Overview
- Donkey Kong Bananza launches on July 17 exclusively for Nintendo Switch 2 as the first fully 3D mainline title since 1999, developed by the Super Mario Odyssey team at Nintendo EPD.
- The game’s voxel-based destructible environments run at 60 FPS but experience minor frame-rate drops during large-scale smash sequences, according to developers.
- Retailers have broken street date, resulting in early copies circulating online and widespread sharing of story spoilers days before the official launch.
- Bananza represents Nintendo’s strategy to establish separate 3D and 2D Donkey Kong branches, featuring a redesign inspired by Rare-era art and recent film interpretations.
- In May 2025, Nintendo Studios LLC and Universal Pictures filed a joint US copyright for an “Untitled Donkey Kong Project; Motion picture,” marking the franchise’s expansion into cinema.