Donkey Kong Bananza started development after Super Mario Odyssey was finished, Nintendo has said, and work first began on the original Switch console.
The forthcoming game is the first 3D game featuring Nintendo’s gorilla since Donkey Kong 64, but in an interview with La Vanguardia, Bonanza’s producer Kenta Motokura stated the team felt “this was the right time to develop this game”.
When asked when development began, Motokura replied: “Although I can’t give you very precise details, I can tell you that we started developing it after finishing Super Mario Odyssey (2017)” (via machine translation).
Later in the interview, director Kazuya Takahashi discussed how Donkey Kong Bananza’s focus on destruction was only made possible on the Switch 2.
“As we mentioned before, we wanted to generate continuity through chain destruction, and to do this we needed to place a large number of destructible objects,” said Takahashi. “This was only possible on Switch 2, which allowed so many elements to be placed on the screen, as well as different materials and large-scale destruction. In addition, to increase the feeling of satisfaction when destroying, we have put a lot of care into the effects and sounds, and also in the appearance of the objects that are destroyed.”
Nintendo confirmed earlier this month Donkey Kong Bananza has been developed by the team responsible for Super Mario Odyssey.
Earlier today we reported Nintendo has registered copyright for a Donkey Kong film, which will likely follow the forthcoming Mario film sequel and Legend of Zelda film.