Donkey Kong Bananza Ending Explained - How Does it Connect to Mario Odyssey?

Warning: this nonfiction contains spoilers for Donkey Kong Bananza.

Donkey Kong Bananza is present retired successful the wild, and 1 of the biggest burning questions up of motorboat centered connected DK’s caller champion friend: Pauline. She’s a teen successful Bananza – 13 years old, to beryllium precise – and this has led to rampant speculation that Bananza is simply a prequel to Super Mario Odyssey, which features an big Pauline surviving successful New Donk City.

We’ve played done the main communicative of Bananza and completed astir of its large post-game beats, which means we present person the answers to that question and more. But beryllium warned, we’re astir to spoil the entirety of Donkey Kong Bananza's finale. So if you’re inactive moving your mode to the Planet Core, crook backmost now, and articulation america erstwhile you’ve seen Bananza done to the extremity yourself.

Pauline and DK get successful New Donk City. | Image credit: Nintendo

Bananza yet reveals that 13-year-old Pauline does, successful fact, telephone New Donk City home, conscionable similar her Odyssey counterpart, and the story’s expansive finale takes spot successful the metropolis aft it’s been wholly overrun by the returning King K. Rool. When DK and Pauline interruption done to the surface, Pauline exclaims “This is MY city!”, confirming the instrumentality mentation that Bananza would extremity by returning Pauline location to Odyssey’s astir iconic location. But is this metropolis transportation capable to corroborate that Bananza is simply a prequel to Super Mario Odyssey?

First, immoderate inheritance connected Pauline, who is cardinal to this mystery. In Odyssey, Pauline (who’s a full-grown adult) is the Mayor of New Donk City, possibly astir memorable for her show of Jump Up, Super Star! astatine the New Donk City Festival. Teenage Pauline and Mayor Pauline stock a batch successful common: Beyond their shared name, they are some singers and performers, with overmuch of Teenage Pauline’s quality arc revolving astir gaining capable assurance to execute successful beforehand of her hometown. She besides sings the Bananza Transformation songs, and Void Kong is obsessed with the powerfulness of her voice… astatine slightest until King K. Rool boots him retired of the communicative entirely.

Based connected Pauline’s age, astir expected Bananza would beryllium a prequel to Odyssey, and perchance an root communicative for New Donk City itself. It would marque consciousness that DK, acting arsenic Pauline’s leader and champion friend, would punctual the radical to sanction the municipality aft her savior erstwhile she was safely returned. But successful Bananza, New Donk City is already established earlier DK and Pauline arrive, and during 1 of Teenage Pauline’s monologues astatine a Getaway, she references New Donk City’s nickname “The Big Banana”, a Kong-inspired parody of New York’s “The Big Apple.” It’s a nickname we’ve heard before, archetypal uttered successful Mario Odyssey by a New Donker.

Using each that arsenic a starting point, it seems that there’s really much grounds to suggest that Bananza is simply a sequel to Odyssey, and that Teenage Pauline is Mayor Pauline’s daughter, and the granddaughter of archetypal Pauline (who we’ll telephone Arcade Pauline). Let america explain.

Teenage Pauline regularly references her grandma passim Bananza, including 1 clip straight successful the main story. After the brace tally into Diddy and Dixie Kong successful the Racing Layer, Pauline says to DK during the dive to the adjacent layer, “I’m gladsome you got to spot your friends again! But if I don’t get home, Grandma volition worry.” Teenage Pauline’s Grandma is the lone household subordinate she straight mentions successful Bananza, truthful Nintendo intelligibly wants america to deliberation astir who her grandma is.

Pauline says her grandma is astatine "home", aboriginal revealed to beryllium New Donk City. | Image credit: Nintendo

The astir apt reply becomes wide erstwhile we see Donkey Kong’s grandfather: Cranky Kong. It is well-established that Cranky Kong is the archetypal Arcade Donkey Kong that kidnapped Arcade Pauline mode backmost successful the day. Bananza reinforces this lore, arsenic Cranky rants astir his aged rival who wore overalls, intelligibly referencing Mario… oregon Jumpman, arsenic our favourite plumber was primitively known. Cranky and Wrinkly Kong’s lad is Donkey Kong Jr., who - contempt what the Super Mario Bros. Movie whitethorn person tried to archer you - is not really our existent Donkey Kong. Junior starred successful the Donkey Kong Jr. arcade crippled and made assorted different playable appearances earlier being fundamentally wiped from the look of the earth. The tie-wearing Donkey Kong we cognize and emotion – archetypal introduced successful Rare’s Donkey Kong Country – is really Donkey Kong the Third, lad of Donkey Kong Jr. and an chartless Kong mother.

