Warning: this text accommodates spoilers for Donkey Kong Bananza.
Donkey Kong Bananza is now out within the wild, and one of many largest burning questions forward of launch centered on DK’s new finest buddy: Pauline. She’s an adolescent in Bananza – 13 years outdated, to be exact – and this has led to rampant hypothesis that Bananza is a prequel to Tremendous Mario Odyssey, which options an grownup Pauline dwelling in New Donk Metropolis.
We’ve performed by means of the primary story of Bananza and accomplished most of its main post-game beats, which suggests we now have the solutions to that query and extra. However be warned, we’re about to spoil everything of Donkey Kong Bananza’s finale. So for those who’re nonetheless working your solution to the Planet Core, flip again now, and be a part of us when you’ve seen Bananza by means of to the tip 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 Okay. Rool. When DK and Pauline break by means of to the floor, Pauline exclaims “That is MY metropolis!”, confirming the fan idea 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 Soar Up, Tremendous Star! on the New Donk Metropolis Pageant. Teenage Pauline and Mayor Pauline share loads 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 facility of her voice… a minimum of till King Okay. Rool boots him out of the story totally.
Primarily based on Pauline’s age, most anticipated Bananza can 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 finest buddy, 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 considered one of Teenage Pauline’s monologues at a Getaway, she references New Donk Metropolis’s nickname “The Huge Banana”, a Kong-inspired parody of New York’s “The Huge 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 truly extra proof to recommend that Bananza is a sequel to Odyssey, and that Teenage Pauline is Mayor Pauline’s daughter, and the granddaughter of authentic Pauline (who we’ll name Arcade Pauline). Allow us to clarify.
Teenage Pauline commonly references her grandmother all through Bananza, together with one time immediately in the primary 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 subsequent 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 immediately mentions in Bananza, so Nintendo clearly needs us to consider who her grandma is.
The almost certainly reply turns into clear after we think about Donkey Kong’s grandfather: Cranky Kong. It’s well-established that Cranky Kong is the unique Arcade Donkey Kong that kidnapped Arcade Pauline manner again within the day. Bananza reinforces this lore, as Cranky rants about his outdated 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 might have tried to inform you – shouldn’t be truly our present Donkey Kong. Junior starred within the Donkey Kong Jr. arcade recreation and made varied 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 appear to be the identical particular person. Arcade Pauline has blonde hair, whereas the Mayor is a brunette. You would 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 are able to. The New Donk Metropolis Pageant – which sees Mario recreating gameplay from the Arcade Donkey Kong recreation – is held to “inform the story of our metropolis’s beginnings,” in accordance with Pauline. This means that New Donk Metropolis was based after the occasions of the arcade recreation, constructed on the muse of the girders Jumpman climbed up in direction of Donkey Kong.
New Donk Metropolis is a sprawling metropolis, and it possible took the course of a minimum of a human era to construct it as much as such an infinite measurement. That, mixed with the completely different appearances, leads us to imagine that Arcade Pauline and Mayor Pauline are two completely different individuals. Maybe, dare we are saying, they’re mom and daughter?
I suppose it’s potential that Bananza may 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, however it feels cleaner to recommend that there are three generations of Pauline: Arcade, Mayor, and Teenage, similar to there are three generations of DK: Arcade/Cranky, Jr., and the primary DK of at the moment.
We actually hope our idea 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 turn out to be finest buddies in Bananza. It’s very cool to suppose that Nintendo has discovered a intelligent solution to redefine considered 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 last platforming problem – doesn’t actually shed any extra gentle on this. Pauline returns to the floor to carry out a track 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 might make loads of sense, it in the end can by no means be greater than a idea. There’s simply not sufficient concrete proof from Nintendo. This idea does increase some regarding, maybe even 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 completely different characters? It’s most likely finest 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 are ultra-hand-waved away. So it’s fairly potential 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 declares a model new F-Zero. Yow will discover him on-line @LoganJPlant.