One of the biggest changes that players are focused on with the upcoming launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 is Donkey Kong’s redesign. While you can still tell he’s the same character Nintendo has been using since 1981, the look he’s had since Rare worked on Donkey Kong Country has definitely been altered to be more of a combination of his original look and how he appears in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Recently, Shigeru Miyamoto spoke with IGN at the opening of Epic Universe in Orlando and he says that Donkey Kong was redesigned to be more expressive.
Why was Donkey Kong redesigned?
Even at the age of 72, Miyamoto says that he still plays an active role in Nintendo’s character creation and how they are represented today. While he worked with Rare to make the Donkey Kong Country design we have largely known for the last 30+ years, it seems like it was just time for a change. Apparently, Nintendo liked the way The Super Mario Bros. Movie gave DK a more animated face, so they went forward with that.
“…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 kind of hard to disagree with Miyamoto that Donkey Kong hasn’t been very expressive over the years. Since Donkey Kong Country, he has, for the most part, been very stoic. Compare the last few decades to his facial animations in Donkey Kong Bananza, and it is easy to see Nintendo is putting a lot more work into making Donkey Kong feel like an animated character.
