Donkey Kong Bananza's creators reflect on the game's path to delightful destruction
Destruction is at the heart of Donkey Kong Bananza . Everything in his environment can be smashed to bits. Not only is that a fun mechanic, but it also adds an element of verticality and freedom of exploration. That's an ideal fit for showcasing the Switch 2's processing power.
As with so many other Nintendo creations, the first step in getting there was a no-brainer. Consult with Shigeru Miyamoto.
"We'd built up a lot of expertise in gameplay development for 3D action games through our work on 3D Mario games, including Super Mario Odyssey ," producer Kenta Motokura said. "But we needed to dive deeper into the fundamental question of 'What is Donkey Kong?' So, our first step was to seek out Miyamoto-san and Nintendo Executive Officer Yoshiaki Koizumi."
In their talk, Miyamoto emphasized DK's moves like hand slaps and blowing. Along similar lines, Koizumi pointed to the ape's massive arms, which he uses to punch and hoist heavy objects. That got the team thinking. After all, who doesn't want to control a giant ape who runs around, breaking shit? DK slapping a platform in the 2010 game Donkey Kong Country Returns. Shigeru Miyamoto emphasized the move as a starting point for the new version. (Nintendo / Retro)
The Super Mario Odyssey team was uniquely suited to handle that challenge. First, the 2017 title included some light environmental destruction. (Think the cheese rocks in the Luncheon Kingdom and Bowser's smashing in the final level.)
The team experimented with fully destructible environments soon after Odyssey 's release. (That was long before they knew they'd make a Donkey Kong game.) That included the adorably strange idea of putting smashing fists on a Goomba and setting it loose. Part two of the interview includes a short video of one of these tests.
On a technical level, the key to that mechanic is using voxels (3D pixels). "In Super Mario Odyssey , we started using voxels midway through development, so the areas where we could apply them were limited," Motukura said. "But the trial and error we went through back then directly led to what we were able to do in Donkey Kong Bananza ."
Another interesting tidbit from the interview is that they started working on the game as a Switch 1 title. "We originally began developing Donkey Kong Bananza on Nintendo Switch, but we ran into some challenges," Motokura said. "I think it was around 2021 when we started to think about moving development to Switch 2." In the comparison image below, you can see a much richer environment in the Switch 2 version.
Art director Daisuke Watanabe explained that the new console's hardware opened new doors. "We first looked into how we could upgrade what we'd originally built for Switch to take advantage of Switch 2," Watanabe said. "One of the most obvious improvements was that we could place far more objects in the environment than before. Being able to place more objects in the terrain didn't just enhance the game's visual richness. More importantly, it increased the amount of things players could destroy, which amplified the exhilaration of being able to demolish anything and everything."
There are many more nuggets in Nintendo's interview. This includes animal transformations and Pauline's role in the game. (She must be the forgiving type, given how they started.) The chat also explores how DK's modern art style evolved.
You can visit Nintendo's website for the full lowdown. Donkey Kong Bananza will be available tomorrow, July 17.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
WIRED
3 hours ago
- WIRED
Mix Up Your Gameplay With Our Favorite Controllers for the Switch 2
The launch of Switch 2 brings with it a selection of retro GameCube games for subscribers to the Nintendo Switch Online service. As it did for the NES, SNES, N64, and even Sega Genesis/Mega Drive when games from those platforms joined the library, Nintendo has released a perfect recreation of the original controller, allowing you to play those classic games as authentically as possible. For anyone who was gaming when the GameCube was first around, it's slightly surreal to now have a perfect recreation of the original controller that's wireless but not the bulkier WaveBird model. It's no bad thing, though, and decades-old muscle memory will soon kick in. Younger players might find the unusually-shaped controller odd at first, with its tiny nub of a C-Stick and its chunky, rounded shoulder triggers, but after a few laps of F-Zero GX , you soon realize how perfectly tailored the controller was for its games. For the modern update, Nintendo has tweaked the design slightly, incorporating controls specific to the Switch 2–namely the Home, screen capture, and C buttons—at the top of the pad, and added a tiny new ZL button on the left-hand shoulder. That helps make this GameCube pad broadly compatible with some modern Switch and Switch 2 games, though not a perfect match—the Start button here mimics the Switch 2's plus (+) button, there's nothing to replicate the minus (-) button, and it