Nintendo Announces Donkey Kong Bananza Direct for This Week

Nintendo has announced a Direct showcase focused on upcoming Switch 2 exclusive Donkey Kong Bananza. It’s set for this Wednesday, June 18, at 6am PT / 9am ET / 2pm UK time.

The announcement was made first in the Nintendo Today! app, where it was revealed the Direct will last 15 minutes.

Now the launch of the Switch 2 itself is out the door, Nintendo can turn its attention to its upcoming exclusives, and next on the list is Donkey Kong Bananza, which comes out July 17. Based on Nintendo's announcement, this Direct focuses entirely on Donkey Kong Bananza, which means we won't see any other upcoming Switch 2 games — announced or otherwise —during the livestream.

Donkey Kong himself has a fresh new look for Bananza following his redesign in the blockbuster The Super Mario Bros. Movie. In a recent interview with IGN, Nintendo developer legend Shigeru Miyamoto explained why the great ape got a makeover in the first place.

"So when it comes to character creation and working with characters, I still take an active role in that," he replied. "And looking back to the first generation Donkey Kong Country, we worked with Rare to create Donkey Kong Country.

"When we were talking about trying to create new versions, evolving Donkey Kong, we created the game called Jungle Beat. We worked together with the team that made 3D Mario. With the technology that was available at the time, we were able to make Donkey Kong more expressive. And going back to the design that Rare came up with, we reevaluated; what can we do with the design to make it more expressive? And then when it comes to the movie, we decided to move forward with this new generation Donkey Kong design."

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Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.