Ahead of the July 17 launch ofDonkey Kong Bananza, some physical copies of the upcoming Switch 2 title have broken the street release date and are appearing out in the wild. Some social media users took screenshots of a physical copy ofDonkey Kong Bananzafrom front to back, though other details about Nintendo’s anticipated game remained elusive.
Donkey Kong Bananzais the first 3D platformer game to feature the titular gorilla sinceDonkey Kong 64, although the character has made several appearances in various Nintendo projects since. InDonkey Kong Bananza, DK teams up with a young Pauline on an open-world, underground adventure that sees the pair fight back against VoidCo and collect golden Banandium Gems along the way. As one of the first major games designed for the Switch 2,Donkey Kong Bananzais being directed and produced by Kazuya Takahashi and Kenta Motokura, with the latterpreviously serving as the game director ofSuper Mario Odyssey.
AlthoughNintendo has officially revealedDonkey Kong Bananza’s file sizealongside other details, the upcoming Switch 2 game has broken its street release date. On the Nintendo Switch 2 subreddit, Reddit user pzstm shared three screenshots ofDonkey Kong Bananza’s cover, with each angle taken from the front, spine, and back of the Switch 2 game case. The front side of the case showed DK punching down with Pauline hanging onto his tie, with the game’s logo and Switch 2 branding on the top side. The spine featured wrap-around art with the game’s title in white letters. As for the backside, features such as two-player co-op with split Joy-Con controls and artist mode appeared in the middle. Some rendered artwork of DK’s Kong Bananza transformation was also shown off. Alongside English, some supported languages include Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, and Canadian French.
However, the game case was still sealed, so no further details aboutDonkey Kong Bananzawere shown off. With physical copies ofDonkey Kong Bananzaout in the wild, players who obtain one should wait until July 17 to play it to avoid running afoul of Nintendo. The company’s ongoing battle against piracy has escalated following a mid-Julyseizure of the website NSw2u by the FBIin cooperation with the Dutch FIOD agency.
As one of the most anticipated games of 2025,Donkey Kong Bananzais still the best-selling title on Amazonas of this writing. How many copies DK’s new adventure will officially sell remains to be seen.
