Nintendohas this weird habit of not telling anyone which of its development teams are working on its new games. It’s particularly annoying when it’s painfully obvious, as is the case withDonkey Kong Bananza. Even more evidence has emerged suggesting the team behind Nintendo’s recent 3D Mario games has played a role in the nextSwitch 2exclusive’s creation.
Nintendo has been using its Today app to reveal news and share better looks at some of its upcoming games. Over the weekend, Nintendo Today users got a first look at some new screenshots from Donkey Kong Bananza.Stealth40khas shared those screenshots on Twitter, and they feature banana crystals that look a lot like the moons fromSuper Mario Odyssey.
As Stealth notes, the collectible bananas in Bananza follow a 3D Mario pattern years in the making. Moons were the collectibles in Odyssey, Stars were up for grabs inSuper Mario 64and theSuper Mario Galaxygames, and you were tasked with gathering sprites inSuper Mario Sunshine. Collectibles have been at the core of every mainline 3D Mario game so far, and now they’re going to be a key feature in Bananza too.
Stars, Sprites, Moons, And Now Bananas
If The 3D Mario Team Didn’t Help Make This Game, I’ll Eat My Switch 2
Not only that, but the new screenshots, which are the best look at the collectible bananas we’ve seen so far, show that the crystals are very similar to Odyssey’s moons. While most are individual bananas, some are in bunches. In Odyssey, most of the moons waiting to be found are alone, but some of them are bunched together, usually waiting to be found after key moments along Odyssey’s critical path.
If there is a direct line to be drawn between Odyseey’s moons and Bananza’s bananas, then the upcoming Donkey Kong might be a lot bigger than any of us are currently picturing. There are 880 Power Moons hidden throughout Odyssey. If Bananza is a similarly sized game created by the same developers, then we’re going to have a lot of fruit to find.
Even though Bananza is now only one month and one day away, we still know surprisingly little about it. What we do know is it’s a 3D platformer that seemingly lets Donkey Kong dig down into the earth below him and explore wherever he is in its world. If accurate, that would give its devs a lot of places to hide those bananas. We also don’t know what role Pauline will play in the game afterher inclusion was accidentally leaked via some key art shown in South Korea.
