Nintendorecently revealedDonkey Kong Bananza has been in development for a very long timeand that, likeMario Kart World,it was originally supposed to be a Nintendo Switch game. Now, Nintendo has gone a step further, sharing screenshots that demonstrate why it made the call to pivot and make DK’s next 3D adventure aSwitch 2exclusive instead.
SinceBananzais now only two days away,the latest edition of Nintendo’s Ask The Developer seriesis all about its upcoming exclusive. When asked about the decision to pivot and make Bananza a Switch 2 game rather than a release onthe original Switch, producer Kenta Motokura revealed the decision was made in 2021, so long before the rest of the world knew about the Switch 2.
Donkey Kong Bananza looked a lot different when it was being developed for the original Switch
Nintendo has shared the receipts to prove it
Designer Daisuke Watanabe takes over and explains that, by making Bananza a Switch 2 game, the development team could fill the game’s environment with a lot more stuff, arguably a necessity considering the premise of the game is to have DK destroy said stuff. To demonstrate just how big a difference the decision to make Bananza a next-gen console made, Nintendo has shared a comparison that shows what Bananza would have looked like had it stuck to the original plan and launched on the OG Switch.
The images show Donkey Kong and Pauline standing in the same spot in Bananza, but the image on the left is from a Switch graphics assessment, while the image on the right was captured on the Switch 2. The OG environment in the Switch version is almost empty. Barely any foliage, the ground is far less detailed, and even DK himself is a little more bare as the monkey mascot isn’t wearing any braces.
In the same image on the right, captured on the Switch 2, DK and Pauline are surrounded by plants and trees, and the ground in front of them is peppered with rocks and debris. The crystal they’re moving towards also has additional details, emitting light up into the sky, or vice versa, and the ostrich-shaped mound off in the distance has a lot more detail in the Switch 2 screenshot than it does in the original.
Watanabe clarifies that the ability to place more objects in Bananza’s environment, if it were developed for the Switch 2, was as much about the destructive core of the game as it was about making it look more aesthetically pleasing. “It increased the amount of things players could destroy, which amplified the exhilaration of being able to demolish anything and everything. That went hand in hand with the game’s core concept of destruction. It convinced us that this game would be even more fun if we developed it for Switch 2.”
We now know thatBananza has been developed by the same team that created Super Mario Odyssey, so expectations are pretty high since that’s considered to be the best 3D platformer of all time by many. In 48 hours, we’ll be able to find out if Bananza lives up to that hype.
