Leading up to the July 17 release of Donkey Kong Bananza, Nintendo has now expressed its desire for the game to define what it means to be a 3D Donkey Kong game. In a new Ask the Developer Q&A, producer Kenta Motokura spoke about wanting to define Donkey Kong for 3D gameplay, while having a separate branch for 2D games that might still be made down the line.
Responding to a question about where Donkey Kong Bananza will sit in the Donkey Kong franchise relative to other titles, Motokura spoke about creating two distinct branches for Donkey Kong–2D and 3D. Motokura cites the work his team did with the Mario games in a similar way.
“In a long-running series, novelty and continuity are both important, but we wanted this title to fully convey the appeal of Donkey Kong as a character,” Motokura said. “Meanwhile, we thought that by creating something new, leveraging our experience developing 3D Mario games, we’d have the opportunity to create two separate branches – 2D Donkey Kong and 3D Donkey Kong – just as we did with Mario games.”
“So, keeping in mind that this game will come to symbolise 3D Donkey Kong, and with the theme of bringing Donkey Kong’s strengths and new actions to the forefront, we thought the concept of ‘destruction’ would be a good fit.”
In the same Q&A, Motokura also spoke about the new design for protagonist Donkey Kong. Answering a question about the character getting a makeover in Bananza, Motokura noted that the makeover came about as a natural part of the studio’s work on the upcoming title.
“Donkey Kong Bananza sparked the creation of a design which I think better conveys the new Donkey Kong,” Motokura said. He also went on to note that Donkey Kong had also made an appearance in The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
“Outside of this game, Donkey Kong has recently appeared in The Super Mario Bros. Movie released in 2023 and in Mario Kart World, but there’s a basic character design which provided the foundation for those versions of Donkey Kong,” he continued. “That basic Donkey Kong design has been completely revamped. While overhauling the design, we returned to where it had all started. We took Miyamoto-san’s original Donkey Kong as the basis, adding design elements from Donkey Kong Bananza here and there.”
In recent interviews, Motokura and director Kazuya Takahashi revealed quite a few details about Donkey Kong Bananza and its development. Among the things the duo revealed was the fact that development of the upcoming game had started all the way back in 2017 after the team had wrapped up work on Super Mario Odyssey. This means that Bananza has been in development for eight years.
“I can’t give you very precise details. I can tell you that we started developing it after finishing Super Mario Odyssey (2017),” said Motokura.
Donkey Kong Bananza is slated for release exclusively on the Nintendo Switch 2. In the meantime, there are also rumours going around of a Nintendo Direct planned for after the game’s release.
