It’s one thing to successfully translate a secret in-game video game language, but it’s quite another to translate it before the game is even out – yet that’s exactly what YouTuber 2Chrispy has (somehow) managed to do in Donkey Kong Bananza.
Just like players managed to unravel the secrets in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s secret language, 2Chrispy used trailers, preview footage, and even the Nintendo Today app to decode the Ancient Monkey Scrolls in Kong’s upcoming adventure.
“In the trailer, there were a lot of hidden details,” 2Chrispy explained in a wonderful video describing his process. “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.”
After cleverly spotting that an in-game item had an official name, Chip Exchange, Chrispy was, through painstaking, frame-by-frame work, able to work out all but five characters in the banana alphabet — or “Bananabet,” as he calls it.
With his newly-discovered transcription skills, 2Chrispy has been able to translate pretty much every single sign, note, and written document seen in any footage published to date. To find out what they say, head on over to Chrispy2’s YouTube video.
For instance, in one screenshot, 2Chrispy was able to translate an overhead sign, which reads “welcome,” a neon sign that reads “factory,” and a snow level sign that reads “ice.” He then transcribed various notices that read “hint,” “item,” and a sign that said: “Message. Thank you for reading. Someone.”
“I’m excited to see what other text we’ll find in the game,” he added. “Could we see references to DK lore? Missing Kongs? Any mention of the Kremlings or King K. Rool?”
“I think Bananza is on track to be one of the most gorgeous Nintendo games I’ve seen,” we wrote in our Donkey Kong Bananza first hands-on preview. “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.”
Now that we finally have a release date and tech specs on the highly anticipated Switch successor, Nintendo Switch 2 — as well as an idea of how much first-party Nintendo games may cost on the new system — check out our deep dive into all the facts as we talk to industry experts. For more on Nintendo Switch 2, you can catch up on everything shown at last month’s Nintendo Direct. Donkey Kong Bananza comes out July 17 for $69.99, exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2.
Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
