Change is something that can be hard to understand or accept. We see this all the time with things like comic book adaptations, where characters “change who they are” based on who’s writing the script or overseeing the universe. The gaming world sees this in various ways, too, and in recent times, we’ve seen it with Donkey Kong. When Nintendo showed off the first trailer for the upcoming Donkey Kong Bananza, fans were mixed on how DK looked. Some liked it, and others thought it was “too big of a change” for the character. However, Shigeru Miyamoto, DK’s creator, has opened up about why the time came to make this Nintendo icon look a bit different.
This all went down when Shigeru Miyamoto sat down with IGN to discuss key recent events in Nintendo history, and when DK’s design came up, he noted:
“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.”
So there you have it. They weren’t trying to “erase the Rare design,” they were just improving it to do more with the character and shine a light on how Donkey Kong Bananza will be different from what came before. The game drops on the Nintendo Switch 2 on July 17th.
