The creators of Skylanders were once working on a new 3D Donkey Kong game for the Nintendo switch but it never happened.
There have been a lot of rumors lately about Nintendo's next console, but they've all been pretty dry technical details, such as support for 240 fps and VRRwith virtually nothing about which games might appear on the new system.
One of the few exceptions is the vague talk about a new 3D Donkey Kongbut that's complicated by the fact that rumors of a new game have been circulating since the pandemic, when the game was supposedly intended for the current Switch and the character's (and Mario's) 40th anniversary in 2021.
Finally, Nintendo didn't even mention the 40thwhich is very strange considering how much fuss they've made over other, much less notable anniversaries, and while it's believed this is because the game was repurposed as a launch title for Switch 2, it seems like things are even more complicated then that and that the original developer was… Activision?
According to two separate fan sources, Activision studio Vicarious Visions was working on a new Donkey Kong game codenamed Freedomwhich would have featured an open world environment and, as a result of the studio's experience with the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater franchise, would have seen DK roaming around on banana roller skates.
This isn't as strange as it seems, as Vicarious Visions worked on several entries in the Skylanders series in early 2010 – which for a short time were even more profitable than Call Of Duty.
That didn't last long and Vicarious Visions was recently renamed Blizzard Albany and limited to support work for Call Of Duty and Diablo, but at the time this would happen, around 2016, they had more experience with 3D platformers than almost any other western developer.
During the same period, Activision teamed up with Nintendo for the Wii U versions of Skylanders, to the point where Nintendo even created special Skylanders versions of their characters to be turned into amiibo… including Donkey Kong.
Western developers Rare and Retro Studios were responsible for both the original and modern entries in the Donkey Kong Country series, so it's not hard to imagine that Nintendo might have been looking for other Western developers to work on the franchise.
According to both DK wines and YouTube channel DidYouKnowGaming, development only lasted about six months before being canceled, although it's not clear whether Activision or Nintendo lost interest first.
What's also unclear is whether the canceled project has anything to do with the game that is believed to be currently in progress at Nintendo EPD – the company's top development studio, responsible for the likes of Super Mario Odyssey and Zelda: Tears Of TheKingdom.
Given the time frame, it's perhaps most likely that after the Activision game was canceled, Nintendo started with an entirely new game, made by EPD and intended for the 40th anniversary. When that was postponed due to the pandemic, it seems fair to imagine it then became a Switch 2 title.
That's mostly just speculation, but the fact that Activision was working on a Donkey Kong game, if only for a short period of time, seems to be true. Knowing Nintendo, it's probably also true that we'll never get to see what it would have looked like.
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