Snapjaws

So today I'm going to do a post about Snapjaw, the original anti-Kong enemy.



Look at that thing.

Mario was sending robotic bear traps after Jr. What the hell, Mario?

Though to be fair, DK Sr was sending them at Mario in DK'94, and they say turnabout is fair play, right? Though that beggers the question of where the hell DK got them from, but then again, that question could be asked of lots of things in DK'94.

Snapjaws are the most ubiquitous enemy in DK Jr, appearing in 3 out of the four stages, being featured in the cabinet art, and returning in the most games beyond their original, as well as inspiring the classic DKC ankle-biter enemy category which consists of Klaptraps, Klampons, and the like.



They were featured in the first three Mario vs. Donkey Kong games as minions/tools/appropriated resources of the big ape himself, getting a bit of a design make-over to be more mecahnical crocodile heads instead of straight up hunting traps.

It should be noted that I've seen it claimed that these guys are not named the same as the original Snapjaws in Japanese, and may be technically a seperately named enemy category, but even if this is the case, you can clearly see the familial resemblance in both looks and attack pattern.

A similar but different enemy, Snap Jaw (note the separation of words), shows up in Yoshi's Island DS.



As you can see, these guys are wholly organic crocodiles, but retain the same attack patterns as their similarly named descendants (the game is a prequel, after all).

So, yeah.

These guys are arguably the origin of the whole Gorillas vs Crocodiles thing going on in the DKC series, as their sprites in the arcade game look like a little croc head. They've had a lasting effect on the franchise, and their ripples and influence are still present in the games today.