Despite all the ongoing excitement since the announcement of Donkey Kong Bananza, the redesign of Nintendo’s simian superhero has caused some division among fans.
Shigeru Miyamoto, who originally designed the character for his 1981 debut, explained the reason for DK’s makeover in a new interview with IGN.
He revealed that it was the next logical step in making Donkey Kong more expressive.
“So when it comes to character creation and working with characters, I still take an active role in that. And looking back to the first-generation Donkey Kong Country, we worked with Rare to create Donkey Kong Country.
“When we were talking about trying to create new versions, evolving Donkey Kong, we created the game called Jungle Beat. We worked together with the team that made 3D Mario. With the technology that was available at the time, we were able to make Donkey Kong more expressive. And going back to the design that Rare came up with, we reevaluated: what can we do with the design to make it more expressive? And then when it comes to the movie, we decided to move forward with this new-generation Donkey Kong design.”
It’s not just Bananza that has DK looking different – the redesign is also featured in Mario Kart World, reinforcing that the new appearance will likely remain consistent across the Nintendo universe rather than just being a one-off.
Donkey Kong also saw a makeover in 2023 when he appeared in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Since so many other Mario characters were redesigned for the film, however, fans seemed more forgiving of the change, perhaps chalking it up to artistic license in a separate, non-gaming medium.
By now making its way into Nintendo’s games, the change feels more “official” and therefore more irksome for some fans of the iconic character. Others, however, are welcoming the change, providing praise for what may become a livelier iteration of DK.
Donkey Kong Bananza will launch exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2 on July 17, following the release of the console and Mario Kart World on June 5.
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Written by Reece Heather
A lifelong Nintendo fan and a longtime editor at Zelda Universe, Reece will forever be grateful that he somehow dodged the Naughty List of Christmas 1998, when Santa delivered the life-changing gift of a Nintendo 64 with Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, and Mario Kart 64. When he's not playing games, Reece is usually reading Punisher comics, delving helplessly into the weirdest depths of anime and manga, or spending time with his cocker spaniel Gracie -- the goodest girl ever!
