Late last week, Nintendo Prime, a well-known Nintendo YouTuber and commentator, leaked some information regarding a new upcoming 3D Donkey Kong game that is set to release for the next Nintendo console. While these are just rumors with no official confirmation from Nintendo themselves, there were a lot of details packed into this podcast revealing some of the behind-the-scenes information regarding this upcoming Donkey Kong project.
Donkey Kong as a franchise is one of the longest-standing franchises in gaming, starting in 1981 with the original Donkey Kong in arcades. According to History-Computer, this franchise has held strong for decades, living through various eras and companies throughout the years. From Rare to Retro Studios, the Donkey Kong property has seen a wide variety of iterations over the last forty years of its existence. That being said though, the most recent mainline Donkey Kong game to have released was Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze back in 2014, which means that fans are itching for a new one.
According to Dualshockers, the new Donkey Kong game that is theoretically in production has been worked on since 2017, when it was originally under production by Vicarious Visions. This going to be an open-world game was titled Donkey Kong: Freedom, however, Vicarious Visions decided to put their focus on other projects, putting the production of this game back in Nintendo’s hands. The long wait time for the game may be concerning for some, as it is not unheard of for a game with difficult production histories to fall through, however, Prime stated in the podcast that the game “…has not been canned. It is absolutely a thing that’s coming.”
Furthermore, in the podcast, Prime notes that the game is apparently now in the hands of the creators behind Super Mario Odyssey. Though he also notes that the game is not being developed by a veteran team, but rather, a younger team that took on the project themselves.
Although most of this information is vague and not confirmed yet, these potential leaks and bits of information will hopefully have fans excited for what’s to come.