A New Donkey Kong Could Look Different From Returns, Tropical Freeze

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home January 30, 2025 16 Views 6 Min Read
A New Donkey Kong Could Look Different From Returns, Tropical Freeze



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The Donkey Kong series has been in a bit of a limbo for quite some time. Although Donkey Kong still regularly appears as a character in many of Nintendo’s biggest games, such as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the Donkey Kong franchise itself has unfortunately been neglected by the company. The last original, mainline game in the series, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, came out exclusively on the Wii U in 2014. Since then, there’s been little-to-no new Donkey Kong content, outside of a few remakes, remasters, and spin-offs.

With Nintendo prioritizing its development efforts on other flagship franchises, it’s not exactly clear what the future of the Donkey Kong series will look like. Retro Studios, the developer of the last few Donkey Kong Country games, is currently working on Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, so it probably won’t have time to return to the series in the near future. Most of the mainline Donkey Kong games, meanwhile, have already been ported to the Nintendo Switch, so there aren’t that many notable installments in the series left to remaster. Nintendo will probably make a new Donkey Kong game at some point, but whenever that happens, it will likely look a lot different from the franchise’s previous entries, in part due to one recent change.

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The Next Donkey Kong Game Will Probably Look Quite Different From its Predecessors

Donkey Kong is Receiving a Redesign in Mario Kart 9

A few weeks ago, Nintendo unceremoniously announced the long-rumored Nintendo Switch 2, and, alongside it, gave fans their first look at the next installment in the Mario Kart franchise. This new Mario Kart game, which has unofficially been referred to as Mario Kart 9, appears to have a slightly different art style compared to its predecessor, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Although the games look fairly similar at first glance, experienced players will notice that many of the playable characters in Mario Kart 9 have received redesigns. This is especially apparent with Donkey Kong.

In Mario Kart 9, Donkey Kong looks a lot sillier and happier compared to his usual character design. Instead of having lowered eyebrows and an angry look on his face, this new version of Donkey Kong has rounded, close-set eyes, a bulky build, and a frivolous facial expression. Interestingly, Mario Kart 9‘s Donkey Kong seems to share more in common with the Donkey Kong from The Super Mario Brothers Movie than it does with his video game counterpart.

Nintendo is Doubling Down on Donkey Kong’s New Look

Donkey Kong’s current and most popular design was created by Rare and character designer Kevin Bayless during the development of 1994’s Donkey Kong Country. However, as iconic as this version of the character is, Nintendo seems to be moving away from it entirely, and not only in Mario Kart. Several keen-eyed fans have noticed that some of Nintendo’s newly-released Donkey Kong merchandise features the redesigned version of the character instead of his usual look. Although this may be disappointing for some, it appears that the Mario Kart 9 version of Donkey Kong is here to stay.

Donkey Kong’s Future Games Will Likely Use His New Character Design from Mario Kart 9

Considering how prolific the character is, there’s a very high chance that Donkey Kong will make an appearance in some other games on the Nintendo Switch 2, in addition to Mario Kart 9. Some industry insiders have claimed that Nintendo is working on a new, 3D Donkey Kong game for the console, which, if true, will be the first of its kind since 1999’s Donkey Kong 64. Even if these rumors aren’t legitimate, it’s almost a certainty that the next mainline Donkey Kong installment, whatever it ends up being called, will feature the titular ape’s redesign from Mario Kart 9.

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