Who is making Donkey Kong Bananza? That’s been one of the big questions on fans’ minds ever since the Switch 2 title was revealed, fueled by the fact that Nintendo seemingly refused to say which studio or internal team was behind it. Now we finally know. Nintendo has confirmed the game that walks, talks, and quacks like Super Mario Odyssey was indeed made by the Mario Odyssey team. But the weirdness hasn’t stopped there.
Nintendo spilled the beans at a recent Donkey Kong Bananaza preview event. It’s being made by “the same team that developed Super Mario Odyssey,” the company told VGC and others. The studio is “based in Tokyo,” implying Nintendo EPD Tokyo. But teams at Nintendo can be fluid, with veterans moving between projects and reshuffling groups of developers as things move through various points in production.
Who exactly is leading Donkey Kong Bananza? Like, what are their actual names? Mario Odyssey was produced by Koichi Hayashida, director on Mario 3D Land and Mario Galaxy 2, and Yoshiaki Koizumi, whose Nintendo credits date back to the original Super Smash Bros (he also led Donkey Kong Jungle Beat), and it was the directorial debut of Kenta Motokura, who also came from 3D Land and Galaxy 2. Is the same squad leading on Bananza? VGC asked and Nintendo wouldn’t say.
There are two reasons why this caginess matters. The first is that games are made by people, not monolithic corporations, and it’s always worth reminding everyone of that whenever possible. Nintendo was content to lean into the star power of its homegrown talent for years, making it even odder now that it tries to keep those kinds details temporarily under wraps (they will eventually come out in the credits, after all).
The second is that if the Mario Odyssey team is making Donkey Kong Bananza, than who is making the next 3D Mario? There are three obvious possibilities here. The first is that Nintendo EPD Tokyo is somehow splitting its time and working on both. Another option is that a different internal team has taken the reigns of Mario for his 3D debut on Switch 2. The last and least appealing possibility is that we’re effectively getting a launch window 3D Donkey Kong instead of a launch window 3D Mario game, with the true successor to Odyssey potentially many years off.
For now at least, some initial evidence and rumors point to the first option. “DK Bananza is being developed by a new team that was spun off from the Odyssey team,” YouTuber and game dev interviewer KiwiTalkz claimed last week. “There are a lot of younger devs in the Odyssey team that grew up playing the DKC games and wanted to make one.” He added that to his knowledge, a new 3D Mario is still “on the way.”
The younger spin-off team theory, reiterated by VGC’s Andy Robinson, suggests the best of both worlds: a triumphant return for 3D Donkey Kong under growing talent and as others from Mario Odyssey continue working on the next 3D Mario. But everything remains speculation until Donkey Kong Bananza is finally out, or Nintendo stops acting like game credits are state secrets. One of those is happening no matter what on July 17.
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