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Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
I beat Donkey Kong Bananza feeling 100% confident about Pauline's true identity, but now I'm deep in a rabbithole of fan theories and I don't know what to believe anymore
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Ever since the full reveal of Donkey Kong Bananza, we've had one big question: why is Pauline a child? I played the game ahead of launch for our Donkey Kong Bananza review, and I finished it feeling very confident that I understood the nature of Pauline's identity. But now that the game's actually out and the DK fandom at large has started to finish it, a tidal wave of new fan theories has got me questioning everything. Obviously, this means we're about to talk major spoilers for Donkey Kong Bananza, so if you haven't yet finished the game – and you care about preserving the surprises the plot has in store – this is your cue to go smash some more bananas. Prior to the launch of Bananza, we – that is, Nintendo fans who care about the Mario and Donkey Kong lore – understood Pauline to be the same kidnapped woman, often known as Lady, from the original arcade Donkey Kong game. That Donkey Kong would morph into Cranky Kong, grandfather of the DK we've been familiar with since the Donkey Kong Country series. How, then, could a 13-year-old Pauline team up with the current Donkey Kong, occasionally meeting up with a very well-aged Cranky Kong, in Bananza? Well, throughout the game, you'll hear young Pauline make reference to her grandma. During scenes where she naps with DK, Pauline will talk about how her grandmother's love of music inspired her. "Ah," I thought to myself, "obviously this young Pauline must be the granddaughter of the original Lady, just as DK is the grandson of Cranky Kong!" Young Pauline picked up her love of music from OG Pauline, and her post-game quest to put on a big performance in New Donk City was born out of love for her grandma, whose musical talents were displayed with Jump Up, Super Star in Super Mario Odyssey. Aw, so sweet. After reading far too many posts on the Donkey Kong subreddit, I am forced to conclude that I was a damn fool, holding beliefs so absurd, I may as well have been claiming that the Mushroom Kingdom is flat. Everyone seems willing to acknowledge that OG Donkey Kong's distressed damsel, Lady, is a separate character from our modern Pauline, but there's another possibility, and one that's quickly taken hold in the fandom. Young Pauline isn't a separate character from modern, adult Pauline – she's Lady from the original DK, who's separate from any modern incarnation. Donkey Kong Bananza is not a sequel to Super Mario Odyssey, but rather a prequel, telling the story of how that Pauline rose to prominence as the musical mayor of New Donk City. That would make the entire Donkey Kong series, from Donkey Kong Country through DK64 and even Bananza, a prequel to the entire Super Mario series. It would also mean that Jumpman, the arcade protagonist we've believed to be Mario this entire time, isn't actually Mario at all. Modern Donkey Kong, Pauline, and Mario would, in fact, be the descendants of Cranky Kong, Lady, and Jumpman. While parts of this fandom theory started making me question myself, the idea that Jumpman and Mario are separate characters is where it breaks down for me, and I find myself returning to the original theory I felt was obvious while playing Bananza for myself. Jumpman and Lady are simply the old versions of Mario and Pauline. Young Pauline, as we meet her in Donkey Kong Bananza, is the granddaughter of the Pauline we've always known. It's clean. It's simple. It doesn't require retconning every single Donkey Kong and Mario game of the past 40 years to make the timeline work. And yet… suddenly I'm thinking of Donkey Kong Jr., the arcade sequel where Jumpman clearly, obviously dies at the end. Could it be true then, that our modern Mario is a different character? What of the continued confusion over whether Cranky is actually DK's father or grandfather? Is it possible that there's some other factor we're not considering? Or is it possible that there is no answer, and Nintendo's simply spent decades building up all this lore without a plan for what to do with it in the end? I'm laughing at myself a bit now, but with the amount of love Bananza has shown for the DK games that have come before, I can't help but wonder how the devs themselves would answer. You know what I do understand? Bananas. Here's where to find Bananas in Donkey Kong Bananza.
