Donkey Kong Bananza dev says Elephant Bananza “probably went too far” with destruction

If there’s one way in which Nintendo went “too far” in Donkey Kong Bananza, it’d be the Elephant Bananza.

The Nintendo Switch 2 game is all about destruction. There are many ways in which players can go about that in the game, but the Elephant Bananza takes that up a notch. With it, Donkey Kong can inhale almost everything around him, including some damaging terrain live lava and thorns.

Game Informer recently caught up with Donkey Kong Bananza producer Kenta Motokura and programmer Tatsuya Kurihara. The publication asked about how Nintendo went about ensuring that the game’s Bananza Transformations were balanced and didn’t cause too much destruction. This prompted Kurihara to mention that the Elephant Bananza “probably went too far”, but at the end of the day, “it’s fun.”

Kurihara stated:

“I think we can agree the most destructive transformation is the Elephant Bananza, and honestly speaking, it probably went too far. But at the same time, it’s fun, it feels good. And that’s what matters most.”

Motokura also shared the following:

“Because our goal is to make playful destruction possible within the game, we wanted a slightly different structure than what you would have found in, say, traditional Mario games, where you have to encounter or have in your possession items to be able to transform. We wanted, in the case of Donkey Kong Bananza, for Donkey Kong to be able to transform anytime to up the destruction.”

Donkey Kong Bananza is now available on Nintendo Switch 2. The game’s Emerald Rush is also out, and you can read about why we think it’s one of Nintendo’s best and most underrated DLCs here.