Shigeru Miyamoto explained the reasons behind Donkey Kong’s new design. According to him, it was all in order to make the character “more expressive”.
The change began to make itself felt with the Super Mario Bros. movie in 2023, then in the first images of Mario Kart World. The design was officially unveiled in April with the announcement of Donkey Kong Bananza on Switch 2, and was inspired by both the look of the film and the pre-Donkey Kong Country look.
Miyamoto recalls having worked closely with Rare on Donkey Kong Country at the time, and then with the Mario 3D team on Jungle Beat, a game that already aimed to make Donkey Kong more expressive with the technical means available.
