Shigeru Miyamoto reveals why Nintendo changed Donkey Kong’s design

Shigeru Miyamoto, the original creator of Donkey Kong, has spoken about the decision to change Donkey Kong’s design.

DK will look quite a bit different when he stars in his upcoming game Donkey Kong Bananza. There’s been a lot of talk about the design, starting with when we got our first look at the character in the Nintendo Switch 2 announcement that gave a brief glimpse of Mario Kart World. But things actually go further back than that – Donkey Kong’s design was different in The Super Mario Bros. Movie as well.

Miyamoto told IGN the following about why Nintendo changed the design for Donkey Kong:

“So when it comes to character creation and working with characters, I still take an active role in that. And looking back to the first generation Donkey Kong Country, we worked with Rare to create Donkey Kong Country.

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. And going back to the design that Rare came up with, we reevaluated; what can we do with the design to make it more expressive? And then when it comes to the movie, we decided to move forward with this new generation Donkey Kong design.”

Donkey Kong isn’t the only character Nintendo has changed. Diddy Kong has also received an updated look, though it’s not quite as pronounced. You can check that out here.