Nintendo producer Kenta Motokura has commented on his team’s desire to keep Mario and Donkey Kong games feeling separate.
During GDC, Motokura participated in a panel discussion about the development of Donkey Kong Bananza. As the same team that developed Bananza also worked on Super Mario Odyssey, they have a unique perspective on the direction both brands should take.
While both properties are, in some ways, spin-offs of each other, the main characters have gone in such different directions that it’s important to ensure their games continue to reflect that difference.
At the same time, elements of DK Bananza’s main mechanics were inspired by the development of Odyssey. Now, Motokura is opening up about how those differences informed the direction of the latest Donkey Kong outing.
Kenta Motokura Consulted Shigeru Miyamoto Early in the Development of Donkey Kong Bananza
Speaking with GamesRadar+ at GDC, Motokura explained that the original idea for DK Bananza stemmed from asking what Kong could do that Mario could not. He also explained that he consulted Miyamoto and Yoshiaki Koizumi early in the development to outline the main characteristics of Donkey Kong.
Overall, he says the team was very conscious of the comparisons between the two mascots. Still, they always want to highlight the differences between the characters so more players can enjoy a variety of play styles.
“Certainly, you can have really fun experiences in Mario games and really fun experiences in Donkey Kong games,” Motokura says. “But we want to find the differences between those two IPs, and really bring that out, as variety for people to enjoy. And that goes to the style of play as well.”
Elsewhere in this discussion, Motokura suggested that Bananza could have inspired some of the direction of the next major game from Nintendo developers. Read those comments here.
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