lacks newer features such as clickable thumbsticks. However, availability is a problem for this controller. It's only available directly from Nintendo's online store, can only be purchased if you have an active Nintendo Switch Online subscription, and is limited to one unit per account in the US, but two per account in the UK. AccordionItemContainerButton Ultimate authenticity for GameCube games Partial compatibility with modern games Not every Switch 2 game requires the motion controls of the Joy-Con 2s, which is why the console comes with a basic grip frame, allowing you to slot the two individual controllers into either side for one, more conventionally arranged, joypad. While that will do in a pinch if you want to play games sitting on the couch, with the console docked to your TV, the official Nintendo Charging Grip offers a few noteworthy upgrades. One is simply the power delivery feature—connect a USB-C cable into the top of the Charging Grip and you can game for as long as you like, or leave the combined unit to charge when not playing. It comes with a 1.5-meter USB-A to USB-C cable, allowing you to connect this to the ports on the side of the Switch 2's dock for charging. It also incorporates the new GL and GR buttons on the underside, as found on the Switch 2 Pro Controller. As with that pad, they can be customized on a per-game basis, but in my tests, it doesn't seem to remember settings between play sessions. Still, it's a handy feature, and remapping controls is quick and easy. Being able to quickly attach and detach the Joy-Con 2s is also great for any games that switch between various control modes. In terms of design and ergonomics, it has some weaknesses, though. A translucent shell is an odd decision given nothing else about Switch 2 takes that approach, while the front of the grips—where the base of your thumbs rest—is flat rather than rounded, with an edge that can dig in after a while. It also lacks the 3.5-mm audio jack of the Pro Controller, but given that this is less than half the price, it makes for a good halfway house. AccordionItemContainerButton Power delivery Customizable GL/GR buttons Good price No audio jack Pointlessly translucent Doesn't remember GL/GR mapping between sessions
Digital Trends
4 hours ago
- Digital Trends
Donkey Kong Bananza speedruns are going to go bananas and I can't wait to see them
A few layers into Donkey Kong Bananza, I came across an objective that left me stumped. I was to reach a platform and slam a button — a common task in the game — but with the problem being its placement. This specific button was on a small, floating island high above any other natural land formation in the level. There was no vantage point I could climb and leap from, and I had yet to learn the Ostrich Bananza at this point, so flying there was out of the question. This was a perplexing puzzle because nearly all other challenges up to that point could be solved via destruction. I could dig under or break through obstacles, but I couldn't dig up. Or could I? A memory of one of the later trailers for Bananza came to mind, where we saw DK on a beach throwing clumps of sand to create a makeshift land bridge reaching out over the water. Curious, I scooped up a clump of material from the ground, aimed, and attempted to stick it to the bottom of the platform. It worked. I repeated the process, slowly but steadily sculpting a crude and jagged stalagmite of sorts that I could eventually climb up and reach my objective. Despite the tedium, the rush of creating my own solution was euphoric. Recommended Videos Only when I came back down did I realize the 'intended' way to reach the platform. Off to one side was a platform that would extend as you ran across it in Zebra form through the air and eventually end at the platform. I liked my solution better. What I came up with was infinitely slower than the way most people will likely approach this specific challenge, but it made one thing very clear to me: speedruns of this game are going to be insane. Breaking a game that wants to be broken Speedrunning has been gaining a ton of traction over the past two decades. While it is still somewhat niche in the grand scheme of things, most gamers are at least familiar with the concept, if they don't tune in for one of the big annual speedrunning charity events. The majority of them focus on, you guessed it, beating games as fast as possible, but there are a ton of other styles and categories to make things more fun, challenging, or strange. Not all games are built for speedrunning, however. The games that draw the most attention from runners and viewers have a blend of mechanical depth in controls and movement options, plus fun tricks to bypass and 'break' the game to beat it faster. Most Mario games are a perfect example of this, with Mario 64 being one of the most popular speedrunning games of all time thanks to the skill ceiling in movement, challenging routes to complete, and various categories and ways to beat the game quickly. In short, it is as fun to play as it is to watch. Donkey Kong Bananza has