- Donkey Kong wears clothes in Bananza because Nintendo was “conscious” of what he would look like “from the back”
- Donkey Kong went through a redesign because his brown fur “would make for a monotonous visual”
- Producer Kenta Motokura said the character’s fur was also improved
Nintendo has explained why Donkey Kong wears clothes in the latest Switch 2 exclusive, Donkey Kong Bananza.
For as long as Donkey Kong has been around, he’s typically been portrayed completely naked (if a monkey can even be naked), but in the latest installment, the star ape underwent a makeover, in both character design and wardrobe.
According to Nintendo, the team thought to give Donkey Kong some clothes this time around because it was aware of what he would look like from behind to players.
“When controlling a character in a 3D world, the player often sees them from behind, so we were also conscious of how Donkey Kong would look from the back while he’s moving,” said producer Kenta Motokura in a recent Ask the Developer Q&A.
“The back view of Donkey Kong just looks like a mass of brown fur, which would make for a monotonous visual if we simply rendered him in 3D.”
Motokura also said that the development team was inspired to make creative adjustments to Donkey Kong’s outfit and decided to give him a snazzy tie, britches, and suspenders.
The character’s fur was also improved to “look rich and thick”, and his original design, created by Shigeru Miyamoto, has been revamped for the new game and even Mario Kart World.
“That basic Donkey Kong design has been completely revamped. While overhauling the design, we returned to where it had all started. We took Miyamoto-san’s original Donkey Kong as the basis, adding design elements from Donkey Kong Bananza here and there,” he explained.
In TechRadar Gaming’s review, hardware writer Dashiell Wood called Donkey Kong Bananza “the greatest Nintendo Switch 2 title to date, delivering an incredible destruction system that showcases the power of the new system.”
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