{"id":1187042,"date":"2026-02-16T10:06:31","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T10:06:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/?p=566016"},"modified":"2026-02-16T10:06:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T10:06:31","slug":"heres-what-donkey-kong-bananza-might-have-looked-like-with-dks-old-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/heres-what-donkey-kong-bananza-might-have-looked-like-with-dks-old-design\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s what Donkey Kong Bananza might have looked like with DK\u2019s old design"},"content":{"rendered":"
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With all the hubbub about Donkey Kong\u2019s new look in Donkey Kong Bananza<\/a><\/em>, one artist took it upon themselves to reimagine what the King of Swing might have looked like in the upcoming Switch 2<\/a> game if Nintendo had stuck with previous design.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like how they portray DK in Bananza<\/em>, so I edited some of his most weirder faces and made them more faithful to Rare\u2019s design,\u201d Felipe Vald\u00e9s said in their initial X post<\/a> from April 20 before asking folks for their feedback.<\/p>\n

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Hey, so, i didnt like the redesign, and i dont like how they portray DK in Bananza, so i edited some of his most weirder faces and made them more faithful to Rare's design, what do you think? #DonkeyKongBananza<\/a> #donkey<\/a> #kong<\/a> #nintendo<\/a> #switch2<\/a> #rare<\/a> #redesign<\/a> #bananza<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/PWn1m3Ug8Z<\/a><\/p>\n

— Felipe Vald\u00e9s (@FelipeValds1122) April 20, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The edits seem to revolve around shrinking Donkey Kong\u2019s new, giant mouth and making his soft brows more rigid.<\/p>\n

Donkey Kong in Bananza<\/em> is an expressive goofball, whereas Vald\u00e9s\u2019 attempts to recreate Donkey Kong\u2019s look from Rare games like Donkey Kong Country<\/em> gives him a tougher, old-school edge. I\u2019m an old man afraid of change so, obviously, I prefer the latter, even if I appreciate Nintendo\u2019s attempts to add more ape-like silliness to his Bananza<\/em> animations.<\/p>\n

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Hi, here's a new batch of edits from bananza, I will probably do some more soon, please like and share\/repost so this can reach as many people as possible! #rare<\/a> #donkey<\/a> #kong<\/a> #DK<\/a> #DonkeyKong<\/a> #nintendo<\/a> #bananza<\/a> #switch<\/a> #rareware<\/a> #design<\/a> #edit<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/dvdCYRBQ30<\/a><\/p>\n

— Felipe Vald\u00e9s (@FelipeValds1122) April 22, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

It\u2019s worth noting, of course, that these are still images. As nice as they look, it\u2019s possible Donkey Kong\u2019s old, Rare design simply didn\u2019t work in the art style Nintendo wanted to use with Bananza<\/em>. And while I love Vald\u00e9s\u2019 work and appreciate the time they put into this passion project, it\u2019s important we don\u2019t pull a \u201cNintendo, hire this man\u201d<\/a> over some pretty edits when the work that goes into making a video game is a much more involved and intricate process. Some of us may prefer Donkey Kong\u2019s old look, but we shouldn\u2019t dismiss the efforts of Bananza<\/em>\u2019s development team in the process. The game still looks very good.<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With all the hubbub about Donkey Kong\u2019s new look in Donkey Kong Bananza, one artist took it upon themselves to reimagine what the King of Swing might have looked like in the upcoming Switch 2 game if Nintendo had stuck with previous design. \u201cI don\u2019t like how they portray DK in Bananza, so I edited some of his most weirder faces and made them more faithful to Rare\u2019s design,\u201d Felipe Vald\u00e9s said in their initial X post from April 20 before asking folks for their feedback. Hey, so, i didnt like the redesign, and i dont like how they portray DK in Bananza, so i edited some of his most weirder faces and made them more faithful to Rare's design, what do you think? #DonkeyKongBananza…<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1187043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1187042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polygon"],"yoast_head":"\nHere\u2019s what Donkey Kong Bananza might have looked like with DK\u2019s old design | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With all the hubbub about Donkey Kong\u2019s new look in Donkey Kong Bananza, one artist took it upon themselves to reimagine what the King of Swing might have\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/heres-what-donkey-kong-bananza-might-have-looked-like-with-dks-old-design\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" 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