In case the redesign wasn't enough, fans have noticed that Donkey Kong may have also nabbed a new voice actor alongside the release of Mario Kart World on Nintendo Switch 2.
Fans on the Donkey Kong subreddit have got their hands on Mario Kart World, and despite the fact you need to unlock the big ape, they have noticed that the in-game credits are missing any mention of Takashi Nagasako, who has voiced Donkey Kong since 2004's Mario Power Tennis all the way through to 2024's Super Mario Party Jamboree, as well as his dad / grandad (it's unclear) Cranky Kong.
One thing Nintendo does in its games is only list the voice actors, as opposed to listing who they play, which is how Mick Wingert was mistakenly identified as Mario's new voice actor before Kevin Afghani confirmed it was him. So no one is listed with Donkey Kong next to their name, however, one name that is in the credits is Koji Takeda, who just so happened to be the voice actor for Donkey Kong in the Japanese dub of The Super Mario Bros. Movie (also Daruk in The Legend of Zelda series).
The other big deal to come out of this is that Samantha Kelly – who has voiced Princess Peach, Toad and Toadette since 2007 – is also absent from the credits of the game. However, once again since there are no character names listed, we don't actually have a great idea of who could take over, since Anya Taylor-Joy is unsurprisingly not listed in there.
One user points out that Princess Peach Showtime would have been her last time as Peach, which is ironic as the last Peach game – Super Princess Peach – marked Jen Taylor's final time in the role.
Presumably Donkey Kong will keep this new voice going into Donkey Kong Bananza. However, there is always a chance that Nagasako will reprise his role as Cranky Kong in the upcoming game, especially since he just did voice work for the Donkey Kong Country expansion at Universal Japan. Regardless, the last few years have been an end of an era for a ton of Mario voice actors.
