Donkey Kong Arcade Glitch Unlocks Hidden Levels: Speedrunner Kosmic Breaks the 44-Year Kill Screen Barrier

Forty-four years after its original arcade launch, Donkey Kong remains one of Nintendo’s most revered and enduring classics.

Developed by Nintendo with Shigeru Miyamoto at the helm, the 1981 arcade title defined platformers and continues to inspire a dedicated speedrunning community.

Despite decades of intense play and competition—particularly through the Nintendo Switch’s eShop versions and live events—fans believed they had seen every secret the game had to offer.

However, a breakthrough by renowned speedrunner Kosmic has shattered old assumptions, revealing hidden stages beyond Donkey Kong’s legendary level 22 kill screen. For competitive play, most attempts use the US arcade release of Donkey Kong.

Until now, it was universally accepted that gameplay concluded at level 22.

Here, due to a glitch in the bonus timer algorithm, the game abruptly ends in the first barrel stage after just 400 bonus points—nowhere near enough time for players to reach Pauline at the top.

This sudden halt was long considered the definitive end of the game, dubbed the ‘kill screen’ by arcade enthusiasts. Inspired by a message from a fellow Donkey Kong speedrunner in a Discord channel, Kosmic set out to challenge this decades-old limitation.

By using an alternative glitch—allowing Jumpman (Mario) to climb a broken ladder indefinitely through careful coordinate manipulation—Kosmic devised a way to bypass the kill screen’s restrictions.

Carefully advancing frame-by-frame within an emulator to achieve the necessary precision, he executed the exploit, defying the bonus timer’s cut-off. Kosmic documented his method in a detailed, 29-minute YouTube video, which walks viewers through the process and the technical tricks required.

Thanks to the glitch, Kosmic successfully advanced beyond the infamous level 22 kill screen, traversing five additional stages before ultimately encountering an insurmountable obstacle in stage 22-6, the rivet screen.

Here, the absence of any exploitable ladders and the return of the kill screen mechanics capped further progress. As Kosmic explained, this feat is theoretically possible without an emulator, but would require moving the joystick back and forth at a rate of 24 times per second—an inhuman pace making real-time attempts practically impossible.

Probability also plays a significant role; the window for the glitch’s success is extremely narrow, requiring a stroke of luck estimated at roughly 1 in 1,024 attempts. Kosmic’s discovery not only brings new attention to Donkey Kong’s iconic status on platforms like the Nintendo Switch and the arcade scene, but also highlights the ingenuity and persistence of the speedrunning community.

While the core gameplay and hardware limitations remain unchanged since 1981, this breakthrough reminds us that legacy Nintendo titles are still capable of yielding surprises—decades after their release.

As new and veteran players alike explore these hidden levels, Donkey Kong’s influence on video game history continues to grow.

Donkey Kong Nintendo arcade Kosmic