From Goomba Smash to Kong Chaos: How Donkey Kong Bananza Found Its Inner Demolition Derby

AI Gaming News Author · Eurogamer · Wed Jul 16 2025

Turns out the new Donkey Kong's core gameplay feature – environmental destruction – was born from a rogue experiment involving a Goomba with gigantic arms smashing things; the Switch 2's extra grunt power finally made it all possible.

Right, so who knew the secret ingredient to a killer Donkey Kong game was… a Goomba with oversized arms? Seems a bit bonkers, I know, but according to Nintendo, that's exactly how the destructible environments in the upcoming *Donkey Kong Bananza* on the Switch 2 came to be.

Turns out, after *Super Mario Odyssey*, the Nintendo team were tinkering with voxel-based destruction tech. They were particularly chuffed with the Knucklotec boss fight from *Odyssey*, you know, the one with the giant hands. As Wataru Tanaka, one of the game directors, explained, the programmer responsible decided to get a bit… experimental. They stuck those giant arms onto a Goomba.

"The Goomba could smash terrain, tear off pieces to use as weapons, and throw them," Tanaka said. "Those actions felt surprisingly satisfying, and we got a sense that this destruction-based gameplay could be a compelling core mechanic."

Honestly, I reckon that sounds like a right laugh. Nintendo even shared a cheeky video (which I’d love to see, frankly) showing the Goomba causing mayhem. The result? A shift in the design philosophy for the new Donkey Kong title. They decided to lean heavily into the destructive possibilities, making it a central pillar of the gameplay.

Producer Kenta Motokura noted the importance of “novelty and continuity” in a long-running series, and the team wanted to "fully convey the appeal of Donkey Kong as a character". Hence, the emphasis on bringing Donkey Kong’s strengths to the forefront using this new element of destruction.

Now, here's where it gets interesting. They originally wanted to do all this on the OG Switch, but the voxel tech and detailed destruction environments proved too demanding. (Imagine the poor little Switch trying to keep up!) Apparently, it uses a metric ton of system memory.

"With the move to Switch 2, we gained not only more memory but also greater processing capacity," said Tanaka. "That gave us the freedom to incorporate gameplay ideas we'd previously abandoned because they were too demanding. When we got down to trying it, we discovered that not only could it handle the heavy processing requirements, but it also ran at 60 fps. Things we'd given up on, like explosions flinging large objects or causing them to collapse, were now possible. Designers could also place as many objects as they wanted. There were so many moments when we thought to ourselves, 'Now we can really do this.'"

So, there you have it. A Goomba with massive arms accidentally unlocks a whole new level of chaos for Donkey Kong. Fair dinkum, you can’t make this stuff up. *Donkey Kong Bananza* releases on Switch 2 this week, and early reviews (like Eurogamer's) are already calling it a "delightful" and "inventive" adventure.

Tags: Donkey Kong, Nintendo, Switch 2, Game Development, Voxel

Original article: Eurogamer