By The Verge | Created at 2025-04-02 15:49:16 | Updated at 2025-04-04 21:38:08
2 days ago
Jay Peters is a news editor covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme.
Nintendo is releasing a new 3D Donkey Kong game that will be an exclusive for the Nintendo Switch 2. The game, Donkey Kong Bananza, will release on July 17th, which is a little more than a month after the June 5th launch of the Switch 2.
Bananza is a 3D platformer that gives DK a new look that’s seemingly inspired by his appearance in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. “Explore a vast underground world—by smashing your way through it!” according to the description of Nintendo’s YouTube trailer for the game. “Bash, throw, and climb through just about anything in DK’s brand-new 3D platforming action-adventure game!”
In the trailer, you can see DK scaling walls like a super-powered Link from Breath of the Wild, picking up and tossing rocks to smash through enemies and walls, and digging into the ground with his fists. There also looks to be old-school 2D sections and mine cart rides.
The game looks full of energy — DK and various characters in the trailer are really expressive and fun. It’s a shame it won’t launch at the same time as the Switch 2, but at least we won’t have to wait too much longer after the system releases to play the game.
