Donkey Kong Bananza Ending Defined – How Does it Connect with Mario Odyssey?

Warning: this text accommodates spoilers for Donkey Kong Bananza.

Donkey Kong Bananza is now out within the wild, and one of many greatest burning questions forward of launch centered on DK’s new greatest pal: Pauline. She’s a youngster in Bananza – 13 years previous, to be exact – and this has led to rampant hypothesis that Bananza is a prequel to Tremendous Mario Odyssey, which options an grownup Pauline residing in New Donk Metropolis.

We’ve performed by means of the principle story of Bananza and accomplished most of its main post-game beats, which implies we now have the solutions to that query and extra. However be warned, we’re about to spoil the whole lot of Donkey Kong Bananza’s finale. So in case you’re nonetheless working your option to the Planet Core, flip again now, and be part of us when you’ve seen Bananza by means of to the top your self.

Bananza ultimately reveals that 13-year-old Pauline does, actually, name New Donk Metropolis house, similar to her Odyssey counterpart, and the story’s grand finale takes place within the metropolis after it’s been fully overrun by the returning King Ok. Rool. When DK and Pauline break by means of to the floor, Pauline exclaims “That is MY metropolis!”, confirming the fan concept that Bananza would finish by returning Pauline house to Odyssey’s most iconic location. However is that this metropolis connection sufficient to verify that Bananza is a prequel to Tremendous Mario Odyssey?

First, some background on Pauline, who’s central to this thriller. In Odyssey, Pauline (who’s a full-grown grownup) is the Mayor of New Donk Metropolis, maybe most memorable for her efficiency of Leap Up, Tremendous Star! on the New Donk Metropolis Competition. Teenage Pauline and Mayor Pauline share quite a bit in frequent: Past their shared identify, they’re each singers and performers, with a lot of Teenage Pauline’s character arc revolving round gaining sufficient confidence to carry out in entrance of her hometown. She additionally sings the Bananza Transformation songs, and Void Kong is obsessive about the ability of her voice… at the least till King Ok. Rool boots him out of the story fully.

Primarily based on Pauline’s age, most anticipated Bananza could be a prequel to Odyssey, and probably an origin story for New Donk Metropolis itself. It might make sense that DK, performing as Pauline’s hero and greatest pal, would immediate the individuals to call the city after her savior as soon as she was safely returned. However in Bananza, New Donk Metropolis is already established earlier than DK and Pauline arrive, and through certainly one of Teenage Pauline’s monologues at a Getaway, she references New Donk Metropolis’s nickname “The Large Banana”, a Kong-inspired parody of New York’s “The Large Apple.” It’s a nickname we’ve heard earlier than, first uttered in Mario Odyssey by a New Donker.

Utilizing all that as a place to begin, evidently there’s really extra proof to counsel that Bananza is a sequel to Odyssey, and that Teenage Pauline is Mayor Pauline’s daughter, and the granddaughter of unique Pauline (who we’ll name Arcade Pauline). Allow us to clarify.

Teenage Pauline repeatedly references her grandmother all through Bananza, together with one time straight in the principle story. After the pair run into Diddy and Dixie Kong within the Racing Layer, Pauline says to DK in the course of the dive to the following layer, “I’m glad you bought to see your mates once more! But when I don’t get house, Grandma will fear.” Teenage Pauline’s Grandma is the one member of the family she straight mentions in Bananza, so Nintendo clearly needs us to consider who her grandma is.

The almost definitely reply turns into clear after we contemplate Donkey Kong’s grandfather: Cranky Kong. It’s well-established that Cranky Kong is the unique Arcade Donkey Kong that kidnapped Arcade Pauline approach again within the day. Bananza reinforces this lore, as Cranky rants about his previous rival who wore overalls, clearly referencing Mario… or Jumpman, as our favourite plumber was initially recognized. Cranky and Wrinkly Kong’s son is Donkey Kong Jr., who – regardless of what the Tremendous Mario Bros. Film could have tried to inform you – is just not really our present Donkey Kong. Junior starred within the Donkey Kong Jr. arcade recreation and made numerous different playable appearances earlier than being primarily wiped from the face of the earth. The tie-wearing Donkey Kong we all know and love – first launched in Uncommon’s Donkey Kong Nation – is definitely Donkey Kong the Third, son of Donkey Kong Jr. and an unknown Kong mom.

