For the last few weeks, Donkey Kong Bananza has been the source of a lot of speculation among Nintendo fans. The 3D game’s use of the character Pauline, in particular, has made a lot of people wonder exactly how the game might fit into some form of continuity. While Nintendo has yet to confirm how Bananza makes sense with everything else that’s been established, the more that’s shown of the game, the more it seems to serve as both a prequel to Super Mario Odyssey and the Donkey Kong franchise in general. After playing the game during a recent hands-on session, I’m pretty convinced that’s the case.
Donkey Kong and Pauline first appeared together with Mario in the 1981 Donkey Kong arcade game. In that game, players took on the role of Mario as he tried to rescue Pauline from the big ape’s clutches. The arcade game didn’t have anything in terms of a story, but Super Mario Odyssey touched on these events. Years after her capture in the old arcade game, Pauline is now the mayor of New Donk City, which features a lot of iconography tied to Donkey Kong. In Odyssey, Pauline says that her capture was “traumatic at the time,” but it also made her into the person she is today. The game also established that Pauline has a passion (and talent) when it comes to singing.
In Donkey Kong Bananza, Pauline is significantly younger, and Nintendo’s promotional material says that the character is 13 years old. Once again, developer Nintendo EPD has made Pauline’s singing a major part of a game. However, Pauline is initially bashful about doing so in front of large crowds, which is a stark contrast to what we see as she gets older. By the time of Super Mario Odyssey (which would have to be 10-20 years later), she’s clearly gotten over any stage fright she felt as a young teen. That throws away any possibility of time travel, or the idea that Pauline was de-aged by the game’s villains.
All of this lines up pretty well with established continuity, but it leaves a major question for Nintendo fans: what about Donkey Kong himself? For the last 31 years, it’s been generally accepted that the Donkey Kong that appears in the Donkey Kong Country series and current games is not the same DK in the old arcade games; as established in the instruction manual for the original Donkey Kong Country on Super Nintendo, that Kong was actually Cranky. Nintendo has shown footage from Donkey Kong Bananza that shows Cranky Kong will appear in the game in some form. If this game is, in fact, a prequel, it means we would have to see a retcon of Cranky’s status as the original DK.
It’s worth noting that Nintendo has generally avoided treating instruction manuals as official canon. In fact, the company has a history of retconning elements that were previously established within them. The instruction manual for Super Mario Bros. 3 clearly states that the Koopalings are the children of Bowser, but Nintendo has since said that Bowser Jr. is his only real son, and the Koopalings are just underlings. It’s possible Nintendo will be doing this once again with Cranky Kong. Nintendo has never seemed all that committed to the idea of Cranky being the original, as the instruction manual for Super Smash Bros. on N64 says that DK is “Mario’s former enemy.” That would only make sense if the character was either the original DK, or Donkey Kong Jr.
Cranky’s status as the original Donkey Kong isn’t pivotal to his character, and it would help to explain a few things regarding Bananza. Pauline isn’t the only one who seems younger in Donkey Kong Bananza. The game seems to suggest that Donkey Kong himself is younger, as well. When meeting Elder Kong in the game, the character refers to DK as “the young Kong.” It’s possible that most Kongs are young compared to Elder Kong, and it’s hard to draw any conclusions from this small bit of dialogue. However, it’s an interesting choice on Nintendo’s part, and it could help to explain a few things about the timeline.
If Donkey Kong Bananza really is a prequel, it does leave a lot of lingering questions: if the two characters are friends and allies in the game, what is it that leads to DK capturing Pauline in the first place? How much time passes between Bananza and the original Donkey Kong arcade game? Will Mario show up as the end boss in Bananza, also looking younger? Nintendo has yet to answer any of these questions, but there has to be some kind of an explanation, especially since Super Mario Odyssey and Donkey Kong Bananza were developed by the same team.
It’s rare that the storyline in a Nintendo published game leads to this amount of speculation. The company has always prioritized gameplay over narrative, which is how we end up with things like the (fairly complicated) Zelda timeline. However, there’s clearly some kind of plan here with Donkey Kong Bananza, and fans can’t be blamed for wanting to know how everything is going to play out. Thankfully, we’ll have some answers when the game is released on Nintendo Switch 2 on July 17th.
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