Nintendo Korea Accidentally Leaks Character for Donkey Kong Bananza
[summaraize]
It seems that Nintendo drew up a few key art pieces for Donkey Kong Bananza that would eventually become the game’s main featured image on storefronts. While it’s pretty common for a company to do that, it seems that one of them accidentally slipped by and was shared by Nintendo on its Korean website.
While it remains mostly the same, there is one big difference: the omission of Odd Rock, the companion we see traveling with Donkey Kong. The news here is that they’ve been replaced by what fans are speculating as a returning character.
New Donkey Kong Bananza Has Fans Already Whipping Up Wild Theories
In the original key art for Donkey Kong Bananza, we can see DK along with Odd Rock (the purple rock with eyes above DK’s head in the image above). Oddly enough, Nintendo’s Korea website (archived by Reddit users) decided that it wanted to use a different key art, one that is nearly the same, with the exception of Odd Rock, which is now being replaced by an unknown character that has the fanbase theorizing. Be warned, this may be a spoiler, so if you want to go into the game as blindly as possible, now might be the time to divert your eyes.
So, just who is this character? Well, at the moment, no one really knows, though speculations from fans suggest that she’s Pauline, Mario’s original love interest in Donkey Kong 1981. She would be featured in many games afterward, with her last appearance being a singer in Super Mario Odyssey. That’s an important piece of information to remember, as Odd Rock is heard singing in all the footage shown of them so far. What’s more, if you look at the character’s hand, she’s wearing a purple bracelet that many assume indicates that she can transform into Odd Rock.
Now, if she is Pauline, this does introduce some complication, as Pauline is an adult now. This means the story of Donkey Kong Bananza may, in fact, involve time traveling of some sort. That, or Pauline was turned into a child who could turn herself into a walking, talking rock. Or perhaps this is an origin story for the character? It could also be that this isn’t her and an entirely original character.
I guess all will be revealed this July when Donkey Kong Bananza officially launches exclusively for the Switch 2.
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