During an IGN interview, Nintendo briefly touched on Pauline, a long-running character in the Super Mario and Donkey Kong series who is returning to Donkey Kong Bananza.

Compared to previous entries, Pauline is playing a larger role in Donkey Kong Bananza this time round, and the company confirmed during the Donkey Kong Bananza Direct that she is 13 years old.

While Nintendo didn’t explain why Pauline is 13 in the game, they want players to find out and think for themselves after playing the game, though they did mention that Pauline was introduced in the game to act as an accompanying character and narrator.

I think a lot of people were surprised when you confirmed a specific age for Pauline, that she’s 13. Why did you specify her age and why is she young in this game?

Takahashi: Well one of the important roles that we knew we wanted this character to accomplish was in accompanying Donkey Kong on his travels and acting in some cases as a bit of a narrator. And considering we would probably have both new players who are experiencing a Donkey Kong game for the first time, as well as people who are long-time fans of Donkey Kong. So we had the opportunity to offer a character that was familiar to long-time players, but had a new appearance that might be interesting for new folks as well.

Motokura: And so we’re always thinking about the setting of not just the world but also each character itself and how that’s going to impact player enjoyment in the end.

Takahashi: Now as to why 13-year-old in particular was the choice, I think that’s something that we want players to, in the course of enjoying the game, start to puzzle out, think for themselves.

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