Donkey Kong: Bananza is a new platformer featuring Nintendo’s OG

The final game revealed at Nintendo’s Switch 2 Direct was Donkey Kong: Bananza, a new platformer featuring one of Nintendo’s stalwarts: DK himself. The trailer showed off the game’s core destruction and platforming mechanics, such as DK tearing through terrain and using it to create new paths and eliminate enemies. The game launches exclusively on Switch 2 on July 17 for a $70 MSRP.

Nintendo describes the gameplay thus: “Crash, bash, and climb through nearly everything in DK’s path and tear off chunks of terrain to swing around and throw in groundbreaking exploration. The more that is demolished with powerful punches, the more areas open up to discover.” DK — who is spiffed up in some new pants and suspenders — is accompanied by a mysterious “new friend,” a purple golem who hasn’t been named in any of the announcement material.

The big guy is battling a villainous group called VoidCo, who appear to have stolen the Golden Bananas. Naturally, this cannot be allowed and DK must smash, break and pulverize every square inch of the underground world it takes to retrieve them and stop VoidCo.