Before I begin, there will be no spoilers here beyond things already spoiled on the cover and in Nintendo’s trailers for the game.
Introduction
Donkey Kong Bananza just released for the Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo’s new console. I got the console day one and got this game day one as well. This title is a 3d platform-action game. Unlike a Mario game, but more like, say, some Wario games, this is a beat ’em up and destruction-heavy title. Its central feature is a voxel terrain destruction engine. You play as Donkey Kong traveling through an underground world made of many layers, searching for the villains who stole your bananas. Despite being underground, most layers have blue skies somehow. Don’t think about it, it’s fine, it’s more fun this way. The game is quite great, and in the second half of this article I will discuss some elements of the gameplay. In the first half, though, I’d like to talk about something else, about the games’ existence.
On How Unique This Title Is
I probably should talk about the gameplay first, but I want to talk about the existence of the game at all by the team that made it instead. This game is so thematically fascinating! That is to say, this game was made by Nintendo of Japan, by a Japanese team, the same team that previously made Super Mario Odyssey back in 2017. Yes, even Nintendo has the ‘development times take far, FAR too long now’ problem that plagues this industry. They did exceptional work but it seems to have taken a long time.
That team made a game that mixes Mario Odyssey, Donkey Kong Country, the Mario vs. Donkey Kong games, and more all into one. The core gameplay is primarily influenced by Mario Odyssey mixed with a more beat ’em up-focused platformer, while the setting is more an NCL take on Donkey Kong Country and some elements mix in classic DK / Mario vs. DK series elements as well, most notably a version of Pauline. That is not something we have ever seen before! Previously, Japanese DK games were always either a generic theme or a classic series or Mario vs. Donkey Kong theme, while Western-made DK games used the DKC theming. This game mixes all of those with a bunch of Mario, stirs it in a pot, and makes something both familiar and utterly unique with it.
So yes, simultaneously, this game both continues some elements of the MvDK line except without Mario, while also being the first Donkey Kong game since Nintendo sold off Rare that is both Japan-made and goes for anything like a DKC aesthetic. Recall that US-based Retro made the two DKCR games. Their DK was quite familiar to Rare’s, but this one is different, while also being similar enough to that DK to make most DKC fans happy. Some DKC characters appear here (I won’t say which for spoilers), and so do some MvDK characters, most notably Pauline, whose inclusion is shown on the cover and in trailers. Pauline in this game has the ‘assistant character’ role, like Navi, Kazooie, Midna, et cetera. This character is often female, though not always; Cappy in Mario Odyssey is a male one. A lot of people are liking Pauline’s role in this game a lot more than such characters usually are, though I’m not totally convinced. Gameplay-wise her inclusion was not necessary but she adds something to the game I guess. Regardless of that, we’ve never had both DKC characters other than Donkey Kong and Pauline in the same story-based game before. Storyline-wise it seems that no attempt was made to actually make this combination make sense timeline-wise, unfortunately, so we’ll probably just need to make something up to explain this away, but ignoring outside titles, the story within the game itself is fine enough.
Visually, this game is both familiar and new. Donkey Kong himself has a redesign. It was inspired by the DKC design but with a cuter, and chunkier, style, perhaps to tie his style in more closely with that of the Mario characters. Personally I think I like the DKC design a bit more than this one, but this design works and fits the character well. Pauline is different as well, though given how this Pauline is younger than any version of the character before — she’s supposed to be 13 but looks maybe even younger than that — that is no surprise. The other Kongs and monkeys who appear in the game have a distinctly DKC-inspired look but done by a different artist. It’s both familiar and weirdly different, if that makes sense. After being used to DKC’s art style for so long this takes some getting used to, though it is good. Bananza is a vibrant and colorful game with visual variety, flair, and a lot of style. The environmental design is exceptional and the graphics are fantastic. I’m sure you CAN make graphics better than this, on a technical level I’ve played games with better graphics than this, but do we actually NEED much more than this? We have passed the point of diminishing returns on graphics.