Metro
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
Donkey Kong Bananza hands-on preview - from the makers of Super Mario Odyssey
We've played several hours of the new Donkey Kong game for Nintendo Switch 2, and it has many wonderful secrets to reveal. Mario Kart World has already convinced us that the redesign for Donkey Kong is a good idea. Whatever nostalgia you might have for the stone-faced Rare design, the new look for the king of swing is not only far more expressive but it's also much closer to the original 1981 game. But then we were never great fans of the Rare games or the more recent Retro Studios titles, like Donkey Kong Country Returns. Locking one of Nintendo's most recognisable characters behind a series of old-fashioned, ultra difficult 2D platformers never seemed like a good idea to us. Bananza doesn't completely divorce itself from that era – Cranky Kong and Rambi look just like they used to, a lot of the old music is included, and there are 2D levels as optional challenges – but the core of the game is completely different. Nintendo continues to be secretive about it, but in a recent hands-on event we got them to admit that it is by the same 'team' as Super Mario Odyssey. They wouldn't say who the director is, so we're still not convinced it's exactly the same people, but the quality and imagination in the game does scream classic Nintendo. After several hours of play, we learned a lot about Bananza, but we're still confused by several issues when it comes to the plot. For example, our questions as to why, or indeed how, DK is eating bananas carved out of precious gems went unanswered. The time paradox of a young Pauline meeting Cranky Kong – who is supposed to be the original Donkey Kong, that kidnapped the grown-up version in the original arcade game – also remains unexplained. Perhaps Nintendo can get Hideo Kojima to write the plot for the next game, and explain it all, but in typical fashion the only thing that matters here is the gameplay and the basic set-up, which seems to involve DK as a miner, working for the evil Void Company, in what seems to be some sort of indentured servitude. It's easy to see why DK is a valued employee, as he can smash through solid rock with his fists, tunnel straight down with a jump attack, clap his hands to create a sonar effect to find hidden items, and rip up whatever is in front of him to use as a weapon or, weirdly, ride on it like a surfboard. DK can also climb most surfaces, as well as hang down from the ceiling, making him one of the most versatile platformer stars ever. Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video One of the key pleasures of the game is being able to destroy almost anything you see, tunnelling through the landscape or just straight up demolishing it. This does play havoc with the camera, which has to do impossible things like follow DK underground, but it copes as best as can be imagined, even if the hated dithering effect, used in so many Switch 1 games, returns to make some objects semi-transparent. Apart from that one element, Banaza is hugely impressive on a technical level, with a series of large levels that not only feature more destructibility than any Battlefield game but which you can build onto as well. Certain materials, such as sand, can be used to create structures, like bridges, by throwing clumps of them together and while we didn't see a lot of practical use for this in the relatively early levels we played it's bound to become more important later. We started off with a level filled with water at the bottom, but DK can't swim. However, he does have a skill tree to augment and add to his abilities, and Nintendo implied that he will be able to go underwater later. Either that or they were alluding to the skill that allows you to use the rock surf ability on water. The goal of the level is to destroy a number of plugs that the Void Company has installed, to reduce the level of the water. At times this involves climbing back up to the previous strata, with the whole game revolving around descending through multiple levels of hollow Earth (or wherever it is that DK lives) in order to reach the core and have his wish granted – which presumably is also what the bad guys are after. In that first level, DK is on his own but as we're skipped around the levels he subsequently ends up with Odd Rock on his back, which is then revealed to contain a young version of Pauline. Pauline's wish is to return to the surface and become a renowned singer, and so she sits on DK's shoulders and uses her musical abilities to unlock closed gateways and, in co-op mode, fire projectiles. We had a brief go on co-op in handheld mode and it works similarly to Super Mario Galaxy, where the other character can fire at enemies, or the scenery, in order to help out. It's perfect for younger kids trying to play along but you can also use the cursor to lock onto any nearby part of the landscape and copy and paste the material it's made of. If that happens to be concrete, for example, then your projectiles hit much harder, but if it's sand you can help by building structures. Although we didn't get a chance to test it, the co-op feature also works with the Switch 1. This was a bit of a shock when it was first announced but it's not running natively and is instead being streamed from the Switch 2. Given the game is also running at (almost certainly non-native) 4K at 60fps that's quite the technical feat and an option that's already showing up in a number of other games. Looking at screenshots, the visuals may not seem overly impressive but, as usual, Nintendo isn't using the horsepower of their console for photorealistic graphics but, in this case, for the destruction effects, which are truly unique. There's no physics attached though, so if you knock down the supports of an archway, for example, it won't fall down but remain suspended in the air. The only technical fault we can find is that despite the game apparently being 60fps the controls feel slightly skittish when on the ground. Or at least they did when we first started. Within an hour we could no longer sense it, but it was also the first thing that we noticed when playing the game back in April, so there's definitely something going on. The other big revelation of our hands-on was DK's ability to transform into versions of various animal gods that he meets. The first is the Kong Bananza form (including much more prominent bum cheeks), which allows him to punch much harder, but there's also a zebra form that runs faster – that we didn't get to try – and an ostrich that can flutter jump like Yoshi. All the Bananza forms can be upgraded with skills, with the ostrich gaining the ability to not only glide long distances but also drop egg bombs on the ground. You can stay in Bananza form as long as its meter is running, but that's powered by gold, which can be found everywhere in abundance, so it can be kept going for quite a while – or at least quickly charged up again for reuse. It's not just about what DK himself can do though, as there's plenty of interesting Nintendo-esque gimmicks in the game, from obvious things like explosive material, that you can rip up and throw, to level specific ideas, like the forest stage where you can pick up acorns and throw them against any wooden object, then have a leafy bridge immediately grow out of it. There's also the general idea that most of the larger enemies are made out of rocks (we think the bad guys are animating them with gold, or something) so you can rip chunks off them and hit them with it. We took on one boss battle, involving someone called Grumpy Kong , and it was a fun mix of mindless destruction and working out how to deal with the parts made out of tougher materials. