Nintendo Confirms New Donky Kong Design
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- Donkey Kong gets a more approachable look.
- Game’s franchise has sold over 82 million copies worldwide.
- 1999 Donkey Kong 64 holds a world all-time record of featuring collectibles in one title.
Ahead of the release of Nintendo Switch 2, the Japanese multinational video game company implicitly confirms a major redesign for Donkey Kong.
Firstly, in The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023), which has grossed approximately $1.36 billion worldwide, the iconic ape with a stern expression got a softer, more approachable look. Then the redesign, which rounds out Donkey Kong’s once-prominent brow, was also spotted in Mario Kart 9 gameplay footage glimpsed during the Nintendo Switch 2 reveal event and has since been confirmed through merchandise on Nintendo’s Japanese webstore, including apparel and keychains.
The visual change aligns with Nintendo’s efforts to modernize its characters, and Donkey Kong’s reinvention journey started with a laid-back portrayal by Seth Rogen in the film, seems to be final. Nintendo has yet to confirm whether the redesign will extend to other members of the Kong family, such as Diddy Kong. As of 2022, the Donkey Kong family’s franchise has sold over 82 million copies worldwide.
Kevin Bayliss, the designer behind Donkey Kong Country and the man responsible for DK’s iconic look, expressed his support for the update. “When I originally designed him, he basically had Battletoad eyes, which made it difficult to give Donkey Kong any expression other than ‘annoyed,’” Bayliss shared on X (formerly Twitter) on Jan. 25. “These days, I put a lot more thought into character expressions!”
For now, Donkey Kong holds a world all-time record of featuring collectibles in one title. Donkey Kong 64, a 1999 platform game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64, has approximately 3,821 items, including 200 Golden Bananas, color-coded regular bananas for different characters, blueprints, banana fairies, battle crowns, and others. But there is no need to get all of them to achieve 101% completion in Donkey Kong 64. The items you need to get for this are 201 golden bananas, 10 battle crowns, 20 banana fairies, 40 banana medals, eight boss keys, one Nintendo coin, and one Rareware coin.
