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Remember back in April there was that rumor we reported about Pauline being in Donkey Kong Bananza? Well, it turns out the rumor was indeed true, as a young Pauline will indeed be joining DK on his latest adventure. Confirmed during yesterday’s Direct broadcast, Nintendo showed off the character and how she’ll factor into gameplay.
First off, Pauline is no mere travel buddy—her signature singing actually plays a very important role throughout Bananza. Pauline’s vocals, in combination with Bananergy that the duo collects, can imbue DK with new abilities, powering up and even transforming him. Some of those transformations include:
- Kong Bananza: makes Donkey Kong super strong
- Zebra Bananza: makes Donkey Kong faster and lets him dash for short distances
- Ostrich Bananza: allows Donkey Kong to fly and drop Egg Bombs on enemies
That is, naturally, not the end of the list, as DK will be able to access other powers and abilities as the game progresses.
Pauline is also controllable as a second player (not unlike Cappy in Super Mario Odyssey—which honestly lends further credence to that other rumor about Bananza being made by the Odyssey team). Using a Joy-Con 2 controller’s mouse functionality, you can have Pauline utilize her vocal blasts. GameShare allows players to share the game and play in co-op with someone else locally even if they don’t have their own copy of the game. This will even work on an original Switch, which is nice.
Donkey Kong Bananza launches July 17, 2025.
