Does Kirby Spell Doom for Donkey Kong?

During last night’s Nintendo Direct, Nintendo showed off their brand new upcoming Kirby title called Kirby and the Forgotten Land, which appears to be using a similar engine to the one used to create Mario Odyssey. And from the footage, the game looks absolutely incredible, with a variety of worlds to explore, characters and enemies to interact with, and so much more! But does this announcement kill the rumored 3D Donkey Kong title folks have been batting about for the last few months?

As the trailer started, I really did think it was cinematic and we were just in for another 2D side scrolling Kirby adventure, but boy was I wrong, and happily so! I’m not the biggest fan of previous Kirby games, and while I’ve enjoyed playing them with my kids, and watching my kids play them, they’ve never been titles to pull me in. This is a title that could pull me in. Check out the trailer below!

It’s quite obvious that this title is using the Mario Odyssey engine, but one has to ask whether folks from the Mario Odyssey team are actually working on this project, or whether this team is simply using assets and code from the Odyssey team. I’m hoping it is the latter, because that would keep the rumor alive that a brand new, 3D Donkey Kong adventure is currently in development by the Odyssey team itself.

While I’m excited to see Kirby getting a full fledged, 3D adventure game, I couldn’t help being incredibly excited yet somewhat disappointed that last night’s announcement wasn’t about Donkey Kong. While I still hold out hope, I can at least get my 3D game fix by playing Super Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie on the updated Nintendo Switch Online, when those titles launch alongside other Nintendo 64 titles!