Nintendo on 1 July confirmed that its forthcoming 3D platformer Donkey Kong Bananza is being developed by the same internal team that created the 2017 hit Super Mario Odyssey. While the company initially withheld individual names, it said the entire Odyssey core group is leading the project for the Nintendo Switch 2. Further staff details emerged on 10 July, when Nintendo said Odyssey director Kenta Motokura has shifted to a producer role on Bananza. In interviews released this week, senior developers explained that production began on the original Switch but migrated to Switch 2 in 2021 to accommodate the game’s fully destructible environments, which require greater memory bandwidth and stable 60-frames-per-second performance. Early reviews published ahead of Bananza’s 17 July launch have been strongly positive. Japan’s Famitsu awarded the title 38/40, and Western outlets have driven the game to a 91 average on Metacritic across roughly 60–75 critiques, positioning the first major Switch 2 exclusive since Mario Kart World as a potential Game of the Year contender.