Koizumi Requested 3D Donkey Kong, Sparking Bananza

When Donkey Kong Bananza was first announced, many speculated it was created by the team behind Super Mario Odyssey—which turned out to be correct. This led to further rumors that the project had started as DLC or a sequel to Odyssey before transitioning into a Donkey Kong title. However, we now know that isn't the case.

In an interview with IGN, producer Kenta Motokura—who also directed Super Mario Odyssey—shared how Donkey Kong Bananza originated. According to him, Nintendo executive Yoshiaki Koizumi approached the Odyssey team and specifically asked them to develop a 3D Donkey Kong game.

When Motokura revealed this, we asked whether he knew why Koizumi made that decision—especially since Nintendo hadn't internally developed a Donkey Kong game since Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat over two decades earlier. Motokura noted that while he couldn’t speak for Koizumi, he did suggest: “Since Nintendo has many characters to choose from, we're always considering which one to feature next and when would be the ideal time to create a new game that will delight our fans. Still, that’s just my personal take. You’d have to ask Mr. Koizumi for the official reason.”

Regardless of the rationale, the Odyssey team accepted the task. They began by consulting Donkey Kong creator Shigeru Miyamoto for ideas.

“He pointed out unique actions that a powerful character like Donkey Kong could perform—like the hand slap or his powerful breath,” Motokura explained.

“We also spoke with Mr. Koizumi, who directed Jungle Beat. For him, a key trait that sets Donkey Kong apart from characters like Mario is his long, powerful arms. So we gathered all these defining traits and explored how to incorporate them into fresh gameplay.”

Meanwhile, a programmer on the Odyssey team was experimenting with voxel technology. Voxels function as the 3D equivalent of pixels, and this programmer was developing ways for players to interact with and reshape the environment. This technology had already appeared on a smaller scale in Super Mario Odyssey—digging through cheese in the Luncheon Kingdom, for example, or crunching through snow in the Snow Kingdom. But here, the programmer expanded on the idea, enabling players to throw voxels or carve tunnels through them.

Motokura noted that these experiments, combined with discussions around Donkey Kong’s strength and abilities, eventually shaped the destructible core mechanics of Bananza.

“Once we saw how well Donkey Kong’s distinct traits—his strength and long arms—paired with the creative potential of voxel tech, we realized destruction could become the central gameplay theme of this title.”

We spoke with Motokura and director Kazuya Takahashi about various aspects of Bananza, including its place within the Donkey Kong series timeline and the need to release on Nintendo Switch 2. You can read the full interview here and check out our hands-on preview of the game here as well.