Donkey Kong joins 'Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle' hero roster

Screenshot from Donkey Kong's reveal trailer for "Mario Rabbids Kingdom Battle"YouTube/ Ubisoft US

Another iconic character is coming to the tactical role-playing video game "Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle." Video game giant Ubisoft announced that Donkey Kong (DK) will be the newest addition to the roster of playable heroes.

Ubisoft said Donkey Kong character is included in the second add-on DLC to the video game. A short trailer of DK in the video game was featured in Nintendo's upcoming 2018 video games presentation. The video shows DK saving a damsel in distress by wielding his banana boomerang to take down enemies. The villain-turned-hero is also rocking the red necktie with the letters D and K.

The upcoming DLC also includes a new story campaign and a new word.

According to Ubisoft, the development team behind "Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle" concludes that the addition of Donkey Kong will "shake things up." During an interview with Ubiblog, Ubisoft's Milan creative director Davide Soliani said, "When we first started working on Donkey Kong as a new character for a new story of Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, we started to think about how he would impact the battle system." Donkey Kong's character is well-executed according to Soliani. "He has big arms, so we wanted to use them extensively through the combat. And he's a gorilla, so it makes sense for him to have more mobility options," Soliani added.

The director also shared that Donkey Kong will bring a level of humor to the video game. Other than DK, a new story mode, and a new world, new music will also accompany Donkey Kong in the video game. Soliani stated the game's composer Grant Kirkhope brings in new music for the character and for the new contents as well. "We tried to find new sources of musical inspiration for the story while simultaneously staying true to the themes from the Donkey Kong Universe that players already love," he said.

The DLC pack containing Donkey Kong will be released in spring.