Multiple sources have reported that Nintendo may be working on a brand new 3D Donkey Kong game for the Switch successor.
According to information shared by Famiboards member Professor Chops as well as YouTuber Nintendo Prime, Nintendo had been working with Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy developer Vicarious Visions on a 3D open world Donkey Kong game for the Switch, following the release of Skylanders: SuperChargers. Legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto had allegedly been contributing design ideas and had a favorable view of the state of the project. However, due to unknown reasons, the project was shelved and development shifted over to EPD Tokyo in 2018, sometime after the launch of Super Mario Odyssey.
According to Nintendo Prime, who claims to have seen footage from the project, the project was handed over to a younger internal development team since moving over to Nintendo EPD. He further mentioned that the game was tentatively titled Donkey Kong Freedom at the time.
Professor Chops mentioned that it is often speculated that Nintendo would not be interested in investing the resources into an ambitious 3D Donkey Kong game when they could make a new 3D Mario instead. However, according to them, the game that was in development prior to the shift was in 3D. Other than a few minor details, such as Pauline being a playable character, this is they claimed to know about the original project in development at Vicarious Visions.
It is believed by both sources that this unannounced Donkey Kong game will be making an appearance as a launch title for the Nintendo Switch successor. It is speculated that it may serve as the series’ Breath of the Wild moment, with a complete rethinking of the franchise and its conventions.
Given that Miyamoto has allegedly been involved with the project since the beginning and that he has expressed interest in the past about a major revival of the Donkey Kong brand revitalization, there’s certainly some weight to the information shared by both sources. However, as with every rumor, we urge our readers to take this one with a grain of salt until some concrete evidence is available.
