Donkey Kong Bananza revealed for Nintendo Switch 2, coming in July
by Stefan L · tsaNintendo revealed Donkey Kong Bananza for Nintendo Switch 2, coming to the new console on 17th July 2025, just a month and a half after the Switch 2’s June debut.
Donkey Kong Banaza is the first fully 3D platformer in the DK series since the N64’s Donkey Kong 64, and so the gameplay here is dramatically different and more modern than Rare’s 90s classic.
There’s a big emphasis on DK’s strength, letting him just smash through enemies, smash through walls, and even smash down into the ground…. then use chunks of the ground to smash more stuff around him!
there’s a lot of great looking 3D platforming here, with big camera sweeps that shift the perspective an awful lot. Donkey kong has been given a big restyle to match the updated look of the character from the Super Mario Bros. movie.
There’s no real clue what the story will be this time, but we’d put some money down on the gallery of crazed baddies having stolen his banana haul. What does seem to have also happened is DK having made a friend with a purple crystalline looking creature.
It’s really feeling like Nintendo has doubled down on the platformer genre over the Nintendo Switch generation, and that looks set to continue to the Switch 2. Of course there’s Super Mario Odyssey and Super Mario Wonder, but Kirby and the Forgotten Land was an excellent first foray into 3D platforming for the pink puff ball, we had a good reminder of DK’s Wii and Wii U side-scrolling adventures, and now we have a first big 3D platformer for over two decades? It’s perfect for Nintendo and their studios to explore different characters, different platformer ideas and more with these off-shoots.