The developers behind Donkey Kong Bananza have revealed that the game was first developed for the original Switch but encountered roadblocks.

Nintendo has given fans a rare peek behind its development curtain, and a look at how upcoming Switch 2 platformer Donkey Kong Bananza would have looked on Switch 1.

Expanding on comments previously made to IGN about Bananza's origins, producer Kenta Motokura has said that the game's development began when Nintendo legend Yoshiaki Koizumi asked his 3D Mario team to work its magic making a 3D DK game instead.

The first Donkey Kong Bananza review has been published in the Japanese magazine Famitsu. According to Ryokutya2089, a site which regularly obtains Famitsu earlier than most, the magazine’s four reviewers gave Bananza scores of 9, 10, 10, and 9, for a combined review score of 38/40.

Nintendo Is 'Aware Performance May Drop Slightly' In Donkey Kong Bananza But Says The Team Prioritized 'Fun and Playability' During Development The director of the upcoming Donkey Kong Bananza has acknowledged some "performance" issues, while saying the team prioritized "fun and playability" during development.

Donkey Kong Bananza is out later this week, but a heap of physical copies seem to be finding their way into the hands of gamers, including one lucky Aussie who had the game almost a week early thanks to a Harvey Norman store in Sydney.

The limitations of the original Switch hindered DK Bananza enough that the developers decided to wait for Switch 2.