In the gaming industry, name recognition goes beyond the main publishers and the video game franchises that we continue to play. Sometimes, just hearing that a certain dev team is working on a game is enough to make you go, “Yeah, this will be special.” In the case of Donkey Kong Bananza, from the moment its personalized Direct aired last month, people have wanted to get their hands on this epic title and see all that it offered. Just as important, though, was that they wanted to know who was making the game and how they were able to do all these crazy things within it.
The belief was that the title was made by Nintendo EPD, who were the crew behind the beloved Super Mario Odyssey title on Nintendo Switch. Today, a bunch of sites came forward and revealed a set of gameplay preview videos that they got to make, thanks to Nintendo. While talking with The Big N, they got confirmation that Nintendo EPD was indeed the crew behind the game. To be clear, they didn’t give certain specifics like they wouldn’t tell VGC who was the director of the team making the game, but at least we have a general idea of who’s making the greatness we’re seeing.
Rumors had been flying for a while about who was making the game, including that it was actually an “offshoot” of the EPD team, who wanted to make a new game featuring Donkey Kong. While that wasn’t confirmed, it doesn’t bring down the hype for the game in the slightest.
Donkey Kong Bananza is easily the most original title of Donkey Kong in a long time. The open world, which just so happens to be entirely underground, gives DK a new setting to have fun in. Then, there’s the fact that through DK’s enormous natural power, you can destroy pretty much everything in this place! Doing so will allow you to find secret areas and new Golden Bananas that you can use to power Donkey Kong up and give him new abilities.
Plus, we can’t forget about the one and only Pauline! She’s going to be crucial to the game’s plot, as her singing is what will allow Donkey Kong to unlock his many “Bananza” forms, which will give him even greater strength and all-new abilities like walking on water, flying, and so on.
As for whether the team will go back to making Mario after the July 17th release…? Guess we’ll have to wait a while to get that answer.
