is a 2025 platform game developed by Nintendo EPD for the Nintendo Switch 2. The player controls the gorilla Donkey Kong, who ventures to the planetary core with the teenage Pauline. Similar to EPD's Super Mario Odyssey (2017), the player explores sandbox-like levels while completing objectives, battling enemies, and collecting objects. Bananza is distinguished by its destructible environments; the player can destroy most terrain to create paths and find items. They upgrade Donkey Kong's abilities by collecting banana-shaped diamonds and obtaining power-up transformations.
EPD began working on Donkey Kong Bananza following Super Mario Odyssey completion, following a request from the manager Yoshiaki Koizumi. It was the first internally-developed Donkey Kong game since Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (2004), and Koizumi and Donkey Kong creator Shigeru Miyamoto provided input. EPD wanted to honor Donkey Kong past while establishing a new direction. They made greater use of the voxel technology that allowed players to manipulate terrain in some Odyssey levels, with large, destructible worlds emphasizing Donkey Kong's strength. The development began on the original Nintendo Switch, but shifted to the Switch 2 due to technical constraints.
Nintendo released Donkey Kong Bananza on July 17, 2025, following a marketing campaign that included Nintendo Direct presentations, demo exhibitions, and live service game events. It was the first original Donkey Kong game since Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (2014) and the first 3D platformer since Donkey Kong 64 (1999). Bananza received acclaim; critics considered it the Switch 2's killer app and praised its visuals, gameplay, level design, and story, but criticized the camera and frame rate. It has sold 4.52 million copies, making it the second-bestselling Switch 2 game. It was one of the highest-rated games of 2025 and was nominated for numerous accolades, including Game of the Year.
Gameplay
Donkey Kong Bananza is a 3D platformer and adventure game that emphasizes destruction and open-world exploration. Journalists have compared it to Super Mario Odyssey (2017), with some describing it as a successor. As the gorilla Donkey Kong, the player collects the Banandium Gems, golden banana-shaped diamonds, while exploring sandbox-like levels in an underground world. Each underground layer has a unique theme, including ice, lava, and tropical biomes.
Donkey Kong can roll, punch, slap the terrain, pick up and throw objects, and climb most surfaces. The player learns five animal-themed power-up transformations from non-player character (NPC) elders: a gorilla transformation that increases Donkey Kong's strength; a zebra transformation that increases his speed; an ostrich transformation that allows him to glide and drop egg bombs; an elephant transformation that allows him to inhale and spit terrain; and a snake transformation that increases his jump height. The player can use and swap between transformations at any time, though their duration is limited by an energy meter.
The player completes missions, solves puzzles, and fights enemies to collect Banandium Gems, which are also found by exploring or progressing through the story. Banandium Gems are used to upgrade Donkey Kong's abilities from a skill tree. There are reportedly up to 1,000 Banandium Gems obtainable, 777 of which are tracked as unique collectibles. Collecting them is optional, and it is possible to complete the game without obtaining any. While exploring, the player discovers secluded areas where they must complete challenges including platforming, solving puzzles, defeating enemies within a time limit, and mining for gold. They are rewarded Banandium Gems or gold upon completion. Some areas contain side-scrolling sections, referencing the Donkey Kong Country games, and minecarts.
The player can receive advice from, assist, and obtain Banandium Gems from NPCs, including Donkey Kong characters such as Cranky Kong, Diddy Kong, Dixie Kong, and Rambi. When Bananza starts, Donkey Kong befriends Odd Rock, an anthropomorphic purple stone who directs him towards objectives. As the game progresses, Odd Rock is revealed to be a young Pauline, who can use her singing voice to activate Donkey Kong's transformations, remove seals, and, if a second player controls her in a co-op mode, emit explosive projectiles. Bananza supports GameShare, allowing a second player to control Pauline locally or online on another Nintendo Switch 2, or locally on an original Nintendo Switch.
Bananza is distinguished by its destructible environments: Donkey Kong can smash almost every surface and destroy terrain. He can rip pieces of the environment from the ground or walls and throw them to uncover items or destroy enemies, or use them as snowboards. Soft terrain can be stacked to create new paths. Destroying environments allows for varied traversal; for instance, Donkey Kong can dig underground and create a path to another area of the world. He can also uncover Banandium Gems by digging. The extent to which the player can destroy the environment is limited by a layer of unbreakable bedrock at the bottom of each level. Large bosses block the routes that link each layer, and the player must defeat each to progress. Progress is tracked in a 3D world map, and giant eels allow players to fast travel to different layers or across the current layer.
Other collectibles include gold, which serves as currency and fuel for transformations; balloons, which rescue Donkey Kong from bottomless pits; Banandium Chips, coins that the player can trade for Banandium Gems; fossils, which the player can trade for clothing to customize Donkey Kong and Pauline; and tracks for an in-game music player. Bananza features Amiibo support; scanning a Bananza-themed Donkey Kong and Pauline figure unlocks a special costume for Pauline, and existing Donkey Kong Amiibo (Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, King K. Rool, and Super Nintendo World bands) summon explosive gold tiles. Other Amiibo summon spheres with special properties that assist traversal. A photo mode allows the player to use a free-moving camera to take and customize screenshots, and an art creation mode, DK Artist, allows them to carve and paint sculptures using the Joy-Con 2's mouse functionality.
