Overview
Super Donkey is an unreleased platformer starring an unnamed proto-Rayman-like aviator/explorer who resembles the main character of Nintendo's earlier game Sky Skipper.
The game seems to have remained completely unknown until two builds were found as part of the July 2020 Nintendo leak. Neither build has any sounds or music, and the onscreen timer is non-functional in both.
The game's name, the ROM headers, some unused sprites within the ROMs, and related material found elsewhere in the asset leak suggest that this was a Donkey Kong-related project with the aviator, Mario, and Link being considered for protagonist roles. Notably, DK had also appeared in Sky Skipper as an enemy. File dates for the related material suggest that the available ROMs were built sometime in 1991 or 1992.
While it is not clear whether development continued past this point, various elements of Super Donkey would eventually be used in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, and it's believed that Yoshi's Island is what ultimately became of this project. Developer interviews for Yoshi's Island mention that the first two years of development were spent experimenting with ideas, in which one did stick - the idea of a game where even though the player can be hit by enemies the player doesn't die from doing so. Super Donkey has this element, and its available ROMs were found among the Yoshi's Island source code; further, a distinctly Donkey Kong-like enemy is present among the latter's internal assets and goes unused in the final game.
