Donkey Kong has looked pretty much the same since Rare put out Donkey Kong Country in 1994, but it looks like Mario Kart 9 might be a turning point for the character, as he now resembles his Super Mario Bros.

Donkey Kong Country's lead character artist weights in on the Switch 2 version of DK after 30 years of his design being the standard.

It appears as though Donkey Kong has a new look in the upcoming Mario Kart title, the one that's been dubbed 'Mario Kart 9' by fans. Current speculation is that the changes are based on the latest Mario movie - but regardless of origin, the changes are clear.

Mario Kart fans are divided over the huge change to Donkey Kong's design that makes the character look like he does in the new Mario movie.

The newly unveiled Mario Kart 9 game for Nintendo Switch 2 sports the first sign of the Donkey Kong redesign from the movie.

A character that Nintendo seemed to have forgotten, focusing on a very specific type of game, as seen in the Game Boy title that was released in 1994, the year in which everything would change. From the hands of British Rare,

It certainly looks different than DK's "cannonical" appearance since Kevin Bayliss from Rare redesigned him 30 years ago for Donkey Kong Country, a big departure from the 1981 arcade game that sticked even to Donkey Kong Country Returns (which releases today on Switch)... despite overwriting Miyamoto's classic design.