all the ingredients it needs to spawn a huge speedrunning scene. DK's base moveset isn't quite on the same level as Mario's, but is incredibly versatile. He can obviously run and jump, but rolling lets him move faster, he can roll in mid-air for a small double jump, plus all the ways you can use chunks to augment your movement. And that's just what I've noticed as a casual player. Once someone who is trying to break the game open has time to master DK's moveset, I have no doubt I'll see the game being played in ways I never would've thought possible. (Between the time I wrote this article and it was set to publish, a speedrunner has already found a way to skip the entirety of the last layer of the Canyon layer, including the boss fight less than 24 hours after the game came out) The Bananza transformations each add new ways to enhance DK's movement and destructive powers that are primed for speedrunning. I don't need to explain how being able to break concrete, dash, or fly for a duration of time can be exploited to reach areas early and out of order, but what I do know is that there's one very important feature of the Bananza system that speedrunners will love: you can change Banaza forms on the fly without reverting back to normal or going into a menu. If there's some strange interaction that can happen where you phase through the floor or get rocketed across the map by changing form in just the right spot or in a specific circumstance, someone is going to find it. And how could I not mention the most obvious aspect of Donkey Kong Bananza that make it a speedrunner's dream; the fully destructive environments. Sure, we can all imagine how digging through a level in the just the right way could bypass a ton of stuff, but speedrunners won't stop there. Just like with Bananza forms, a lot of crazy things could be possible with that much freedom. I almost don't even want to guess how glitching into the walls or clipping will be used here and just want to wait to see it for myself. Every speedrun has some roadblocks that slow things down. These are typically things like cutscenes or unskippable animations. In Mario games, a lot of time is spent watching animations after collecting Stars, Moons, or whatever else, which is why there are categories for beating the game with as few collectibles as possible. Donkey Kong Bananza has hundreds upon hundreds of collectibles, including bananas, and each one you collect stops the game for a moment to watch DK munch it down. The more bananas in the bunch you're collecting, the longer the animation takes for him to eat them all. But here's the thing: you don't need to collect any bananas in Donkey Kong Bananza as far as I can tell. Maybe there's one as part of the tutorial or something, but no part of the game is gated off by an arbitrary banana requirement. They only serve to give you skill points to level up, but speedrunners won't need that. Unless there's a trick that saves time in the long run that requires leveling up, I doubt anyone will bother collecting a single one. The speedrunning community is such a fantastic group working together to crack games wide open and see who can master them. It isn't done out of malice, but as a celebration of our favorite games and wanting to show what's possible within them. Nintendo games have always been big hits within the speedrunning community. Now that I've finished my playthrough of Donkey Kong Bananza, I can't wait to see what the pros do with it.
The Verge
5 hours ago
- The Verge
The Switch 2's next killer app is already here
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 90, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, hope you're staying cool, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I have been watching The Bear's fourth season, preparing for the deluge of Qi2.2 wireless chargers, pondering how I'll use the upcoming Bigfoot emoji to troll my group chats, studying the relaunched EmojiTracker, reading this giant profile of NBA star Joel Embiid, enjoying Pixar's Hoppers teaser trailer way more than I expected, learning who Alex Warren is, and wondering if I should actually watch all of Stranger Things after seeing the fifth and final season's new trailer. I also have for you a new Donkey Kong title, OpenAI's next big AI agent, a customizable gamepad, and more. Let's dive in. (As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What do you want to know more about? What awesome tricks do you know that everyone else should? What app should everyone be using? Tell me everything: installer@ And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, forward it to them and tell them to subscribe here.) Today, I'm featuring Molly White, who you may know as the author of the incomparable Web3 is Going Just Great, which chronicles how crypto, blockchain, and Web3 technologies are not going great. White also writes the Citation Needed newsletter and is a Wikipedia admin. And I highly recommend her talk at the 2024 XOXO Festival about good things on the web, which I got to see live. Here's her homescreen and her