According to series producer Lee Cocker, the developers were able to get ahold of a sample of sand/dirt from the Equestrian venue at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and took it back to Japan so that the soil in-game could match the actual color of the real-life soil at the event.

According to an interview with the game's composers Teruhiko Nakagawa and Kenichi Tokoi, both actually went to Rio itself where the 2016 Olympic Games took place in order to get a Brazilian feel for the game's music. After a Brazilian percussionist commented that their music had a Cuban rhythm to it, both composers realized they "didn’t have a clue what samba is supposed to feel like." As a result, they recorded in Brazil two weeks before the annual Rio Carnival took place.

The pre-release box art for the European version did not include Donkey Kong or Amy and showed a PEGI rating of 3, while the final release was rated 7.