Donkey Kong Bananza's Secret Language Revealed and Translated

Translating an in-game secret language is no small feat, but doing so before the game even hits the shelves? That's exactly what the YouTuber 2Chrispy has achieved with Donkey Kong Bananza. In a move reminiscent of how players deciphered the secret language in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, 2Chrispy leveraged trailers, preview footage, and the Nintendo Today app to crack the Ancient Monkey Scrolls featured in Kong's latest adventure.

In a detailed video, 2Chrispy explained his methodology, highlighting the hidden details in the trailer that caught his attention. "But the one that stuck out most to me was the banana language. Watch to see how I decoded and deciphered every monkey letter I could find," he said. By meticulously analyzing an in-game item named Chip Exchange, 2Chrispy managed to decipher almost the entire banana alphabet, or "Bananabet," as he dubs it, leaving just five characters unsolved.

With his newfound transcription skills, 2Chrispy has successfully translated a vast array of signs, notes, and documents from all available footage of Donkey Kong Bananza. To explore his findings, check out Chrispy2's YouTube video.

For example, he translated an overhead sign to read "welcome," a neon sign to read "factory," and a sign in a snow level to read "ice." Additionally, he deciphered various notices labeled "hint," "item," and a message that reads: "Message. Thank you for reading. Someone."

"I'm excited to see what other text we'll find in the game," he remarked, pondering potential references to DK lore, missing Kongs, or mentions of the Kremlings or King K. Rool.

In our Donkey Kong Bananza first hands-on preview, we noted, "I think Bananza is on track to be one of the most gorgeous Nintendo games I’ve seen. It really does take advantage of Switch 2's hardware — the environments are beautiful and DK’s animations are wonderfully expressive, and I left feeling like the next generation of first-party Nintendo games had truly arrived."

With the release date and tech specs of the highly anticipated Nintendo Switch 2 now public, along with insights into how much first-party Nintendo games may cost on the new system, dive deeper into all the details with our comprehensive analysis featuring industry experts. To stay updated, revisit everything shown at last month's Nintendo Direct. Donkey Kong Bananza is set to launch on July 17 for $69.99, exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2.