Donkey Kong Bananza’s Gameplay Tech Was a Programmer’s Nightmare

Donkey Kong Bananza’s director has recently admitted that the game’s voxel tech, which powers its destruction-focused mechanic, “must have been an absolute nightmare for the programmers.” Donkey Kong Bananza's release is just around the corner—July 17—and its developers have shed some light on the game’s development and core mechanics.

Donkey Kong Bananza is Nintendo's first 3D platformer in the franchise since Donkey Kong 64, launching exclusively on the Nintendo Switch 2. The game’s development was handled by the Super Mario Odyssey team, who built Bananza on voxel-based destructible terrain. This engine allowed the team to create an environment where players could smash, dig, and reshape nearly every surface. Voxel technology allows for building 3D worlds using tiny cubes instead of polygons, giving games a more "blocky" aesthetic like Minecraft. However, Donkey Kong Bananza doesn’t look like that type of game, and its director has reflected on this.

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During Nintendo's “Ask the Developer” interview series, the development team talked about the upcoming Donkey Kong Bananza and its core destruction mechanic. Director Kazuya Takahashi explained how convenient the voxel tech was for the game, though he admitted that implementing it was probably a nightmare for the programmers. A quick look at Bananza’s visuals is enough to notice how the game managed to avoid the blocky aesthetic, highlighting the devs' work. Co-director Wataru Tanaka said the team wanted to make sure players wouldn’t notice the voxels.

Donkey Kong Bananza Director Says Working with Voxel Tech Was an “Absolute Nightmare”

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While the Donkey Kong Bananza director has warned about potential performance drops, Takahashi noted that this technology enabled Nintendo to “craft layers that feel truly unique to this game,” creating different visual styles, physical properties, and fully destructible environments. The game’s art director, Daisuke Watanabe, explained that the team worked to create visuals that didn’t look like stacked cubes, instead crafting rich and dense scenes that made players think, “Wait, you can destroy this?”

Tanaka also revealed that the team decided to implement this technology pretty early in development, due to the flexibility it brings. The game’s core mechanic represents a bold new take on the franchise, and Takahashi previously said he drew inspiration from every game in the series before Bananza’s development.

Bananza’s unique destruction mechanic is undoubtedly one of the most appealing things shown in the game’s trailer, and the devs revealed that the idea for this originated from an experiment involving a Goomba with arms inspired by Knucklotec, a Super Mario Odyssey boss character. As Nintendo prepares to launch Bananza, players can look forward to the return of the gorilla on July 17.