Donkey Kong Bananza Began as a Switch Title With the Goal of Creating a Split Between 2D and 3D Donkey Kong

As a part of Nintendo's Ask the Developer Vol. 19, the team behind Donkey Kong Bananza shared some additional interesting details about the game's development; including the shift in Donkey Kong's design and the original intentions for the game on the Nintendo Switch.

As stated by producer Kenta Motokura, the original goal with Bananza was to use their Super Mario experience to create a split within the overall Donkey Kong series into both 2D and 3D titles; with Bananza being the first entry in this new direction. It was also discussed how they like to do something different with each title, which lead to their focus on destruction.

Here is the exact quote: 

Well now... In a long-running series, novelty and continuity are both important, but we wanted this title to fully convey the appeal of Donkey Kong as a character. Meanwhile, we thought that by creating something new, leveraging our experience developing 3D Mario games, we'd have the opportunity to create two separate branches – 2D Donkey Kong and 3D Donkey Kong – just as we did with Mario games. So, keeping in mind that this game will come to symbolise 3D Donkey Kong, and with the theme of bringing Donkey Kong's strengths and new actions to the forefront, we thought the concept of “destruction” would be a good fit. 

Moving on from there, they discussed the changes to Donkey Kong's design. The idea apparently first came about when the developers were considering what it would be like to control the character in 3D. It was stated that players would be looking at Donkey Kong's back, which would be simply a "mass of brown fur." This lead them to look at his design in general, and begin making changes.

Rather than sticking with Rare's design of the character, the development team wanted to stay true to Miyamoto's original vision for the character instead; which also influenced the game's brighter art style as the original Donkey Kong arcade title featured neon colors. 

Once again as stated by Motokura:

When controlling a character in a 3D world, the player often sees them from behind, so we were also conscious of how Donkey Kong would look from the back while he's moving. The back view of Donkey Kong just looks like a mass of brown fur, which would make for a monotonous visual if we simply rendered him in 3D. That inspired us to make some creative adjustments to his outfit, such as giving him britches and suspenders. We also made his fur look rich and thick. Outside of this game, Donkey Kong has recently appeared in The Super Mario Bros. Movie released in 2023 and in Mario Kart World, but there's a basic character design which provided the foundation for those versions of Donkey Kong. That basic Donkey Kong design has been completely revamped. While overhauling the design, we returned to where it had all started. We took Miyamoto-san's original Donkey Kong as the basis, adding design elements from Donkey Kong Bananza here and there. 

Additionally it was mentioned how Donkey Kong Bananza was originally in development as a Nintendo Switch title, but was switched over to Nintendo Switch 2 around 2021. This decision was made due to the game using voxel technology for destruction, which was also previously used in Super Mario Odyssey, and it being too demanding on the original Switch hardware. By shifting development to Switch 2, it allowed the team to not be as limited, and focus more on the graphical aspect of the title as well. They also shared the following images to show exactly just how different the two versions of the game would've been.

The Ask the Developer then continues on to discuss the inclusion of Pauline who was used to bring new life into the game once the core gameplay was figured out. She is not only a character that players can relate to, but also one who adds additional context and dialogue to the story. (It was said that if Donkey Kong were the only character, then dialogue would've been minimal.) She also brings her own set of gameplay mechanics thanks to her ability to sing, and she allows players to experience the game with another in co-op, similar to how Cappy supported Mario in Odyssey.

To learn more, you can check out the full Ask the Developer Vol. 19 by clicking here. The team shared a lot of information this time around, and is definitely worth checking out if you want to learn more about the game's development.