Nintendo shows off Donkey Kong Bananza’s destructive gameplay

Switch 2 owners will soon have another big Nintendo game to play. During its latest Direct presentation, the company showed off plenty more of Donkey Kong Bananza, a 3D platformer that launches as a Switch 2 exclusive on July 17th — and it’s looking like a surprisingly robust experience.

In the new game DK teams up with a younger version of the singer Pauline — who apparently has been hidden inside of a rock for some time — and travels to an underground realm that seems kind of like Nintendo’s take on Hollow Earth. Despite being below ground, the game takes place in a varied and diverse world, with beaches, mountains, and icy locales. There are even giant elder characters and Breath of the Wild-style ancient ruins with unique challenges.

The Direct was primarily focused on gameplay, which in Bananza is built around destruction. DK can smash up the environment, tear of chunks of terrain to use as a weapon, and also, uh, turn into a number of different animals. The game’s “banana transformations” let DK transform into creatures like an ostrich (so he can fly) or a zebra (so he can run so fast he can even sprint on water). These powers utilize a substance called “bananergy.” There are also other abilities that can be unlocked through a skill tree. Maybe the most important: you can purchase new outfits for both DK and Pauline. So even though it mostly plays like a platformer, it appears that Bananza has significant role-playing elements.

There’s a two-player co-op mode where one person controls Pauline, and the multiplayer supports GameShare, so you can play on two different consoles using only one copy of the game. Bananza also has a bonus mode where you can sculpt rocks using the Switch 2’s new mouse controls.

Bananza was first revealed during Nintendo’s big Switch 2 unveiling in April. It’s the second major first-party release for the console, following Mario Kart World, which launched alongside the new console. Bananza is the franchise’s first 3D platformer since the Nintendo 64 era, and is the first mainline entry since Tropical Freeze more than a decade ago.