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Donkey Kong Bananza’s Timeline Placement Is Absolutely Baffling

July 22, 2025

Donkey Kong Bananza is a triumphant release for the titular character, but it’s disastrous for the part of my brain that loves to think about the chronology of a long-running series. Donkey Kong is a gaming icon, starring in the arcade game that led to the Mario franchise, one of the most recognizable properties in the world.

Nintendo plays it fast and loose with story and lore in all of its games, though, and the great, destructive gameplay in Donkey Kong Bananza clearly takes the spotlight. The game is filled with all sorts of unanswered questions and weird conundrums, mostly stemming from the seemingly impossible ages of its characters.

Bananza’s Cranky Kong Appears To Be The Original Donkey Kong

New Game, Old Lore

Very early in Bananza, you can meet Cranky Kong for the first time in the Lagoon Layer. He makes a passing mention of a former rival, but a detail about said rival wearing overalls makes it a pretty explicit reference to Mario.

This part actually tracks with established Donkey Kong lore. In Rare’s Donkey Kong Country, Cranky Kong is DK’s grandfather, and the original Donkey Kong from the 1981 Donkey Kong arcade game. The arcade game predates the original Mario Bros., but features Mario as Jumpman, the player’s avatar.

Jumpman was named Mario in certain Donkey Kong promotional material, but became Mario in-game for the sequel, Donkey Kong Jr.

Similarly, Donkey Kong was also the debut of Pauline, who was originally known only as “Lady.” Pauline is positioned as Mario’s girlfriend in the arcade game, with the goal being to save her from DK, who’s captured her.

Cranky & Pauline’s Ages Don’t Make Any Sense

One Is Old, One Is Young

Pauline yelling into a microphone in Donkey Kong Bananza.

If Cranky Kong in Bananza is implied to be the Donkey Kong from Donkey Kong, then his apparent age doesn’t match Pauline’s apparent youth. Pauline has only recently made a comeback in the Mario franchise, with her big re-emergent role coming from Super Mario Odyssey, where she’s the mayor of New Donk City.

Pauline is clearly an adult in Odyssey, though – not to mention the various party games she’s appeared in, including as a character in Mario Kart World. In Donkey Kong Bananza, Pauline is a teenager.

There’s a clear incongruity with Cranky Kong being the one who kidnapped Pauline in the original arcade game, but Pauline being younger than she was. Beyond Bananza, Cranky’s age hasn’t ever made much sense in the context of the Mario franchise, where the eponymous plumber seemingly hasn’t aged.

Perhaps Kongs age very fast, or Mario ages slowly, but both speculative explanations only bring up more questions. And neither comes close to offering an answer to why Pauline is young and Cranky Kong is old in Bananza, which seemingly takes place years after the original Donkey Kong.

Is Donkey Kong Bananza A Prequel To Super Mario Odyssey?

It’s Possible, But Unlikely

One almost completely unsubstantiated explanation could be that Bananza is a prequel to Odyssey, but, again, it only brings up more questions. This really only squares the Donkey Kong Bananza timeline from Pauline’s perspective.

Pauline could fall into the underground, be rescued by DK, then grow up to be the mayor of New Donk City. None of this, however, ties back to the original Donkey Kong and the conundrum surrounding Cranky Kong’s age. “Donkey Kong” seems to be some kind of title that gets passed down between Kongs, but that’s also never been explained.

Maybe various iterations of Mario, DK, and Pauline are locked in a destined struggle akin to the prophesied recurrence of the conflict between Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf in The Legend of Zelda. Perhaps there are multiple Paulines, which could completely muddy any sort of timeline interpretation (as if it wasn’t already muddied enough).

The most likely explanation for Bananza‘s timeline placement is that there simply isn’t a set spot. Nintendo may have borrowed some characterization from Rare’s Donkey Kong games, but that doesn’t necessarily mean those games are considered canon. Bananza‘s story likely exists within a vacuum, unconnected from any other Donkey Kong or Mario games, even if there are references that seem to connect.

Nintendo Probably Doesn’t Care About The Donkey Kong Bananza Timeline

Nintendo Tried A Timeline Once

Donkey Kong and Pauline overlooking a series of islands in Donkey Kong Bananza.

The probable meta-narrative truth of the matter is that Nintendo doesn’t really bother itself with connecting games that aren’t direct sequels. The company has always approached its first-party games with a gameplay-first mindset, and Bananza is no different. A lone developer’s experiment with voxels led to the core concepts in Donkey Kong Bananza, and a story was cobbled around it.

It wouldn’t surprise me if key people at Nintendo never even gave Bananza‘s timeline placement a thought. If they did, they clearly decided it didn’t matter in the slightest. I’m all too familiar with such issues from wrestling with The Legend of Zelda timeline.

Even a direct sequel like Tears of the Kingdom has some incongruities with its predecessor, Breath of the Wild, like potentially two Ganondorfs existing at once (an impossibility according to Gerudo lore). Since Bananza‘s gameplay is the most important part – at least in Nintendo’s eyes – it doesn’t really matter if Cranky Kong is old and Pauline is young.

Especially given the original Donkey Kong came out so long ago, it’s understandable that its exceptionally bare-bones story – and the continuation thereof by another developer – wouldn’t be considered when designing Donkey Kong Bananza. This new game is clearly meant to signal a new era for the iconic character of Donkey Kong, and it’s best that it stands apart, even if it brings up some timeline questions that I can’t help but harp on.