At Radio Free Nintendo, we all love the Big Ape. This is a mater of established lore, originally stated during the gone-but-not-recovered Now Playing segments.

While writing this, it lead me to contemplate if "The Big Ape" is an accurate nom de guerre* for Donkey Kong. Do not underestimate my ability to get off-track: we are now going to quote The Center for Great Apes list of things that define an Ape.

• Hair instead of fur - The difference is largely a function of how it grows. Fur generally grows to length and stops/falls out, but hair grows long as it allowed to do. DK has a quaff so I'm going to say that counts.
• Fingernails instead of claws - DK's hands are almost always clenched in a fist, but I was able to confirm fingernails in some art.
• Opposable thumbs - Fists, see above.
• Higher brain-to-body size ratio, high level of intelligence - He can tie a tie, operate vehicles, etc. Have you seen a marmot ride a rhino?
• Prehensility - Again, the fists are doing a lot of work here.
• Padded digits with fingerprints - Unknown at this time.
• Binocular vision - Depth perception is a prerequisite for his punch-based lifestyle. Fists keep winning.
• Reduced olfactory sense - Also unknown at this time.

I would say we have enough checkmarks here to conclude that DK is, in fact, an ape. However, there is an additional line from The Center for Great Apes that I find interesting:

People often confuse apes and monkeys. Although there are a number of differences between apes and monkeys (apes have a longer lifespan, larger body size, larger brain-to-body size ratio, and higher intelligence); the main difference is that monkeys have tails and apes do not have tails.

Diddy Kong is NOT an ape, is dumb, and is going to die before DK. Get wrecked, idiot.

Anyway, Donkey Kong Bananza had a Direct on Wednesday. It was about fifteen minutes of gameplay and story content - not least of which the reveal that DK's sidekick in this game is an adolescent Pauline. This raises all kinds of lore questions about the DK/Pauline relationship that everyone has already meme'd to death, so I will not indulge. The important things to remember are:

1. Pauline, as a human, is also an ape.
2. Diddy is not.
3. Diddy will depart this mortal world much earlier than DK

DK is just looking for his replacement for the doomed Diddy.

James has some lengthy, rambling, confused New Business for Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time. There are so many systems and "lives" that feed into the economy of this game, he has an impossible time offering anything other than incoherence. Mine your ore, to make a better saw, to cut down better trees, to craft better tools, to craft yet still better tools, so you can finally have a good weapon. Help.

A break was obviously needed after that segment. On the return, we have more New Business. Jon has been amassing consoles he no longer needs, and attempted to take advantage of GameStop's relatively generous trade in offers in order to upgrade his console as a bang-on effect of upgrading a different console. He was not prepared for Special Agent Steve of the GameStop InfoSec team. It's a different kind of bug hunt at GIS. Greg leads updates on Mario Kart World and F-Zero GX. It is very interesting that two of the major products for Switch 2 are racing games with unique for their series single player components. Mario Kart World is a really big game. Guillaume and James tested out the GameChat function on Switch 2, streaming a few games at each other - including F-Zero GX, Mario Kart World, and Fantasy Life i. He's also got some hands-on with the Switch 2 Pro Controller.

In an effort to do some kind of Lister Mail, this week we try to put marketing campaigns together for some of the many companies represented in Mario Kart World. You can send us your pitches here.

* As a note, it isn't an epithet, because I never refer to him as Donkey Kong The Big Ape, it's a full replacement. However, calling it a nom de guerre isn't accurate either - he didn't give it to himself to serve as an alias. This is best regarded as a nickname. I refuse to learn from this experience and will continue to confuse these title types until I rejoin the soil.

This episode was edited by Guillaume Veillette. The "Men of Leisure" theme song was produced exclusively for Radio Free Nintendo by Perry Burkum. Hear more at Perry's SoundCloud. The Radio Free Nintendo logo was produced by Connor Strickland. See what he's up to at his website.

This episode's ending music is "Jump Up, Super Star!" remix from Mario Kart World.. It was selected by Greg. All rights reserved by Nintendo Co., Ltd.