Donkey Kong: Nintendo’s Next Hit Smash?

Emma Regan — Mon, 05 Jul 2021 13:24:29 +0000

There’s an abundance of Nintendo news for fans today as there are reports of the Donkey Kong franchise becoming the company’s next big push for multimedia products with a game, animation, merchandise and a theme park expansion reportedly in the works.

It’s A Donkey Kong World After All…

A historically reliable Nintendo insider Zippo, who has previously claimed that a new Donkey Kong game is in development with the Mario Odyssey team alongside publications from Nintendo Life, is now claiming that the video game is part of a larger push for the franchise.

I’ve been told by multiple people that Donkey Kong is the next franchise in line to follow Mario in Nintendo’s push for their game franchises to become multimedia juggernauts… This new game is not just a one off, DK is being taken seriously at the big N again, and that should be good news for fans everywhere.” – Zippo

Zippo also states that Donkey Kong is getting an animation (yet their sources do not know if it’s for a tv show or a movie), a theme park expansion, and more merchandise. Even though this is nowhere near an official announcement, there are various pieces of evidence currently floating around that are able to back these claims.

Donkey Kong Theme Park Expansion

Universal Studios is already pushing ahead with its plans to expand the Super Nintendo World theme park with a Donkey Kong-themed expansion. Super World Japan opened to the public earlier this year and it features a locked door hidden towards the north of the park that can only be described as a Donkey Kong-esque design.

The Super Nintendo World theme parks are set to open at Universal Studios around the world but the next one might not appear until 2022-23 so it isn’t clear if Donkey Kong will make it to those just yet.

Donkey Kong Animation

The Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa recently indicated that the company is exploring the potential of creating more animation content for its other game series. At the present moment, there is only a Super Mario movie in development with the studio Illumination, which has a 2022 release window for the time being.

Nintendo has always been very protective of its intellectual property, having only two previous video games adapted in the past 30 years (The Legend of Zelda animated series and the unforgettable Super Mario Movie), yet Nintendo has previously stated it has already embarked on other visual content projects, in hopes leverage its popular IP and join the battle of the online streaming services.

How do you feel about this new expansion? Are there any other video games franchises you would like to see receive this expansion?

Make sure to check out today’s The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Party articles.

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The post Donkey Kong: Nintendo’s Next Hit Smash? first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Chris Meledandri has joined Nintendo’s board of directors

Jewel Ewers — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 13:08:57 +0000

The CEO of the film and animation studio Illumination, Chris Meledandri has officially joined Nintendo’s board of directors.

Meledandri was nominated for the position in May and then had been elected on Tuesday at the same time as Nintendo’s 81st annual meeting. He is well known as the producer of the successful movie, Despicable Me and the further Minion movies that have also joined the franchise. He is the first American westerner to have an outside director role with Nintendo.

Meledandri has the significant job of producing Illumination’s Super Mario movie, with his animation skills, there’s no doubt it’ll be something to look forward to. The movie is scheduled for release in 2022.

Shuntaro Furukawa Nintendo’s president mentioned that the company has been looking forward to creating animation content for its other franchises as well, but would need to be very dependent on finding the right people who deeply understand their work.

“We would like to nominate him as a new Outside Director with the expectation that he will appropriately supervise our companyʼs management from an objective perspective while providing valuable advice to our organization, based on his broad experience and insight gained as a leader in the field of entertainment,” Nintendo spoke of Meledandri.

They also mentioned that their ‘current group of Outside Directors consists of experts such as lawyers and accountants, and as members of the Audit and Supervisory Committee, they contribute to enriching the audit and supervisory system of Nintendo’s company through their broad insight into Nintendo’s corporate management.” and continued by explaining their faith in Meledandri’s work. “We believe that the addition of Mr. Meledandri will help to ensure our balance of diversity, including global perspective, knowledge, and experience, further enhancing the effectiveness of our Board of Directors.”

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