Super Mario Odyssey director joins Donkey Kong Bananza as producer

Kenta Motokura, best known as the director of Super Mario Odyssey, has been confirmed as one of the producers on the upcoming Donkey Kong Bananza. The game is being directed by Kazuya Takahashi, who joined Nintendo in 2020 after previously working on open-world titles.

In a recent interview with IGN, Takahashi noted that his past experience brings a “unique perspective” to Bananza. He also pointed out that there’s a significant staff overlap between Odyssey and Bananza, which contributes to shared narrative elements between the two games.

“Since many of the team members also worked on Super Mario Odyssey, there are definitely similarities in how the characters and world are approached,” Takahashi said. “But we can’t go into too much detail right now — we want players to discover and interpret things for themselves as they play.”

One major point of curiosity among fans has been the younger version of Pauline, who appears as a 13-year-old in Bananza despite being an adult in Super Mario Odyssey.

“As for why we chose to portray Pauline at that age — that’s something we want players to think about and figure out as they enjoy the game,” Takahashi explained.

Donkey Kong Bananza launches July 17 for Nintendo Switch 2. The game recently received new details, including the reveal that Pauline will join Donkey Kong on his new adventure.