New Nintendo Direct Happening This Week

A new Nintendo Direct has been announced, and will be taking place in a few short days. The presentation will stream on Wednesday, June 18th at 6 a.m. PT, on Nintendo’s official YouTube channel. It should be noted that this one is going to be on the shorter side; it will last just 15 minutes in length, as it will focus exclusively on Donkey Kong Bananza. On one hand, that’s bound to disappoint anyone hoping for more details about Nintendo’s plans farther into the future. However, with the game set to be released on July 17th, this should offer the perfect chance for fans to learn more.

Donkey Kong Bananza was announced during April’s big Nintendo Direct presentation focused on Switch 2. Details about the game have been pretty sparse since, but this Nintendo Direct could start to change that. It’s widely assumed that the game is in development from Nintendo EPD, the same internal team that worked on Super Mario Odyssey. That has yet to be confirmed, and with Nintendo’s track record of keeping developers secret until the very last minute, we probably won’t know for sure until the game is released next month.

In Donkey Kong Bananza, players take on the role of the big ape as they smash their way through a new 3D world. The game will see some familiar faces from past games in the series, as Cranky Kong has been confirmed to appear. Rambi the rhino also appears to be back, but one of the big questions is whether or not we’ll see Diddy. DK’s longtime partner has not been shown in anything related to the game, and the character was left off the roster of Mario Kart World, as well. We do know that Diddy Kong has a new redesign to match the one given to DK, but it remains to be seen where it will actually show up.

For many reasons, Donkey Kong Bananza is a pretty major release for Nintendo. This is the first new 3D game to feature the character in a very long time; over the last few years, DK has largely been appearing in 2D games, like Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. A 2024 report revealed that Nintendo and Vicarious Visions were working on a 3D Donkey Kong game codenamed “Freedom” several years ago, following the character’s appearance in Skylanders: SuperChargers. That project ended up cancelled, but there’s been recent speculation that it evolved into Donkey Kong Bananza, with an internal Nintendo team handling development. On top of that, this is the first major first-party game for Nintendo Switch 2 after Mario Kart World.

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Hopefully this week’s Nintendo Direct will give fans plenty of reasons to check out Donkey Kong Bananza next month. It’s been a long time since DK got a spotlight this significant, and fans are excited to see what Nintendo has in store. Fans might have hoping for a more robust Nintendo Direct, but we can expect another big presentation in July, as a Pokemon Presents livestream will air on July 22nd.

Are you planning to watch this week’s Nintendo Direct? How do you feel about Donkey Kong Bananza from everything shown so far? Share your thoughts with me directly on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!