So, we’ve established three generations of DK, which brings us again to Pauline. Arcade Pauline and Mayor Pauline don’t seem like the identical individual. Arcade Pauline has blonde hair, whereas the Mayor is a brunette. You could possibly argue that is only a character redesign, however a billboard in Odyssey’s New Donk Metropolis exhibits a blonde model of Pauline. Maybe that’s only a enjoyable easter egg, however maybe it’s a clue to canon, and now we have to make use of all of the proof we will. The New Donk Metropolis Competition – which sees Mario recreating gameplay from the Arcade Donkey Kong recreation – is held to “inform the story of our metropolis’s beginnings,” in response to Pauline. This suggests that New Donk Metropolis was based after the occasions of the arcade recreation, constructed on the inspiration of the girders Jumpman climbed up in direction of Donkey Kong.

New Donk Metropolis is a sprawling metropolis, and it doubtless took the course of at the least a human era to construct it as much as such an unlimited measurement. That, mixed with the totally different appearances, leads us to imagine that Arcade Pauline and Mayor Pauline are two totally different individuals. Maybe, dare we are saying, they’re mom and daughter?

I suppose it’s doable that Bananza might nonetheless be a prequel, that Mayor and Teenage Pauline are one and the identical, and that Arcade Pauline is her grandmother with a lacking generational hyperlink between them, nevertheless it feels cleaner to counsel that there are three generations of Pauline: Arcade, Mayor, and Teenage, similar to there are three generations of DK: Arcade/Cranky, Jr., and the principle DK of in the present day.

We actually hope our concept that Teenage Pauline is the granddaughter of Arcade Pauline is true, as a result of it’s completely lovable that the grandchildren of two of the oldest Nintendo characters have now teamed up and develop into greatest mates in Bananza. It’s very cool to suppose that Nintendo has discovered a intelligent option to redefine certainly one of its oldest character dynamics over 40 years later. Sadly, finishing the majority of Bananza’s postgame content material – that are known as Bananza Rehearsals and results in Bananza’s true ultimate platforming problem – doesn’t actually shed any extra gentle on this. Pauline returns to the floor to carry out a tune for her metropolis, however all we see of that may be a new piece of artwork that seems after the credit have rolled.

So whereas Bananza’s place as a prequel could make loads of sense, it finally can by no means be greater than a concept. There’s simply not sufficient concrete proof from Nintendo. This concept does elevate some regarding, even perhaps supernatural questions on Mario, although. If he has actually interacted with a number of generations of Paulines and Donkey Kongs… does this imply Mario by no means ages, whereas these round him do? Or are there a number of generations of Mario? Is Nintendo implying that Mario and Jumpman are two totally different characters? It’s in all probability greatest not to consider it an excessive amount of.

Lastly, and maybe most crucially, it’s necessary to keep in mind that Nintendo traditionally doesn’t care about lore and continuity throughout its video games. Even The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – a direct sequel to Breath of the Wild – has lore inconsistencies which can be ultra-hand-waved away. So it’s fairly doable Nintendo doesn’t actually have a really established timeline between the unique Donkey Kong, Odyssey, and Bananza, and simply likes to maintain followers guessing.

What do you suppose is happening in Donkey Kong Bananza? Is Teenage Pauline the daughter of Mayor Pauline and granddaughter of the unique Pauline Cranky Kong kidnapped all these years in the past, or are we being fully ri-Donk-ulous? Tell us within the feedback!

Logan Plant is the host of Nintendo Voice Chat and IGN’s Database Supervisor & Playlist Editor. The Legend of Zelda is his favourite online game franchise of all time, and he’s patiently awaiting the day Nintendo publicizes a model new F-Zero. You could find him on-line @LoganJPlant.