After months of us all pretending that we hadn’t seenthatpiece of artwork,Nintendohas finally confirmed thatDonkey Kong Bananzais bringing back Pauline.
As great as Mario Kart World is, the most exciting launch window game for the Switch 2 isunarguably Donkey Kong Bananza. We’ve been waiting for the big guy to get a new game for some time, and Bananza looks to be a massive evolution for the character, whichmakes sense since it’s seemingly made by the Mario Odyssey team.
That being said, there’s very little that weactuallyknow about Donkey Kong Bananza so far.Aside from some previews (which I was lucky enough to take part in) and the first trailer, Nintendo has been keeping things very hush-hush.The silence just ended thanks to a Bananza Directthat finally confirmed Pauline’s involvement in the game.
Donkey Kong Bananza Direct Confirms Odd Rock Is Pauline
Like We Didn’t All Already Know
As was announced earlier in the week,Nintendo just hosted a Donkey Kong Bananza Direct that gave us our best look at the game so far. Alongside sharing more about how it actually plays and what you’ll be doing in the game, the Direct finally confirmed for good that Odd Rock isn’t what they seemed to be.
The start of the Direct featured a heavy focus on DK and Odd Rock, who was quickly revealed to be a younger Pauline, who was somehow trapped inside the rock itself. We still don’t really know why that’s happened, but we do know that Pauline becomes DK’s new companion throughout the game.
Don’t even ask me what this means for Bananza’s place in the Mario timeline. It could be a prequel, but it could also be time-travelling shennanigans.
Of course, none of this should come as a massive surprise if you’ve been paying even a little bit of attention to Bananza since it was revealed.The Korean Nintendo website accidentally showed a different version of the game’s key artthat featured a younger-looking Pauline wrapped around Donkey Kong’s neck instead of Odd Rock, which basically spoiled the big reveal.
