When Nintendo announced the Switch 2, hopes for anew 3D Mario adventurewere high. The last fully brand-new title wasSuper Mario Odyssey, meaning we’ve been waiting about 8 years for a proper new Mario in the third dimension.
At the same time,Donkey Konggetting a new game was unlikely, with Retro Studios working onMetroid Prime 4, and zero signs of life from the series outside of re-releases since 2014. So color me surprised when the Switch 2 direct premiered, showcasingDonkey Kong Bananza.
This is essentially Super Mario Odyssey 2, made by the same team, now with the main character being Donkey Kong. All the massive environments are completely destructible, able to be torn apart piece by piece, and used for platforming, combat, and exploration.
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I was a little hesitant, to say the least. I’m not the biggest Donkey Kong fan out there, and I don’t enjoy Donkey Kong 64, the series' only other foray into a 3D landscape. But the massive amount of development time combined with the team working on it made me believe it could be up my alley.
The game looked promising, and as the second big first-party exclusive for Nintendo’s $450 system, which has been my dedicated Mario Kart machine for a month, it had a lot to live up to to truly wow anyone who’s on the fence about dipping into an entirely new system already.
In this review, I’ll be diving right through the crust of this game, seeing how all its promises hold up, whether or not destroying the environment contributes anything, and seeing if it’s on par with or even exceeds Super Mario Odyssey as a big showcase for what the Switch 2 can do.
Barrels of Fun
In terms of gameplay, Donkey Kong Bananza is an evolution of what Super Mario Odyssey and Bowser’s Fury created–big open areas with tons of challenges strewn about, with the main difference being that you can tear through the ground to collect bananas instead of moons.
…one of the smoothest characters to control in any game I’ve played.
If you’re adiehard Donkey Kong Country fan, this is an incredible departure from those games, instead focusing far more on exploration, skill-based challenges, and combat than platforming.This game does test your platforming skills sometimes, but it’s certainly not the focus.
Instead, Donkey Kong is made to roll around hills, break through the environment, and punch the hell out of anyone in his way. He’sone of the smoothest characters to control in any game I’ve played. Everything flows into something else, and it’s immaculate.
Rolling across a field to dig underground and clap up all the gold you mine from the crust of the earth is one of the most satisfying experiences I’ve ever had in a game. It’s not often you love controlling a character so much that you enjoy running around and doing nothing, but this game accomplishes that.
That makes for an engaging main gameplay loop of diving into an area, doing any challenges, and digging up any bananas you find, going along the main quest that’s constantly throwing new and enjoyable things at you, and winding down with some extra digging around.
Every single new area I found myself in had something new to mess with, be it inspired on-rails minecart sections where you throw bombs at anything along the path, cooling off lava with ice cream, or finding my your under and over the environment to avoid mud, lasers, and whatever else is in the way.
…it never stops being enjoyable, no matter what.
Gaining new abilities through a skill tree is made way more fun here, as every upgrade is genuinely impactful. The additions to your moveset are things I actually remember to use and enjoy messing around with quite a bit, and I wouldn’t change a thing about it.
You could say this about most Nintendo games, butthis title is the thesis statement of their design philosophy. The character is incredibly fun to use, and as they keep providing new challenges and obstacles to keep things interesting, it never stops being enjoyable, no matter what.
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Chart A Course
The experience of playing through Bananza isn’t all just messing around with new gimmicks. Each new world you dive into changes up the terrain and throws new challenges at you, be it in the copious number of self-contained challenge rooms, or enemies that aren’t usually pushovers.
You might think that making everything harder to dig through could make things tedious, but with a couple of punch upgrades and a form change into the superpowered Bananza DK,you can tear through everything like butter. Knowing you had to work for it makes it all the more satisfying.
But while the areas themselves are constantly scaling the difficulty in a way that keeps things fresh, my only major qualm with the progression is the bosses. The fights often devolve into you needing to transform into your stronger form, mashing the punch button, and watching their health bar drain.
This is its own kind of fun, sure, but for a character with such an intricate moveset centered around climbing and digging, I’d love if we got more fights thattook advantage of those attributes. Instead, you either get a mash fest or the occasional really fun gimmick boss.
That isn’t enough to bring the game down a ton for me, especially as the challenge rooms live up to their name, providing some properly difficult platforming, combat, and some puzzling exploration that can have you turning the entire area upside down for a banana at times.
I felt compelled to go out of my way and get through every challenge I could find.
You’re pretty much always having fun exploring, though, and with the occasional extremely high-effort challenge room, such as one that brings you to a 2D sidescrolling recreation of the first Donkey Kong Country game, I felt compelled to go out of my way and get through every challenge I could find.
It’s hard to put this game down. Every banana is just challenging enough to feel like you earned it, with none of the Mario Odyssey moons, where you do nothing but kick a rock to obtain them. I found myself at 5 AM unable to stop myself, digging around for as many secrets as I could find.
