Donkey Kong Bananza, Nintendo’s latest flagship platformer, has made an impressive debut in the United Kingdom’s physical sales chart, securing the number one spot during its opening week. According to Christopher Dring, Editor-in-Chief of The Game Business, the game’s launch was three times larger than that of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze on the Nintendo Switch. However, it achieved less than half the launch numbers of Super Mario Odyssey, one of the Switch’s most prominent titles.
While such comparisons offer a general sense of performance, Dring was quick to emphasize the differences in context between the launches. As noted in community discussions, Odyssey arrived near the holiday season in 2017, roughly six months after the Nintendo Switch launched. By contrast, Bananza was released in July 2025, merely two months after the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2, during the less commercially aggressive summer period. Additionally, while digital purchases have increased globally since 2017, Dring remarked that the shift toward digital sales on Nintendo platforms has been more moderate compared to others.
Developed internally by Nintendo for the first time since Donkey Kong Jungle Beat in 2004, Donkey Kong Bananza introduces a 3D platforming experience that blends classic exploration with new gameplay mechanics. The story follows Donkey Kong teaming up with a young Pauline to recover banana-shaped diamonds from a group of villainous apes in an underground adventure. The game adopts a sandbox-style design reminiscent of Super Mario Odyssey, encouraging players to explore expansive levels, battle foes, and complete diverse objectives.
One of Bananza’s standout features is its voxel-based destructible environments, a concept expanded from some of Odyssey’s terrain-manipulation mechanics. This system allows players to break through most terrain elements, opening new pathways and discovering hidden items. The development team capitalized on the advanced hardware of the Nintendo Switch 2, pushing the limits of the system’s visual and processing capabilities while maintaining relatively stable performance, even during intense sequences.
Donkey Kong Bananza‘s soundtrack blends reimagined classics by Rare veterans David Wise and Grant Kirkhope with fresh compositions, perfectly capturing the game’s balance of nostalgia and innovation. Originally developed for the Nintendo Switch, the project transitioned to Switch 2 to better achieve the team’s creative vision.
