Donkey Kong Bananza

Donkey Kong Bananza^[b] is an upcoming platform game developed by Nintendo EPD for the Nintendo Switch 2. The player controls the gorilla Donkey Kong, who ventures underground with a young Pauline to recover stolen banana-shaped diamonds from a group of villainous apes. It plays similarly to EPD's Super Mario Odyssey (2017), with players exploring sandbox-like levels while completing objectives, battling enemies, and collecting objects. Bananza is distinguished by its destructible environments; the player can destroy most terrain to create paths and find items.

Bananza was the first Donkey Kong game that Nintendo developed internally since Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (2004) and was developed by the same EPD division behind Odyssey. The development began on the original Nintendo Switch, but shifted to the Switch 2 after EPD determined that it would better realize their concepts. EPD used the voxel technology that allowed players to manipulate terrain in some Odyssey levels to a significantly greater degree, designing large, destructible worlds emphasizing Donkey Kong's strength. The soundtrack comprises rearrangements of David Wise and Grant Kirkhope's music from the Rare-developed Donkey Kong games alongside new material.

Bananza is the first original Donkey Kong game since Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (2014) and the first 3D platformer since Donkey Kong 64 (1999). It is scheduled for release on July 17, 2025.

Donkey Kong Bananza is a 3D platformer and adventure game that emphasizes destruction and open-world exploration.^[2][3] As the gorilla Donkey Kong, the player seeks to collect the Banandium Gems,^[1] golden banana-shaped diamonds,^[4][5] while exploring sandbox-like levels in an underground world.^[6][7] Each underground layer has a unique theme, including ice, lava, and tropical biomes.^[8]

Donkey Kong can roll,^[9] punch, slap the terrain, pick up and throw objects, and climb most surfaces.^[3][10] Banandium Gems can be used to upgrade Donkey Kong's abilities from a skill tree. Players learn animal-themed power-up transformations from non-player character (NPC) elders, including one that increases Donkey Kong's strength, a zebra transformation that increases his speed, and an ostrich transformation that allows him to glide and drop egg bombs. The player can use and swap between transformations at any time, though their duration is limited by an energy meter.^[1]

Journalists have compared Bananza to Super Mario Odyssey (2017),^[5][10][11] some describing it as a successor.^[c] The player completes missions, solves puzzles, and fights enemies to collect Banandium Gems.^[6][10] Banandium Gems function similarly to Odyssey's Power Moons and are obtained by progressing through the story or found through exploration.^[6] While exploring, the player discovers secluded areas where they must complete challenges including platforming, solving puzzles, defeating enemies within a time limit, and mining for gold.^[6][15] They are rewarded Banandium Gems or gold upon completion.^[6] Some areas contain side-scrolling sections,^[16] which pay homage to the Donkey Kong Country games,^[13][17] and minecarts.^[7]

The player can receive advice from, assist, and obtain Banandium Gems from NPCs, including Donkey Kong characters such as Cranky Kong, Diddy Kong, Dixie Kong, and Rambi.^[1][18][19] When Bananza starts, Donkey Kong befriends Odd Rock, an anthropomorphic purple stone who directs him towards objectives.^[2][20] As the game progresses, Odd Rock is revealed to be a young Pauline, who can use her singing voice to activate Donkey Kong's transformations, remove seals, and, if a second player controls her in a co-op mode, emit explosive projectiles.^[8][21] Bananza supports GameShare, allowing a second player to control Pauline locally or online on another Nintendo Switch 2, or locally on an original Nintendo Switch.^[1]

Bananza is distinguished by its destructible environments:^[16] Donkey Kong can smash almost every surface and destroy terrain.^[5][20] He can rip pieces of the environment from the ground or walls and throw them to uncover items or destroy enemies,^[6][12] or use them as snowboards.^[9] Soft terrain can be stacked to create new paths.^[8] Destroying environments allows for varied traversal;^[20] for instance, Donkey Kong can dig underground and create a path to another area of the world.^[12] He can also uncover Banandium Gems by digging.^[5] The extent to which the player can destroy the environment is limited by a layer of unbreakable bedrock at the bottom of each level.^[18] Large bosses block the routes that link each layer, and the player must defeat each to progress.^[8] Progress is tracked in a 3D world map,^[6] and giant eels allow players to fast travel to different layers or across the current layer.^[8]

Other collectibles include gold, which serves as currency and fuel for transformations; balloons, which rescue Donkey Kong from bottomless pits; Banandium Chips, coins that the player can trade for Banandium Gems; fossils, which the player can trade for clothing to customize Donkey Kong and Pauline; and tracks for an in-game music player.^[1][14] Bananza features Amiibo support; scanning a Bananza-themed Donkey Kong and Pauline figure unlocks a special costume for Pauline,^[22] and existing Donkey Kong Amiibo (Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, King K. Rool, and Super Nintendo World bands) summon explosive gold tiles.^[1][8] Other Amiibo summon spheres with special properties that assist traversal.^[22] A photo mode allows players to use a free-moving camera to take and customize screenshots,^[8] and an art creation mode, DK Artist, allows them to carve and paint sculptures using the Joy-Con 2's mouse functionality.^[23]

Donkey Kong Bananza begins when Donkey Kong travels to the Ingot Isle to obtain recently-discovered Banandium Gems amidst a gold rush.^[5][1][13] He is swept underground by a storm while searching and discovers Hollow Earth-like terrain.^[1] VoidCo.,^[4] a gang of villainous apes,^[11] steals the Banandium Gems as they seek to reach the planet's core, where, according to legend, one can have their greatest wish granted.^[1] The game was leaked ahead of release,^[24] and a leak posted on Chinese fourm on July 14th, revealed that King K. Rool, the antagonist from Rareware's Donkey Kong games, is a twist villain who is revealed near the end of the game.^[25]

