Now that Donkey Kong Bananza has been out within the wild for a month, all of our burning questions have been answered. We now know the way it connects to Tremendous Mario Odyssey and the way it matches in with Donkey Kong lore. The reply to the latter is that it takes an entire lot of liberty with it. All you actually need to know is that it technically occurs after the Donkey Kong Nation video games. The main points get murky past that.
I don’t significantly care about any of that, to be frank. Donkey Kong isn’t a narrative-driven collection a lot as an episodic cartoon the place the established order adjustments with every new journey. There isn’t any want for consistency, in the identical method that I don’t want a proof as to how Bugs Bunny went from preventing Nazis in World Warfare 2 to taking part in basketball with LeBron James within the Metaverse. (No, actually, don’t clarify it to me.)
Even with that perspective, there’s one piece of Donkey Kong lore that I’m a bit dissatisfied that Bananza doesn’t respect. I’m, after all, speaking about Donkey Kong Goes Dwelling, a long-forgotten kids’s music album that invented a backstory for the unique arcade sport.
Recorded and launched in 1983, Donkey Kong Goes Dwelling was the product of Child Stuff Information. The document label earned a popularity within the Nineteen Eighties for adapting standard IP, each from cartoon and video video games, into vinyl data that includes authentic songs. You probably have some distant childhood reminiscence of listening to somebody croon about kissing on a Pac-Man Christmas album, that was Child Stuff. As you possibly can surmise from that, loads of firms didn’t actually care what the document label did with their characters as soon as they gave over the rights. It was the wild west for licensed content material, and Donkey Kong Goes House is the product of that.
So, what precisely does the album inform us about Donkey Kong that Bananza rejects? In keeping with the album’s narrator, Donkey Kong grew up within the metropolis of Gamesville. He lived in a zoo that was throughout the road from Mario’s pizza parlour. Sooner or later, the zoo was shut down and all of the animals in it, together with DK, have been offered to the circus. Now, the animals get paraded via Gamesville every year every time that circus involves city.
Are you with me to date? Nice, as a result of this subsequent half is essential.
When DK nonetheless lived within the zoo, Mario and his supply woman used to go to him continuously and produce him meals. And who was that supply woman? Pauline. That’s proper: DK didn’t meet Pauline when she was trapped in a rock. She was sneaking that ape pepperoni slices via his jail bars.
Lengthy story quick, Donkey Kong will get homesick on one in all his journeys via Gamesville and breaks out of his cage in an try to return to his zoo. Sadly, they paved paradise and put up a development web site. On the identical time that is taking place, Mario sends Pauline to ship a Tremendous Duper Pizza to iconic Mario character (checks notes) Jake the Watchman. DK crosses paths with Pauline and, delighted to see his outdated buddy, takes her to the highest of the development web site. Mario has to save lots of the day in what quantities to a giant misunderstanding from a playful ape who’s simply making an attempt to relive his childhood. The entire thing ends in a grand duet the place two singers checklist out some meals orders and proclaim that Mario will simply convey you no matter you need, like an Italian Uber Eats.
Why am I so invested in some completely nonsensical lore created by a bunch of musicians who got no artistic path? It’s only a want that the weirder pockets of online game historical past have been as well-preserved as the main moments. You’ll all the time be capable to play Tremendous Mario Bros. as long as Nintendo is round, however you’ll seemingly by no means get an opportunity to understand Mario’s Recreation Gallery or I Am a Trainer: Tremendous Mario Sweater. Online game historical past is commonly tightly curated by rights holders who wish to shed outliers to create a neat, marketable timeline. It’s one thing we’ve particularly seen in Star Wars’ Disney period, as many years price of oddball spinoffs have been booted from canon. The intuition tracks from a enterprise standpoint, however context turns into a casualty of misplaced media.
Donkey Kong Goes House is a foolish assortment of (surprisingly complicated) kids’s songs, however it has a lot to show us about how Nintendo has advanced over its lifespan. You may see it notice the worth of its video games in actual time, as characters like Donkey Kong and Pauline go from being a licensing afterthought to property in want of safety. With Donkey Kong Bananza rewriting the duo’s historical past, Donkey Kong Goes Dwelling recedes additional into the ether – taking a vital element of Nintendo’s previous with it. It’s not a lot about conserving lore constant as it’s acknowledging the bizarre twists and turns that our most storied online game heroes have taken.
On the very least, I’d simply love to listen to Pauline sing “a cheese and sausage, peppercini on the facet” in a DLC. That looks like a good compromise.
