Super Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto explains Donkey Kong’s recent makeover

Donkey Kong – Nintendo’s mighty monkey with a penchant for bananas – received a bit of a makeover recently, and now we know why.

We originally got a look at DK’s new in-game look back in January, when the gorilla starred in the first brief teaser for Mario Kart World. At this time, fans noticed he looked much closer to his Super Mario Bros. film design than before. Since then, this look has been featured in plenty of Nintendo advertising, and of course the main monkey is set to star in his own Switch 2 game – Donkey Kong Bananza – later this year.

Now, Donkey Kong designer and Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto has shed some light as to why the company chose to redesign his iconic character for this generation.

Speaking with IGN, Miyamoto said “when it comes to character creation and working with characters”, he still has an active role in what goes on.

“Looking back to the first generation Donkey Kong Country, we worked with Rare to create Donkey Kong Country,” Miyamoto continued. “When we were talking about trying to create new versions, evolving Donkey Kong, we created the game called Jungle Beat. We worked together with the team that made 3D Mario. With the technology that was available at the time, we were able to make Donkey Kong more expressive.”

The creator furthered that “going back to the design that Rare came up with, we reevaluated”, with the team wanting to come up with something to make DK’s design “more expressive” than before.

“And then when it comes to the movie, we decided to move forward with this new generation Donkey Kong design,” Miyamoto concluded.

Soon after Donkey Kong’s redesign was first revealed, former Rare artist Kevin Bayliss shared his thoughts on the new look, stating: “You can take the KONG out of the Country, but you can’t take the Country out of the Kong! (I love it – this is really funny! – Everything changes! – Change is good!).”

As for the monkey’s upcoming game, Eurogamer’s former EIC Tom Phillips has already had some time with Donkey Kong Bananza, which is set to launch on Switch 2 on 17th July.

“Yes, everyone might have been expecting Mario, but Bananza’s brawny obliteration is far better suited to his one-time enemy,” he wrote after going hands-on with Donkey Kong Bananza.