Several weeks back, Nintendo revealed an unexpected lore detail: Pauline is only 13 years old in Donkey Kong Bananza.
This decision stands out for Nintendo, a company historically reluctant to share precise character ages in official materials. They won't even clarify Waluigi's relationship to Wario—whether they're brothers, friends, rivals, or enemies.
When we interviewed producer Kenta Motokura and director Kazuya Takahashi, we pressed them on this unusual choice. Why specify her age now? And why depict her as a teenager here when she's clearly grown up in Super Mario Odyssey and other titles?
While we didn't get a definitive explanation, Takahashi shed some light on Pauline's purpose in Bananza and why this isn't simply the same character from Odyssey.
"We envisioned Pauline as Donkey Kong's travel companion who sometimes serves as a storyteller," Takahashi explained. "With both newcomers and longtime fans experiencing the game, we wanted a familiar character redesigned to feel fresh. Every character's background influences player enjoyment, so we carefully consider these elements."
He added mysteriously: "As for why we chose age 13 specifically—that's something we want players to discover and interpret during gameplay."
Intrigued, I pressed further with little success. When asked about Donkey Kong's age, Motokura simply said, "That might be better left to player speculation."
Fair enough—it was partly a humorous question. But here's a serious one: Does this confirm an official Donkey Kong timeline? Is Bananza a prequel to Odyssey?
"Many team members worked on both games, so there are some shared approaches to character development," Takahashi responded carefully. "But we can't reveal everything now—we want players to piece together certain elements themselves."
Clearly, Pauline's age ties into the narrative, with Nintendo letting the game do the explaining. All will be revealed when Bananza launches next week.
Our interview with Motokura and Takahashi covered Bananza's development origins and its Switch 2 release strategy. Read the full discussion here, and check out our hands-on preview at this link.
