Nintendo Confirms Donkey Kong Bananza Initially for Switch 1

The upcoming release of Donkey Kong Bananza, a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive, launches next week. However, it wasn't always planned that way. The developers shared that the project initially started as a game for the original Nintendo Switch.

In a recent interview with IGN, producer Kenta Motokura explained that development originally began on the first-generation Nintendo Switch. As the team developed the voxel-based technology powering Bananza's destruction system, they realized the Nintendo Switch 2 would provide the ideal platform for its implementation.

Director Kazuya Takahashi elaborated on this decision, referencing the concept of "continuity of destruction"—a core design philosophy in Donkey Kong Bananza. This approach encourages players to destroy parts of the environment to earn rewards, revealing new areas that can be demolished for further prizes, creating a chain reaction. Takahashi noted that the team saw greater potential to expand this concept on the more advanced hardware.

"This enabled us to create an exceptionally diverse range of materials and implement massive environmental transformations on the new system," he explained. "When destruction serves as your primary gameplay mechanic, preserving that moment of curiosity—when a player wonders if they can break something—is crucial. That moment of surprise creates a powerful impact, and we found it was best achieved on Switch 2."

"It wasn't just the processing capabilities of the Switch 2 that opened up exciting possibilities. The hardware itself offered features like mouse controls, which allow a second player in co-op mode to direct Pauline's vocal attacks or use DK Artist mode to sculpt large voxel structures."

This development path mirrors that of another first-party title, Mario Kart World. Prior to its release, it was revealed that Mario Kart World also originated as a Nintendo Switch 1 project before transitioning to Switch 2 to better support its open-world design and 24-player multiplayer mode.

During our conversation, Motokura and Takahashi discussed numerous aspects of Bananza, including the game's original concept and the reasoning behind Pauline's 13-year-old character design. The complete interview is available here, along with our hands-on preview of the game.