Donkey Kong Bananza was developed by the same division of Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development (EPD) that developed Super Mario Odyssey.^[26] It was the first Donkey Kong game developed internally since Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (2004),^[27] and the first 3D Donkey Kong platformer since Donkey Kong 64 (1999).^[28] It was directed by Kazuya Takahashi, while the Odyssey director Kenta Motokura, who worked as a character artist on Jungle Beat,^[29] served as producer.^[27] Donkey Kong's creator Shigeru Miyamoto served as a consultant.^[29] The title is a play on the words banana and bonanza.^[29]

Bananza was conceived when the EPD deputy general manager, Yoshiaki Koizumi, who directed Jungle Beat, suggested the Odyssey team develop a 3D Donkey Kong game. The team consulted Miyamoto to get a better understanding of Donkey Kong. Koizumi and Miyamoto emphasized Donkey Kong's strength, with Koizumi highlighting his large arms as distinguishing him from Mario. Concurrently, a programmer conducted experiments with voxel technology, which was used to a limited degree in Odyssey to allow Mario to dig through cheese and plow snow. The team realized that Donkey Kong's physical strength was a good fit for the technology,^[27] and development began after Odyssey's completion.^[29]

Bananza's development began on the original Nintendo Switch, but shifted to the Switch 2, which EPD determined would better realize their concepts.^[30] Kouichi Kawamoto, who led the Switch 2's development, cited Bananza's destructible environments as an example of gameplay made possible by the improved processing speed over the original Switch;^[31] the Switch 2 allowed EPD to expand the scope with larger, richer environments. Takahashi said the team was also enticed by the Switch 2's support for mouse controls, which they implemented in the co-op mode and DK Artist. The entirety of Bananza's terrain is made from voxels, which Motokura said was the primary factor distinguishing it from Odyssey.^[32]

Motokura said they created the levels to exploit Donkey Kong's strength.^[32] Players can continuously destroy terrain,^[33] and Takahashi said that the discoveries players make from destruction, as well as the addition of a skill tree, made for a gameplay loop different from Odyssey's.^[32] The team developed a new virtual camera system so players would be able to see while digging underground. Motokura described designing Donkey Kong's punch as one of the most difficult elements, as EPD wanted to avoid the punching becoming boring. This required minute refinements to various systems, including the sound design, controller rumble, and camera effects.^[34] They used effects such as slow motion and freeze frames to add emphasis.^[29]

Bananza did not have a singular influence,^[29] but EPD revisited various Donkey Kong games for inspiration. They sought to honor the franchise's history and revive elements they felt would mesh well with the destructible environments.^[32] Takahashi replayed every Donkey Kong game after he was assigned to direct Bananza and cited Donkey Kong Country (1994) as a particular influence.^[29] He said the team used the voxel technology to present returning elements, including minecarts, barrel cannons, and Animal Friends such as Rambi, in new ways; Motokura added that they did not want to rely solely on nostalgia. They wanted to satisfy veteran players who enjoyed previous Donkey Kong games while appealing to new ones who were alienated by the franchise's high difficulty level, so they included the skill tree, an easier game mode, and co-op features as options.^[32]

The Rare artist Kevin Bayliss redesigned Donkey Kong for Donkey Kong Country; this design was used until 2025.^[34] For Bananza, Nintendo redesigned Donkey Kong to resemble his appearance in The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) and Mario Kart World (2025).^[32] Nintendo combined elements from earlier Donkey Kong's portrayals, such as the expressiveness of Miyamoto's original design and his more cool and adventurous Country depiction.^[32] They wanted to create a unique depiction while remaining true to Miyamoto's vision and accounting for how different generations of Donkey Kong fans saw the character.^[34]

When determining the other Donkey Kong characters to include, EPD referenced the original Donkey Kong (1981) to acknowledge that Donkey Kong coexists with human characters. They attempted to balance the human world with the Country series' animal characters. Character inclusions were a source of debate, though Motokura mandated that Cranky Kong, a character he enjoys, be included. Diddy Kong, Donkey Kong's sidekick in previous games, was relegated to a cameo.^[34]

Early in development, EPD decided that another character would accompany Donkey Kong. Though one developer suggested Pauline, a specific character was not included in the software design description. Motokura recalled that the team revisited the Pauline idea when implementing Donkey Kong's zebra transformation. The composer wrote music for the transformation sequence, and the team decided to turn it into a song that Pauline—who had been established as a singer in Odyssey^[33]—could perform. Motokura and Takahashi credited Pauline's inclusion as a human guide for the player with helping many of their ideas take form.^[32]

EPD placed a strong emphasis on music due to Pauline's inclusion.^[34] Bananza features rearrangements of David Wise and Grant Kirkhope's music from the Rare-developed Donkey Kong games,^[14] including Donkey Kong Country,^[35] Donkey Kong Country 2 (1995),^[36] and Donkey Kong 64,^[37] though neither was involved as a composer.^[38] Kirkhope was amused to learn that Bananza would include a remix of Donkey Kong 64's "DK Rap", which he called "the worst rap track in the history of rap tracks".^[39]

Nintendo announced Donkey Kong Bananza in a Nintendo Direct presentation on April 2, 2025. It is scheduled for release for the Nintendo Switch 2 on July 17.^[40] It will be the first original Donkey Kong game since Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (2014).^[41] Nintendo broadcast a Bananza-focused Direct on June 18.^[42]

• Official website