So, we’ve established 3 generations of DK, which brings america backmost to Pauline. Arcade Pauline and Mayor Pauline don’t look similar the aforesaid person. Arcade Pauline has blonde hair, portion the Mayor is simply a brunette. You could reason this is conscionable a quality redesign, but a billboard successful Odyssey’s New Donk City shows a blonde mentation of Pauline. Perhaps that’s conscionable a amusive easter egg, but possibly it’s a hint to canon, and we person to usage each the grounds we can. The New Donk City Festival – which sees Mario recreating gameplay from the Arcade Donkey Kong crippled – is held to “tell the communicative of our city's beginnings," according to Pauline. This implies that New Donk City was founded aft the events of the arcade game, built connected the instauration of the girders Jumpman climbed up towards Donkey Kong.

This representation of Pauline successful Super Mario Odyssey is simply a notation to the archetypal Pauline from the Donkey Kong arcade game. | Image credit: Nintendo

New Donk City is simply a sprawling metropolis, and it apt took the people of astatine slightest a quality procreation to physique it up to specified an tremendous size. That, combined with the antithetic appearances, leads america to judge that Arcade Pauline and Mayor Pauline are 2 antithetic people. Perhaps, situation we say, they are parent and daughter?

I accidental it’s imaginable that Bananza could inactive beryllium a prequel, that Mayor and Teenage Pauline are 1 and the same, and that Arcade Pauline is her grandma with a missing generational nexus betwixt them, but it feels cleaner to suggest that determination are 3 generations of Pauline: Arcade, Mayor, and Teenage, conscionable similar determination are 3 generations of DK: Arcade/Cranky, Jr., and the main DK of today.

We truly anticipation our mentation that Teenage Pauline is the granddaughter of Arcade Pauline is true, due to the fact that it’s perfectly adorable that the grandchildren of 2 of the oldest Nintendo characters person present teamed up and go champion friends successful Bananza. It’s precise chill to deliberation that Nintendo has recovered a clever mode to redefine 1 of its oldest quality dynamics implicit 40 years later. Unfortunately, completing the bulk of Bananza’s postgame contented – which are called Bananza Rehearsals and leads to Bananza’s existent last platforming situation – doesn’t truly shed immoderate much airy connected this. Pauline returns to the aboveground to execute a opus for her city, but each we spot of that is simply a caller portion of creation that appears aft the credits person rolled.

Completing Bananza's post-game contented unlocks this bonus creation that... doesn't truly archer america thing new. | Image credit: Nintendo.

So portion Bananza’s presumption arsenic a prequel whitethorn marque a batch of sense, it yet tin ne'er beryllium much than a theory. There’s conscionable not capable factual grounds from Nintendo. This mentation does rise immoderate concerning, possibly adjacent supernatural questions astir Mario, though. If helium has truly interacted with aggregate generations of Paulines and Donkey Kongs… does this mean Mario ne'er ages, portion those astir him do? Or are determination aggregate generations of Mario? Is Nintendo implying that Mario and Jumpman are 2 antithetic characters? It’s astir apt champion not to deliberation astir it excessively much.

Finally, and possibly astir crucially, it’s important to retrieve that Nintendo historically doesn’t attraction astir lore and continuity crossed its games. Even The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – a nonstop sequel to Breath of the Wild – has lore inconsistencies that are ultra-hand-waved away. So it’s rather imaginable Nintendo doesn’t adjacent person a genuinely established timeline betwixt the archetypal Donkey Kong, Odyssey, and Bananza, and conscionable loves to support fans guessing.

What bash you deliberation is going connected successful Donkey Kong Bananza? Is Teenage Pauline the girl of Mayor Pauline and granddaughter of the archetypal Pauline Cranky Kong kidnapped each those years ago, oregon are we being wholly ri-Donk-ulous? Let america cognize successful the comments!

Logan Plant is the big of Nintendo Voice Chat and IGN's Database Manager & Playlist Editor. The Legend of Zelda is his favourite video crippled franchise of each time, and helium is patiently awaiting the time Nintendo announces a marque caller F-Zero. You tin find him online @LoganJPlant.