Chief goes the same way....

Master Chief cart racer.... Final Fantasy and Bomberman did it.. so I can dream.

Now let's have a chart showing the evolution of image compression quality over the years.

This one would probably be around "1998".

I know many hated the graphics but I liked the game play around Wind Waker. Where is the Wind Waker Link?

@TT: You hated the tie? How is that possible? Only love can be had for a naked ape whose only article of clothing is a monogrammed tie!

Darwin Was Right!
...also where is WW link?

@Jfebs: God damn having to scroll down a page, right?

God forbid you break a sweat.

I apologize for the use of the word. Two seperate thoughts methinks.

What happend with link's hair color after a link to the past? why he became suddenly a blonde character?
Mario in the last few games keep getting uglier and uglier , whats up with that jean overall? its so weird
Am i the only one that thinks that snes was the best time of this characters?

I demand a similar chart for Mach Rider.

...
...Oh, right.

Wind Waker Link (or the other antiZER0 in my case) is probably my favorite, even though I've only played Twilight Princess, Link to the Past and Wind Waker in that order.

There's something about him that's: genuine, young, kind, brave, etc. Not like a certain Farm Boy who can do Back Flips, which was kind of odd at the time.

Yes, the last two DKs are out of order.

A little more time could be of use, even though this guy probably didn't expect this to be an article on Kotaku...

@symphony_of_the_night:
What's up with his hair in Link to the Past?? It's totally purple!

I don't want to sound rude, but is there any reason this is so significant that it should be an article on Kotaku?

I'm pretty sure the reason they changed Mario's overalls was to make it more easy to distinguish between him and Luigi.

nintendo never seemed to explain why marios colors switched from red overalls/blue shirt to red overalls/ brown shirt to blue overalls/red shirt. surely there werent color issues with using a darker blue on the nes than featured in the sky and sea

Why is everyone hating on articles that they don't feel are 'newsworthy'? Cool and informative that this site is, it's also supposed to be pretty light hearted. You can skip the things you don't want to read, and commenting articles you don't approve of is surely a bigger waste of your time!

@Hion: You people just don't learn do you?
On topic: Of all them I'd have to say Link has evolved the most, though that's probably true since of the three he's the only true human of them. You can only do so much with a cartoon like human and a stupid ape.

That and we keep getting diffrent Links, while outside of handing off the banana torch from Cranky to Jr, it's always the same Mario and Kong.

Yikes! Link without the little green cap is one crazy looking ragamuffin!

There was really not much difference between Mario Sunshine Mario and Mario Galaxy Mario. Some would even argue that Sunshine Mario looks better than Galaxy Mario.

@Krytha: yeah, wasnt into the tie.
reading Nintendo Power back in the 8bit day, Nintendo was developing a game called "The Return of Donkey Kong" or that was how it was listed I think.
Anyway, it never came out and like 7-8years later finally DK country came out and I really had the original DK design in my mind all those years waiting for a new DK game. I bought it the day it came out!

I LOVE stuff like this!

I do it myself taking a certain character and compairing pictures of them *like Nina Williams from Tekken*. Just to see how they evoloved it's amazing! But the Link on isn't right, they missed Wind Waker.