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video All of this is on top of challenge levels, which seem to be split into three broad types: arena style combat against enemies, self-contained puzzle stages, and 2D sections. We played one of the latter and it was quite long, but while it worked very similarly to the Donkey Kong Country games it's nowhere near as difficult – although still a notch or so above the 3D sections. More Trending Donkey Kong Bananza is a substantial game. There's also outfits to be unlocked by collecting fossils of different sizes, most of which confer small buffs, like increasing movement speed or your defence. But according to the Nintendo rep, the overall goal was to encourage constant action, as you chain together punches to smash your way through the landscape and enemies. This works perfectly and not only is there a thrilling sense of non-stop movement but it seems almost every action brings with it an unexpected consequence, with maps absolutely bursting with secrets upon secrets. We've always liked Donkey Kong as a character, but it feels like this is the first game to fully take advantage of him as a lead protagonist. Donkey Kong Country could've featured anyone in the lead role, but Bananza could only be the great ape himself. Formats: Nintendo Switch 2Price: £66.99 (physical) or £58.99 (digital)Publisher: NintendoDeveloper: Nintendo EPDRelease Date: 17th July 2025 Age Rating: 7 Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: Halo team promises 'official scoop' on series' future later this year MORE: Fans call Steam Summer Sale 2025 'mid' but there's a reason it seems so bad MORE: Games Inbox: Why I sold my Xbox Series X to get a Switch 2
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Switch 2 marks the end of an era as Mario Kart World is the first time in 20 years Donkey Kong's voice actor has changed, and the replacement seemingly comes straight from the Mario movie
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. In case the redesign wasn't enough, fans have noticed that Donkey Kong may have also nabbed a new voice actor alongside the release of Mario Kart World on Nintendo Switch 2. Fans on the Donkey Kong subreddit have got their hands on Mario Kart World, and despite the fact you need to unlock the big ape, they have noticed that the in-game credits are missing any mention of Takashi Nagasako, who has voiced Donkey Kong since 2004's Mario Power Tennis all the way through to 2024's Super Mario Party Jamboree, as well as his dad / grandad (it's unclear) Cranky Kong. One thing Nintendo does in its games is only list the voice actors, as opposed to listing who they play, which is how Mick Wingert was mistakenly identified as Mario's new voice actor before Kevin Afghani confirmed it was him. So no one is listed with Donkey Kong next to their name, however, one name that is in the credits is Koji Takeda, who just so happened to be the voice actor for Donkey Kong in the Japanese dub of The Super Mario Bros. Movie (also Daruk in The Legend of Zelda series). The other big deal to come out of this is that Samantha Kelly – who has voiced Princess Peach, Toad and Toadette since 2007 – is also absent from the credits of the game. However, once again since there are no character names listed, we don't actually have a great idea of who could take over, since Anya Taylor-Joy is unsurprisingly not listed in there. One user points out that Princess Peach Showtime would have been her last time as Peach, which is ironic as the last Peach game – Super Princess Peach – marked Jen Taylor's final time in the role. Presumably Donkey Kong will keep this new voice going into Donkey Kong Bananza. However, there is always a chance that Nagasako will reprise his role as Cranky Kong in the upcoming game, especially since he just did voice work for the Donkey Kong Country expansion at Universal Japan. Regardless, the last few years have been an end of an era for a ton of Mario voice actors. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's Nintendo Switch 2 journey isn't going too smoothly as Nintendo asks "please avoid using Mii Fighter in online play as much as possible."
Thrill Geek
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Thrill Geek
Ride Review: Mine-Cart Madness at Universal Epic Universe
Mine-Cart Madness brings the high-energy chaos of Donkey Kong Country to life in a way that's both nostalgic and genuinely thrilling. Fans of the games will love how the attraction captures the feel of those classic mine cart levels, and even if you're not a longtime DK player, the ride's clever tech and wild visuals make it well worth the trip. The standout feature? The way the cart appears to 'jump' the track. Thanks to some innovative coaster engineering, it really looks like your cart is leaping over gaps just like in the video game. It's a jaw-dropping effect that adds a unique thrill without tipping into extreme territory. The ride duration is solid, giving you a decent loop around the track with several show scenes, tight turns, and those signature 'track jump' moments. While the seats are roomy and comfortable, the ride can be a bit rough in spots, especially during fast turns and track shifts. Nothing too intense, but you'll feel it more than a smooth family coaster. Visually, there's a lot to enjoy. The animatronics are fantastic – fun, expressive, and filled with personality. Donkey Kong and friends really pop in the environments, and the energy stays high throughout. The queue is relatively bare, especially compared to other Epic Universe rides, but some Power-Up Band interactive spots keep you entertained. The real highlight here is the Cranky Kong animatronic; it's hilarious, perfectly in character, and a great surprise to kick off the experience. Verdict: Mine-Cart Madness is a lively, medium-thrill coaster that's perfect for guests who want some excitement without diving into high-intensity rides. Between the innovative track effects, great character work, and accessible thrills, it's a strong addition to Super Nintendo World . Fun, clever, and worth checking out—just brace for a few bumps along the way. Janine is a theme park and pop culture nerd from an early age. Since 1994, she's been traversing the theme park world and has enjoyed all things from Halloween events to new ride releases and beyond. When she's not at a theme park, she's probably at a concert or doing something fun with her kiddo.
