It took Nintendo devs a year of "squashing and crushing watermelons" to record sound effects for Donkey Kong Bananza: "There were no more good watermelons"

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That's too many melons

Donkey Kong Bananza DK and Pauline looking in amazement at something
(Image credit: Nintendo)

Please, next time you play Switch 2 platformer Donkey Kong Bananza, consider having a moment of silence for all the melons crushed under Nintendo devs' hands while they were recording sound effects. It's so many melons.

Spotted and translated by Automaton, Donkey Kong Bananza sound director Naoto Kubo recently gave Japanese site Nintendo Dream Web some insight to the Foley method he used while recording audio for the game, which apparently required a bountiful summer harvest of watermelon.

There's a big melon in Donkey Kong Bananza's Resort Layer. It's a watermelon that would make a more FDA-approved melon ashamed to exist – it's the size of a satellite planet, with a thick, waxy rind, and a slightly cube shape for extra intimidation factor. Smashing through the Big Watermelon requires willingness to be completely submerged in pulp on Donkey Kong's part, which is emotionally taxing enough, though Kubo says the sound of the Big Watermelon challenged Nintendo developers, too.

The crew had no choice but to wait until next year to keep recording, and it all worked out – the fresh melons made such a juicy sound, Kubo apparently even incorporated it into Donkey Kong Banaza's burgers.

Ashley Bardhan
Ashley Bardhan
Senior Writer

Ashley is a Senior Writer at GamesRadar+. She's been a staff writer at Kotaku and Inverse, too, and she's written freelance pieces about horror and women in games for sites like Rolling Stone, Vulture, IGN, and Polygon. When she's not covering gaming news, she's usually working on expanding her doll collection while watching Saw movies one through 11.

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