Following details of a cancelled Donkey Kong project at the now-defunct development studio Vicarious Visions, supposed concept art has now surfaced online.
Known online as 'Donkey Kong Freedom' (though an extensive video from Did You Know Gaming claims that this was never the working title for the project), the game was designed to be open-world, allowing DK to 'grind' across vines with a heavy focus on traversal and fluidity.
The below image has now been shared online and was supposedly sourced from a hard drive containing promotional assets from Vicarious Visions.
Vicarious Visions was under the Activision Blizzard umbrella at the time (and still is, mind you, albeit now under the name 'Blizzard Albany'), and it was supposedly Activision who ultimately canned the project, despite involvement and support from Nintendo.
Sales of the Skylanders franchise were in rapid decline, and so Activision decided to pivot away from single-player experiences, ditching the Donkey Kong project completely.
Donkey Kong is in somewhat of a healthy state now, however, with a new title in the form of Donkey Kong Country Returns HD making its way to the Switch on 16th January 2025.