Amid speculation over a DK-themed expansion for Mario Kart World, fans have noticed two voice actors in the credits of Donkey Kong Bananza that are also credited in the Switch 2 racer.
Major spoilers for both Donkey Kong Bananza and potential Mario Kart World DLC announcements to follow.
Despite being the stars of the Switch 2's killer game, Donkey Kong and Pauline kind of got short-changed in Mario Kart World. Both characters only got one costume each when the likes of the babies were getting at least five in what is a disgusting piece of disrespect. Naturally, this led players to speculate whether Mario Kart World is set to receive a Donkey Kong-themed expansion pack, and now that Bananza is out, that speculation is a little more well-founded.
For whatever reason, Mario Kart World didn't list the voice actors alongside their characters in the credits, which led to us only finding out the new voices for characters over a month later when the actors were allowed to confirm it. However, Donkey Kong Bananza does list characters, and players have noticed two names in common.
As pointed out on the Mario Subreddit, both Yuu Hayashi and Tsuguo Mogami are listed as voice actors in Mario Kart World, and in Donkey Kong Bananza, these two are the voices of Void Kong and King K. Rool, respectively. While the lack of voice credits in Mario Kart World does make it entirely possible that both actors voice other characters in World, paired with the conspicuous absence of DK content, it's certainly interesting.
Players have noted that King K. Rool also has a brand new emblem featured prominently during his appearance in Bananza's endgame, which seems like a perfect fit for an icon to appear on a Kart in the racing game. Of course, K. Rool's appearance in Bananza hasn't been mentioned publicly by Nintendo yet, as it's a surprise in the third act, so I can't imagine the reveal coming anytime soon, but it certainly adds to the theory that the Mario Kart World DLC will be DK-inspired.
I beat Donkey Kong Bananza feeling 100% confident about Pauline's true identity, but now I'm deep in a rabbithole of fan theories and I don't know what to believe anymore.