Plot
Donkey Kong travels to Ingot Isle to search for Banandium Gems amidst a gold rush. A mining corporation, VoidCo., steals the gems to power its ship. VoidCo.'s president, Void Kong, seeks to travel to the planetary core to find the Banandium Root, a magical object that grants the wishes of its wielder, and obtain riches. Donkey Kong is swept underground, where he rescues Odd Rock. They discover a vast Hollow Earth-like region inhabited by animal societies and their ancient elders. A Kong elder grants Donkey Kong transformative powers and restores Odd Rock to its true self, the teenage girl Pauline. She explains that Void kidnapped her, believing her singing voice could awaken the root.
The elder advises Donkey Kong and Pauline to continue to the core to find the root. Donkey Kong and Pauline discover more underground layers, battle VoidCo.'s minions, and meet other animal tribe elders, who grant Donkey Kong new transformations. Pauline dreams of becoming a famous singer and gains more confidence to sing as she and Donkey Kong progress. Void's subordinates grow disillusioned with VoidCo. and quit, choosing to help Donkey Kong instead. Donkey Kong and Pauline battle Void at the core, where Pauline awakens an object that Void thinks is the root. She instead frees King K. Rool, who became trapped with his Kremling Krew while searching for the root.
K. Rool dispatches Void and resumes his search; he wishes to turn the world into rotten banana mush to eat. Donkey Kong and Pauline defeat him in a battle at the core and claim the root. Donkey Kong wishes for a large supply of bananas, while Pauline wishes to return home. The root brings them to New Donk City, Pauline's hometown, on a tower of bananas. K. Rool pursues them, claims the root, and floods the city with toxic mush. Donkey Kong and Pauline defeat him again, restoring New Donk City, and reluctantly part ways. Donkey Kong dives underground to continue adventuring while Pauline begins street performing. Three months later, Donkey Kong and Pauline reunite. She asks for his help to prepare for a show at New Donk City Hall, believing that the elders can help her write a new song. After completing a challenge in the core, Pauline comes up with the melody, and they return to the surface for her performance.
Development Conception
After Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development (EPD) Production Group No. 8 completed Super Mario Odyssey, EPD's senior general manager Yoshiaki Koizumi—who directed Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (2004)—asked the team to develop a 3D Donkey Kong game. The last original Donkey Kong game was Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (2014), and Koizumi wanted to expand the franchise. Furthermore, Nintendo had not developed a Donkey Kong game internally since Jungle Beat, and wanted to establish separate 2D and 3D Donkey Kong series as they had with the Super Mario series. The Odyssey director Kenta Motokura, who worked as a character artist on Jungle Beat, was assigned as producer.
Motokura said EPD wanted to innovate as Donkey Kong (1981) had with story-driven gameplay and varied stage design and Donkey Kong Country (1994) had with pre-rendered graphics, using the skills they gathered from developing Super Mario games. The team consulted Koizumi and Donkey Kong's creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, to better understand Donkey Kong; they emphasized Donkey Kong's strength. Koizumi highlighted his large arms as distinguishing him from Mario, while Miyamoto highlighted his wild, goofy nature and varied abilities, such as slapping terrain.
Kazuya Takahashi, who joined Nintendo in 2020 after previously working on open-world role-playing video games, and Wataru Tanaka, Odyssey programmer, were assigned as Bananza directors. Nintendo Life reported that development began in 2017 or 2018, while GamesRadar+ speculated that full-scale production likely did not start until after Takahashi joined Nintendo and EPD finished Bowser's Fury (2021). EPD began work remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Much of the staff were lifelong Donkey Kong fans; Tanaka said he was "obsessed" with Donkey Kong Country (1994) as a child, while other staff played the Rare Donkey Kong games and the art director, Daisuke Watanabe, grew up playing the 1981 game on the Famicom.
Technology
After Odyssey release, a software engineer, Tatsuya Kurihara, began conducting experiments with voxel technology. It had been used to a limited degree in Odyssey to allow Mario to dig through cheese and plow snow, and Motokura thought it had the potential to be pushed further. In one experiment, Kurihara added large hands to a Goomba so it could rip and throw terrain. Tanaka said the team found this "surprisingly satisfying" and interesting as a central gameplay element, and Motokura suggested that Donkey Kong's physical strength was a good fit for the technology. He was inspired by the second level of Super Mario Bros. (1985), which allows the player to create paths by destroying blocks.
Bananza development began on the original Switch, but shifted to the Switch 2 around 2021. The limited memory of the original Switch struggled to handle the detailed environments, and Tanaka was unsure if it was possible to develop the game as envisioned. The Switch 2 allowed Bananza to run at a stable 60 frames per second, expand the environmental size and details, and incorporate concepts that had been discarded due to technical constraints. Takahashi said the team was also enticed by the Joy-Con 2's mouse controls.