Random: Donkey Kong Country artists react to Nintendo’s redesign
We seem to have our first look at the Mario Kart 9 in the Switch 2 trailer, and one thing you might notice is that the character designs are similar but look a little different.
Perhaps the highlight is Donkey Kong’s new look, which is said to be a redesign. It’s been a little bit talking point in the DK and Super Mario fandomand now we’ve actually heard back from the artist behind DK’s modern (and arguably most iconic) look – formerly Rare and The country tricked Kong veteran Kevin Bayliss.
He said “everything changes” and “change is good” to respond to fan videos via YouTube channel ‘LUIZ by Trade’ suggests that Nintendo took Rare’s design away from Kong and reverted to DK’s previous look.
Kevin Bayliss: “You can take KONG out of the Country, but you can’t take the Country out of Kong! (I love it – this is really funny! – Everything changes! – Change is good!)”
We took a poll on Nintendo Life last week about DK’s redesign, and nearly half of respondents seemed satisfied with his new look on Switch 2. In addition to Kevin’s version, As the trailer above mentions, DK was originally created by Shigeru Miyamoto, with Shigehisa Nakaue also participated for many years.
The reveal of DK’s redesign actually happened after its release Donkey Kong Country Returns HD last week, this is an original game released by the team behind Metroid Prime series, Retro Studios.
