After months of speculation by fans and games media alike, Nintendo has finally confirmed that Donkey Kong Bananza is being developed by the Super Mario Odyssey team. This information comes from a recent preview presentation attended by various outlets, including IGN and VGC, where Nintendo stated that the same staff was working on DK’s latest 3D outing. It wouldn’t confirm the exact figures working on the game, but more than likely it includes Odyssey director Kenta Motokura and producer Yoshiaki Koizumi.
IGN does bring up the absence of Koizumi from not only DK Bananza marketing, but Switch 2 marketing material in general. One of the suggestions by the outlet is that Koizumi might be currently engaged with creating another 3D Mario game, which could potentially launch at the end of this year. There’s no evidence to suggest that is the case, but considering Nintendo did that for the original Switch and we’ve heard absolutely nothing about a follow-up to 2017’s Super Mario Odyssey in the eight years since it came out, that could be happening. It’s also curious how Nintendo wouldn’t want to put him front and center for DK Bananza if he was directly involved.
Whatever the case, at least we know that Bananza is likely to come out being an instant classic. From the last Nintendo Direct, there were a shocking number of similarities to Super Mario Odyssey, so I would have been stunned if a different team made it. Nintendo’s internal teams do take inspiration from one another, but that specific style of movement feels like something Nintendo EPD has honed over decades of practice.
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
