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.

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.

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.

Former Rare artist Kevin Bayliss has responded to Donkey Kong's redesign seen in the Mario Kart segment of the Switch 2 announcement. As fans quickly spotted, the gorilla has received a bit of a redesign for the next karting game.

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

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.

You'll have to put a lot of work into Donkey Kong Country Returns HD to unlock its secret world, but it's worth the effort if full completion is your goal.