Donkey Kong is one of Nintendo’s biggest and oldest characters in its stable of mascot characters, so it’s only right that Nintendo needs to make a new game using the giant tie-wearing ape.

There are rumours floating about that Nintendo will be resurrecting the series by bringing it in-house, with development currently underway at Nintendo’s EPD. For those who don’t know, that’s the same team that worked on Super Mario Odyssey.

Sources close to YouTuber LonelyGoomba and Nintendo Life have confirmed that the upcoming Donkey Kong game will be a 2D/2.5D game and not a 3D one.

I heard an unlikely rumour that the Mario Odyssey team are working on a 3D Donkey Kong game.

I think I would actually prefer that to another 3D Mario.

— LonelyGoomba (@LonelyGoomba) May 12, 2021

This is followed up by a quote made by leaker Zippo.

“It’s the big ape’s 40th anniversary, and while I’m not sure how Nintendo is celebrating the occasion, there is a new 2D DK game being developed by EPD Tokyo. Retro is obviously busy with other things, so Nintendo has taken it upon themselves to bring DK back in as internal series.

Don’t expect the “Country” moniker to return, as EPD Tokyo are not interested in making a sequel to games they didn’t make. Diddy, Cranky and the Kremling Krew should all be returning in this instalment. It sounds like this game is launching before the end of the year. An E3 announcement seems very likely.”

Donkey Kong Country Returns & Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze were previously made by Texas-based Retro Studios. The latter game is available on Nintendo Switch; give it shot if you haven’t.