But anyway, really, all around Donkey Kong Bananza is pretty fascinating stuff. I know I”m not talking much about the gameplay here, but that this game was made at all is almost as fascinating as the amazing game is! Sure, story-wise this plot doesn’t make any sense at all as DK and Pauline’s ages do not match with what they should be and nor do other story details, but the attempt they made here at making a new origin story that combines all the past timelines into one is noble. I think that probably counts for more than staying truer to the classic DK, MvDK, and DKC story timelines would. The stories of those three franchises only kind of line up as it was, anyway. This makes things worse, but it also makes them better by finally combining all of those into one continuity that is more closely tied to Mario’s even though, again, Mario himself is not here.
However, thinking about this game also makes me sad that Nintendo got rid of Rare. I stand by that losing Rare was Nintendo’s worst decision ever. Their loss is a hole in the Nintendo lineup that they have not managed to replace despite having over 20 years to do so. After all, this game only exists because they put a top Mario team on it. Does this mean it will be a long time before we get another 3d Mario game? With just one team making both it’s either-or. Also, while in some ways I like the style of those games more than this one, but DK Bananza is a fantastic experience that I am loving. There’s nothing like Nintendo, nobody else makes games like this at this level of quality, not even close. There have been many 3d platformers made over the decades but the number that approach the quality of top Nintendo releases like this one is in the low single digits. Donkey Kong Bananza evokes that feeling of wonder and pure fun that the better Nintendo games of the past have. This game isn’t ‘something familiar done well’ like Odyssey, it is something both familiar and new. It is the Mario answer to Red Faction thanks to its semi-destructible world, the Donkey Kong answer to Mario in a way we kind of have never seen before (DK 64 obviously owes a lot to Mario 64, but its more direct inspiration was Banjo-Kazooie…), the Japanese hybrid of Mario’s cuter designs with Donkey Kong Country’s renders, the first top-flight, big budget 3d platformer made since, well, maybe Mario Odyssey unless you count Kirby and the Forgotten Land but that game is more isometric than behind-the-character, and so much more. DK Bananza is something very special.
The Gameplay – My First Impressions
But how does the game work? Well, as DK, with Pauline clinging to your back, you run around and jump, attack, climb, smash, and more. The controls are almost flawless, thought it does use a lot of buttons. The controls are laid out well, though it does take a bit of getting used to that RT is used to grab chunks of ground and then also to throw them if you let go of the button and then hold it again to aim the chunk you’re holding. It’s a little awkward. I like everything else I’ve seen of the controls so far, though.
As you proceed through the game new mechanics are introduced. As you get the bananas that are your objective collectibles in this game, Donkey Kong 64-style, you get stat points that you can use on new abilities and upgrades for DK. This is an interesting system that I’ve never seen in a Nintendo platformer like this, it shows Nintendo branching out somewhat. After all, Nintendo’s usual way is to give you all the tools at the beginning and then have the challenge be figuring out how to use them. This game has a more modern, RPG-inspired approach. It works fine here.
I mentioned this, but the story is that as usual in a Donkey Kong Country-inspired game, bananas were stolen by villains and DK is on the case to get them back. The core story is simple but the visuals in the cutscenes are fantastic and there are lots of amusing interactions as you go. The game has a mixture of new and old faces with lots of amusing new characters.
More important is the gameplay. As you smash things gold and other objects will be dug out of the ground and added to your inventory. The core original mechanic here is a voxel engine allowing the destruction of terrain, hence that Red Faction reference before. I could also mention Starfighter 3000 for 3DO here, that’s another older title in the destructible-terrain field. As in Red Faction, in DK Bananaza some terrain is destructible and some is not. This ensures that critical stage infrastructure stays there so you can’t just rip through stages to easily skip chunks of the game. Metal terrain can’t be destroyed or climbed, while stone or mud easily can and concrete can but only with a powerup. Also, when you leave a level, or layer of the underground world you are exploring in the game, the game resets all terrain damage, so what you do is not permanent. I’m sure some people dislike this but I like it, I’d prefer to always be able to explore the undamaged version of a stage…
On that note though, while the destruction is fun, I’ve never been one to really like destroying scenery in games. There is something fun here in smashing stuff, but I feel kind of bad about it sometimes. I know leaving a layer resets destruction, but still, it happened, you know? ‘Destroy everything in the Travelers Tales Lego games for bits’ never interested me much, for example… I don’t know, destroying nice looking things just to take some drops from them sometimes feels wrong, what is the point of ripping it all apart? Similarly, in this game so far I generally don’t want to destroy everything, just some things. Most of the time I’ve left the stage mostly intact while going for destruction where I see obvious stuff to collect, want to explore a bit, or just I just decide to break stuff for a while for some reason. Whatever playstyle you have on destruction, I think that you’ll like this game; you do need to destroy some things to proceed, but don’t need to rip the levels apart wholesale to do so.
