Donkey Kong Bananza vs. Harmony

Today Nintendo has aired a Direct for Donkey Kong Bananza and the game looks quite phenomenal, they are truly doing something fresh and grand with this classic IP. The Direct revealed a young Pauline as DK's singing sidekick and since this is likely coming from the creators of Super Mario Odyssey, it feels like a potential prequel to that game, where Pauline became the mayor of New Donk City. Some more connections between Donkey Kong and Super Mario, besides the usual Mario Karting, certainly wouldn't hurt. After all, it all began with Donkey Kong on Arcade.

Anyway, something about the footage felt quite familiar to me and it wasn't the Super Mario Odyssey style and outfits. It was about a singing girl riding on some big animal, who can even transform into bigger animals with the power of "Bananza", like a running Zebra and a flying Ostrich. It reminds me of the cancelled game by Retro Studios, called "Harmony", where a demo of it was leaked alongside a Nintendo Switch devkit dump earlier this year.

You can read some technical stuff about it on TCRF. There also used to be some footage of it, but it was taken down, where you will have to settle for a video from Arlo. Anyway, in the game you were going to play a redheaded girl, who sings to summon different creatures, like some grassy plant giant, who even has a similar statue to Donkey Kong. And then she is riding on their tops as you control these creatures, just like young Pauline on Donkey Kong. It wasn't anything amazing, so I'm not disappointed that this project didn't go anywhere, but to me it seems like some essence of this is going to live on with Donkey Kong Bananza.

Since the Harmony demo is from 2017, the prototyping Switch days, I doubt that Bananza had any influence on its cancellation. Like, the similarities could have been considered a problem, but I feel like it's more likely that there was a healthy influence. Maybe there was and we could hear about this in the developer interviews. Maybe Retro Studios was even involved in the development somewhat, but they were busy with Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, so it's doubtful.

In any case, the duo of Donkey Kong and Pauline has a lot more charm, so I certainly prefer that direction. And this truly has to manifest in the next Super Smash Bros. game somehow – I don't want the old Donkey Kong anymore, I want DK & Pauline. The Kong Bananza could even become his Final Smash.

Another game that I was reminded of by the footage is Tears of the Kingdom. The Lagoon Layer looks a lot like the Sky Islands. And the giant holes that lead down to the next layer feel a lot like the chasms into the Depths. If only the digging would have been as smooth in that game...