Leak: Is Donkey Kong Bananza really the prequel to Super Mario Odyssey?

As if replacing a 3D Mario with a 3D Donkey Kong as the Nintendo Switch 2 launch game wasn't already enough of a media earthquake, now it's time for crazy theories... only this time, with a very real basis.

Nintendo Korea's official website shared an official art image of Donkey Kong Bananza (which you can read our first impressions of after testing it in Paris this week) showing the gorilla protagonist with a dark-haired, familiar-faced girl hanging around his neck and looking funny. It doesn't take a genius to deduce that this is the mayor of New Donk City herself, Pauline. Interestingly, here we see a much younger Pauline, which could mean that (and here the crazy and bizarre theories begin).... Donkey Kong Bananza would be the prequel to Super Mario Odyssey. The image has been replaced with the "correct" artwork that other pages of the game carry in other countries, perhaps after a quick phone call from Miyamoto-san. But the internet is faster, always, and here's the image in question.

There is one thing that might add some weight to this claim, and that is that, as we reported in it's reveal, although neither confirmed nor denied by Nintendo, Donkey Kong Bananza is being developed by EAD Tokyo, the same studio that gave us Super Mario Odyssey.

They could also be another reason why we note that, interestingly, Pauline is the only "good" human in Mario Kart World who doesn't have a Baby version, like Peach or Daisy do.

Obviously, this is all a bit of a leap of faith, as this girl could be any other new character we're introduced to in Bananza. So far, the only thing we've seen accompanying DK on his adventure is that purple, mouthy Rare Stone that we don't even know the name of? But it turns out that the bracelet the girl is wearing has a very similar purple stone...

Bananza being Pauline's origin story could also connect both this and Odyssey to the first Donkey Kong. What if it turns out that Donkey Kong turns evil and cages her? What if some Bananza event with Pauline (if it's really her) is what causes DK to kidnap girls until a handsome Jumpman climbs up the structure to save her? Well, maybe this last part of the story is crazier than the others, but Multi-Mario-verse fever is ready to be explored in Nintendo Switch 2.