Regardless of ones’ opinion on that, often there is a layer of metal close below the dirt so in some areas there isn’t too much to tear apart, but in other areas you can shred large sections of stages. It’s a good mix that Nintendo chose to keep this game focused on not just breaking things but also its primary focus, the platform action. Because, while jumping puzzles are not as emphasized in DKB as they would be in a Mario game, there are many platforming challenges, such as 2.5d minigame sections, lots of traversal sections where you are hanging below vines while avoiding obstacles, having to throw objects at enemies in order to defeat them or proceed, and more. The little minigame bits are, I think, a DKC/DK64 callback, as they are done in a different way from how they would have been done in a Mario game. It’s great that they are here.
There is no life system here, but there is a punishment for death: you lose money each time you die, unless you die by falling and have a red balloon — another DKC callback by the way — in which case you get brought back to where you fell from. Sometimes this can be frustrating when I’m put right on the edge of a hole and immediately fall in again… heh. If you don’t have a balloon you will go back to the start of the current area. You can spend the gold you collected on items and on unlocking these rest areas that refill your health. Each one of these you open in a layer costs more than the last one. When you sleep in them often Pauline says some stuff to DK. You can skip this conversation if you want, though, fortunately. Some of them are interesting though so probably don’t skip them all. Hidden in the dirt of the levels, along with the gold, are fossils. Collect fossils and you can spend them at another shop on costume elements for DK and Pauline. There is some decent variety here, though the game is slow to offer outfits and each one costs quite a bit in fossils.
There isn’t a hub world here, but instead at the beginning of each layer you can use a warp creature to warp to any layer you have reached. There’s a lot to go back to in earlier layers unless you really take your time, so this structure is good and works well. I’ve been keeping moving at a good pace, but I’m sure I will later go back to find more of the crystal bananas that I’ve missed, of which there are plenty, along with other collectibles as well. It is a compelling gameplay loop that is executed very well.
Conclusion
And that’s basically the formula — go to new layers of the underground world you are exploring, destroy stuff, save the day from the villains stealing the bananas, and move on. The game has solid gameplay depth, average challenge, exceptional level designs and graphics, and near-flawless control. It is an outstanding experience that people of any age will enjoy and love.
Overall, I’m a few hours in now, and so far every element of this game is brilliantly done and extremely well designed. The levels are great, the controls are pretty much flawless, the graphics are beautiful, and so much more. This is not a forever game, it’s a single player title with a limited runtime, but I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts. I am glad I bought a Switch 2 at launch, between Mario Kart World and this Nintendo really is firing on all cylinders with truly special experiences that feel special and new regardless of how many games I have played over the years. Nobody else makes games like Nintendo can. There may be many problems in the world today, but at least in the field of videogames games like these show that exceptional gameplay-first experiences do still exist. Everything isn’t gatcha, modern military shooting, and/or AI slop, not yet. Thank you Nintendo for still existing…
And yes, I know that Nintendo has made some mobile gatcha games also. They only made a few, though, and they haven’t made more. Instead they have been making games like Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza. What an amazing company. It’s like that classic ‘Life Without Mozart’ one-panel cartoon. Videogames without Nintendo would be more like that. I play other games, they just usually don’t match up.
So yeah, play Donkey Kong Bananza, people, once people get Nintendo Switch 2 systems. It is very good. Is it the best game ever, no, probably not. But it is unquestionably very good to great.
