Shigeru Miyamoto Explains Why Donkey Kong Has Been Redesigned

Donkey Kong’s recent redesign has been a huge point of discussion in recent weeks, and it seems that most fans are becoming quite fond of the character’s new look.

Nintendo has been pretty quiet on why Donkey Kong went through a complete redesign, but in a new interview with IGN, the legendary Shigeru Miyamoto shed a bit more light on the subject.

Essentially, it’s all about making the character more expressive. He points to the 2004 title Donkey Kong Jungle Beat as a game that allowed for more creative expression with the character, but Nintendo wanted to evolve the design even further.

Here’s what he had to say:

“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.”

So there you have it! Pretty straightforward, really. And looking at the character in Donkey Kong Bananza, we can definitely see the fruits of Nintendo’s labour when it comes to making DK more expressive.

Kev Bayliss, the artist responsible for the DK design in Donkey Kong Country, recently expressed his approval of the redesign, stating “I don’t understand why there’s any debate to be had. It’s still DK, only better looking”.

Diddy Kong has also been redesigned, though it’s fair to say that this was a far more cautious endeavour than DK himself.