Donkey Kong creator Shigeru Miyamoto reveals the reason for DK's redesign. Read on to learn more about his thoughts on DK’s evolution and his redesigns through the years.
Donkey Kong Redesign Reason Revealed
Making Donkey Kong "More Expressive"
Donkey Kong (DK)’s previous look has been used by Nintendo for years, so tweaks to his design would not go unnoticed. In an interview with IGN, Donkey Kong Creator and legendary Nintendo Game Director Shigeru Miyamoto shared his thoughts on DK’s evolution and how they made him "more expressive."
According to Miyamoto, he is still actively involved in character creation and working with characters at Nintendo. Regarding his first redesign, he said they created DK’s new look with the help of British video game developer Rare.
When they were trying to evolve DK’s design back in the early 2000s, they worked on the GameCube game "Donkey Kong Jungle Beat," with the team that also gave Mario his first 3D look. This version of the big brown ape was more expressive and became the basis of his look today.
"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," Miyamoto explained.
The New Donkey Kong
DK first started as a villain in the 1981 arcade game "DONKEY KONG," but later retconned that ape as "Cranky Kong," his grandfather. He was depicted as a large, burly, and angry ape who threw obstacles at players. His more refined and expressive look began in the 1994 platform game "Donkey Kong Country." Starting with this game and all the games that succeeded, he was seen wearing the iconic "DK" red tie and became a protagonist.
Meanwhile, today's new design was first introduced in the 2023 animated film The Super Mario Bros. Movie. It was confirmed that this design will be his look moving forward as he donned the same look on the upcoming Switch 2’s Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza.
As with most redesigns, some fans did not like this new version. However, Kevin Bayliss, the one responsible for DK’s change in 1994’s Donkey Kong Country, expressed his full support for the new design and urged fans to "embrace change more." He added, "All good things get better with age (I would say that though - since I've been doing this for almost 40 years now) Everyone give a big warm welcome for the new DK!"
Fans are excited for Donkey Kong’s new title and even went so far as to decipher a secret alphabet seen in-game, even though it hasn’t launched yet.
Donkey Kong Bananza is set to release on July 17, 2025 exclusively on the Nintendo Switch 2. To stay up to date with the latest information about the game, check out our article below!
Source:
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Kevin Bayliss Twitter (X) post on Donkey Kong New Redesign
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