Donkey Kong Bananza's Secret Language Revealed and Translated

It's one thing to successfully decipher a secret in-game language, but it's quite another to do so before the game even hits the shelves. Yet, that's exactly what the YouTuber 2Chrispy has managed to achieve with Donkey Kong Bananza.

Similar to how players unraveled the mysteries of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's secret language, 2Chrispy utilized trailers, preview footage, and the Nintendo Today app to decode the Ancient Monkey Scrolls featured in Kong's upcoming adventure.

"In the trailer, there were a lot of hidden details," 2Chrispy explained in an engaging video detailing his process. "But the one that really caught my eye was the banana language. Watch to see how I decoded and deciphered every monkey letter I could find."

After spotting that an in-game item was officially named Chip Exchange, 2Chrispy meticulously worked frame-by-frame to decipher all but five characters of the banana alphabet—or "Bananabet," as he affectionately calls it.

Donkey Kong Bananza's secret language has been translated. Image credit: 2Chrispy.

With his newly-acquired transcription skills, 2Chrispy has successfully translated nearly every sign, note, and document seen in the available footage. To discover what these translations reveal, be sure to check out 2Chrispy's YouTube video.

For example, in one screenshot, 2Chrispy translated an overhead sign reading "welcome," a neon sign indicating "factory," and a snow level sign stating "ice." He also transcribed various notices that read "hint," "item," and a sign that said: "Message. Thank you for reading. Someone."

A sign that reads "Message. Thank you for reading. Someone." Image credit: 2Chrispy.

"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?"

Our first hands-on preview of Donkey Kong Bananza described it as potentially one of the most visually stunning Nintendo games to date. "It really does take advantage of Switch 2's hardware — the environments are beautiful and DK’s animations are wonderfully expressive, leaving us convinced that the next generation of first-party Nintendo games has truly arrived."

With the release date and tech specs now announced for the highly anticipated Nintendo Switch 2, along with insights on the pricing of first-party Nintendo games on the new system, dive deep into all the facts with our industry expert discussions. Catch up on everything shown at last month's Nintendo Direct for more on Nintendo Switch 2. *Donkey Kong Bananza* is set to launch on July 17 for $69.99, exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2.