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Super Mario Odyssey director and Donkey Kong Bananza producer Kenta Motokura has said he wants there to be separate 2D and 3D branches of Donkey Kong just like with Mario.
Donkey Kong as a series has primarily been set in 2D for all of its almost 45-year history, the only exception was 1999's Donkey Kong 64 (as far as mainline games go anyway, before you mention the racing games). Rare's final DK game was a massive behemoth that just so happened to arrive before a bit of a hiatus for the series after Microsoft bought the developer, and it's taken 26 years for someone to try and make a new 3D Donkey Kong game. Not that hiatuses are out of the norm for the series, as it's been on ice for the past 11 years too, but thankfully, a return to 3D doesn't mean there won't be a 2D DK again.
In a new edition of the 'Ask a Developer' series from Nintendo, Donkey Kong Bananza producer Motokura speaks about what Bananza is bringing to the table. Motokura responds that "we wanted this title to fully convey the appeal of Donkey Kong as a character." He adds: "We thought that by creating something new, leveraging our experience developing 3D Mario games, we'd have the opportunity to create two separate branches – 2D Donkey Kong and 3D Donkey Kong – just as we did with Mario games."
While 2D Donkey Kong games are generally more hardcore platforming games compared to Mario's adventures, Motokura says, "this game will come to symbolize 3D Donkey Kong, and with the theme of bringing Donkey Kong's strengths and new actions to the forefront, we thought the concept of 'destruction' would be a good fit."
However, the question remains as to who would develop a new 2D Donkey Kong. Retro Studios has been pretty quiet since Tropical Freeze released, with Metroid Prime 4 being its first released game in a decade. Meanwhile, the only 2D Donkey Kong platformer made by Nintendo of Japan since Donkey Kong Country released was Jungle Beat – which was made by the 3D Mario team who are making Bananza.
Considering Nintendo seems to be going all in on the kong right now between Bananza, the theme park expansion, and the rumored film, hopefully it won't be long before we found out.
