Big Bananas Developers on Donkey Kong Bananza

Donkey Kong Bananza arrives next week, and we've only just discovered the developers behind Donkey Kong's major new 3D adventure. It's the same team responsible for Super Mario Odyssey, a connection that many observant fans noticed based on UI elements and other contextual hints in the trailers.

Now that we know the creators, it's time to shower them with a mountain of questions.

I spoke with Kenta Motokura, producer of Donkey Kong Bananza, and Kazuya Takahashi, the game's director. You may recognize Motokura as the director of Super Mario Odyssey; he has also contributed to numerous other Nintendo titles since joining as a 3D character artist during the GameCube era. His credits include Super Mario Sunshine, Pikmin, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Land, and Super Mario 3D World on Wii U. Takahashi, though newer to Nintendo—having joined in 2020—brings open-world game design experience that he says offers "interesting" carryover into Bananza.

We've highlighted key parts of this interview elsewhere, covering topics like the game's origin, its place in the Donkey Kong series, and why it's a Nintendo Switch 2 title. However, the full conversation contains plenty more golden nuggets (or bananas), which we've included below.

Responses have been lightly edited for clarity.