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Yesterday's Mario Kart World Direct didn't exactly have any mind-blowing revelations for the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 game. It did, however, potentially uncover a piece of Super Mario lore that could answer a decades-long mystery about Donkey Kong that will have massive implications for the Mushroom Kingdom.
Okay, so the one fact we do know is that Donkey Kong from the original 1981 arcade game isn't the same Donkey Kong from Donkey Kong Country, and that the original one is now Cranky Kong in the new era. However, over the years there have been conflicting reports on whether the new-age Kong is Cranky's son (Donkey Kong Jr.) or his grandson (Donkey Kong Jr. Jr.?). While the Donkey Kong Country games and Rare's version of events have always been that Cranky is his grandfather, the Super Mario Bros. Movie has DK calling him 'dad'.
In the new Nintendo Direct, while showing off the online play, there is a shot of the original Super Mario Kart cast on a billboard with their Mario Kart World variants posing in front of it. Except, Donkey Kong is posing in front of the Donkey Kong Jr. sign, which led fans on Reddit to speculate that this is direct confirmation of the Kong family tree and that the modern DK is, in fact, Donkey Kong Jr.
Nintendo low key confirming DK is DK Junior grown up in the new Nintendo Direct from r/Mario
Personally I'm still team grandson, but – just like with elements of the wild Zelda timeline – I don't even think Nintendo knows at this point. There are cases like Yoshi's Island DS, which has baby Mario and the baby version of modern DK appearing alongside each other, which would make the plumber way too young to have scrapped with Cranky and Jr. back in the original arcade games. Mario Tennis N64, on the other hand, has a young Donkey Kong Jr. appearing alongside regular modern DK, making him older than his own dad
Of course, as other users have pointed out, it could simply be that Donkey Kong Jr. isn't in the game and they are using his son as a stand-in. I mean, I'm sure that's probably not the same Koopa Troopa, given the amount Mario has stomped over the years.
Regardless, it's adding more fuel to the fire of one of the most important debates in human history – what exactly is the Kong family tree?
If this isn't a proper confirmation, hopefully we'll find out the answer to this massive mystery in Donkey Kong Bananza.