This is one of the most enjoyable games I’ve ever played in terms of exploration, and whenever it decides to up the ante and give you a challenge, it feels fun and fair, yet still presents a challenge in a way that Mario games are typically too afraid to try until the very end.
Banana Flavored
Donkey Kong Bananza takes the same semi-realism approach as Super Mario Odyssey, andcranks up the stylization to elevenwith fur looking like paintbrush strokes, fields of green looking illustrious and beautiful, and every animation as cartoony as can be.
I adore how well-animated everyone in this game is.
As you may know, forthis game and Mario Kart World, Nintendo completely redesigned Donkey Kong from being a pretty stale, boring ape to something more similar to his original arcade cover design, with eyes and proportions that pop far more and allow for the goofiest expressions ever.
I adore how well-animated everyone in this game is. It makes the characters feel even more alive and has their emotions sing far more than the previous designs could have managed, on top of some absolutely beautiful, vivid sights such as the opening area’s water vortex.
The only hitch with this game that would be delicious if it were a food is that the Switch 2 seemingly can’t handle all of it. It’s nowhere near as bad about frame dips as something like Tears of the Kingdom, but itnoticeably dips under 30 FPS at times, especially when you’re breaking a ton of terrain.
It was never a serious enough issue to ruin anything for me, and it’s just a slight bother during some challenge levels that stress out the system a significant amount. Still, it would be nice if it weren’t there, especially in a game intended to showcase the new system’s power.
Either way, the stylistic choices on display are so charming and presented with such gusto that more often than not, I can’t care about any frame dips. The style lets me absorb myself into the world and see the beauty of the environments I’m running through before I smash it all to bits.
Treasure Map
I could go with the typical “If you were expecting a deep story from a Mario game, you’re playing the wrong franchise” opener, but I won’t, because as someone who does feel entertained by the simple but effective stories in these games, Bananza is quite good for what it is.
It is a bit jarring at first, seeing Pauline as a teenager getting to be close and good friends with DK, despite what the very first game in this franchise would have you believe about their relationship. But, once you accept that they’re friends now, it’s rather charming, and I find her adorable.
The setup to stop a gang of bad apes and head to the center of the earth to get a wish granted is a pretty simple one, but peppered throughout your journey are cute, fully voiced interactions where Pauline will comment on something or talk to DK, only to be met with funny monkey noises.
The villains aren’t even entirely one-dimensional, either; their interactions after battles flesh out their motivations, even if it’s just a little bit. It’s no masterclass that will change your life and make you sob, but it’sa step up from a typical Mario affair, and I love every bit of it.
Funky Kongs
Donkey Kong Bananza may be a top 3 contender for best auditory experience in any game in the extended Mario franchise, and that’s a colossal bar to clear. The music is like soundtrack heaven, each area perfectly divining the exact vibe of the gameplay and visuals, in a stylereminiscent of Super Mario Galaxy.
I found myself standing still just to listen to the music for a while, with all the cutscene music and themes for areas being absolute standouts, only further complemented by the general sound design.
As far as I’m aware, this is the first entirely fully voiced game in this franchise, and that’s a lovely decision. It makes me connect with Pauline way more, and hearing the fictional languages they made just to further immerse you in these locales is incredibly impressive.
If nothing else, the sound effects and impact noises for each bit of terrain you break, every enemy you hit, and every rock you pull out of the ground bring me immense satisfaction. I cannot get enough of how this game sounds.
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Fully Peeled
All in all, if Donkey Kong Bananza were a person, I’d marry it. While it’s not the exact thing I had in mind when I pictured a follow-up to Super Mario Odyssey, it flipped all my expectations on their head and succeeds in everything it tries to do. I think it’s better than anything I would have asked for.
This version of DK may just be one of my favorite characters to control in a 3D space.
With how anti-completionist Mario Kart World was, I had concerns that Bananza might also be rude and not help me out with collectibles, but it does the opposite. Buying maps to uncover your missing bananas is even easier than Odyssey’s moons, and it’s fun to mop up areas with the abilities you get later on.
The game never fails to keep things interesting throughout the entirety of its runtime, and once you’ve gotten all your Bananza forms and progressed through the skill tree, you feel unstoppable. This version of DK may just be one of my favorite characters to control in a 3D space.
All of this makes for one of theall-time best 3D platformersever made, and it’s worth the price of admission. It shows off how beautiful Switch 2 games can look, yet it’s never so ambitious that it loses anything in its massive environments. I loved every minute of it.
Closing Thoughts:
Donkey Kong Bananza is perhaps the best 3D platformer of the 2020s so far. It has immaculate movement, mountains of incredibly fun content, challenges that genuinely test your skill, and a style so charming that you’ll be thinking about it for weeks. Every part of this game comes together to make something cohesive and tightly designed, even in a world that you can fully dig through and destroy nearly every piece of. It’s a generational great, an incredible use of the Donkey Kong franchise, and the star of the Switch 2 lineup.
Donkey Kong Bananza
Reviewed on Switch 2
