Someone has already decoded the strange, banana-like text in Donkey Kong Bananza. They have found the mon-key to unlocking it all, if you will.
As shared by Nintendo Life, last week YouTuber 2Chrispy released a video detailing how he had gone about deciphering the strange text seen throughout Donkey Kong Bananza’s trailers, gameplay footage, website and even the Nintendo Today app.
The YouTuber said after he spotted the language in Donkey Kong Bananza, he began to wonder if Nintendo had in fact hidden a secret alphabet in its upcoming game, much like it had done in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. And, it turns out it has.
Thanks to more patience than I could ever hope to possess and a good recollection of the Nintendo Treehouse presentation, 2Chrispy used the in-game term ‘Chip Exchange’ as a starting point. As a reminder, because I had forgotten, during Nintendo’s Donkey Kong Banaza Treehouse stream, a notice appeared when the player picked up a Banandium Chip. “Trade these for bananas at any Chip Exchange,” this pop up read.
2Chrispy realised the symbol for the Banandium Chip also showed up in the game above a sign with that strange text. The YouTuber noticed the text beneath this symbol had the same number of characters as the word ‘Exchange’. Additionally, the text started and ended with the same symbol, which looked a bit like a back to front E. Using this new found information, he started to fill out his “Bananabet”, looking for recurring patterns in the game’s text and using tools such as a word finder to keep the decoding efforts going.
Other words 2Chrispy managed to find included the likes of ‘Welcome’ and ‘Hint’. There is even an in-game sign players will be able to find, which according to 2Chrispy’s translations reads:
“Message. Thank you for reading. Someone.”
All in all, this really is quite an impressive feat from the YouTuber, and if you are interested in Donkey Kong Bananza’s world building, I really suggest checking out 2Chrispy’s video (see below). It’s a fascinating and really rather engaging watch.
Our Tom has already had some time with Donkey Kong Bananza, which is coming to Switch 2 on 5th June.
“Yes, everyone might have been expecting Mario, but Bananza’s brawny obliteration is far better suited to his one-time enemy,” he wrote after going hands-on with Donkey Kong Bananza.