Motokura spoke about the team returning to the classic Donkey Kong design used in the arcade days, saying, "While overhauling the design, we returned to where it had all started. We took Miyamoto-san's original Donkey Kong as the basis, adding design elements from Donkey Kong Bananza here and there."

In the most predictable possible progression of events, the programmer performed surgery on a grape by attaching two fists to a Goomba. In a short clip shared by Nintendo, you can see the brown tyke walk around a rocky environment that crumbles under its mighty fists.