Donkey Kong Bananza Switch 2 Box Art Shows Pauline In All Her Glory

It is so wild that they kept that a secret. Fun little thing.

So long, Odd Rock. We barely knew ya. Sniff

@Darthroseman Right? Absolutely adorable. Love it.

@The_Nintend_Pedant if you need someone to roll around, there's a spindly blue hedgehog just around the corner.

@slowpoke_tail problem is that Daisy has absolutely no connection to DK

This was the most exciting reveal ever.
The rock looked good, but keeping Pauline in the shadows for so long and reveal her like this, even in the boxart, is beyong amazing.
Kudos to Nintendo.

Have they ever done anything like this before with the box art? Very interesting little twist.

@Ellie-Moo : Does the bossgirlification of Peach in Princess Peach Showtime count? 😅

I’m thinking it’s going to be a reversible cover art so you can display it with the original image if you choose to

Why did they go to great lengths to keep this a secret? Feels unnecessary...
"Surprise! Donkey Kong was just a placeholder, this is actually the new Mario game!"

@The_Nintend_Pedant im more irritated by the skill points.
Thats just lazy.
Like mario wonders.

@The_Nintend_Pedant If DK needs to roll, I suppose Pauline could do what Diddy, Dixie and Cranky do on the Retro Studios DKC duology.

That's better. Pauline being on the cover really adds to it 🤩

I do not understand why they went through all of the effort to hide this...

Reversible cover? Either way very adorable.

Looks great. A break from Mario kart world. Day 1

@The_Nintend_Pedant did you watch the direct, because that's exactly what DK is doing in this game...

@wabrian God forbid people be surprised

@StewdaMegaManNerd now she has ; )

@slowpoke_tail I'd much rather see Daisy get put into a new 3D Mario game or perhaps a new Luigi's Mansion. She would be out of place in this game.

Please be a reversible cover! 🤞That would make this even more fun lol.

The box art is gorgeous, definitely get the physical for this game

Wish nintendo will make the switch 2 logo smaller though, or make it tear drop like wii u case.

Donkey Kong Bananza looks incredible! July 17 can’t come soon enough!

Kind of Funny that both Switch systems had a major 3D platformer that involved Pauline in some way

@kfflscnt How are skill points lazy?

Honestly....I preferred OddRock. But it's nice that Pauline is getting a game where she's more involved, and the game looks incredible!

@wabrian I know right? Also....I actually really liked Oddrock so it ended up being a little disappointing when it was Pauline. But the rest of the game looks so good and so insane it made up for it.

Maybe this bodes well for a Nintendo Direct later this month. Usually a game-focused Direct would follow a general Direct but given the close proximity to this game's release, Nintendo has decided for it to come out earlier due to the change in box art.

@Ogbert I’m glad it’s Pauline and not some rock. Last thing I wanted was another boring 2P character like Mario’s hat or a random Luma.

Nintendo you sneaky sneaks! This is why I love you! Even if you do make questionable decisions.

@kfflscnt honestly I’m the complete opposite.
They give a incentive for players to explore and find them and make them more and more stronger.

Hah they’re trolling us

Interesting Pauline is being made into a DK character. It's better than having her be a random Cameo or being Mario's old girlfriend or something.

It makes sense given her debut in OG Donkey Kong.

But what's also interesting is she has a more wild look.

so i'm confused if she like gets turned into a rock later in the game or if like this was all literally just fake and that character doesn't exist

@Darthmoogle even though the Pauline art is so much better, i really hope for this as well. if not, well, RIP Odd Rock cover art…

@The_Nintend_Pedant

"The focus is so HUGELY on punching rocks... I don't get it!"

Can you please elaborate on this take because I fail to understand why you think rolling is more appropriate an attack for Donkey Kong(who is, as a reminder, a BIG, HULKING MUSCLEBOUND GORILLA) than punching.

@Greatluigi @Jamie64326 @djlemonfresh you can use the the otherside of the cover where paulin is still captured in a rock.

skill points are used to extend the gameplay of an empty game.
horizon zero dawn 1 and 2 did this.
where the first 1 just had 4 options and part 2 had about 20 including the weapons.
same with the assassins creed games where you had to play daily for weeks to unlock the biggest stats or pay for the leveling to get it faster.

@The_Nintend_Pedant he still rolls and throws, he just has extra movesets. I’m sure there’s a level where he gets to throw barrels, especially in the 2D sections.

@Nintyname my guess is that we will get a Direct once the release hype around DK has died down, so end of July or early August.

@cylemmulo I think she will be a rock at the beginning of the game because the bad guys cursed her or something. And DK will find a way to break the curse fairly early in the game.

@kfflscnt Skill points doesn't mean this is an empty game.

The art direction on this game is fantastic – so lively – and yes, that cover art is gorgeous.

Confirmed: Baby Pauline for Mario Kart World incoming 🤣

I would actually have prefered a weird rock creature...

@The_Nintend_Pedant May I direct your attention to Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat, which puts punching, clapping, slapping and bodacious bongo-bashing at the very core of its gameplay. It’s possibly the most proudly pugilistic platformer Nintendo has ever published.

DK’s Smash Bros. moveset since the 64 version has also been decidedly fist-focused. He is by far the smashiest of the OG smash bros.

DK:JB was developed by the team that went on to make Galaxy (which used a lot of JB’s ideas), and later Odyssey. I’m sure there’s been a fair bit of staff turnover since then, but if Bananza is developed by the Odyssey team (which seems almost certain at this point) then it shouldn’t be too surprising that Bananza inherits some of Jungle Beat’s pugilistic DNA.

Best boxart I've ever seen from Nintendo. The older, fake version was awesome, but with Pauline in it, it's a legit 10/10 banger.

@The_Nintend_Pedant Someone’s never completed DKC2, DK drops from the ceiling at the end and uppercuts K Rool into the abyss.

The box art is glorious… because it has no download/keycard warning banner.

@LazyDaisy each to their own. I find bringing back the same characters over and over to be boring personally.

@kfflscnt
I've got to admit when I saw the medals or whatever they're called in Wonder I instantly thought, I'm going for a no medal run. Which I did and it made the game that much better for an old school gamer like me who thought that even when played like this, Wonder was an excellent game just too easy overall. And also I did this only to discover that the last level entirely revolves around the medals and I had to finally master them all just for that level but whatever.

So back to DK I sure hope the difficulty will be better balanced there and I'm already thinking of doing a no upgrade run for my first run. Hopefully the game lets you do that.

EDIT : and also I might add, they're teasing you by showing a difficulty toggle in the settings and you see that in the direct they go from 'normal' to 'assist' or whatever they called it this time. And when I saw that I instantly jumped out of the sofa staring at the screen saying please show me there's a hard mode aaaaaand nope. I mean it might be there but I'm not getting my hopes up.

This was such a great reveal, happy with the outcome. Now I just gotta work on getting a Switch2.

I can't help but be reminded of Josef Fares' games at Hazelight with this reveal. But I think that's great and means the game will be taken seriously by Geoff Keighley and co.

So is the reversible box art with both of her forms? Hope they let NSO subscribers get the other box art as download as well.