For my birthday, I got a fat stack of eShop gift cards. After buying Nintendo Switch 2: Welcome Tour, it has dawned on me that I could use the remainder to buy Donkey Kong Bananza in just a few short weeks. I went to the eShop to pre-order the game and noticed something potentially bananza beneath the pre-order button.1

250628_DKB Transactions_DKB Highlight

"Offers In-Game Purchases"

Huh? Is Nintendo offering up microtransactions in Donkey Kong Bananza?

Quickly checking around the eShop, Mario Kart World does not listing in-game purchases, but titles like Fortnite, Street Fighter VI, and Hitman World of Assassination do. Those all have microtransactions/in-game purchases.

250628_DKB Transactions_MKW 250628_DKB Transactions_Fortnite 250628_DKB Transactions_Street Fighter 250628_DKB Transactions_Hitman

I find it hard to believe that Nintendo would flip the "in-game purchases" toggle the wrong way for their own marquee title.

Searching around online, a suggestion is that this flag is required since the game supports Nintendo Switch Online and that is a subscription service. If that was true then Mario Kart World would have the same flag. According to the likes of reddit, games like Pokémon Legends: Arceus and Super Mario Bros. Wonder also have this indicator.

Clearly, something is unclear. I don't suspect Bananza to have the option to give Nintendo real-world money to buy fake banana money. I suspect Mario Kart World to have that or DLC before Bananza. Given the apparent track record of game's flagged with this and not having in-game purchases, our favorite ape should be okay. It sure is strange though.

Footnotes

  1. Side note, turns out you cannot pre-order with gift card money. It will charge your card on file. Not a huge deal—I'll just buy on launch day—but really? Can't they just see my account has funds and charge that first? ↩