Nintendo has released a new Ask the Developer Vol. 19, which dives into the making of Donkey Kong Bananza, the latest 3D Donkey Kong adventure set to launch on Nintendo Switch 2 on July 17, 2025. So as you read this article, it's already available. This installment of Nintendo’s long running interview series features producer Kenta Motokura alongside directors Kazuya Takahashi and Wataru Tanaka, art director Daisuke Watanabe, and sound director Naoto Kubo, each sharing insights into the game’s concept, technology, and design philosophy.
Most of the core team cut their teeth on Nintendo’s celebrated 3D Mario titles. Motokura, known for directing Super Mario 3D World and Super Mario Odyssey, crafted Bananza’s overall concept and player controls. Takahashi lent his experience in open world RPGs to level design, cutscenes, and in game text. Tanaka oversaw programming performance and enemy behavior on Switch 2, while Watanabe steered the game’s art direction and Kubo shaped everything from music composition to Foley recordings for environmental sounds.
The project began when Yoshiaki Koizumi challenged the 3D Mario crew to expand Donkey Kong’s franchise: “With an eye to expanding the Donkey Kong franchise further, I’d like the team that’s been working on 3D Mario games to create a 3D Donkey Kong game.” Determined to honor Donkey Kong’s legacy, from Miyamoto’s original arcade hit to Rare’s Country series, the team immediately consulted Shigeru Miyamoto and Koizumi to answer the fundamental question, “What is Donkey Kong?”.
Redesigning Donkey Kong proved a hot topic in development. Watanabe notes that Donkey Kong’s portrayal has swung from cool jungle king to lovable goofball across titles, so the art team “strove for a design that would get to the core of what makes Donkey Kong who he is.” By revisiting Miyamoto’s earliest illustrations, they preserved iconic traits, like his pointy hairdo, while ensuring Donkey Kong’s size and presence felt fresh and expressive in 3D space.
To channel Donkey Kong’s raw power, the team centered gameplay on environment destruction. Motokura explains, “we thought the concept of ‘destruction’ would be a good fit” for showcasing DK’s strength. Early tests even toyed with equipping Goombas with giant hands to smash terrain, leading to the adoption of voxel technology. By treating every object, ground, foliage, enemies, as a grid of cubic elements, the game lets players obliterate almost anything. Transitioning development from the original Switch to Switch 2 allowed for far more destructible objects, intensifying the exhilarating feedback loop of demolition and discovery.
Sound and music play a pivotal role in sustaining the thrill of destruction. Kubo describes how the team recorded thousands of Foley variations, rocks, sand, even watermelon, to ensure each smash “was pleasant to the ears without being tiring or repetitive.” For dramatic moments, he composed dynamic tracks that shift seamlessly between upbeat jungle grooves and more mysterious or dreamlike melodies, reflecting the ebb and flow of each game layer.
The core idea behind Donkey Kong Bananza’s gameplay mechanics was to make every moment feel like you’re wielding the raw power of Kong himself. Producer Kenta Motokura explains, “We started with the simple question: what does it feel like to be Donkey Kong? The answer was always destruction, unleashing unstoppable force on your surroundings.” From day one, the team built prototypes that let Kong punch, ground pound and charge with exaggerated weight and impact, so that every action conveyed tangible heft and momentum.
To nail those sensations, lead programmer Wataru Tanaka adapted Nintendo’s underlying 3D engine to Kong’s unique physics profile. “We increased Kong’s mass parameters by nearly 30 percent compared to Mario, then re-tuned gravity and friction so his jumps had a heavier hang time,” Tanaka says. Early tests revealed that if Kong felt too sluggish, the joy of toppling trees and towers evaporated, so they iterated constantly, tweaking acceleration curves and fine tuning the controller’s vibration feedback to match each stomping step.
Art director Daisuke Watanabe championed a voxel-driven destruction system to back the gameplay’s promise of environmental mayhem. “We divided every breakable object, rocks, crates, even foliage—into cubic voxels,” he describes. “When Kong lands a punch, the engine instantly fractures and simulates the collapse of those voxels.” Transitioning from simple mesh decals to full 3D voxel debris meant rebuilding much of the rendering pipeline, but the result is a playground where nothing feels off-limits.
That open destruction also became the basis for Bananza’s puzzles. Watanabe notes, “We noticed playtesters smashing everything in sight, so we designed challenges that hinge on strategic demolition, like clearing rockslides to reveal hidden pathways or punching supports to drain flooded caverns.” Those environmental puzzles reinforce Kong’s identity: he isn’t just a brute, but a clever force of nature learning to use his strength with purpose.
Enemy interactions underwent a similar evolution. Tanaka explains that they layered a combo system on top of basic attacks, allowing Kong to chain punches into uppercuts, throws and ground pounds. “We implemented context sensitive grab states, if you hit an enemy near a wall, Kong slams it against the surface for extra damage,” he says. Each enemy’s behavior tree was expanded so foes react differently to varying strengths and impact angles, keeping each skirmish fresh.
Camera director Kazuya Takahashi faced the challenge of filming all this destruction in tight 3D spaces. “We built an adaptive camera that shifts on impact, zooming out for massive collapses, then quickly recentering to stay locked on Kong’s face,” Takahashi reveals. They layered in simple cinematic cuts for boss encounters, giving each boss fight a more dramatic, almost theatrical feel.
Immersion hinges on feedback. The team tuned vibration, camera shake, and sound to respond instantaneously to Kong’s actions. Sound director Naoto Kubo notes, “When you punch a tree, you should hear the crack, feel the rumble in your hands, and see splinters fly, all at once.” Controller rumble profiles were mapped to different attacks, ensuring each move had its unique “punch signature.” This multi-sensory layer keeps players firmly connected to Kong’s power.
Every action needed to reinforce Kong’s raw strength and personality. The designers focused on exaggerated weight, momentum, and impact so each punch, ground-pound, and charge felt substantial. As producer Kenta Motokura explains, “We wanted players to sense Kong’s mass in every move, his heft tells the story.” Animations were crafted for smoothness and to convey personality quirks, like Kong’s cheeky grin after a perfect combo.
Across all these systems, constant playtesting guided every tweak. Motokura recalls, “We set up internal demo stations and tracked where players stalled, where they broke too much, or where the game felt either too delicate or too chaotic. That telemetry drove our balance passes.” By the final months, the team had dialed in Kong’s movement, destruction thresholds, puzzle difficulty and camera transitions so that every punch, stomp and swing feels perfectly tuned to the power fantasy of being Donkey Kong.
