GameSpot may receive revenue from affiliate and advertising partnerships for sharing this content and from purchases through links.

There’s a new voice for Donkey Kong–one of Nintendo’s biggest mascots. The credits for Donkey Kong Bananza unveil that Kouji Takeda is the person behind the titular ape. It’s actually not Takeda’s first time voicing Donkey Kong, with previous experience on the Japanese dub of The Super Mario Bros. Movie as well as last month’s Mario Kart World.

According to IGN, Takeda has replaced Takashi Nagasako, who voiced Donkey Kong for over two decades. Meanwhile, there’s a new voice for Pauline as well in Donkey Kong Bananza, with Jenny Kidd taking over the English role from Kate Higgins, who had voiced her in Super Mario Odyssey.

“,”480”:”nnnnnnnnnn“}},”device”:”other”,”isDevice”:false,”isLiveStream”:false,”videoType”:”video-on-demand”,”countdownTime”:0,”guid”:”gs-2300-6466195″,”ageGateCookieName”:”videoAgeGateBirthday”,”watchedCookieName”:”watchedVideoIds”,”watchedCookieDays”:1,”postPlayMax”:100,”adCall”:{“host”:”http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?”,”params”:{“iu”:”/5441/vaw-gamespot/desktop/gamespot.com”,”impl”:”s”,”gdfp_req”:1,”env”:”vp”,”output”:”xml_vmap1″,”unviewed_position_start”:1,”url”:”[referrer_url]”,”correlator”:”[timestamp]”,”description_url”:”[description_url]”,”cmsid”:2566084,”vid”:6466195,”pp”:”vpaid_js”},”custParams”:{“ptype”:”news_article”,”cid”:”gs-1100-6533238″,”game”:”donkey-kong-bananza”,”genre”:”3d,action,platformer”,”con”:”nintendo-switch-2″,”publisher”:”nintendo”,”embed”:”autoplay”,”franchise”:”donkey-kong”,”category”:”games”,”franchiseRoot”:”donkey-kong”,”partner”:”desktop/gamespot.com”,”vid”:6466195},”soundBasedSize”:{“normal”:”640×480″,”muted”:”640×483″,”none”:”640×480″},”daiSsbUrl”:”https://dai.google.com/ondemand/hls/content/2572465/vid/6466195/master.m3u8″,”daiMidRollHost”:2500176},”uvpHi5Ima”:”https://s0.2mdn.net/instream/html5/ima3.js”,”cuePoints”:null,”uvpc”:””,”partner”:”gamespot”,”adPartner”:”desktop/gamespot.com”,”desktopAdPartner”:”desktop%2Fgamespot.com”,”mobileAdPartner”:”mobile_web%2Fgamespot.com_mobile”,”mapp”:”gamespot”,”cms”:”pi”,”seekablePlaybacks”:[“html5″,”uvpjs”],”tracking”:[{“name”:”SiteCatalyst”,”category”:”qos”,”enabled”:true,”params”:[{“name”:”charSet”,”value”:”UTF-8″},{“name”:”currencyCode”,”value”:”USD”},{“name”:”siteType”,”value”:”responsive web”},{“name”:”trackingServer”,”value”:”saa.gamespot.com”},{“name”:”visitorNamespace”,”value”:”cbsinteractive”},{“name”:”heartbeatTrackingServer”,”value”:”newimagitasinc.hb.omtrdc.net”},{“name”:”heartbeatVisitorMarketingCloudOrgId”,”value”:”3C66570E5FE1A4AB0A495FFC@AdobeOrg”},{“name”:”partnerID”,”value”:”gamespot”},{“name”:”siteCode”,”value”:”gamespot”},{“name”:”brand”,”value”:”gamespot”},{“name”:”account”,”value”:”cbsigamespotsite”},{“name”:”edition”,”value”:”us”}]},{“name”:”ComScore_ss”,”category”:”qos”,”enabled”:true,”params”:[{“name”:”c2″,”value”:”31824268″},{“name”:”publishersSecret”,”value”:”2cb08ca4d095dd734a374dff8422c2e5″},{“name”:”c3″,”value”:””},{“name”:”partnerID”,”value”:”gamespot”},{“name”:”c4″,”value”:”gamespot”}]},{“name”:”NielsenTracking”,”category”:”tracking”,”enabled”:true,”params”:[{“name”:”host”,”value”:”https://secure-us.imrworldwide.com/cgi-bin/m?”},{“name”:”scCI”,”value”:”us-200330″},{“name”:”scC6″,”value”:”vc,c01″}]},{“name”:”MuxQOSPluginJS”,”category”:”qos”,”enabled”:true,”params”:[{“name”:”propertyKey”,”value”:”b7d6e48b7461a61cb6e863a62″}]}],”trackingAccount”:”cbsigamespotsite”,”trackingSiteCode”:”gs”,”trackingPrimaryId”:”cbsigamespotsite”,”videoAssetSource”:”GameSpot”,”uvpjsHostname”:”//www.gamespot.com”,”siteType”:”responsive web”,”startMuted”:false,”screenMediumThumb”:”https://www.gamespot.com/a/uploads/screen_medium/1574/15746725/4533190-site.jpg”,”videoStreams”:{“adaptive_stream”:”https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/IAPvNo2d.m3u8″},”userId”:0,”premium”:false,”datePublished”:1752695100,”videoAdPartner”:”desktop%2Fgamespot.com”,”videoAdMobilePartner”:”mobile_web%2Fgamespot.com_mobile”}” data-non-iframe-embed=”1″ data-jw-context-name=”gamespot” data-jw-media-id=”IAPvNo2d” data-jw-player-url=”https://cdn.jwplayer.com/libraries/VXc5h4Tf.js” data-jw-video-token data-has-youtube data-youtube-icon-path=”https://www.gamespot.com/a/bundles/phoenixsite/images/core/loose/icn-youtube-30×30.png” id=”video-rectangle”>

Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?

Sign up or Sign in now!

Please use a html5 video capable browser to watch videos.

This video has an invalid file format.

Sorry, but you can’t access this content!

Now Playing: Donkey Kong Bananza GameSpot Review

Nintendo has seemingly been switching many of the voice actors behind the company’s collection of characters over the past few years. For instance, recently Princess Peach and Toad voice actor Samantha Kelly says she was replaced after 18 years with Mario Kart World. In 2023, Charles Martinet stepped back from voicing Mario after being behind the character since Super Mario 64 in 1996. Last month, Martinet explained that he won’t say anything weird as Mario for fans to preserve the character’s “integrity.”

As for Takeda, the actor actually has contributed to a couple of other big-name Nintendo games, too. Takeda voiced Master Mummy in Arms and Daruk in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Meanwhile, Donkey Kong Bananza launched today on Nintendo Switch 2. The game exists because Nintendo executive Yoshiaka Koizumi asked the Super Mario Odyssey team to look into a 3D Donkey Kong project. For more, check out GameSpot’s Donkey Kong Bananza review.

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com