explanation of what's on it. The phone: Pixel 7. I'm of the 'drive it until the wheels fall off' type when it comes to electronics, so this three-year-old phone is actually somewhat on the new end for me. The wallpaper: A photo of my cat, Ruthie. The apps: The apps are all labeled, save for the quickbar ones: Signal, Bluesky, Proton Mail, Google Calendar, and Chrome. The two cut-off names are Pocket Casts and CloudLibrary. Signal is my primary messaging app both for my work and for personal use, and I highly recommend it. Out of end-to-end encrypted messaging platforms, it's an excellent choice — and I think everyone should strongly consider using E2EE to protect their privacy, regardless of whether they think they need it or not. You'll also see Tor on the screen; that's a privacy-focused web browser that I use frequently. I'm a big reader, so it's probably not surprising that three of the apps on the home screen are book-related. CloudLibrary and Libby are the apps my libraries use for their digital lending, which is primarily how I get the audiobooks I enjoy listening to while I walk my dog (when I'm not listening to podcasts on Pocket Casts, that is). StoryGraph is how I keep track of all the books I read, and it's a strong improvement over Goodreads. I just finished listening to the audiobook for Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, which was very good. I'm a very heavy RSS user, and Inoreader is my RSS reader. It's perhaps a bit ironic as someone who writes an email newsletter that I don't like reading newsletters in my email inbox, but I much prefer to sit down and read my newsletters at my preferred reading time than have them interrupt me throughout my day. I've got hundreds of feeds that I follow, and Inoreader also has a great feature where it can convert email newsletters that don't offer built-in RSS feeds (for shame!) into a feed. Probably half of the feeds I follow are food blogs for recipe ideas, and good recipes go into Paprika, a fantastic recipe app that I also use for grocery lists. I've been using that app for years, and as a frequent cook I've collected about 800 recipes in there by now. I also asked Molly to share a few things she's into right now: Here's what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you're into right now as well! Email installer@ with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we'll feature some of our favorites here every week. For even more great recommendations, check out the replies to this post on The Verge, this post on Threads, and this post on Bluesky. 'Got an Nvidia Shield TV Pro (2019) for the upscaling feature and watched the best single episode of television — 'The Constant,' Lost. It's like getting a DAC and in-ear monitors to re-listen to your old favorites.' – Allen [Jay note: 'The Constant' is, indeed, the best single episode of television.] 'Donkey Kong Bananza! It's got four main buttons: Smash things in front, smash things below, smash things above, jump. Needless to say it's the most cathartic game I've ever played.' – BaltMatrix 'For reasons surely not related to current events, I've been reading a lot about the leadup to the Civil War. Most recently it has been Charles Sumner: Conscience of a Nation, a newly released biography by Zaakir Tameez about one of the most misunderstood and now largely forgotten figures of the abolitionist movement.' – Hoto 'I've been playing through my Steam Summer Sale haul and having a blast. (Cyberpunk 2077, Besiege, Emily is Away, Nubby Number Factory, A Short Hike.) I've also gotten into Letterboxed recently, having fun there after recruiting some friends to join. Lastly, one of my all-time favorite podcasts, 13 Minutes Presents, just started their third season, this one about the Space Shuttle. Can't recommend the first season about the Apollo 11 moon landing enough.' – trekkie86 'Started reading The Anthropologists. Breezy, lovely writing!' – Jake 'It may be clichéd, but reading Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams. And watching Superman has gotten me into reading the Superman comics, so from a Reddit recommendation, I'm currently reading Superman: Up in the Sky by Tom King.' – pangaean 'Been playing Dance Dance Revolution with a mat I got online as my indoor summer (and air conditioned) exercise! Works on PC with the included USB stick with StepMania and on my old PS2, still chugging along with original discs from childhood. It's been humbling to say the least, but great cardio!' – WhatsTheMatter I'm debating going caseless with my iPhone 16 Pro. I have generally always disliked cases, but I put one on my iPhone 12 Mini years ago after the screen got an errant scratch at the beach, and now I get cases out of habit. Every time I take the case off, my phone just feels way better to hold, but then I inevitably get scared and put the case on again. Should I live dangerously? Or should a case be the base? Help me solve this quandary. Also, do you use a case with your phone, and if so, which one? I've always assumed everyone has a case, but maybe they don't. See you next week!
