Nintendo has revealed in an interview with Japanese site Nintendo Dream that they had originally considered having adult Pauline accompany Donkey Kong in his adventures in Donkey Kong Bananza. However, when they put her on Donkey Kong’s back they realised that a smaller figure would be more suitable and would work better so they decided to use a younger version of Pauline.
Motokura: Pauline was one of the characters we originally wanted to appear in this game, but we could not find a way for her to fit well into the gameplay. Once we made a prototype for the Bananza transformations, (Naoto) Kubo made a song from that, and then once we connected the song and the transformations, the inclusion of Pauline was decided.
Why was her age set as 13?
Takahashi: In order to allow them to travel and adventure together, we put her on DK’s back. At first we tried her as an adult but a girl felt better in terms of size, and we thought that this would be the first time for many to play as DK, so as a new character this seemed to fit better.
Thanks to Edward B for sending in the news tip!
